Full Frontal

We stepped away from our original architecture firm because they consistently failed to provide buildable, cost-effective plans (instead indulging every whacky idea I could dream up). It was a relief to end the nightmare by cutting our considerable losses and moving on. We met with the replacement architect, Todd Lendt (AKA “The Todd,” at least to me), on February 22 and hired him on March 1.

For those of you who say you like the house the way it is, you are in luck: We are no longer changing much. Especially now that I’ve embraced the ranch house vernacular—and lost some of my power to go deeply into debt thanks to the credit crisis.

The image (click to enlarge) shows our home in its current state (created via Photoshop® Photomerge™ panorama, hence the jagged edges). The hot tub waits under a blue tarp for construction to begin (kind of like my psyche). The drawing (from April 8) shows the new design for the front, which isn’t too different from the PowerPoint picture we cobbled together in September 2007 because we asked The Todd to execute our vision and to focus on practicality (even when I myself don’t, which is often).