S7, E9: People First Approach to Design+Build

SEASON SEVEN, EPISODE NINE | TRANSCRIPT

Speaker 2 (00:04)
I travel on air, but you'll never see me.
I trigger memories, some good, others uneasy.
I'm the first to warn when something's not right, and one of the first things you might think about on a crisp autumn night.
What am I?

The answer, of course, is scent.

The smells, textures, lighting, and day-to-day experience of living in a house is at the heart of everyone's vision of a home. In today's episode, we're looking at two homes designed around that very idea. One crafted with sensory sensitivity and the other for multi-generational living, balancing accessibility, connection, and independence. Because great design isn't simply about style.

It's about creating a space where people can truly live and the result is a home that feels good in every sense of the word.

VOICEOVER
Welcome back to the Art of Custom and our special season "20 Homes for 20 Years." We're celebrating two decades of building excellence in Park City and St. Louis. In this episode, we're exploring two homes that were designed with an intention. They were built for real life and designed with care. Enjoy!

Speaker 2 (01:17)
Designed with care.

The homes may look different, but they share a powerful connection.

When most people think about designing a custom home, they most likely think about finishes, floor plans, and maybe even square footage. But for one family, the process started somewhere completely different. It started with the census. This is an interesting story, isn't it, Mellon?

Speaker 1 (01:50)
It really is because it was about what the family was visually taking in when they entered the home. It was about sense. was about textures. It was about all of those really fun things that make your day to day, but you don't think about them.

Speaker 2 (02:05)
And as it turns out, we were able to really focus on that from start to finish all the way through. But it's something that I use the word start. It needed to start at the beginning because this home had to be designed, so we took all of that into serious consideration.

Speaker 1 (02:21)
There were a lot of neurodiversity individuals who lived there. And so that's where all of these components came into play. So things from quiet rooms to like how the tile felt underneath in the showers and things like that. I just thought it was such a neat and intentionally and thoughtfully designed space.

Speaker 2 (02:38)
It needed to be because you said for the needs of the family and I remember the designer they worked with did a wonderful job. She fully understood what those needs were and how to meet them. And as you said, it had everything to do with light fixtures all the way down to how tile felt under your feet. It was very important for this particular project. So you had to have the right designer to pull something like this off.

We've talked about in previous episodes making sure you have the right team member involved, whether it's an architect or whether it's trades or whomever, this is one where the designer who helped the client was so important.

Speaker 1 (03:16)
We kind of started off talking about indoor air quality, really. I mean, it's the scent of a home. you know, I recently read that one of the luxury components that people are looking for most is an odorless home.

Speaker 2 (03:30)
I hadn't heard that, but it's very interesting because that's one of the things that the way we build is high performance. We really focus on the clean indoor air quality and making sure that there's no off gassing, making sure we're exhausting stale air and everything else. So that's interesting because that's kind of who we are anyway.

Speaker 1 (03:47)
A lot of people who are neurodiverse have double exceptionalities and so scent, light, things like that. It impacts the senses, but keeping the air clean because of allergies and things like that is super important. We even have a home that we're designing in Tuhaye and, similar to needing excellent indoor air quality if you have allergies or asthma. They were referred to us for a very specific reason. So tell me about why they're building with us particularly.

Speaker 2 (04:18)
The four family members, the husband and wife and the two sons all suffer from SIRS, which is a chronic inflammatory respiratory syndrome and they need a home that is as clean as possible. And when I use the term clean, I'm talking indoor air quality, no water intrusion, no off gassing of carpeting or paints. This house, the indoor air quality is the most important thing that will help them with SIRS.

Just everything from how we handle the material when it's to deliver to the site, how we protect the material, how the material is installed, how long is it exposed to the elements, what we need to do if it's exposed longer than a certain period of time. This is going to be a very, not difficult, because we can get through it. It's going to be a...

Speaker 1 (05:11)
Complexity sounds like there's a lot of complexity

Speaker 2 (05:13)
Very, very, that's a good word because there's a lot of things that we have never dealt with to this level that we will be focusing on, but it's all to help the family. But as you know, we've built homes for many people who suffer from allergies, severe allergies or asthma. So this kind of takes it to a totally different level. It's more serious and we're in the design process right now, but everything that we're doing is very thoughtful.

