In the past, residential developers have built model homes with which to showcase their product and craftsmanship and to attract buyers. This has been an expensive approach in recent times; construction costs are high and model homes have felt the slowing market, forcing the developer to both front the construction cost and to bear the ongoing cost of ownership.

We propose a more sustainable alternative.

Using our digital visualization tool, our interior designers and architects can create a virtual home, complete with furniture, accessories, tile patterns, and wood trim for display and walk-throughs with potential homeowners. This gives them the chance to understand the floor plan, the views, and the nature of the home, especially if given the chance to interact with the designer. Changes to better suit personal preferences can be shown and studied at low cost if the homeowner so desires.

The developer wins, too. Upfront costs for a virtual home are a small fraction of the costs of a model home. Online presentation limits staff time at the model home and makes it more available to potential buyers. Marketing images are easily extracted from the virtual home for brochures, a website or mailings. Animated fly-bys and walk-throughs add energy and life to the marketing efforts. Drawings for construction are derived directly from the virtual home, so this is not an extra step in the process.

Experience has shown that lenders appreciate virtual homes, too, which are easily appraised and understood from the virtual home and its plans. Contractors appreciate the reduced number of change orders on the job, since most are covered in cyberspace.

And the virtual model is easily reused, recycled, remodelable, repaintable, and reconfigurable for different sites.

We welcome inquiries from builders and developers interested in building a virtual model home.

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.

The ball is still rolling on Plum Street in Northfield.

We’ve occupied our new house all summer and we love it. It fits us so well the kids don’t want to leave home!

I now better understand the elation expressed by our clients after a few months in their new home, especially after a remodeling. Life is easier when the house doesn’t get in the way but instead facilitates everyday everything. The speed at which we get used to improvements is amazing. We are glad to have a good series of photos to remind us from whence we came.

Of course, owning a house means projects of all sizes. As you see in the photo above, I’ve been busy building a limestone retaining wall from the salvaged remains of a barn foundation. The patio will serve as a level place to sit and relax outdoors and to give homes to Mary’s many potted plants.

And, the gutters are on at last. Instead of the common K-style gutter, we used a more angular seamless gutter. These seem to complement the roof lines and the detailing of our soffits. I don’t think it is our fault, but we haven’t had rain since installing the gutters. Too bad: we’re looking forward to filling our new rain barrel.

The barrel came from the entrepreneurial spirit of Bruce Anderson, who has sold over 400 barrels modified for this purpose. We will use the water we catch for watering flowers and plantings along the south side of our lot. Hopefully this will help keep things green and minimize the runoff from our roof.

Landscaping will begin this fall. We’ve already relocated some hostas and peonies that had found temporary lodging in our garden. The lawn took some damage during construction, so it needs some serious help, too. The list goes on, but we are very pleased with our newly remodeled home.

And so is our clawfoot tub. More on that later…

With the help of family and friends, we made a major step toward moving into the house on Saturday. Special thanks to Jeanne, Carol, Bill, Mary Ellen, Sam, John and Jeanne for their help first in cleaning the new house, then in moving most of our stuff. Mary and I slept in the sun porch on Friday night on an air mattress, then in our new Master Bedroom on Saturday.

It was wonderful.

A door on a room has rarely meant more!

Back to the tub, which was actually installed on Wednesday. I like this picture because it makes the room look huge. Actually, the room feels large but is tight; I couldn’t have taken 4″ out of either dimension without dramatically impacting the sense of space. As you will notice is the photos that follow, my camera lens can’t capture the space without backing through a window!

Here is another shot, showing the toilet modestly tucked away behind the shower.

The master bath was the last to be painted due to the tile installation. The tile delayed the plumber, who delayed the painter, who delayed the electrician. So, we’re almost done with the bathroom. With luck, we may see the shower door and the electrician tomorrow. The vanity top will have to wait another week, since it couldn’t be fabricated until the cabinet was set, which had to be coordinated with the tile.

Thanks (and apologies) to the workers who have worked around our stuff this week. It is really great being home again, even with a few interior details remaining.

For a fun change, we had the inside of our daughter’s closet painted a crimson red. The color is used elsewhere, so we didn’t have to order another custom paint mix. She chose the room color of her previous bedroom (which is now an office) since she liked it so well. The closet is the perfect place to paint a fun, upbeat color that may become tiresome if it was a whole room. The yellow of the walls and the crimson of the closet work well together.

