N-01 The program
What the house had to do
Empty-nesters trading a downtown penthouse for the foothills wanted a house that felt established the day they moved in: traditional in its materials, modern in how it lives. Single-level living for them, and a guest floor above for the grandchildren.
The plan is a low U around a south courtyard. Kitchen and living sit in the center, the primary wing to the west, and the garage and guest wing hold the east. The granite paver court does the arrival work a gate never could.
N-02 The materials
The palette, and why
- Split fieldstone veneer
- Full-bed local stone on the piers and chimneys, laid in a dry-stack style with no ribbon joints.
- Sand-float stucco
- A soft, matte ground between the stone. Hand-floated and colored through, never painted.
- Quarter-sawn white-oak carriage doors
- Garage and entry doors cut from the same log, so the grain matches across the court.
- Slate-blend shingle roof
- A deep hip roof with real overhangs: shade in summer and calm proportions all year.
- Granite paver court
- Open joints feed the courtyard plantings. There is no asphalt anywhere on the property.
N-03 The timeline
As it actually ran
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Feasibility 4 weeks
Well yield and septic capacity were confirmed before the land closed, a condition we wrote into their purchase offer.
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Design & documents 7 months
In-house architecture. The owners met the estimator at every design review.
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Permitting 2 months
County review with no variances. The boring permit story we aim for.
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Construction 16 months
Stone masonry set the pace. We told them it would, and it did.
- Final cost vs. signed budget
- 1.8% over
- Move-in vs. promised date
- On the promised day
Fictional figures for a demonstration project. Every project's results
N-04 The collaboration
Designed in-house
Designed by our own studio under Priya Raman. Because the architect and the estimator share a hallway, the stone budget was real from the first sketch. The masonry package was bought from the actual quarry take-off at 60% documents, not from an allowance that grew later.
