As the trees begin to bud, an already humble addition recedes behind its craftsman host.

Our design intention for this project was to create an addition that appeared minimal from the street, allowing the colorfully painted bungalow to retain its visual identity. The modern form ducks cleanly under the existing eave, forcing no modification to the roof lines. It’s angled walls preserve a comfortable relationship with the existing garage and stretch views to the back yard, where the Owner has grand garden plans. They also nicely reflect the artistic and edgy tastes of the occupants.

The garden roof will be installed this spring, incorporating storm-water runoff reductions and minimizing potential seepage into the existing basement. Landscaping around the base of the addition will follow. The interior of the addition is more modern, with stainless steel countertops and handmade tile as seen here. (The tile was created by Clay Squared to Infinity.)

Here is a shot of a completed historic home remodeling on Union Street in Northfield.

The project consisted of a complete exterior make-over and a small, two-story addition (single-gable portion on the right) that provided significant value to both the interior flow and exterior look of the home. For a sense of what existed before our work, see the before photo. I hope you’ll agree that we’ve added some richness, similar to other historic homes in Northfield.

Careful listening, collaborative design, and sensitive detailing allowed us to make a marked improvement to this home while respecting both the budget and the homeowners’ desire to do the work themselves.

You’ll see some of our higher profile projects in our portfolio, but that’s not all we do. This is another basement remodeling project.

The same design skills apply to these smaller projects where space is limited and constraints are numerous. Here we dealt with limited headroom in certain areas, water intrusion issues, and traffic flow concerns. The end product garnered high praise from our clients, who are retired professors on a fixed income, and their frequent guests.

We welcome your call to help you take care of your existing home’s requirements so that it better suits your needs.

Our design services usually flow from the initial concept generation through development into drawings used for construction and through construction itself. Sometimes, however, our clients opt to work with a specific contractor for the construction drawings. In these cases, the contractor uses our initial concept and works with the homeowner to finalize the details and finish selections. This project followed that model.

The basic massing is true to our design, but many items have been changed since the project left our office. The big ideas still ring true and the owner is pleased with the progress. This shot shows the southwest corner of the home: solar domestic hot water panels will be installed on the roof. Large overhangs will provide shade from the summer sun, but will let the lower winter rays wash the interior.

Here you see the views through the home and the sunlight filling the space. This strategy makes the home feel larger than it is by allowing the eye to stretch out. The views to the south are truly beautiful, so we really wanted to make the most of them.

The home below was also built from a concept plan we prepared. In this case, a relative of the client completed the project.

Our role was to meet the client’s needs for home and office that blended into the existing farm yard. Visual simplicity was important, which went a long way toward holding the budget line.

I am delighted that our clients were able to achieve their goals with limited help from us. At the same time, my artistic side has trouble letting go of the vision that gave birth to these functional and beautiful forms. It is difficult to see the vision realized in part; that is a hazard of my chosen profession. These projects illustrate our primary goal: to serve the needs of our clients without letting our own desires get in the way.

We look forward to seeing our clients settle into their new homes; our true reward is your satisfaction.

The house on Plum Street is finished. Well, we still have some DIY things to wrap up, but for the most part, the house is done. With this post, we’ll share some images of the completed project. In subsequent posts, we will fill in the gaps between this and previous posts.

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These built-ins serve as the Master Closet, and they work well for us.

The Master Bath Vanity and medicine cabinet worked out to be both functional and beautiful.

At one point, this newel post was the tallest part of the house!

Our workload and family life kept us hopping this spring and summer, so I must apologize for not keeping this blog up to date on a regular basis. We did move back into the house in March and only a few boxes remain to be unpacked (mostly mine.) The remodeling has truly been a blessing for us; our lives have been enhanced in many ways by the finished project. And we now have a much better understanding of the remodeling experience since we have now seen it from all sides.

Construction is well underway at St. Ansgar’s Lutheran Church in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. The goal is a new elevator and accessible restroom. Here you see the elevator shaft beginning to climb above the foundation. This is the first phase of the Master Plan we prepared for St. Ansgar’s. The project scope also includes connecting the church to city sewer and water.

The Master Plan was necessary to properly locate the elevator shaft relative to future additions and remodeling that are needed. Connection to sewer and water is in preparation for the future fire suppression system, commercial kitchen and additional restrooms.

The weather has been fine for construction, so good progress is being made for the mid-December completion goal.

Construction is nearly complete for our addition on Union Street. The Owner has done a great job painting the exterior, pulling colors from the existing house.

The cabinets are looking good; door pulls were being installed when I took this shot. We are pleased with the project; the various materials come together nicely and provide a strong contrast to the historic interiors. It was fun when the Owner came into our office after seeing the new stainless steel counters in place; his smile was a mile wide and he was jazzed!

Tomorrow is the final walk-through. The green roof plantings will wait until the spring.