This marks our first Monday post. In addition to the backbone topics on Thursday, I hope you will look forward to some periodic "fieldwork" related updates.
My goal for these Fieldwork posts is to share my perspective and provide practical information just for you. Live-streaming an overview of the design process of the Red River Passive House is an example. There will be a lot of questions along the way, so for your part, I only ask for a little feedback. Sound okay?
Pre-Design on Pause
Last time, we left off in Pre-Design phase of the Red River Passive House. We were almost finished with the phase, and ready to produce our final site analysis diagram. That process was put on pause following a text from the owner last week. I expected that live-streaming an actual project would be filled with starts and stops, but I didn’t expect this one. The owner was going to have to sell the land.
Though I had not mentioned it yet, the building site was part of a larger chunk of farmland that was up for sale. When I was hired, the owner was in the process of legally dividing out a 22-acre tract for a home-site, and had listed the remaining (much larger) tract for sale. They would then use proceeds from the sale to build the home. Cool idea.
After my initial site visit a couple weeks ago, an offer came in to purchase the land. Everything was going perfectly until closing approached. Unfortunately there were some misunderstandings between the real estate brokers and it came down to selling it all or not selling any of it. It was a sad day for my owner.
This all happened a week ago. As of today the owner’s family has been reaching out to their network and there area a couple promising pieces of property nearby. The plus to the situation is that I am on-board to help them weigh the pros/cons of any potential sites. We hope to be moving ahead again soon, and I will keep you posted.
“9 We plan the way we want to live,
but only God makes us able to live it.”
Tiny & Historic Projects Coming Up
Even though we may be on pause with the Red River Passive House, I have a couple other interesting projects that I have been planning to cover. Last week, I was finally fortunate to visit the first "tiny house" that I designed with a friend. The home is now complete, and turned out beautifully. If you are interested in shipping container architecture, you will want to stay tuned.
Also, construction is about to begin on the Mesta Park House. It is a very rough historic home in one of Oklahoma City's most vibrant historic residential districts. If you like to see historic rehabilitation work happen, I will be following it on a regular basis as well.
Which project would you like to begin covering first?
Please share with others who may be interested.