How we (may have) beat the system.

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Of all the zoning restrictions, the roof pitch and exterior materials are the hardest to work within. When working on the square house plan (40'x40' square with a 12'x12' open air atrium in the middle), it looked inevitable that a gable running around the perimeter would be the best option. But from the ground, it looked like a mansard style roof (my overall least favorite roof style - Taco Bell anyone?). Then Guy suggested an inverted hip. That is, a shed roof that runs around the perimeter and slopes toward the impluvium (fancy Roman name for the hole in the roof over an interior courtyard). From the outside, it would look like a flat roof.

It looked like there would be a problem with the second floor windows looking too low compared to the roof this way (the outside wall 5'5" higher than the atrium wall and ceiling, but Mark fixed that by suggesting a vaulted ceiling on the interior (easily done with SIPS). This allows for some high windows. The bigger problem was that this put the outside wall at 23'6", 6" too high for the zoning restrictions.

One benefit of having to deal with zoning restrictions instead of a architectural review board is that a building official is supposed to only look at the letter of teh law. We are not really keeping with the spirit of the zoning which is to create a neighborhood of houses which look old. Never-the-less, I am confident that our house will fit in nicely in terms of scale and massing.

We went in to see the building official before choosing between the longHOUSE and the squareHOUSE options. After looking at a section that showed the inverted hip he said, and I paraphrase, "Well, no matter how you write the restrictions, someone will find a loophole and it looks like you found one."

When we bring in the plans for official approval, I can't help but wonder if there won't be a new interpretation of one of the restrictions somewhere. We'll see.

As for the exterior. Hardie panels and corrugated galvalume are out. So that leaves brick and stucco. We went from stucco to brick because we heard from several brick sellers that a house could be bricked for $4 per sq. ft. with king size brick and $5.50 for modular brick. HA! We got a couple of bids. Try $8.50 per sq. ft. We have since gone back to stucco. Hand troweled with integral color is under $6 per sq. ft.

I am sorry to see the brick go. If you check out the designSTUDIO page here at LiveModern, you can see the squareHOUSE in brick. Sweet.