Charette #2 in the Books

As we progressed through the autumn months of 2007, I was expecting to be well into the physical construction of the home by mid year 2008. It is now October 2008, and last week we finished up our second charette meeting with the project team as we continue to define the inner workings in the residential ranch property build. The focus of this meeting not only dissected the individual characteristics of the home itself, but took a more indepth look at the property as a whole (master plan) and how all working parts of the property must come into one if we are too move forward successfully.



The day started at 9:30am, as 16+ members of the project team carpooled up to the home site to visit the property first hand to better envision the master plan and how it would all tie into one another. More specifically, we walked the foot print of the home, which was staked out by Don Briggs, Jim Albrecht, and myself the previous week. We entered through the front door, sat in the great room, washed dishes in the sink, and stared out the master bedroom window, all as a means to get a clearer picture for the home as it fit into the surrounding landscape and what views we could hope to capture when living day to day. Next we discussed the master plan, and how we wished to lay the infrastructure for the eventual construction / implementation of a shop, farming section, ponds, guest house, independent power center, children's play area, buried fire supression tanks, orchard, irrigation and potable water needs, etc. It is with this information coupled with the visual introduction to the property for many that lead to a most productive afternoon meeting within the conference room as we digested the master plan, made some decisions, and established a working schedule for moving the project along.


The afternoon culminated in working together to post a workable timeline (schedule) for how we can proceed through the Design Development stage. This encompassed an aggressive plan to get all working members of the project team to come forth with various aspects of the design plan. Master plan sign-off, Energy / Solar Load analysis, lighting review, mechanical / electrical review, civil development, architectural development, LEED review, and onward to Design Development sing-off.

Prior to all the various disciplines within the Project Team moving forth with these tasks, we have opted to have a sit down with Don Briggs and Jack (consultant) to better identify the projected costs of the existing design. This will help us better confirm that the existing design / cost is inline with our budgetary ideas and thereby not waste members' time / effort / fee's should our initial review of the design warrant changes based on cost estimations. We are reviewing each room to identify finishing ideas. Coupled with the existing envelop characteristics, we are hopeful that next week Jack can move forward with obtaining detailed projected build-out estimates for the home. This will allow us to put to rest any further uncertainty as to the bottom line for overall build-out, and as a result enable us to approve the schedule for moving through the Design Development stage... one more step towards construction documents and physical build-out starting in 2009.

Stay tuned for more as it unfolds.

Tim