We chose to select our color palette right away instead of painting everything a neutral white and then painting again some other time. It is far easier to have the painter come in with a sprayer and paint all walls and ceilings the same (this is typical for production housing) but we knew it would be years before we got back around to painting again.

This is the bedroom across the hallway. It has beautiful south and west daylight from two windows. Part of the rationale for color choice was also the color of the trim work. Mark Schad, our painter, has been doing a very careful job with painting all the trim and we wanted the wall colors to show off the trim to its best advantage. Using pale colors may have been “safer” but as a color addict, various shades of white wasn’t going to work for me. As you can see, the final coat isn’t on the walls yet–perhaps today. One of the added benefits of this color is the way it pulls the color out of the wood floors. Together they just glow. (I’ll post a photo when the floors are unpapered and finished.)

One bedroom is now completely painted; all that remains in that room is the lights, receptacles, and a closet shelf.

What still remains to be done inside or is underway:

The guys have been working hard to get things wrapped up, for which we are grateful.

I’ll remember my camera next time, honest.

This week, Mary and I stopped at Welding Resources to check on the progress of the new guardrail. Dean Odette really stepped up in short order and pulled the guardrail together; we made a last minute design change from a traditional cherry newel and rail to this stainless steel guardrail. Why? It allows us to save the original newel and save about $1,500 in the process. It was exciting to see the rail looking so good; Dean agreed.

Here is where the guardrail will be installed: between the newel post and the doorway in the background. The guardrail will be lag screwed to the newel post and the studs directly behind the door trim. The slenderness of the steel will work well in this application; we’re looking forward to seeing the contrast of the turned newel against the sleek steel.

These cabinets are the closets and dressers for the Master bedroom. We opted for built-ins instead of closets to optimize the space. The floor plan is very efficient, leaving no room for a walk-in closet. “Shoe-horned” would be an accurate description of how we worked four bedrooms and two bathrooms into the floorplan, but wouldn’t be an accurate way to describe the spaces themselves. They are appropriately sized and functional, and seem to flow well.

So, back to the title of this post: nearing completion. We’ve decided not to try to move into the house tomorrow due to the work remaining (although not without some angst.) The final coat of paint remains to be applied to all of the bedrooms. The hardwood floors still need a final finish coat. The tilework in the bathrooms is incomplete, so the fixtures are not yet set. The light fixtures are still in boxes as are the door hardware sets. Three doors are still on order, which still need finishing and installation. Today they are finishing the last of the window trim and sanding the patches on the drywall. The new boiler and air handlers are not ready to go. The water is yet to be connected, since the fixtures are not installed.

Outside, there has not been much progress, since the guys were pushing hard on the interior. Corner boards, water table and siding will be installed. We’ll paint in the spring when it gets warm enough. We also plan to insulate the exterior of the foundation, which can’t happen until the ground thaws. And we’ll need to do some dirtwork and landscaping.

Causes for the delay? The airkrete insulation switch cost us a few days, then the icynene truck wouldn’t start in the cold, costing another day. We ended up putting new ceilings in two rooms downstairs due to inadvertent damage during construction, which forced us to paint both walls and ceilings. The drywall contractor’s work left much to be desired, so our painter has spent extra time patching and sanding the blemishes.

So what of the delay? We have a contract for completion by tomorrow, so there will be some negotiation about how to handle the missed date and the additional costs and inconvenience it means for us. That’s the long and the short of it.

Of course, we are more than ready to move back into our home. The adventure of living in “the cabin” has worn off completely. The cold weather has not helped at all, keeping us indoors for the most part. I am impressed with how mentally challenging this process has become as both the designer and displaced owner, on myself and on our family.

The sun is out today and the temperatures are up! We are pitching in with the painting the walls (easy stuff) so our painter can focus on the cabinets, doors and trim (tougher). Our new goal is to sleep in the bedrooms next Friday night. I’m going to patch the newel today, sand it and prime it. We may be able to install the guardrail on Monday if its finish is properly cured.