They have a consultant that we're working with as well who also suffers from SIRS. And so every single time we have a meeting with the architect, she's bringing up some wonderful comments like, OK, Kim, are you comfortable with this stone to exterior wood connection because of water management? What about the roof? Are we good? Do we have too many penetrations? And then as soon as we get into the interior of the home, we're going to start focusing on what is our insulation package.

We're going to do a lot of testing and they want a lot of information on how the materials are going to be installed so the consultant can review it and make sure that it's not going to be introducing anything into the air that we shouldn't be. So this is going to be a very complex project, but we've put together just a terrific team. We have the client, we have the consultant, we have a terrific architect team out of Heber, Utah, and we have the Hibbs team. So we have the right people working on this project. It's going to be a challenge and we really look forward to it.

Speaker 2 (06:43)
Yeah, like the one we were talking about earlier. This is why I'm excited. It's a custom home. This is why we do this. We're building a home that really helps our families thrive in these homes in which we're building. And everybody has different needs. And that's why you have to focus on put the team together that can meet these needs. The one house that we started talking about earlier, they needed a designer who truly understood what this family needed in order to thrive. And they were able to pull it off paint colors, lights, the tile we had talked about. I could go on and on, but it was a pretty special.

Speaker 1 (07:18)
And there was some interior insulation to keep the rooms quieter.

Speaker 2 (07:22)
100% I'm glad you brought that up. We needed the interior insulation in this particular homes because of the noise factor between the bedroom.

Speaker 1 (07:30)
And I remember Lydia Huffman was the designer on the project and Amy Harold, they've both been on the show in the past. So they both said coming out of that project, they learned so much about designing for neurodiversity and for people. It's really just a cool project.

And if you remember the Proud Green Home, we built that home here in the St. Louis area. And that's where the family had really bad allergies and asthma. And so we would make sure that before we would install materials into the house, we would have it tested, know, scent tested and to make sure that there was no reactions and everything. So we went to that extreme on that particular project because we again wanted to build a very tight house.

We wanted to control what air was coming in, what air was being exhausted out. We had an upgraded filter system. So we paid particular attention to how we finished the house and the materials and the off gassing and that particular one. So we've had quite a bit of experience over the years. And I think that's why we were a really good fit when we were referred the client in the Tuhaye project.

Speaker 1 (08:35)
I'm actually really interested to see how the steps in that process unfold because it seems like they're going to be deliberate and thoughtful steps in the testing and like even the storage of materials.

Speaker 2 (08:46)
That's going to be a fun one. in the kind of early design process right now, moving it along. have floor plans. We have elevations. We're about to go to the last episode. We talked a lot about ARCs, the architecture review committees. We're about to go to the ARC for the first time. So we're making good progress there. But now that we're talking about it, we need to put it on our calendar and follow the build with some of our future episodes.

Speaker 1 (09:11)
That would be really cool. Yeah. When you're talking about floor plans and design here in the St. Louis area, we have some unique challenges when it comes to aging in place. Yes. And so solving those problems with that floor plan, there are some people who think ahead that they, know that I want to have an accessible home. We've done episodes in the past about accessibility. One of the things that I'm hearing so much more about though is multi-generational living.

Speaker 2 (09:35)
Yeah, I mean in both markets, but it seems like we're hearing more about it in St. Louis. As a matter of fact, we have projects right now where we're working with two separate families and each of those projects, there's two separate builds going on. So, you you talk about multi-generational, they want to live near each other or they want to have a larger home to live together. So that's something that's very common.

Even the builds in Park City, they're thinking down the line, legacy homes, making sure there's enough room for the kids to be able to come back when they grow up with their kids. So it's something that is truly top of mind for virtually every client we're working with. And what's interesting, Melody, is it seems like it's more so after the COVID epidemic. I think that's kind of sparked the interest in the importance of family and building homes that everybody can live comfortably into.

