A new architect

I mentioned in a previous post that the first architect that we used didn't seem to be listening to us and didn't seem to have a knack for the 120-year-old farmhouse style that we wanted.  At the recommendation of a good friend (a commercial architect), we contacted a different architect that we hope will meet our needs a little better.

The new guy, Greg Munn, moved to Lincoln from his ancestral stomping grounds in eastern Canada a number of years ago.  His personal blog, An Abhainn, frequently describes his continuing efforts to renovate his 100-year-old family home back in the Great White North.

He also has to his credit the hand-drawn illustrations of the book "Affairs With Old Houses," wherein Nova Scotia residents talk about their experiences owning historic homes.

While here in Lincoln, Greg has been appointed to participate in and then lead Lincoln's Historic Preservation Commission, which provides expert input to the local planning commission and city council on matters of historic preservation.

According to our mutual friend, Greg is the kind of guy who eats, sleeps, and breaths antique farm houses.

So, it appears that he's no stranger to our style of house, which is certainly a step in the right direction.  We just wish this friend had told us about Greg a year ago...

We met with Greg at our house last week.  He showed us photos and floor plans of some of the new, old-looking homes he's designed (one of which we'd already been inside, since it was constructed by our builder, Dave McEwen).  We gave him the wish list that we'd compiled for our builder and the floor plans and elevations that I'd come up with on my own.  We also gave him a tour of our current 120-year-old home just so he'd have a feel for where we were coming from in some of the design decisions we'd made.

Greg is heading to Canada for a couple weeks to work on his own family farmstead, but he promised to at least draw up before then some semi-official plans of the design that I'd come up with, just to familiarize himself with what we wanted.  We're meeting with him in a few days (10 days after our first meeting) to see what he's got.

It's too early to tell yet, of course, but we're very optimistic about this new turn of events and the likelihood that we'll be able to break ground by this November.