I met our Architect, Stephen Fuller, at the house last week to go over cornice and other trim options and I jokingly told him that he was my “phone a friend” for the house. With a project the size of this one, I have my mom that is my go-to “phone a friend” when something goes wrong and I am ready to cry, I have my designer, Teresa Hamilton, that is my “phone a friend” for any interior choices and then I have Stephen Fuller, our Architect, that is my main “phone a friend” for anything to do with what the RIGHT thing to do for the house- because I know he will give us his honest opinion without me asking him to be honest with me. I appreciate that.
If you are not familiar with Stephen Fuller(he calls himself Steve but I have to stop myself from calling him the full ‘Stephen Fuller’ each time we speak and so I just use Stephen- I don’t call my brother Matt either. He’s Matthew…I digress…
If you are not familiar with his work, I would describe it as simply classic and tasteful, done with a respect for the past. I am a fan of an older, classic look and I think Stephen is the perfect fit for us and this project.
From his newly updated site – http://www.stephenfuller.com/ – “We must respond to modern lifestyles while respecting and celebrating all that is great about the past.” That’s exactly what we hope to accomplish with our home- it should be one that can function in a modern, purposeful manner but still stay true to where it began.
I liked him when we first met. He soon made fun of our circumstances, living in that house the way it was and he was very easy to get along with. He wants things done a certain way and throughout this process, he has provided guidance and foresight to make sure that we do not make any mistakes that affect the overall vision of the completed home.
When we met Stephen, we had called him to come to the house because we were unsure about knocking it down or if we could work with what we had and he didn’t hesitate with telling us that he thought we should work with it and that has brought us to where we are today. I think it is pretty cool to get to rebuild something that was just fine to begin with but if you had the chance to rebuild your house the way it should have been built to support today’s modern lifestyle- that’s what we are doing.
After chatting with Stephen, he goes to work on the preliminary design drawings and I think they are awesome to view. It was like Christmas morning to open this up and look at what our house could become. Below are just a few images of where we began before we get to formal plans and such-
Stephen Fuller Original- Preliminary Design Document
The drawings were simply awesome to look at and they make you really start to see where you will be at the end. From here, formal plans are created, he helped organize bids and meetings with prospective builders and ultimately helped us end up with the right builder for the project, which is key. He understands the building process and he guided us through the initial steps of how to get started with this. I just love the design drawings though. They are done by a true artist. It’s amazing how talented some people are in this world.
Stephen’s been with us through the entire build to make sure it is all done to plan and we 100% recommend him and his services to anyone that has any building project they are looking into at some point whether it be new construction, a renovation or rebuild like ours! If you check out his website- www.stephenfuller.com – you can see all the different types of projects he has been involved on and there are many to behold.
Riverview Redo 