Building Plans

Before we bought the house, I measured it completely. Yes, all the interior rooms, walls, and exterior elevations were measured to our best estimate. We quickly found out none of the walls are actually straight at all. Using cad and an Autodesk software package called Home Designer, I drafted a set of plans. My laser printer worked fine to print it all out. It was now time to contact an architect, and through a referral got the name of someone that just went out on his own: Rich Culp. He was glad to talk to us, looked at my drawings and gave us a price for a conceptual design. We agreed to a price and after a meeting with us, he whipped-up set of conceptual plans and a front elevation. He eventually sent us an invoice for most of the original price as a final work completed, but we knew that he had lots more to do for the base price. We didn’t expect the color rendering that was a really great treat.

Architect’s Concepts

Three bedrooms for the add-a-level section were pretty straight forward, but I thought that the bedrooms were a little small, as well as the dining room, kitchen and laundry room. The master bedroom suite over the carport (soon to be garage and workshop) was enormous. It included: his/her walk in closets, gas log fireplace, sitting area, vaulted ceiling, deck, so some changes needed to be made. The laundry room needed to be functional for a house with four bedrooms, including ironing board.

Rich did deliver one more set of plans that was almost 100%. Before the 2^nd revision he visited the site. This was even before the closing. At this point we were thinking that the add-a-level on half the existing house was phase 1 and the master suite/garage and workshop was phase 2.

By the 2^nd revision we were dreaming about doing the entire shell at once then finishing the interior over time. The resolution to all the small rooms was to add four feet to the back of the existing house and putting the new stairs up on the outside of the existing stairs down (instead of on the inside)

The kitchen, dining room, and the 3 bedrooms upstairs all got bigger. The only downside was how much it is going to cost. The foundation needed to be extended on the back, and we would wind up replacing the existing staircase down to lessen the pitch. The laundry room was still left small but the other spaces were fixed. In the end we lost one of the his and hers closets (his) and the laundry room was right-sized. We still had two more good sized closets. This was ok but I think that we need some built-ins in there also. I like the built in dresser that I (we) are using now. Of course the deck stayed.

To help visualize the house layout, and the roof lines, I decided to build a model. It wasn't too difficult, just time consuming. In the end, I wound up spending about 40 hours on it. I bought some foam core (posterboard) and some spray mount adhesive. I cut up the plans and glued the pieces to the foam core. I then cut the foam core with a razor knife. All the wall, floor, and roof pieces were glued together with Elmers glue one floor at a time so the model can be taken apart to look inside. It came out ok, even if some walls were a little crooked. It also highlighted where potential problem areas could be during construction.

Free Acres/Berkeley Heights

We gave the architect the go ahead for the final design. After another meeting and a month or two we received a preliminary set of the final drawings. The final set was delivered a few weeks later, just after the October Free Acres meeting. The plans needed to be put through the Free Acres voting process to get approved. The problem was that we needed to know if a variance was required. We were aware that the house was closer than the 50 foot minimum set back so I had to go to the zoning officer to find out. Simultaneously I was working on the plans for the foyer-bathroom and the mantle footing. I needed to run these by the building inspector.

On a Monday morning I met with the zoning officer. He was very helpful and with a few explanations and an area usage tabulation on the plans, he didn’t think that a variance would be needed. We will keep our fingers crossed. I then met with the building inspector to discuss the foyer bathroom work. He was nice also but he was confused about the plans. I had changed the scale on the details. He also didn’t understand where within the house the new work was located. This location could have a big impact on the depth of the footing if it was on an outside wall. Because of the rocky ground, digging 3 feet down would be tons more work that digging 1 foot down. On the bathroom plans, added a cover sheet showing the whole first floor with the area of new work highlighted. I submitted the bathroom plans a week later and they were approved. Meanwhile we submitted the big work plans to the Free Acres Construction committee chairman. Since I wasn’t sure that the plans would go through without a variance, it was suggested to have Free Acres proceed as if a variance was required. This would require the plans to be displayed at a meeting and a vote. It was passed. I filed for the demo and construction permits. I will submit the plans for the electric and plumbing later to enable me to do the bathroom work over the Xmas break.