As might be expected, this project has infiltrated my dreams. The surprising part is how long it took to figure out the dreams were about the house. This week’s subconscious nocturnal adventures included special guest stars The Hardy Boys. Those of us who grew up with a steady diet of Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden know the boys as periphery players – something to read only if the Drew/Belden shelves at the library were empty. Why the starring role now? That’s a good question for a detective! The first clue is this stuff:

Our meetings with the architect originally focused on very modern designs. The first images in this website feature a house down the street from us: Studio Mud. This house attracted us to the neighborhood and it’s precisely what we expected to build. Then we spent more time at the land and we realized a Dwell-style home wasn’t the best fit. The house down the street works so well because it’s cantilevered from a hill, it’s surrounded by tree tops and it’s mostly hidden from the street. Our little plot of earth is flat, half of it is devoid of trees and the house is in full view of everyone who drives by.

After careful thought we changed direction – not a full 180 degree turn, but a fairly wide veer that honors the history of the neighborhood. It’s an eclectic street, with at least one home from each of the last six decades, but its soul is mid-century and that’s where we decided to focus the design. In a future post, I’ll take time to discuss how the architect took two very different styles – today’s super modern and 1950’s modern – and blended them into something we think works well, but for the sake of brevity we need to focus on the siding. As soon as we switched gears to the mid-century vibe we knew siding would be involved; specifically a style called board-and-batten. Around this time I had many dreams about playing very intense games of badminton. Oddly wired brain, clue number two.

I’ve learned that words are very important on a building project. For example, if you refer to bendy doors people will look at you as if you have a mild form of mental retardation. Say bi-fold doors and the proverbial doors of communication open wide and people start treating you like a functioning adult.

In case you’re interested, we are not using any form of folding door – bendy or otherwise. Those things are ridiculously expensive and the only purpose they serve in Texas is to allow mosquitoes the size of small cars inside.

Over the last week, the house has really taken shape. Roofs are up, some windows are in, and they delivered the hardie board used to make our board-and-badminton batton siding. It turns out it’s not the hearty board I’ve been erroneously referring to all these months. Not familiar with the stuff? Here’s some information: Pros and Cons of Hardie Board

Closed:The Case of How Hardie Board Siding Morphed into Hardy Boy Dreams

Check back next week when we attempt to solve The Mystery of the Missing Plumber. (Actually, we found him…in a hospital, but that’s a story for another time.)

Here’s your chance to learn how to solve mysteries like the pros! This handy detective handbook is only ten bucks! Find it here.