Wrapping Up

We've now been living in the house for over a year. We've hosted holiday parties for family and friends. We have most of the furniture we want, and have rearranged it all to handle our first Christmas tree. We've written about the thoughts and design process, the construction process, and the results of living in it. This blog has (nearly) completed its purpose.

We love our house, and it has behaved mostly as we expected. The long and sometimes difficult process was worth it, and we would do it all over again if we had to. A question we often get is: "What would you change if you could do it over?" The only major thing is location. Erika has a longer commute than she would like, and somewhere further north in Bellevue or Kirkland would be more convenient. For the house itself, it might have been nice to build out an extra room on the bottom level during the main construction, as we're discovering many cases where it would be nice to have. We planned so that it could be built out later, but doing it as part of the main construction would've been easier. We also dislike the flat paint on the walls. It mars very easily; while the eggshell paint we have isn't as fragile and looks good, even with all the light we get.

This is the conclusion of our writings on the house itself. We have a few more posts planned later in the spring or summer on landscaping, which is under construction right now. We hope you found this interesting or useful, and thanks for reading!

Six month review

It's already been six months!

The house feels like home at this point. We're mostly unpacked. Furnishings are mostly in place (although there are, of course, things we want to add or upgrade). We're making good progress putting up art. We've even been part of a couple home tours (that's a normal part of setting up a new home, right?).

Six months in, we have a feel for what works well and what could have been better. Overall, we love the house. It's a great place to live: comfortable, beautiful, and functional. It just feels right — it's the right size, has the right functions, and supports our life in positive ways.



The great room is compact enough that people in the the kitchen, living, and dining rooms can interact comfortably, but spacious enough to hold large crowds. When the crowd gets too large, the large open space can get loud, but furniture and carpets have helped decrease the noise.

The kitchen is highly functional. It's one of the first things people comment on. We love the large amount of counter space, the induction stove, and the general layout. The bi-fold cabinets get out of the way just like we hoped — and they look really cool. A shelf under the sink provides a place for necessary but unsightly sink accessories. We're not finding the combination microwave / convection oven as useful as we hoped; its controls are just awkward enough to make it a bit of a pain to use as an oven.

So much counter space!

The media room also elicits exclamations. It must be something about walking into a teal cave with two rows of seating and a 106" screen. It's been a great venue for watching movies and playing video games — Rock Band is easier when everyone can read the screen clearly! Although we find the room itself quite large enough, we do wish that we had been able to add more storage, especially for large objects such as Rock Band drums and DDR pads.



The house is filled with natural light. Even on cloudy days, we don't bother turning on lights most of the time. We do use the lights in the kitchen, partially because it is further from the windows and partially due to the fact that work done in the kitchen often requires more light (e.g., chopping).

Separating the master suite into separate sleeping and dressing rooms has made it easier to get up and dressed without disturbing the sleeping partner. We haven't had an opportunity to test the dressing room's fitness as a sitting room — when just the two of us are in the house, there isn't much need for another sitting room.
We love the master bath and don't regret forgoing a tub in favor of a smaller room and larger shower. Although the high (36", standard kitchen height) countertops took some time to get used to, it's rather convenient. We'll see how well this height works if we have kids. =)

It took awhile to figure out exactly how to tune the heat pumps. We initially set the temperatures too high. We didn't initially understand how the presets worked. We had to learn how to tweak the settings to maximize efficiency when it was really cold out. Now that we've figured all that out, we appreciate the ability to set the temperature differently in different rooms, especially the rooms we don't use as often. The heat pumps don't dry out the air, which makes for lovely feeling air. In retrospect, heat distribution would have been more even if we had put the second main floor unit in the great room rather than in the office.

We have had some annoyances, but they are mostly small things. We had initially planned the dining room so that the table and pendant could be centered relative to the island and the adjacent wall. When we actually accounted for the space needed for chairs and cabinet access, we realized that the table would need to be about a foot off of centered on the wall. We were able to move the pendant, so that is centered, but when you look at the table head on, you can tell it's not centered on the wall. A small thing, but something that we could have fixed with a little more forethought.

100% natural light!

Another thing we might have changed in retrospect is our exterior color scheme. The grey-on-grey color scheme is gorgeous on sunny days, but on cloud days it looks a bit dour. And in Seattle, it's often cloudy. While on the topic of paint, the matte finish paint that was used in the interior looks good, but is a maintenance pain. It mars easily and can't be cleaned.