Speaker 1 (10:25)
In my nerdiness, I love to research trends like this. And one of the things that I was reading about is 1950s post-World War II is where we really came upon that concept of the nuclear home and homes being designed for just a nuclear family. That's why it's called nuclear family, nuclear era, right?

Speaker 2 (10:43)
I did not know. I knew you were nerdy about spreadsheets. Now I'm finding out you're nerdy about some of these interesting facts about the family and home.

Speaker 1 (10:53)
History and all of that. And so I think what we're seeing is, you we went through that whole period with the pandemic where we're broken apart from their family and these pods were neighbors instead of brothers and sisters or, you know, grandparents. And so my thought is it's almost like we're reverting back to that era before World War II where, you know, people lived together and grandma and grandpa were there to help and, you know, things like that.

Speaker 2 (11:21)
In the Utah market, there are so many what they call ADUs, auxiliary dwelling units, think is the proper term for that, or ALUs, auxiliary living units. There are so many homes being built with extra units that can be rented out. We built one a few years ago in the Salt Lake area with the intent that they were going to rent out the lower level. It was intentionally designed to have its own access, intentionally designed to have its privacy, insulation, HVAC, everything so it could be rented out. Another thing that you had mentioned, kind of the multi-generational living and things like that, it seems like everyone now wants to make sure that their doors are wide enough, their hallways are wide enough in case someone someday happens to be in a wheelchair.

We're doing a bunch of either installing elevators now or what's very common as well is plan for an elevator down the future, make sure it's all ready to go, but they're actually finishing those areas now as closets or storage space and all. But down the road, if they need to add an elevator, it's very easy to do because the infrastructure has been built out and ready to accept an elevator. So there's a lot of things to think about when you're building a home. And if you really need someone to help you above what your builder and or architect can do,

There are consultants out there who are very good at helping you read the plans and understand the plans and make suggestions on ways to change it just for what you might need down the road.

Speaker 1 (12:58)
And we have sort of a checklist. A couple of our folks are pretty used to building homes that have that accessibility. So, you know, zero entry, extra blocking for grab bars and things like that. I mean, even going back to that first house we were talking about with sensory, I know some families who ⁓ have neurodiverse children will have extra blocking in their floor so that they can hang swings and stuff like that down in the basement and do all kinds of things. So

Having a builder that understands that accessibility and people first design and can run through the checklist and work with your consultant is probably a good idea, especially since in St. Louis, these homes from the 1950s can't be converted.

Speaker 2 (13:41)
No, they can't. And you're absolutely right. That's the beauty of custom builds. The sky's the limit. And just find that really good builder that's your partner and work together. It's just a fun experience to be able to develop and build the home that's just perfect for you and your family. And that's what we've learned over the past 20 years. mean, that's what this season of our podcast is about, is looking back at some of our favorite projects. And some of these sensory builds, as we call them, is definitely top of our list.

Speaker 1 (14:08)
So in this next story, we're going to share how thoughtful design helped a family stay close without feeling crowded, right? So we were talking about some of those old homes. They're the owners of Dogtown Pizza, the Schaper family. And Dogtown is such a vibrant, unique little pocket here in St. Louis, and they did not want to leave that. Again, the home wasn't able to be renovated in order for their mother to live on the first floor. And eventually they wanted to retire there and use that first floor home.

So we're going to bring in Rick and Meredith Schaper to talk a little bit about their build.

Speaker 2 (14:42)

And I can see the smiles, it's genuine. You're very pleased with how the process went and it's a process that has many ups and downs and there's a lot of stress involved from time to time. But I think as we sit here today at your beautiful new table that you had commissioned just for this house, I would have to believe you look back on it and think, you know what, that was worth it.

Speaker 1 (15:09)
It was definitely worth it. Definitely. And well deserved. You know, we've had a lot of ups and downs. It's just a great feeling for us. Every day we've been in here, we flip the switch, the fireplace goes on and kind of warms up the living room and we have our coffee. That's been new and nice. It's just so enjoyable.

Speaker 2 (15:34)
Well, you guys have been, you've had a very busy time, especially since the pandemic, just with your business itself. Stressful there, but it's also growing, so that's good. So you've been through a lot over the past few months, just with everything going on. So it's gotta be a relief to finally get in your house where you can settle in a little bit.

