N-01 The program
What the house had to do
A retired veterinarian and a potter wanted a working homestead, not a suburban plan dressed as a farmhouse: a mudroom big enough for real mud, a pottery studio with a kiln yard, and a kitchen that can put up forty jars of tomatoes in an afternoon.
The house is one long gabled barn form with shed dormers and a deep porch, the old farmstead pattern drawn plainly. The proportions do the charm. There is no applied 'farmhouse' anywhere on it.
N-02 The materials
The palette, and why
- Board-and-batten cedar
- Rough-sawn and finished with an iron-oxide stain that will silver evenly instead of blotching.
- Standing-seam metal roof
- The valley's snow slides off it, and the sound of rain on it was in the brief, word for word.
- Local granite stoop
- A single split boulder from the site excavation: the founding stone of the house.
- White-oak interiors
- Site-built cabinetry throughout, from one lift of lumber, by our own carpenters.
- Lime-washed brick stove wall
- A masonry heater at the center of the plan. The hearth is the furnace.
N-03 The timeline
As it actually ran
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Feasibility 4 weeks
Kiln-yard fire setbacks and a second septic field for the studio, settled before design began.
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Design & documents 6 months
A simple house drawn carefully. Simplicity is a discipline, not a shortcut.
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Permitting 5 weeks
Rural county review, with the studio outbuilding permit running at the same time.
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Construction 13 months
Our carpenters built the cabinetry on site through the winter, and the schedule was designed around it.
- Final cost vs. signed budget
- 0.9% 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 in-house, and the project our carpentry shop is proudest of: one lift of white oak became every cabinet, shelf and bench in the house. This is where design-build earned its keep. The millwork was designed to the lumber we had already bought, not the other way around.
