Vermont Plat House - Framehenge

Sunset at the Vermont Plat House Just a few shots of the framing progress on the Vermont Plat House. It reminds me of an ancient ruin as the posts and beams of the wall come together. The tall side is just about done, the low side is begun, and a portion of the bay window area is framed out as well. Fresh framing glowing in the setting sun! Against the dramatic sky. All photos are by the owner. Our sincere thanks to our customers who share their projects with us here.

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Vermont Plat House - Frame On!

Framing moves along.. ..even in the rain. A little downpour may have stopped the progress for the day, but it moved along none the less. The upper wall is now being framed out over the steel beam. The snow load for this site in Vermont was somewhere between 40 and 50 lbs per square foot. With the possibility of local variations you err to the higher figure. That beam has to carry the potential load across the entire living room, hence the sizable piece of steel. It will be a unique Plat House, that is for sure.

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Vermont Plat House goes vertical

The first bits of wall framing have begun. Just a quick entry for progress on the Vermont Plat House. The first framed wall has gone up, and as carpentry typically moves quickly we will see a lot of progress over the next few weeks. An overview of the slab with the new wall in the background, the steel beam at the living space in the foreground. Protective plywood has been laid over the finished slab as this will be the finished floor surface. And below, a little closer view of the framed wall. This is the wall of the two bedrooms on this end of the house. They each have a door to a screened porch, with a window beside it.

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0242 The second Arkansas Plat House

Just down the road from the Plat House that appeared in Dwell magazine is a second Plat House! Although its hard to believe, its true. Just down the way from the Arkansas Plat House that you watched come together in this blog, and you saw in the October 06 issue of Dwell, is a second Plat House. This one was built by the sister of the owners of the more famous Plat House! They purchased their plans while the first Plat House was underway and it was just completed recently. I just got some pictures of the new one today and can share them with you now. A different builder completed this one and the owners in this case decided to make some deviations from the plans. The house is definitely still a Plat House, but a comparison with the first Plat House, or with my renderings, reveals changes to several design elements inside and outside. The house looks great but its very interesting to see how these changes play out in the feeling of the house's character on the outside, and in the way you experience the space on the inside. Can you spot all the changes? photos by Jelle Kiesling

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Vermont Plat House slab prep.

Preparation for the pouring of the floor slab. The preparation work for pouring the ground floor slab for Vermont Plat House is under way. The radiant heating loops must be placed before the slab goes in. Plumbing is placed before the slab is poured. The builder has measured carefully to place these items.

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Vermont Plat House foundations

Stem walls for the foundation are in place. What I have now taken to calling the Vermont Plat House is progressing quickly. The concrete stem walls of the foundation are complete. Backfilling should follow soon.

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Work begins on the Vermont Plat House

Another Plat House takes shape. The Modified Plat House created for a customer in Vermont has begun construction. Excavation of the footings has started and reinforcing and concrete should follow soon

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The Perfect $100,000 House

I knew that would get your attention. But I'm sorry to say that I don't have the answer to the Perfect $100,000 House. What's this about then. This is the title of a new book by none other than Karrie Jacobs, the founding editor of Dwell. Karrie Jacobs was there when Dwell began, took part in the establishment of the original direction of the magazine, and ran it through the early years - the Fruit Bowl Manifesto days - when the mission to show everyday life in the modern home was a really fresh and eye opening idea. Many of the team at the magazine now came there under her and then grew the magazine from that early direction. I know for many the hope of affordable modern homes was a big attraction to the magazine, and that hope is alive today and walking the halls of LiveModern for sure. We all struggle with how to bring the modern ideal to a level that is affordable without loosing the spirit that attracts us to it in the first place. Well when Karrie Jacobs left the magazine, guess what? She joined our ranks, literally. Where could she find an affordable modern house? The book is her story of her journey for answers. Not necessarily the answer - we all know too well that there is no easy answer for the affordable modern house. She went around the country visiting many of the same projects we have seen here online and in the pages of Dwell looking for the perfect $100,000 house. Not a reference guide exactly, but from the sound of it more of a road trip story. I have not read it yet, as it has just been released, but I'm looking forward to reading it.

