Thursday, June 29, 2006

PROGRESS!

Karen and I met with Chris Czichos and Julie Ferri of agave today to review the revised plans from Travis and I am HAPPY to report that we have officially signed off for the plans to be submitted for permitting - YEAH!!!! The revised plans are just as we wanted, with only "slight" modifications that Chris simply "red lined" on the plans that will be copied for the construction crew.

Chris also said that they were very hopful that the permitting process will be much better (i.e. faster) in the near future. Apparently the city is voting tomorrow on a rule change that will give S.M.A.R.T. housing projects priority and, since all agave homes are a part of this program, they should jump way up the list. Keep you fingers crossed!

I'll try and get digital versions of the revised plans and post ASAP.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Coming Soon . . . Revised Plans

Got word today from our architect,Travis Young, that his revised plans will be delivered to the Agave office tomorrow morning. I hope we can set a meeting in the next 2 days in order to sign off and get the plans submitted for building permits. At the rate permitting is going with the City, we'll be lucky if they break ground on our house by the end of September . . . the irony is that the close date on our contract reads September 15!

Friday, June 23, 2006

Nothing sexy to report

There has been MUCH activity via email this week regarding the changes we requested and the costs thereof (including some good news coming just today), but we have still not seen final plans so that we can sign off. The plans are now back in the hands of Travis Young (principal architect - and founder/owner of Studio Momentum) to redraw the kitchen to include upper cabinets, master bathroom, gameroom entrance, and increase the height of the ceilings on the bottom and main floors. With any luck we'll see some tangible results next week.

'Til next time . . .

Saturday, June 17, 2006

The Beginning

Well, following in the foot steps of several other Agave owners, we're jumping on the blogging band wagon!

Our story begins on August 21st, 2005 when I first emailed Carrie Bills after seeing the Agave announcement on the Green Mango website. Since that time our path has been full of countless ups and downs (several bottles of wine and LOTS of time would be needed to recount all we've been through) waiting for an architect to submit a floor plan that would accommodate our family's needs and aesthetic desires. We had our hearts set on one of the large lots on Ava Lane therefore we were concentrating on the designs of KRDB, Studio Momentum, and FAB. We were familiar with S.M. and KRDB as I had contacted both firms while toying with the idea of a custom build on a city lot - which, with the rising real estate and construction costs, was just to darn expensive for our budget.

After reviewing several plans from all mentioned firms, we focused on a design by Travis Young of Studio Momentum for 7301 Ava Ln. Here's the view from the street . . .



The design was originally 2003 square feet, with 3 bedrooms (master down w/ 2 kids rooms on third floor), a large screened porch on the bottom floor, and a one car carport within a 3-story design (which is currently being built as originally planned at 5304 Agatha Circle) . . . below are the prelim floor plans . . .

LOWER FLOOR


MIDDLE FLOOR



UPPER FLOOR



After too many emails to count and numerous meetings with Carrie, Larry, Julie and Chris we arrived at a significantly larger (2488 sq ft) and different set of plans, including 3 bedrooms (Master suite up w/ 2 kids rooms on bottom floor), a gameroom/study, an enlarged living area w/ screened porch, and 2 car carport . . . see plans below . . .

LOWER FLOOR


MIDDLE FLOOR


UPPER FLOOR


The plans are still in flux as to some details, but the final version will be very close to the above floorplans.

The exterior will be quite beautiful with a great mix of materials (cedar plank, Hardi board, stucco, cement block, and large laminate structural timbers and a metal roof). Here are some initial renderings . . .

EAST SIDE (FRONT OF HOUSE)


WEST SIDE (REAR OR HOUSE)


We have yet another meeting this week to HOPEFULLY sign off on the floorplan - all body parts are crossed!