Speaker 1 (15:51)
Definitely true. know, 2020 in itself has been a year and in many ways, many good things.

Speaker 2 (15:57)
And we had talked about this from time to time. You designed the house specifically so your mom has first floor residence here and has a nice big, it's almost like a second master. More and more of our clients are doing that because they really believe. And I think that if there's one thing that the pandemic has kind of taught us is that family truly is important. People are wanting to spend more time with their family, helping their family. And I think it was something that you guys were

planning to do regardless. it's gotta be comforting to know that mom has such a nice room to move into and it's something that more and more people are thinking of doing. So it has to be a recommendation from you as well.

Speaker 1 (16:37)
Absolutely. You know, my mom's slightly disabled, you know, she doesn't need to like be in a home or anything, but it's just one of those things to where, you know, to not have to get in my car and drive over there to pull her trash cans out. Just the amount of time that can save me and the aggravation of getting home and everybody being happy to see you and then being like, yep, yep, gotta go turn around and leave again. And the joy your mom has eating dinner with us, being around the kids. Absolutely.

You know, we've already had her to dinner twice here and there's a little bit more space than what we envisioned. It's definitely an optical illusion type thing, you know. When it was just concrete, we were like, my gosh, what are we doing? This seems tiny. And then you get, you know, the framing up and still it just didn't quite seem right. And it's strange how when you get the walls on and get cabinets in and it seemed a little better. And then when we got our furniture in, it was like, there's actually more space than we thought. Plenty of space. It's really strange.

Speaker 2 (17:35)
It's designed perfectly because I know Rick one of the things that was important is you had a kitchen because you love to cook. So I guess the first question I have to ask is what meal did you prepare the first time you cooked in your kitchen?

Speaker 1 (17:47)
Braised short ribs and it was amazing. It was great. Just working on the new stove and having family around one big table. That was neat. It was just good. ⁓

Speaker 2 (17:59)
And the kitchen was important to you.

Speaker 1 (18:01)
I think we definitely nailed it. We wanted an open concept. We wanted to be able to cook and entertain at the same time. just, the whole floor is just one big room, basically. The exception of a bedroom and a laundry room and a coat room. It's just one big room and it's worked out perfectly. You know, the big one in the kitchen was a 36 inch stove and I got that and we wanted a big island and we had a nine foot island and that's fantastic as well. We thought about it. It's like, there's not anything we came up with in the kitchen that we said we should have done this or

Shouldn't have done that or for the whole house. There's been no disappointment No as far as what we? Designed and ended up with right Yeah, the technologies is ⁓ a nice touch knowing we had a very inefficient home for so long and going to a very efficient home and Appliances and lights and everything about that. So that's already been a nice peace of mind. Yeah

Speaker 2 (19:06)
That's going to be interesting once you start getting some utility bills after you've been living here. That's the one thing where to this day we frequently get texts and emails from clients who are talking about the efficiency of their house and they didn't know it was going to perform at that level.

Just kind of a recap, know we've taken our listeners through it. We used a very thorough caulk and seal package before we did blown in insulation. We did foam in strategic locations. We did a very highly efficient HVAC system sealed all the duct work. We did a lot of things which are going to make this house extremely efficient.

Speaker 1 (19:42)
I would just say be patient. know, for us, know, COVID hit and it really kind of changed things as we went along. In the beginning, it wasn't quite, I guess, as bad except, you know, only one trade being in at a time slowed the process there. But then near the end is just everything being longer to get supplies.

You know, I had people saying, did you guys already order your appliances? Because I hear that appliances are running weeks at a time and they should have done that already. know? for the fence, stuff like that. wood for the fence, furniture, know, it's just everything's taking a lot longer. But still at that, just having patience, period. You know, having never been through the process ourselves, not knowing what to expect and what we were getting into. We just had to sit back sometimes and trust the process. Yeah, and trust in it. It's hard to do.