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0518 U House Design Prints available

The design of the new plan is done. The Design Prints for new U House plan are complete and available immediately. A new web page for the house is posted at our site.

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0518 U House model done

The model of the house is done, now I can move on to creating the Design Prints. I have to add some "props" to the model and export images. Design prints should be available next week.

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Modified Plat House for Vermont site

I've just completed an extensively modified Plat House for a site in Vermont The mods were so extensive that it is really hard to even call it a modification. It is practically a whole new house. The plan has been expanded from 2 to 3 bedrooms, and an attached 2 car garage added to the arrival side of the house. The floor plan retains very little of the original Plat House arrangement. The way the house is being built differs from the original as well. Here the main roof will be composed of SIPs panels, rather than the engineered joists. As a result the overhangs are composed of the full thickness of the SIPs panels rather than the metal roof panels alone as in the original house. Although the profile of the house is similar that roof detail is a departure in character with this version taking on a decidedly mid-century feeling in some of the details. The construction should begin in a few weeks. Preparation at the site has begun, and the drive has already been laid. As you can see it is another beautiful site and we are looking forward to seeing it come together. The owner has promised to share this with us as it happens.

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Seaside House renderings

We explore materials and texture on the house The owner was interested in turning the exterior over to stucco. I wanted to add another layer of texture that broke down the scale of the large surfaces, and also reveal something about what was an addition and what was existing. A friend, Jeff Jacobs, ran the modeler through rendering software he was experimenting with. He is a master with several different rendering packages. Sunset at the beach.

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An IBU (shipping container) based house - for real

Architect Peter DeMaria working with TAW brings their first IBU based project to life.

This is for real - a house built with IBUs, or Intermodal Building Units (yes thats our name for shipping containers) which is being built in Rednodo Beach California and has been permitted through perhaps one of the most restrictive permitting environments in the country. Architect Peter DeMaria working with TAW is building the first project born of their efforts. Its very exciting to see a real project coming about, permitted and approved as a legitimate building system.

These images following are from an article appearing in the LA Times

rendering by DeMaria Associates

This is Peter DeMaria at the building site. Photo by Don Kelson of the LA Times.

There are interviews and a lot of info about the project in the article so have a look.

If you are deeply interested in the idea of building houses of shipping containers, then you should look at our take on shipping container houses: ibu_evolution. If you are looking to build a weekend house or a house in a mild climate from shipping containers I'd love to design it for you based on the ibu_evolution system. You will find a Contact link, and an inquiry form when you follow that link.

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0242 Plat House on Prince Edward Island

First photos of a new 0242 Plat House under construction on Prince Edward Island On a beautiful site overlooking a lazy bend in a river another Plat House is taking shape. This Plat House has been modified to create 3 bedrooms, and adjust the roof overhangs for its siting facing roughly north. There have also been some other common sense changes for climate with the window sizes. The owners worked with local PEI architect Ross Macintosh to prepare a modified floor plan to suit their needs. Inside we can see that they have built the house on a radiant heated slab - very nice. We are very happy to not only see more Plat Houses built, but also to see people fearlessly adapting them to their needs. We are looking forward to seeing more of the other Plat House projects underway in other parts of the country.

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Small addition, second scheme

Adding the deck back in, and trying a different roof line. The input from the first scheme was that the upper level balcony was really desired. This dictated opening up the existing bedroom windows to doors. As far as the roofline, while it was worked into the new composition the feeling was that the image of the old house roofline was still too strong and they wanted it to go away! This feedback led to the development of a new scheme, shown here: Now the existing roof line is hidden behind a new fascia, the roof slope of the new master bedroom turned to match up with the new fascia. The existing roof line still exists behind so we still manage to avoid reframing the existing roof, but the house turns a completely new facade to the street And yes, that is the existing attic vent worked into the new composition! This is still a rough massing model which will need further development.

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