Another thing we need to fix — the house number is just above a downward pointing light. Oops.

The angle of the driveway is steeper than we would like. It's a constraint of the site, so there's not much we could do about it, but it does make washing the car less convenient.

That's about it for the things we wish were different. We also already have a list of improvements that we want to make over time, starting with...

More built-ins! If I have my way (and I will eventually), we'll have built-in furniture added wherever it is practical (and some places where it's not). In particular, we want to build a daybed with bookshelves into the office with a custom desk on the opposite side. This would provide a private, quiet place for reading or working on a laptop. We want to add window benches on the stair landings and add some built-in bookshelves in a few places.

On the topic of storage, we need to get some in the garage (and get rid of all of the give-away items stored in there, but that's another topic). Right now, everything in the garage is either still packed in boxes or is sitting on the floor. It is neither organized nor space efficient. Getting shelves in the garage is on our short list of important projects.

Even higher on our short list is landscaping. We moved in six months ago, but winter isn't the best time for putting in landscaping. It would have been a great time to start planning then, but we didn't. We've finally started to work on plans for improving our exterior. More on that later!

All in all, we are still glad that we decided to take on our house building project. There's nothing quite like living in a home that was designed to fit your life.

Moving and Initial Impressions

Moving day! It was a long time coming, but we finally moved into our house in mid-October. We hired movers to handle everything in the townhouse we had been renting. They came on a Friday. We then rented a U-Haul truck and had help from friends and family to empty out our storage unit on Saturday.

Moving went smoothly. Settling in was a bit more difficult. While the majority of the work was done, there were a lot of details to finish after we moved. For example, they were still finishing the wood floors the day we moved in, so that evening we went out to dinner and a movie to give the floors a chance to dry.

The biggest missing piece was the stair rails. This made it easier to move furniture and boxes up and down the stairs, but wasn't quite appropriate for a finished house. The next week was spent finishing the stair rails. Since then, there has been at least some work each weekday to finish up the remaining details. The remaining tasks are recorded in a punchlist, which is being checked off at a steady rate.

The first few days living here were exciting. Partly because this is a nicer house than any of the previous places we've lived. Mostly because we are finally living in this house that we designed ourselves and have watched every step of the way. Despite everything we've done, living here was still new. We knew the layout, the materials, the details, etc. It looked familiar and was designed around us, but living in it is still a different experience. We could really experience the advantages of the design, and appreciate the materials and construction techniques.

Reality set in fairly quickly, though. While all our stuff was within the premises of our house, we were a long way from "moved in". Unpacking was complicated by the fact that work was still being done on our house. Most of our shelving wasn't installed until a few days after we moved in, so we couldn't immediately unpack clothes. Paint touch-ups were still in-progress, so we were a bit cautious about blocking walls.

There were some bugs and obstructions to deal with initially. The master shower had a bug where the water was either fully hot or fully cold, with no temperature adjustment in-between. Our bathroom and dressing room held a pile of stair rails. The kitchen counter was mostly covered with construction paraphernalia.

These particular issues have been resolved, but there are still some inconveniences. The largest one is that the garage is not ready to have a car in it. It is full of our boxes that need to be unpacked and construction equipment belonging to our builder. All of that needs to be cleared out and the floor painted before we can park our car in there. Having always had access to a garage, it has been difficult seeing our poor MINI sit outside in the cold and rain for weeks at a time. More practically, it has prevented us from putting proper winter tires on the car.

Some annoyances derive simply from adjusting to a new place. The mini-split heating system seems to be working well, but we're still learning the proper adjustments to keep the house comfortable. The kitchen is wonderful, but we are still learning how to use the stove, oven, dishwasher, etc. and figuring out the locations of all the kitchen implements.

There are plenty of details to enjoy, though. The master suite is excellent — the bedroom is quiet and cozy, the dressing room is functional (even without chairs and a side table yet), and the bathroom is just right for us. The kitchen is working well, and the induction stove is amazing to cook with. The media room is everything we hoped for. We've already been enjoying movies and video games, and hosted a few gatherings that took advantage of it.

As time passes, we're increasingly enjoying our house. Items are being crossed off the punchlist, bringing the construction closer to complete. Boxes are being unpacked, bringing the house closer to moved-in. And we are becoming more used to living here, bringing it closer to feeling like home.

