big plans: the house reveal

i have been waiting to reveal the elevations of our house until a very special package arrived in the mail.  well it came on monday afternoon and now i am so excited to share it with you!  my grandfather , elwood cooke is an architectural renderer.  for many years he made a living creating paintings of structures for builders, developers and individuals.  he has painted countless buildings and homes for people in the dc area and he was kind enough to paint our house.  he did a fantastic job, and we couldn't be happier.

a rendering does wonders for a project.  it is something that people can understand.  plans and line drawings are informative but they don't give life to a project.  i sent elwood the plans and a front elevation of the house a few weeks ago, along with a package of material samples.  after several phone conversations regarding the material placements, landscape ideas and a few tweaks in the exterior detailing this is what he came up with:

elwood cooke- dunkirk, maryland

if our house turns out as beautiful as elwood's rendering then björn and i will be so super stoked!  we are so pleased with the proportions of the two structures and the addition of the garage creates a nice balance of materiality.

the main house which contains the bedrooms, bathrooms and utilities will be clad in old barn wood while the small house, which is the great room and dining wing, will be clad in painted siding- probably pine in a blue-grey color.  we decided on vertical siding for each of these two wings to emphasize the height.  the white trim will provide some nice contrast and emphasize the geometry of the houses.  the kitchen "connecter" in the center of the house will have horizontal painted siding to keep that area as light as possible, since it will be in shade most of the day.  other materials include the raised seam metal roof in a beautiful oil rubbed bronze color and the window mullions are harvest red.

from the rendering you can get an idea of the landscape plans.  because durango is a dry climate we are interested in xeriscaping.  i can't wait to plant aspen trees and some other beautiful shrubs around the property and we have some beautiful rocks that we have saved from the rock wall for landscaping the front.

now that we have this rendering the reality of this project seems closer than ever.  i can't wait until the foundation is finished! i hope you like it and i would love to hear your comments!