A couple from California hired me to help them with their Retirement House on Orcas Island. The caveat was that I had to work with a retired building designer who hand drew all of his plans, elevations and sections in PENCIL. When I finally got his drawings, besides being very hard to read- (scans of pencil drawings-yikes), I could not get the big sloping roof to work from the 2nd floor down to the 1st floor as one slope. If I shortened up the 2nd floor, then I could get it to work.
Well, one thing led to another and I wound up doing a little re-design. He had the Master Bedroom on the 2nd floor and I think that all that I’ve read on “Aging in Place”, that the Master Bedroom has got to be on the FIRST FLOOR. SO I moved the Master Bedroom downstairs and put the 2 bedrooms upstairs.
Then the other issue was the Laundry room was tucked under a staircase landing with 7’ headroom and room for just stacking washer/dryers. No layout area, no linen storage. I flipped the laundry to the front porch with its own side door for their dogs, linen storage, side by side washer/dryer, sink & counter.. None of these changes went over well, so I wound up calling it quits. They held firm to the design that did not work, the roof that did not work, with no collaboration .
I could not put his design on my stamp, that was the bottom line. I have standards and that was that- had to fire the clients. This is very rare for me to have to do and I do it with a heavy heart. But it would have been a great house- let me know if you have a lot to build it on? 3 bedroom, 3 baths, really nice laundry off covered porch. Great covered outdoor seating area outdoor fireplace! Aging in Place! Passive Solar!
This is my favorite shot illustrating “Passive Solar Design” with a big South Facing bank of windows that form the window bench for the Dining Room. My re-design basically took the best elements of the other guys design and added Passive Solar- because this site is in a Forest, so it gets very little light. I was trying to capture that Southern Light for those cold winter months when every more bit of light is so much appreciated.