Despite this big step in the process, we're not done blogging! There are still plenty of areas we have not yet written about; and even once those are covered, we'll be writing more posts about our experiences using the space.

Review of Q1 2012

The first quarter of 2012 is over, and it was a quarter of great progress. It was the quarter of rough-in work.

Framing was completed:


Plumbing was added:


Then HVAC:


Fireplace:


And electrical:


Windows were installed:


And then siding:


The timelapse for the quarter shows all the exterior pieces coming together.


We spent a lot of time on design this quarter. Some of it was just-in-time design, such as the electrical and lighting. Framing changes were made based on 3D models of the interior. The master bath won't be installed for awhile, but the tiles need to be ordered now. There was a steady stream of small decisions, such as the fascia color for the roof trim. Many design discussions are ongoing as we take our high level design ideas and then refine the details as we gather samples, compare colors, and work through every individual piece.

The rough-in work is nearly done, and we are anxiously awaiting insulation and drywall. These will mark the beginning of the finish phase of the project. Each successive stage will appear to move at a slower pace, as more care is taken to perfect the details. Several areas may be in-progress at the same time, though. To accommodate this change, we will replace our weekly summaries with weekly overviews focusing on a single area. We'll go into details on individual elements, providing more background and design information, plus in-progress and final pictures of the installation. Our photo gallery and timelapse gallery will still be updated regularly with each weeks' progress.

Review of Q4 2011

It's the start of a new year, and the end of the old one. Construction on our house started around the beginning of October 2011, which lines up quite nicely with the yearly quarters. In this post, we'll summarize the last three months and reflect on what has happened so far.

This was a major quarter for our house. We started construction from just a pile of dirt:


It was dug up:


Then footings and foundation walls were poured:


Framing started with the lower floor:


Continued with the main floor:


And then almost finished with the upper floor and roof:


Here's a video summary:



We haven't done a lot of design during the last several months, but we had some good accomplishments. We finalized and ordered the kitchen and bathroom cabinets from Pedini and the windows from Eagle. Our architect redesigned the garage entry (for people) to allow us to stay dry when going from the garage into the house. We changed our HVAC system to one that allows us more control (details in a later post).

This has been a relatively quiet period for us as the owners, but now it's time to start doing a lot more design work. We're working on choosing some of the colors on the roof and edges, deciding what concrete is going to be poured in the backyard before landscaping prevents heavy machinery from getting down there, thinking about stairs, the front door, and a lot of the built-ins, and designing all the electrical systems. The next three months will see framing completed, the house wrapped and sealed, and hopefully much of the rough-in completed inside. We're looking forward to seeing everything happen, and we'll keep cataloging all the changes.

Thoughts on Relative Costs

Building a house forces a shift in perspective on money and costs. We are dealing with large amounts of money, but it is still valuable to pay attention to the small savings.

The whole project costs a lot (it is much more than we planned to pay for a house just a few years ago). The land purchase alone was more than we had ever spent in an entire year, let alone all at once. The down-payment for the construction loan is as much as the cost of the land, but those together are less than half the total cost. Dealing with numbers this large makes us a bit inured to how much money we are actually spending.

However, we cannot lose sight of the smaller costs that make up the total price. Carefully considering trade-offs, even when it only saves a few hundred dollars, allows us to allocate the budget where it is most valuable without going over our target. For example, saving a few thousand dollars on appliances and eliminating unnecessary features of the kitchen cabinets will allow us to get nicer hardwood and faucets.

Depending on what we're looking at, we change what we consider the minimum worth worrying about. At the level of the project as a whole, we generally consider the costs in increments of $5,000. When looking at our savings account or cost increases, we round to the nearest $5,000. Changing lenders to reduce our financing costs by $2,000 would barely be worth it we only considered financial savings.

But the many facets of the construction budget merit closer attention. We look carefully at increases of as little as $500. That amount is trivial compared to the entire budget, but with 20-30 categories in the budget, these small changes can add up quickly. We don't worry about everything. For anything less than $100, we consider the impact minimal. Even if we added that to every category, the affect in the overall cost will hardly be noticeable.

Whenever we make a change, especially a change that affects cost, we ask ourselves, "Is this upgrade worth it to us? Can we afford it?" By considering those items, we've been able to keep the costs reasonable and choose the upgrades that will really make a difference to us.

