September 27, 2005 – The History of the Project/Process
Okay so this blogging business is a time consuming one so its taken me a while to get back to it, but now that things are moving forward on our site, I’ll be able to provide up to the minute updates on our progress, the issues that arise and how we’ve solved various remodeling concerns.
What’s happened thus far – The History of 12 Sidney
• August 2004 – Got inside word that the house was for sale. Came and looked and immediately knew this was the house, and project, for us. We had looked at every house that had come on the market in this little village of Woods Hole for the past year, so we knew the market. Our criterion was a crummy little house on a decent piece of land, close to town. We ended up with a crummy big house, with lots of potential on a very decent piece of land, a half mile from town – with water views to boot.
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The price was basically right, a bit higher than we would have liked, but betting on the market, not yet at its peak here, we thought we’d have plenty of room for fixing it up and still have an undervalued asset on our hands.
• September 2004 – Made the bid – not much negotiating possible, and it was accepted.
Broke the news to the kids. Isaac our then 11 year old was none too thrilled. Actually that’s putting it mildly. When we told him he ran for cover. I won’t give the gory details to preserve his dignity, but it was not pretty. Sasha, our 16 year old was more rational and after we pointed out that we’d figure out how she could finish up high school where she was, it all seemed fine to her since she loves Woods Hole, as we all do.
Why Woods Hole? Everyone asks, even those friends and family that know us well. How do you choose a new community to live in, and how do you know when its time to move?
I was tired of living two lives for one thing. We love Woods Hole and spend every summer here - as much time as possible, including visits throughout the winter. Every year however it would take a huge push to get people extricated from our former home in Concord, especially my husband Jonathan, to come down to the Cape. And then every year at the end of the summer it would take another enormous push to get everyone home and reoriented to our other life. The transitions periods on either end were wearing and time consuming and it seemed that there cold be a better way.
It’s our favorite place on earth. When we traveled around the world as a family in 2002 we saw many stunning and fascinating places from Australia to Istanbul, Munich to Bangkok. However much we were eager to go home after eight long months of travel, we were home only two days before everyone was asking to go down to the Cape. It was August, but no one felt we had really come home until we got down to Woods Hole. And when we looked out at Buzzard’s Bay from my mother-in-law’s beach, we knew we were in one of the most beautiful places on earth. It was ours to savor – why not relish this on a daily basis?
Lifestyle issues.
For the past twenty odd years (mostly odd) Jonathan and I have lived in and around Boston since moving there in 1982 for Jonathan to attend graduate school at MIT. We’ve greatly enjoyed it and taken advantage of the diversity of opportunities: run our business there from 1986-2000; raised our children there and benefited from excellent schools; lived in beautiful homes and enjoyed the natural beauty of the region. It is a great an engaging urban area and we haven’t given it up. However, we found in the past couple years since returning from our global adventure that our work did not necessarily have to be centered in Boston – all hail the internet for all its global reach – and the possibility arose that we could continue to pursue our interests without having to be geographically wed to a city.
The Cape is a changing place with the economy growing into a substantial year-round reality, enabling us to move our business concerns, and certainly corporate base to even more beautiful surroundings. The accompanying solitude and somewhat (not a lot) more laid back pace of life we also found to be inspiring and nurturing for our creative endeavors. As a place to complete the raising of Isaac (Sasha practically raised herself from age 6 on) it offers a richer quality of life. Along with the boating, fishing and swimming, the small town charm, access to some of the greatest scientific minds in the country, the water is just so compelling, the wind exhilarating and the people welcoming.
As a home base for the years to come, it is where our kids will want to come home to, both in the summer and on those very blustery days that can occur throughout the year. Perhaps there will be even more generations of Goldmans in the future who will cherish this place (a 55+ year history of summers is a great base to build on), and so our new stake will solidify our roots and the roots of our children.
Okay, enough with the romanticizing and justifying – on with the renovation show.
But just a moment more on the compelling reasons that an individual, couple or family would relocate seemingly out of the blue. Consider your life’s priorities – do you have a plan, a family mission – both emotional and financial? As answers unfold its important to take stock, reassess and rethink your options. If you are not where you want to be, how do you get there?
The Renovation Project
October 2004 – February 2005
The Builder
Once our bid was accepted, the dreaming began. Though I had had a dream home designed in my head for years (and coincidentally it was in Woods Hole), this new property was not going to allow that vision to be realized. Working with what was there, and factoring in the financial realities, a new design would need to be created.
My first call was to our long time friend from college, Steven McElheney. In addition to our respect for his intellect and creativity – we’ve been in awe since first seeing the house he built for himself back in the early eighties – we’d seen his craftsmanship and execution in the remodeling project of Jonathan’s mother’s carriage house in Woods Hole just a few years back.
The question was would he take us on given our relationship. Going into business with friends, just like the lending of money between one another, can be a tricky thing. A remodeling project is a business proposition. We were not willing to sacrifice our friendship for the sake of the house, so we talked awhile about expectations and expenses to make certain that our synergy would result in a fabulous house and a friendship left in tact. Communication would be key as would keeping our expectations of each other in line. A year into the process and things are still on a very good level. Flexibility in those expectations has also been a valuable tool.
The Design – Who, What and How
Jonathan has enough creativity in his little pinkie to design the Taj Mahal, and I have a fair amount of interior design acumen and experience (I’m trying to be modest) to conceive on a grand scale, but when you are designing for yourself, it’s wise to engage some outside sources to bounce ideas off of and to get new ideas from. We are not architects, though both of us have some background in this area as well. The project however would definitely include some major structural changes to the existing buildings so an architect was pretty much mandated. Each community is different and requires varying degrees of professionals for each job. In Massachusetts you are not required to have an architect if you aren’t changing the outside walls or footprint of the house. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t use one. Each project is distinct.
But we needed one. We had rooflines to change, a building to tear down, and space to fill in. Furthermore we would be building on top of the existing structure to add a master bedroom suite, so many structural and engineering issues were brought into play.
As I counsel all my students in the course I teach “Planning Your Home Remodeling Projects” I had been collecting pictures from magazines and design books (scanned and collected on my laptop) of houses I liked the designs of, and drove around with my digital camera in tow to snap a quick photos of any houses I saw along the way with features I might to include in our new house. Using these as a resource as well as connections to the BSA (Boston Society of Architects AIA) and cards I’d collected over the years, we went about looking for an architect who would mesh with our style and needs.
We interviewed a couple of people. One in particular, we’d seen several designs by, and were drawn to his style. We also talked to friends about their recommendations to see if we could unearth the perfect partner. In the end we brought in another old friend and former studio mate Lawrence Cheng whose easy going manner and straightforward approach would allow us to have plenty of input.
Lawrence was doing this as a moonlighting job, and it seemed as a certain favor to us. I’ll have to be honest that though the design we got we really love, his work style and time restrictions led to some conflict with our builder Steve who wanted everything mapped out clearly and efficiently and felt that he got a little less than he needed. This is even so as we are on the construction site now and need to interpret various aspects on a daily basis. What we saved on architectural fees and fast –tracking to get the plans to the building department, we have probably given back in time spent scratching heads on site and loss of efficiency in building. I’m hoping this won’t lead to problems down the road, but I’ll keep you posted about these as we go along.
The design that Lawrence came up with answered the most pressing architectural conundrum we had – how to reconcile the roof lines of the two distinctly different buildings that house was made up of, while incorporating all of the spaces we desired in an attractive, cost-effective and vernacular way. The final concept is probably a little more California than Massachusetts, but the finishing details like cedar siding and the saltbox roofline will help the house fit neatly into this quaint neighborhood without disturbing the architectural peace too much.
