Finding a builder - Katou

In November, 2006 we first talked to Katou Construction. Beofre our first meeting we had an idea of what we wanted the house to look like, but nothing that we had tried to describe to others before.

Mr Katou was very patient with us and helped lead us down the path of thinking what we want to use the house for and what purposes the different spaces in the house will serve. Over the next 8 months we worked through 7 different plans. The most recent plan (June 07) can be seen below.
The kitchen and living room are upstairs so that we can enjoy the view over the levy to the river and the lake. The large deck is accessible from two sides of the living room by doors that open completely to leave a large 'hole'. As the road-side of the house - that with the narrower (2M) part of the deck - is under a roof we would be able to leave these doors open evein when raining.

The biggest headache with this plan was fitting in the kitchen and the OM duct. The duct seems to be plonked in the midle of one of the entries to the kitchen.

A 2M wide open loft runs the length of the house above the kitchen and rear of the living room. This would house the OM handling unit and be used for storage/study.

With the sensible place to dry clothes being on the deck (under a roof), the distance from the washing machine is a drawback.

We liked many things about this plan - space for a jacuzzi on the deck; open living, dining and kitchen; large loft; high ceiling; view; large room for children. However, as yet we have not been able to get it within the budget. That couple with the location of the kitchen/pantry and OM duct prompted us to start looking for other builders.