We do hope that once this project is complete, our financial sense of scale will return to normal. For now, we barely blink at putting $4,000 on a credit card or writing a check for $10,000 because that is what we have set ourselves up to expect.

Thoughts on Feature Creep

Perhaps not surprisingly, our design has been affected by that common malady: feature creep. It is too easy to say "Let's get this nicer appliance", or "Let's add a smart electronic control system to the entire house", or "We should add another room for guests". But every addition has an impact, and must be carefully considered.

We started with a good idea of the activities we wanted to support and a rough size target based off of where we live now and sample floor plans from an earlier project. Functionally, we aimed for a master suite and two other bedrooms; a laundry/utility/craft room; an office; a kitchen fit for two cooking together; a large dining and entertaining space; a comfortably-sized entry; space for guests; a library; and a media room. We hoped to overlap functions in shared space and fit it all in 2000 sq. ft.

That was unrealistic (building on a slope didn't help). We managed to accommodate most of these functions, but with stairs and landings and making sure all the rooms were large enough, we ended up at 2700 sq. ft. While it is larger (and therefore more expensive) than we planned, we decided it was the right layout and size for what we wanted. We dropped the guest room (but left room for a future expansion), since we don't need a guest room until the other bedrooms are fully occupied.

Detailed design presented similar trade-offs. We eliminated some kitchen niceties and kept others. We opted for a cheaper (but still nice) oven and chose a nicer gas stove. We chose slightly nicer faucets and sinks and upgraded our wood flooring. However, we simplified our exterior siding, and may decrease the built-in shelving and case-work from what we had planned.

We try to find a good balance between adding and simplifying. We keep the things that are most important to us and eliminate the nice-to-have items. We are happy with our choices so far, and we have yet to feel like we've made a significant compromise just to reduce costs. (One principle we have kept in mind is that some things, like built-in shelving, are easy to add after the house is built; while others, like plumbing, are difficult.)

It has helped that Yuval has been up-front with us about the costs. We can't say we are happy about the rising cost, but we understand how it relates to our choices (such as increasing the size). With most of the quotes in and a final budget set, we are at a slightly lower per-sq.ft. cost than the early estimates. That helps us feel confident that we will strike a nice balance between extra cost and getting what we want.

Thoughts on Collaborative Design

Design is collaborative. Our collaborators bring the skill, knowledge, and experience we lack. This has helped to refine our vague or unfinished ideas into a finished design that is truly brilliant (or so we think).

Our main collaborator is Yuval, the head of YS Development. He has helped us with all parts of the process. He found and verified the land long before we looked at it. He has relationships with the city, architects, designers, financing, vendors, labor, and more. He shepherded the permits through the city, and is overseeing the entire process from beginning to end. He has lead the design process and contributed significantly. He knows materials and vendors, has a taste that largely matches ours, and is familiar with construction constraints and good design practices for all parts of the house.

Our architect is Markus, with Whitney Architecture. He has done all the sketches, drafts, and final plans for our house. He was deeply involved with the structure and layout of the house, and brought many good ideas. He combined our desires with the constraints of the property to produce something that fits our needs delightfully.

Anne is our color and materials designer. She has a great eye for color/pattern/material combinations and has helped us refine our ideas into a specific palette of materials. She has suggested some themes we hadn't thought of and has helped to make details and finish just as interesting as the structure of our house.

Working with these professionals has its ups and downs; it can sometimes feel like a balancing act. Ultimately this is a business transaction, and we have made sure our agreements clearly state what each side provides in the transaction. But a process like this is all about personal interactions. Having good working relationships and getting everyone excited about the project is important. It makes meetings interesting and engaging, it provides a constant flow of insightful ideas, and everyone tries to make sure the design is as good as possible.

We are sometimes challenged working with people who have different perspectives and working styles. Everyone has provided great input and is good about listening to our ideas and feedback, but we sometimes have difficulty communicating. Sometimes our requests are unusual or couched in non-standard terminology. Sometimes what we want just can't be built. Sometimes we communicate the idea, but mis-communicate the priority (resulting in both under and over prioritization). The result is that sometimes we feel like important things are missed or misinterpreted. We have usually resolved things to our satisfaction, but the frustration and delays during the process are annoying.

