We received the first set of plans from our architect, Terry Latasa, in November of 2011. We had first met Terry in Monterey, standing in front of my mother’s old house. He had come highly recommended to us, and been very responsive to our requests to meet. We talked a bit then and he told us that our lot, like all of the others on the street, was substandard in size by 10 feet in either direction, and that this would limit the size of our house. The City had a hard-won Ordinance which limited a house’s floor area to no more than 40% of the area of the lot. Therefore the buildable floor area would be limited to a house of 1,440 sq. feet (not including the 450 Sq. ft. garage, also mandated by ordinance), and the City absolutely would not allow anything larger.
In the same conversation, Terry did reassure us that, we would not have any trouble building on a second story so that we could recapture our view of the bay, since all of the other properties on the block were now at two stories. This would allow us to have a good view of the bay and downtown to Fisherman’s Wharf. After meeting at the site, we went to lunch with Terry and talked more about our hopes and dreams for the house.
That was in the summer of 2011 and, about four months later in November we received our first complete set of drawings. It was the first of six plans that Terry would draw with some major and other more modest changes. His contract allowed us as many revisions in the plans as we liked.
I had a favorite house on the block, friends of my mother had lived there and I had always admired it. Terry had also been their friend and been in the house. Even though that house was on a lot twice the size of ours, it helped to have some places to start. The drawing on the left is from the first plans, which included detailed drawings of the first and second floors as well as the elevation. I liked the design, but Harry felt it was too traditional looking on the outside and in particular he did not like the gabled, dormer window in what was the dining room. He wanted a more contemporary or modern look. We were even willing to look at a flat roof.
I focused on the floor plan and was not quite certain that the layout of the second floor where there was a “Great Room” combining living room, dining room and kitchen, would give us enough room. I had yet to learn about the tiny house movement. While this house would not qualify since it is over 1,000 sq. ft., most everyone in Texas would have said, “It’s pretty damn small!” This was definitely going to mean some adjustments on our part. We began to have serious discussions at that point about how our grand piano was probably going to have to go. Harry thought we should look into getting a hybrid grand pianos that play and sound like acoustic pianos but are the size of a spinet and have come way down in price.
We began to talk too about weeding out our most treasured possessions, our books. Harry began putting all of our music in the cloud. A lot of our larger art pieces would also clearly have to go.
In February of 2012 Terry sent us a new design, more contemporary with a barrel-vaulted roof, cable guard rails at the decks and stucco siding. He said this architectural treatment would take a lot more work but it would give us a nice aesthetic direction for the project. And it has. We felt we were moving in the right direction.
It was at that time that we tried some wild ideas for the layout all most none of which worked including an upside down wedding cake array in which the largest space was on the second floor and the first floor was smaller. Terry particularly hated this as it cast shadows outside all of the first floor space. However, the exercises helped us to finally choose the second floor layout and we ended up back to the very first plans that Terry had drawn with the dining room on the left as you face the house, and the living room is on the right with a view of the water. The kitchen is behind the dining room and there is a straight line between the front deck of the living room to the largest deck which is in the back. The back part of the house has a southern exposure and definitely the warmest part of the house protected from the ocean breeze and getting afternoon sun. We asked Terry to check the views because I thought we could see the hills to the south and the pale mountains to the east, much of the time shrouded in fog or haze, but other times they come clearly into view. Finally we had our basic floor plan–Rhapsody on a theme of Cabin-teeny.
In July we went out for what has become our annual pilgrimage to California, to visit our daughter and visit Monterey. And while we were there we planned extra days to continue to work with Terry on the plans. We had the basics in place. There were no more drastic rearrangements of rooms or spaces. Now it was all fine tuning. Except that Harry now began to propose a fire engine red garage door, which faced the street. We had decided by this time that either one of us had a right to veto and I was thinking of exercising mine. I worried it would make the house stick out like a flashing red light.
After our visit with Terry and before going home, we made the three-hour drive to San Francisco for a visit with our younger daughter and while we were there we went to an exhibit at the Historical Society on the design and construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, in honor of its 75th anniversary. One of the more distinguishing elements of the bridge’s design is its iconic color. I began to think more about the garage door, perhaps with a Golden Gate red.
In November we finalized the designs that would be sent to the City and subject to public hearings before final approvals were given, which they were in December of that year. In the final stages, the house took on bulk and character as Terry worked to incorporate additional storage areas into the perimeter of the house that, because they were less than ceiling height, would not factor into the Floor Area Ration, but would nonetheless give us the additional storage space that we needed. Facing the house from the street it begins to looks as though the roof has five different levels to it. These are akin to building furniture on the side of the house so you have the benefit of cupboards that don’t intrude into the room but instead sit on the perimeter of the room. We have several of these on the second floor. One adjacent to the dining room will serve as a pantry, one adjacent to the living room will house stereo and media equipment, and one further to back of the house will hold the hybrid grand piano.
Though you can’t see it here, we have agreed to a red garage door and front door, it turns out that in many cultures red is a traditional sign of welcome.
Phebe Force 