Inching closer to launch time...

The process of designing and reworking the plans has taken a bit longer than we thought. We closed in early January and hired an architect a couple of weeks later. We thought we were on a roll, how hard could this be? Now as we approach May and we're just finishing the plans, we're anxious to get under construction, which is expected to be about 4 months. The extra time has been worth it to arrive at a design that will make a great house when all is done (and paid for!). 


The past few months of walking through the house and trying to picture how we'll actually live in it has been great to add little things that we hope will make it more comfortable. Like adding extra windows flanking the chimney to bring in more light at eye level. And expanding the covered side porch off the kitchen to make room for a grill, so we won't have to put the grill next to the outdoor table, take the food through the living room, and grill during the rain and snow uncovered. These things seem pretty important in the end. The rear elevation plan below should be the near-final version showing these things:

The near-final floor plan is included here too; not too many upgrades since the last version, but more detail and measurements included: 

From here, the FINAL plans should be ready within a few days for us to sign off. Then we'll submit them to Arlington County for approval, which we believe will take 2-3 weeks. Fortunately, our architect has been working in Arlington County (almost exclusively) for decades. He knows the officials and understands the local zoning language, so he designs with that in mind from the start. We hope that our modest renovations make for quick and painless approvals.


We also anticipate getting the builder, Steve (SMK Builders from Lorton), under contract within the week. We submitted a 3 page list of changes and upgrades to his original proposal--probably the result of Mike being an attorney and me being a project manager by day. Steve has been great so far and will be showing us the new proposal tomorrow, April 20th. The new proposal will surely cost more than the last one, so we probably should stop making changes after this round. Things only seem to go up in price with time. 


Steve and Bruce, our architect, have worked together on dozens of projects and Bruce hand-picked Steve for our project. I hope this bodes well for the months ahead...