Oh, we stopped in to see the carpet yesterday. Vos Floors in Faribault received and unrolled it for our inspection. I looks great. We’ve chosen wool carpet for it’s durability, sustainability, and nice appearance. It will be installed in the hallway and on the stairs after the final coat goes down on the hardwood floors.

It is amazing how much can get done in a week, but it looks to me like the remaining work on Plum Street won’t all be done by 24 February, the day our contract says the work will be substantially complete (when we can again occupy the house.) I have been proven wrong in the past, though, and hope for it to happen again. Much has happened since our last post!

Last Thursday, the Mudroom floor received sand, insulation and tubes for radiant floor heat. The copper tube encloses the temperature sensor for the thermostat.

Then, like the true romantic that I am, I bought my wife wet concrete for Valentine’s Day.

Floor and wall tile installation began, too. Since this photo was taken, the vanity was set in place so we can get the countertop made and installed.

I believe the most visually rewarding development was the installation of window trim. This award may be usurped by the installation of baseboards, which started this morning as the last of the windows and doors are being trimmed. It looks great.

We added a smidge of sweat equity to the project this weekend: sweeping, cleaning and a bit of re-painting where touch-up was needed. Thanks to Robert and Julia who came to visit and help! Actually, we have been sweeping and picking up around the project all along to help minimize costs. We can do this work after the contractors finish each day; that way we stay out of their way and allow them to be most productive while on site. Personally, I find it a great way to stay in touch with the project and spend time thinking about how things are coming together (besides getting some quiet alone time!)

The first week of February was a bustle of activity at Plum Street North.

Installation of exterior trim and entry canopies began. With them, the scale of the house is becoming more humane. The siding will help in this regard also.

Many items came to the jobsite pre-assembled and pre-painted. This helps control quality, minimize jobsite waste, and contend with cold weather. It also quickly transforms the exterior of the project into a house!

The hardwood floors were installed and the painter started his work, priming all the new rooms and getting color on the kids’ bedrooms and baths. This morning we braved the sub-zero weather and checked out the floors. Caesar has a fresh coat of finish on them; it was great to see the depth of the wood shining in the sun!

Finished interior trim was delivered yesterday and awaits installation in a pile on the porch floor.

I noticed that the house is much tighter already than it was before. The new windows, the air infiltration barrier, and the icynene insulation make the house warm and quiet. The old furnace in the basement has no trouble keeping the house at 60 degrees, even though it is no longer connected to any ductwork. The cracked heat exchanger may be releasing combustion fumes into the interior air, which is a concern, except that we’ve seen open windows and attic hatches for fresh air. Once the drywall and floors are all sanded, we can switch to the new heating system and the energy recovery ventilator.

It seemed to take 100 years for the drywall to go up and be taped then sanded, but it was only a week. Now, it seems that the flood gates have opened, and things are happening!

During the apparent lull, the contractors were shop-painting trim and siding. Here they are starting to finish the upper gable, and below they have it complete. Short of the final coat of paint, everything from the dripline up is finished!

This is a view from the new mudroom through the new doorway into the kitchen. We love the way you can see through the house. I don’t believe I could understate the improvement this door will be to the flow our our house. Previously, all traffic from the back yard and garage had to zigzag through the porch and stair landing (none too spacious) to arrive behind the window. That meant navigating two storm doors and an old entry door with each bag of groceries. While not the end of the world, it was a pain.

Matt has installed the new front door, but it’s too dark for a good photo now, so I’ll show you what he found in the wall. Yes, Rotten, rotty, rot. This had to be removed and I’m glad it’s gone. How did we discover this, you ask? As it turns out, the 2’8″ door we wanted to slip into the existing opening was ten weeks out (since it was a custom size.) The 3’0″ model was in stock, fit the budget better, and shipped in two weeks, so we had to widen the opening. That’s when the discovery began.

And the mechanical equipment is being installed! From right to left are our air handler, energy recovery ventilator, boiler and water heater. The water heater is actually just an insulated storage tank.

The second floor has been primed and most of the rooms have their first coat of paint. Rumor has it the entry canopies are fabricated and ready to be installed. The hardwood flooring is acclimating in a stack on the Master Bedroom Floor, and the tile installation will be started next week.

That’s the report for today. We are excited to see finishes on site. Our target move-in date is 24 February. We’ll see how it goes.