Saturday, June 29, 2013

New Arkansas Plat House - beautiful setting

Its always gratifying to see one of our designs placed into a setting for which it was designed. The point here has been to bring custom like design to people who could not afford or justify the expense of custom design. And so someone like you can now have a house like this that works so well with its beautiful setting.

New Arkansas Plat House

A screened in summer porch is planned for this side of the house - a nice option when your Plat House is not close to a road and you have privacy on all sides.

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Friday, June 21, 2013

New Arkansas Plat House - we have a roof!

The roof is going on in a flash! This stage of framing is always exciting because the carpenters make such notable progress each day.

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5 more photos from this day in the Flickr set. Remember that there is both the original two bedroom Plat House, and the slightly bigger 3 bedroom Plat House 3.

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Thursday, June 20, 2013

Row-house concept - longitudinal stair plan

Although I've not been reporting on it here on the blog, followers on G+ and Facebook know I have been moving the Row House concept along at a steady pace. I thought it was time for an update. Last time I reported on this effort I showed the range of designs for the Transverse Stair paradigm. Today we'll look at the Longitudinal Stair paradigm.

The nature of the Transverse Stair is that it divides the floor plate into two halves. This works well on the bedroom floors, however on the living floor it dictates a division between the living program of the house. In the Transverse Stair version we exploited that by emphasizing the division with a change in level. We put the living space up front, and a multi-function kitchen and dining space in back.

The nature of a Longitudinal Stair is different. It lives along the side of the floor plate, and depending on if its in front or rear, it exerts a different influence. I've chosen to move to the rear, a more modern attitude I think. In my mind this embeds the stair deeper into the family life of the house. Instead of being greeted at the front door by the passage to the most private areas of the home, the stair instead comes down into the heart of the living areas. The stair located at the side of the floor plate allows a more open and fluid treatment of the living space. I've chosen to make a discreet kitchen workspace at the front of the house, to form a physical buffer from the street, and allowing for a larger open living and dining space at the rear. This is a deliberate contrast from the configuration of my Transverse Stair model.

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Friday, June 14, 2013

Monday, June 03, 2013

New Arkansas Plat House - floor deck complete

The floor deck is complete, and the wall framing will be coming next.

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Nothing takes the mystery out of building a house like watching it go together. Photos like these from past Plat House customers have been very important tools for new owners to show their builders how the houses go together. Because the Plat House and our other designs for that matter don't look like a traditional house the builder may often assume that the construction will be unusual. There have been many cases where the builder's review of photos like these help put those fears to rest.

See the Plat House in our catalog, and more photos of customer's builds in our Flickr sets.

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