Our Architect

Our architect on this build is John Holowicki of Architecturally Speaking.  He was recommended to us by our builder Ken Trever since they have worked well together in the past.
  In the months (and maybe years) leading up to this project, Tanja amd I have often combed through online and in print house plans, deciding what worked and didn't work for us.  It first solidified around some plans we found online for a modern victorian.  We loved the idea of a central rotunda and a main hallway that shot from the front of the house all the way to the greatroom in the back, but we were unsure of the diagonal design.  I amalgamated these plans with a few others and tried to eliminate rooms we felt we wouldn't need, like a formal living room.  We knew we wanted a master on the second story, but felt that we might want an elevator for when we get older.  This shifted the guest bedroom down to the first floor with three bedrooms and laundry on the second.  From these ideas, I created this.

We took these and some exterior shots of our inspiration house to John.  He took our rough ideas and designed a house that works.

John really cleaned up the pantry/butlers pantry area and made the mudroom work.  He introduced the idea of a two way fireplace to somewhat divide the great room from the sitting area, which should work out nicely.  I'm still thinking of a way to arrange the great room furniture since we would like to have a TV, but are reluctant to put it above the fireplace again.  We knew we wanted some elements changed, but didn't know that the final layout would be necessary to best fit our build location.