The Basics

We (and by “we” I mean “Luke”) actually made it quite a ways with the design portion by using our (Luke’s) skills with Adobe Illustrator. In the case of the abandoned remodel on 1222 9th, Luke drew up the house plans in Illustrator, then shipped those off to a drafter who translated them to AutoCAD. In hindsight this last step may not even have been necessary, based on what is required in terms of plans by the City’s building department.

We did the same thing with 1004 Central. Luke worked his magic in Illustrator, then handed those designs off to Erika Willie at Fine Line Technical Services here in Olympia. A little back-and-forth was required as Erika noticed a few things and had a few suggestions for design improvements.

Engineering

This is the step where we call in the big guns – the math people.

The majority of the engineering for the structure was prescriptive and thus was done by Erika. The items that required additional engineering were the stem walls (we are using 9′ tall walls in the basement, as opposed to the more traditional 8′) and the first floor/basement ceiling (in order to support the concrete floor we will have on the first floor). Trusses will be used for the roof and those come pre-engineered.