Speaker 2 (20:38)
can be hard because you don't know what's coming up. We've talked about that before we had Chris Pedigo. Chris Pedigo is the project superintendent and it really does, I think if there was a takeaway that our team learned as well is that really helping clients understand what the next step is, what's coming up next, what to expect is something that while we try to do a real good job of it, sometimes I think we can do it better. Maybe some other tips as far as if people are thinking about, should we go down this path? What do you think Rick?

Speaker 1 (21:05)
If they do go down the path, something that helped us out is we tried not to put a time expectation on it. We didn't want the stress of having a deadline from day one. Like we have to have it done by this date. You know, we didn't get to that until the last.

Speaker 2 (21:23)
30, 45, 60 days. was going to say your house won under contract. So at that time you really needed to know when can we move into our home? And that's where I'll bring Chris in real quick. mean, of course, from a scheduling standpoint, talk a little bit about how difficult it is, especially with COVID and everything going on this year. I mean, I think every trade that we had on this house experienced a shortage at some point of somebody being

Speaker 1 (21:25)
Because he or someone

That's definitely a challenge.

Speaker 2 (21:53)
out or questioned or quarantined or at some point during this process. So it definitely adds some additional locations to it. ⁓ And fortunately with this one, we were able now to overcome those and get it done in time. But it was definitely an added challenge. there anything about this build that you remember the most? Remember the most? I would say early on, just the unique challenges of the initial

Speaker 1 (22:01)
couple of deadline and

I wouldn't say finding the cistern and just once we got there I don't think they're any

Speaker 2 (22:24)
overcoming what was in there. We got the foundation in and got started.

Any bigger challenges other than our trades, it really hit hard. You want only one person in the house at a time. Makes it definitely a very unique challenge to finish a house with one trade at a time for sure. Let me ask each of you first, and I'll start with Meredith, the one favorite room you have in the house and why? Could it be your special deck?

Speaker 1 (22:32)
when COVID-19 everybody.

That's hard that is very, very enjoyable, but I have to say my master bedroom period with the combination of the master bathroom. I just find it very relaxing. I really find it to be like ⁓ my space to relax and be calm.

Speaker 2 (23:12)
And I had mentioned the deck because just so our listeners understand, you have a large deck on the main level, but then we also have another level upstairs right off the second floor, which is something you wanted. It's much smaller, much more private. And you plan on using it to have a lot of friends over so you can just kind of sit and talk and relax and enjoy each other. All right, Rick, favorite room and why.

Speaker 1 (23:33)
I want to say the great room with the kitchen because I enjoy cooking and entertaining, but it's going to end up being my garage, my finished garage. What started this whole thing is we were going to build a massive garage in our backyard of our forever home. Then, and it would have took up the whole backyard. And so that's what started this process for us that and knowing we had to take care of our mom.

Speaker 2 (23:44)
That's too good.

Speaker 1 (24:02)
But yeah, we finished the garage as you've seen and that's gonna be my hangout, my man cave where I can display my antique tool collections and my motorcycles and stuff like that. So I'm excited to get my garage together.

Speaker 2 (24:19)
What was the most difficult part of the whole project? Was it selections? Was it design?

Speaker 1 (24:25)
selections were sometimes a little difficult, ⁓ simply having never had to go through that type of process and especially trying to envision everything together when it's being picked out weeks and months apart. And I mean, there was times that we were a little, I don't remember what floor we picked, which floor did we go? You know, it's like just trying to keep everything straight and then being fearful that nothing was going to look good together.

Speaker 2 (24:55)
I can tell you everything.

Speaker 1 (24:55)
It

did come together. did come

Speaker 2 (24:58)
Rick, do you agree with that as far as the selections? Yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:01)
don't want to change a paint color. At this point, haven't said, we should have done this. And that's what makes you feel good about the house is we've come in and we set up our main room and our master and we're relaxed and we don't feel like we should have done something different or anything. It just feels right. And that's nice.

Speaker 2 (25:22)
I think that one of the key things for any successful project is to have a project manager, construction superintendent if you will, who guides you through things. And I know this was, as we talked about, challenging. But Chris, as you think back on the project, what comes to mind for you that you think will stand out the most? think the working relationship Rick and Mary had, the communication there, they knew if there was a, like any custom, was

Speaker 1 (25:50)
issues

there was question

Speaker 2 (25:52)
there were problems that came up and they knew they had a spot they could reach out and voice that concern and know that it was being taken seriously. And you know, if it was a problem, it was corrected. I think we worked very well together in that aspect. We're very good clients to work with in the fact that they had a lot of similar tastes and similar like-mindedness about the project and the direction it was going.