There is quite a bit of compromise, especially in collaborative design. Budget, physical feasibility, and city housing codes would restrict us even if we were doing everything ourselves. Involving others brings in other limitations. The professionals are familiar with certain materials, products, vendors, and techniques that they prefer to use. Going with something they are familiar with will almost certainly have a better result than something new or untested; but it does place limits on what options we have. There are also differences of opinions that must be resolved. While we as owners have the last word, we are influenced by what others think. If they are skeptical or unenthusiastic about an idea, it can be much harder to integrate it into the whole. Fortunately, constraints often lead to a better design. Limiting our options helps prevent the paradox of choice from overwhelming us. Choosing something that is well-known and liked by the professionals provides more certainty that the finished result will work well.

Working with others has its set of challenges, but it is also valuable to have professionals involved. Our design is a lot richer and more sound for getting help with the areas in which we are weak and inexperienced.

Thoughts on the Design Process

Pre-construction work comprises more than design, but design is where we have spent most of time and effort. We are learning as we go, but we started with some useful skills and knowledge.

We came prepared. Erika has read quite a few house design books. We strongly recommend A Pattern Language, Patterns of Home, and The Not So Big House. Although we lack practical or professional experience, having basic understanding of what is good and bad in a house (and why) provides benefits: we had an idea of the rooms we wanted, their purposes, and their connections and chose a basic layout pretty quickly.

We know our tastes and needs. For example, we knew that we wanted a particular (and peculiar) layout for the master suite. We knew it would work well for us and were firm about getting it into the design. We don't always know exactly what we want (especially on materials and colors), but once we find something we like, we commit quickly. Jeff's inspiration for the upstairs bathrooms needed some refinement from Anne (our color designer) and Yuval, but we knew the result fit our tastes. Because of our confidence in our choices, we haven't wasted time revisiting or regretting the choices we have made.

We are organized. It can be hard to keep all the design tasks straight. Yuval keeps us on track and makes sure we make decisions on schedule. Generally, we work on decisions in advance. We chose appliances well before they were needed which made them easy to integrate into the kitchen design. Months ago, we spent a weekend choosing all the plumbing fixtures because it was fun. Yuval mentioned that we are among the most organized of his clients. Organization helps us make decisions early and lock them quickly. When it comes to process, we feel comfortable that we will be ready for whatever is needed next.

We have similar tastes. We find ourselves attracted to similar colors and materials and designs. When our opinions diverge, we only have one strong opinion (usually...), and can reach a choice that satisfies us both. This streamlines decision making. We don't agree perfectly on everything. We've had debates and even some arguments, but after a discussion of the trade-offs, we nearly always come to a conclusion we are both happy with.

Design has been fun. Being deeply involved in the creation of our own house has increased our appreciation of home design. Most spec-built houses would require many more compromises in taste and value. Our house will feel more comfortable and intimate to us because of how deeply we have invested in it.

Thoughts on Custom Home Design

We're about half-way through building our custom home, and it has been a bit over one year since we started this project. The process has taken longer than we expected, and has produced some unexpected challenges. Permitting and major parts of design are done, and construction will be starting shortly. It is a good time to reflect on the process so far. We'll provide some general thoughts here, and explore some other areas in more detail in future posts.

The process has been hard at times. Our schedule was already full with our regular jobs and frequent activities with friends and family. We've sometimes had to stretch to fit design into our schedule. Permitting complications and delays, both before and after submission, have put us significantly behind schedule. With those and some of the other difficulties, we've felt discouraged and frustrated at times, with that frustration sometimes turning into arguments. We started to semi-seriously look at homes to purchase when things were really grim.

Through it all, we've always return to a positive view. Our design fits us better than anything we've seen for sale. As it has slowly come together on paper and in our minds, we've become more realistic about what our house will and won't be. It won't be perfect, but we like how the design is turning out.

The thought of turning that design into a physical structure intimidates us. We've been planning and designing, in some form or another, for over a year. But so far it has all been on paper. Once construction starts, the design will be locked; we can't add another room or rearrange things. As it progresses, more and more details will be fixed in place. So we have to hope that things will turn out how we hope, and that we don't have too many regrets once it is done.

But our hesitation is mixed with excitement. Whenever we visit the house currently under construction, we see the potential of our own. We will finally see the physical realization of what we've spent so much time and energy designing.

We are only half-way through, and there is still lots left to do. We have plenty of design details to decide on, and we'll spend quite a bit of time following the construction progress. We'll drastically increase our spending, and it will probably be a bit of a shock to spend so much money so quickly. Despite everything so far, we're looking forward to the next stage of our house.