Home 2.0 Blog Archive

Saturday, April 30, 2016

WAITING FOR WHAT THEY WANT

Traditional Starter Homes No More

The mission of the Starter Home 2.0 Project is to re-think the Starter Home model for the Millennial Generation by providing contemporary new homes in walkable neighborhoods, with the flexibility to accommodate growing house holds in future years (i.e. 3-bedrooms, 2.5-bathrooms, and the ability to add 1 more of each in the basement if desired). While this mission primarily came about as a result of my own personal experience combined with observations of my Millennial homebuying peers, there is now a growing amount of research data coming online that is providing additional evidence supporting this effort. One such study by The Bank of America was recently published as part of a Builder Online article, titled 'First-Time Buyers Will Wait for What They Want: A new survey from Bank of America finds that, for many, the first home is no longer a starter home.'
The most telling statistics from this study of 1,000 prospective first-time homebuyers as it relates to the Starter Home 2.0 Project were that 75% of buyers were looking for a home that they can grow into and will fit their needs in a few years, even if it doesn't now, and that 69% would rather wait to save more money and move into a nicer home in the future, vs. the 31% that would rather move into a traditional starter home now.

Thursday, April 28, 2016

DAAPWORKS 2016

University of Cincinnati Design, Architecture, Art & Planning Showcase


At the end of every academic year, the University of Cincinnati's world renown School of Design, Architecture, Art & Planning (also known as DAAP) showcases the capstone work of all its graduating seniors in a program that is free and open to the public, called 'DAAPworks'. I have attended the event just about every year from the time I was a high schooler, through my own tenure as a DAAP student (here is my capstone/thesis project from DAAPworks 2010), and now as a proud alumn of the the DAAP School of Architecture. It is a great way as a professional to get a feel as to where the industry might be headed in future years, and how that might relate back to the Starter Home 2.0 Project.
One of the projects that caught my eye this year was the industrial design project for the 'uncool' water heater and app shown in the image below.

Monday, April 25, 2016

DECKED OUT

SH2.0 Oakley Deck

When the weather is perfect like it has been in Cincinnati over the past couple days, few things in life beat relaxing outside over dinner with friends and family on a deck overlooking the backyard. Fortunately, the site conditions and plan layout for the Starter Home 2.0 Oakley project provides the opportunity to include this amenity as part of the house design. Below are a couple of images of what the deck might look like from the backyard and what the backyard might look like from the deck.


Saturday, April 23, 2016

VIRTUAL FUN

Virtual Building Tour Technology

One of the advantages of working for a leading design firm like SHP Leading Design that is constantly learning, evolving, and innovating with the latest technologies available to the architecture and engineering profession, is that I am able to get exposure to tools and resources that very few residential architects, builders and developers have access to, and implement them into the Starter Home 2.0 project to improve the products and processes associated with it. My new favorite tool that I am having the most fun experimenting with currently is the generation of virtual reality environments using Revit, Smart Phones, and Google Cardboard that can give users building tours of projects before construction even starts. Click Here to check out an example of a virtual environment we have been working on for a school project I'm the project architect for at SHP and be on the lookout for a similar version for the SH2.0 Oakley house in the future.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

HOUZZ UPDATES

New SH2.0 Pleasant Ridge Exterior Photos

Yesterday I took advantage of the beautiful weather to get some more updated shots of the Starter Home 2.0 Pleasant Ridge exterior to add to my website, photo album, and Houzz profile. Below are a couple of my favorites.



LATEST LAYOUT

SH2.0 Oakley Furniture Plans

It's been a while since I posted any progress images of the Starter Home 2.0 Oakley floor plan layouts, so below is the latest and greatest straight from the Revit model. The biggest changes from the last iteration include flipping the plan so that the garage is now on the high side of the lot, adding a door off of the second floor hallway to access the roof deck, and revising the door configuration leading out onto the back deck off of the main living area.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

ELECTRICAL PUNCH ITEMS

Electrical Work at SH2.0 Pleasant Ridge House

Yesterday the electricians that did the work on the Starter Home 2.0 Pleasant Ridge house stopped by to take care of a couple of items that were left over from the original punch list, which included fixing a light above the window near the stair that never turned on and adding a floor outlet by the sofa in the main living area. Dan and Bill (the electricians) do just about all of the electrical work for Mike Brown Construction, so I told them about the Oakley project that will be starting construction next Spring and how I am looking forward to working with them again on that house.

Sunday, April 17, 2016

DRIVE & WALK IN BIM

Driveway & Walkway Added to Building Information Model

Today I was able to add an additional level of site detail to the building information model by dropping in the concrete driveway, curb cut, and walk from the porch steps to the public sidewalk. One of the cool things about using the Revit (Building Information Modeling) software is that it has smart data built into each and every building component, which allows me by clicking on something like the driveway (shown in the screenshot below), to instantly identify what material it is as well its area and volume, which can be used for take-offs as I start developing the construction budget.


Thursday, April 14, 2016

PROGRESS PERSPECTIVE

Rendering Refinements

It's been a while since I posted a progress rendering, so below is a shot of where things are now at with the front elevation of the Starter Home 2.0 Oakley Project since the April 3 blog entry. Some other areas of development I'm currently working through are getting the structural framing plans locked-in and setting up the different drawing sheets that will be required for bidding, permitting and construction.

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

THE NOOK

Reading Nook Design Ideas

One of the new additions to the Starter Home 2.0 Oakley project that was not included within the scope of the Pleasant Ridge house, is a second floor reading nook which is located at the top of the stairs next to the door leading out to the balcony. I haven't really gotten too far into the details of the design, but have a basic massing in place in the model and have started to collect some images off of Houzz for some inspiration, a couple of which are shown below. 


Friday, April 8, 2016

OAKLEY BOOMING

Building In The Hottest Area in Town 

The Cincinnati Business Courier recently published a cover story titled 'Booming Oakley Seen as Hottest Area in Town' that was accompanied by a slideshow highlighting new office, brewery, apartment, and hotel developments in the neighborhood. However, the lack of new single-family home projects is what gets me excited as it presents a great opportunity for the Starter Home 2.0 project to fill a much needed void in the marketplace. After all, who wouldn't want to have a new home in the Hottest Area in Town?

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

WEED WHACKING

Oakley Lot Cleaning and Clearing

On Sunday I took a weed whacker over to the Oakley Lot to clear out the tall grasses, weeds, and overgrowth covering the property so that it would not continue to grow and become a blight on the neighborhood. While making my way over to the lot I introduced myself to the couple that lives in the home next door and I was happy to hear that they were really excited that someone had bought the lot after the previous owners had failed to maintain the home that once stood on the property (and the vacant lot following its demolition). I explained to them how I wanted to make an effort to keep the yard clean and presentable for the neighborhood between now and this time next year when the new home starts construction, and they were quite receptive to that, even offering to cut the grass and let me use their bins for yard waste as I picked-up debris scattered across the property. Below are some photos I took after my first pass with the weed whacker and I will be back this weekend to do more of the same.



Sunday, April 3, 2016

OAKLEY ELEVATION UPDATE

Material and Patio Refinements

This past weekend I started the process of setting up sheets for the Starter Home 2.0 Oakley construction documents and experimenting with material finishes for the exterior. I've also been working through the patio design over the garage for aesthetics and constructability. Below is a progress rendering of the front elevation along with a basis-of-design for the rooftop patio detail, which is something that I pulled from this Build LLC Blog entry.