Speaker 1 (26:03)
and Rick and Meredith

I think we're a little more involved than other clients. just saying, I mean, we were here every single day. I'm not sure how it is with others, but we had our nose in it the whole, way and hopefully not too much of a bother. I'll tell you what I left this morning to go to work for the first time really since we've moved in here. And as I was pulling down the street, I was like, I don't have to drive by the new house this morning because I was leaving the new house.

Speaker 2 (26:45)
So when you're, one of the things we do with our podcast is truly trying to help those who are thinking about building learn something. So what would your advice be to those considering builders? What are the questions that people should be asking? What should they be looking for in a potential builder?

Speaker 1 (27:01)
Well, I think that they should find somebody who is willing to help them create the vision they have.

And that's why we went with you guys because when we came to you with our plan, you're like, we can do that, we can do that, we can do that. We felt comfortable with you guys. We felt confident that you were going to be able to do that for us. And especially at being a custom home, we didn't want one of the cookie cutter houses that are already all around us. We needed something that would fit our needs. So we had to have somebody that was willing to adapt and help us put it in a structure.

made us seal the deal is I'm going to tell people you got to follow your gut and you got to feel right and when we met with you and your team it felt right and we were met with other builders and it just didn't feel right kind of way

Speaker 2 (27:54)
never heard that before. mean, it's almost like you can equate that to many things you do in your life. You kind of follow your gut. You get a good feeling about it one way or another, and you just trust your instincts, to speak. I think from the perspective of just talking with other clients, think communication is one thing that's pretty crucial when building a home, not a production home, if you will, something that's a little bit different. I think you have to have confidence that if you need to communicate with any of the team, that you know they're going to get back with you, that they're going to say, ⁓

minimum, I don't have an answer, but I can have an answer for you in such and such a period of time. I think that, you know, that that's crucial. think having somebody on the job site every single day is also crucial. I know that there's a lot of builders who don't necessarily have the personnel to have somebody on your job site. And I think that that's crucial because things can change overnight. And there's times where Chris might be here in the morning and not back until the next morning when things would happen overnight.

that you guys might have seen that Chris didn't even know. So to have somebody that's available to be on the site every single day to communicate with you guys, is crucial. I said, so the hard question is, if let's say 10 years from now, if you decided, know what, we've outgrown this house for one reason or another, would you go the custom route again? Or do you think it might be, let's just find an existing home and buy that?

Speaker 1 (29:16)
I would build a custom house again. I don't plan on it.

Speaker 2 (29:20)
I

don't blame you, after I've seen this and how comfortable you are, it's perfect for you.

Speaker 1 (29:26)
I would do it again. You know what's neat about the layout we ended up with and the tall ceilings? Everybody that's walked through could swear that this house was over 3,000 square foot. And it's 2287 and it shows a lot larger than that number.

Speaker 2 (29:43)
You know, we talked about that early on and we have a saying that, you know, you do need to find the right designer or the right architect to work with because, you know, if you pick the wrong partner, they can take a 2500 square foot home and make it feel like 1800, or they can take 23, 24, 25 and make it feel like 3000. So it does. That's another part of the component here where trust the builder, talk with several designers and or architects and make sure you're comfortable with them as well.

because you'll be working with them for a good part of the project. We can't thank you enough, obviously, for allowing us to work with you. It has been an absolute pleasure, obviously. And we just feel very blessed and very thankful that we were able to kind of take everybody through the process. you guys allowed us to interview you. You were honest. You were very fair. And I just think that if we can help one person, whether it's in St. Louis or wherever,

make a decision as far as is building a custom home right for us, we think this podcast series has probably gone a long way toward helping people make that decision, so we can't thank you guys enough. And we look forward to staying friends with you for a very long time.

Melody, what I really liked about that build was how important this neighborhood was to the Shapers. They live it, they breathe it, their business is in it, their company is named after it. You use the word pocket community. It's such a special pocket community in the St. Louis area. We were so pleased to be able to build them a home that they could live in for years ahead and plan ahead to make sure it was going to be accessible for them when they needed it.

And so just to be able to pull off that dream for them was truly one of our favorite projects over the past 20

Speaker 1 (31:32)
One of my favorite stories about that build was the cistern that was found when excavating and all of the... and I wasn't here when this happened, tell me about what was in that. Do you remember?

Speaker 2 (31:44)
not so sure that they would say that it was their favorite because it was really fairly expensive. Yeah, we started the excavation process and we unearthed this old cistern that just went back. I mean, you know that part of the St. Louis area. There's all these tunnels that date back. How long? I mean, you're the historian of the group. How long do those tunnels date back?

Speaker 1 (32:04)
You get as far as downtown St. Louis and they used to store beer in the 1800s down there in the limestone because it stayed cool and St. Louis even back then could get really, really hot in the summer and didn't have air conditioning.

Speaker 2 (32:18)
So they ran into one of those pockets and I know they found some, I think it was medicine bottles that dated back into the 40s or 50s. And so we had to deal with that. And that's another thing sometimes keep in mind if you're building custom, you don't know what's under the ground. And when you're excavating, you might find rock or you might find a cistern. We had another problem over in the Brentwood area.

where we were building another home for the Clarks and all of a sudden we ran into a sinkhole, a huge sinkhole.

Speaker 1 (32:51)
This house had been built over for how many years? was, it's...

Speaker 2 (32:55)
Decades. And we deconstructed it and built. But I mean, this sinkhole, boy, the work we had to engage an engineer and we had to pump in concrete, it was a big one. So I guess the lesson learned there is if you're going to build infill construction especially, just be prepared. Have a contingency. You never know what you're going to need. But getting back to the Schaefer project, yeah, we did run into that. We made the news. It was on the CBS News that night.

But we worked them through it. We were able to eventually fill in the cistern, get the foundation poured, and build the house.

Speaker 1 (33:31)
And they have this really cool front porch. They talk about how that was one of the key pieces is being able to sit on the front porch with the neighbors. So.

Speaker 2 (33:38)
But what's unique about that house is not only do they have a front porch, they have a really cool back porch, but then they also have on the second level, they have a terrace area off of there, a lookout. so they have a couple, they designed that very important to them. Like you said, the front porch number one, large back deck actually is what it is. And then that lookout up high that they can kind of look over the Dogtown area, have a nice view off the back of it there.

That was important to them. And I remember the garage was also very important because that's where they were keeping it. It was a classic car or a classic motorcycle, one of the two. motorcycles. Motorcycle. And it got all decked out with all this auto motorcycle, old vintage memorabilia and things like that. another fun project, really cool work.

Speaker 1 (34:26)
they were building smack in the middle of the pandemic. So they were kind of ahead of trend, right? They designed so that they could have multi-generational living before multi-generational living was a buzzword.

Speaker 2 (34:38)
You know, I was enjoying the podcast very much and especially the conversation about sensory and multi-generational, but you keep bringing up cisterns and sinkholes and everything else. I'm on sensory overload right now, Melody.

Speaker 1 (34:51)
I feel like we have to be honest about the process, right? Knowing that the challenges are what teach us. That's true.

Speaker 2 (34:59)
But no, it was a great project.

These two home stories show that a house is more than just blueprints and finishes. They're reflections of the people who live there. These homes may have different stories, styles, and goals, but they both prove the same point. Great design is personal. And the best designed homes are the ones that start with listening and understanding a homeowner's goals. Whether you're building a space for sensory needs, multi-generational connection, or something uniquely your own,

The beauty of custom building is that your design and build team is there to help you craft a home that supports how you truly want to live.

OUTRO: For more information visit www.artofcustompodcast.com or find us on Facebook and LinkedIn as The Art of Custom. Be sure to subscribe to get the latest episodes and please rate and review. The Art of Custom is produced by HugMonster sound with original music by Adam Frick-Verdeen. Thanks for listening.