Before The Architect designs and drafts custom home plans nationwide.  Its principals Ralph and Jean Pressel have worked hands-on together since the ‘60s in custom home design, drafting, consulting, plus building and repair in every major trade.  Their plan sets are extraordinarily detailed; their clients' active involvement throughout is essential. 

Comments on all articles by Ralph Pressel ^(46,746)

Robert Melaccio, Sr.

Susan Thom

Response from Ralph Pressel ^(46,746) : (19 days 4 hours ago.)
Dear Sue, Turndown slabs aren't this custom home designer's foundation dream come true, either. The functionality of this foundation element is, in my opinion, majorly limited in any custom home design and construction, and especially and more generally so in a milieu of poorly prepared substrates, insufficiently reinforced placements, and a rush to build atop before its proper time has come to be so burdened. What sets this work and others of mine hereunder is an intent to bridge the gap between the borderline impenetrable (for me) science of engineering and tuning a foundation and its placement to a given site without pretense of flashy formulations from big books or mud-caked work boots by the back door. Exultant in my time that God made so many good engineers whose writing to study and with whom to work. There's an intellectual gap of accessibility in our business of design and construction that needn't be. The gap's between isolated, insightful discovery and discernment as being distant from practical, pervasive understanding and doing. Radon mitigation, watershed analysis, a panoply of aging-related matters, electrical circuitry, durable foundations, respect for tradition and style and craft, framing corners, getting a kitchen to work and work safely and work conveniently, integral design in the interior, shear walls, masonry finish floors, cabinet layout, drainage plumbing, and on - all suspects. The extraordinary popularity of the foundation series astounds this old boy. Gratified that you liked the turndown entry, too, even though at least some aspects of masonry foundations aren't among your magic moments. Thanks for your comment. 'preciate it." Ralph

Response from Ralph Pressel ^(46,746) : (27 days 8 hours ago.)
Dear Ernie, The knee brace would intersect both post and beam members fully outside the deadmen profile, that is, not touching the deadmen elements. Practically at 45-degrees, clearing the knee brace-post intersection is the controlling metric, thereby, intersecting the beam by force of geometry. Thanks for your inquiry. AG

Response from Ralph Pressel ^(46,746) : (37 days 14 hours ago.)
Dear Jim, You're welcome to it. Pleased to have been of assistance. Best to all, Ralph

Laura Trahan

Response from Ralph Pressel ^(46,746) : (39 days 23 hours ago.)
Dear Laura, Thanks so much. Good to get the high sign from a real pro. Best to all, Ralph

Teresa Ortiz

Response from Ralph Pressel ^(46,746) : (41 days 6 hours ago.)
Dear Teresa, Delighted you appreciate this article for its usefulness. Indeed, there's even more to roof design than is in this article, including active or passive attic venting, compensating for rainwater runoff, maximizing daylight intrusion in summer and winter, let alone home design style, proportion, balance, interior space needs, advanced structure and substrates for certain finish clad, trimming over-roof elements with true masonry, etc. Thanks for your interest in our work. Ralph

Teresa Ortiz

Response from Ralph Pressel ^(46,746) : (43 days 14 hours ago.)
Dear Teresa, To write this article, it took better than 40 years, all tolled. Since the '60s, we've been hands-on involved in the spectrum of activities in home design and construction. Still doing. Still learning. Thanks for your interest in our work, Ralph

Susan Thom

Response from Ralph Pressel ^(46,746) : (47 days 13 hours ago.)
Dear Susan, Thanks much. While it is this old guy's sense of it that a large, large number of folks could each have done the same or, likely, better, on this subject, none has in my opinion. It's as though this stuff's a secret, oral tradition, rite of passage. Sketchy, commodity drawings to the left of me and to the right. Checklists here and there by rote, not reason, let alone by experience. More to come. We're moving through the whole of a good home plan set well done sheet-by-sheet. Cover Sheet's done. Now Floor Plan. Next up: Electrical & Lighting Plan. Best to all, Ralph

Robert Melaccio, Sr.

Response from Ralph Pressel ^(46,746) : (49 days 22 hours ago.)
Dear Robert, This home designer does not expect the average reader to be enlightened, appealed to; custom home design is not average reader material, not at this level of exposition. None of my articles is intended to appeal to the average reader. Each is intended to be intellectually accessible to the reader sincerely interested in understanding more about what is, or ought to be, available in essential aspects of a home plan and, some of which, in this author's experience, rarely are. The use, intent, and purpose of this e-article is "about designing a custom home exterior." Both the details expressed and the comments offered are not intended as a check-off sheet, though elements in them could be and should be, but rather comprehensive knowledge of what is and should be. Thanks for your comment. Ralph

Response from Ralph Pressel ^(46,746) : (51 days 22 hours ago.)
Dear Steve, In this old boy's opinion, rely on standard reinforcement and consider your further amendment a Lucky Strike extra. If your amendment improves reinforcement, please let it be. Start strong and be happy if it gets stronger. Thanks, Ralph

Response from Ralph Pressel ^(46,746) : (53 days 14 hours ago.)
Dear Denny, Agreed. While it is unlikely that anyone's to script this custom home designer's detailed methodology, you might prevail in more generalized presentation from among truss manufacturers and, possibly (especially for hand-framing), the archives of a local educational institution that teaches residential construction. Thanks for your comment, Ralph

Response from Ralph Pressel ^(46,746) : (120 days 13 hours ago.)
Dear Mahadevi, AG's limited understanding of Vastu Sastra, or Vaastu Shastra, in regard to the number of doors in a residence as follows: 1. there must be at least one and only one main door; 2. there may be other, lesser doors, preferably of an even number in total doors, including the main door, and, less preferably, of an odd number, and unpreferably neither 10 in total nor a multiple of 8; 3. door count includes only doors within the home and at its exterior, that is, neither doors of outbuildings nor hardscape gates and such; 4. door count excludes interior doors that do not rise to ceiling height; 5. a pair of double doors is a door count of one. Please note that the compass orientation of doors is significant, and may be formative in coming to the total number of doors in a home. Thanks, AG

Response from Ralph Pressel ^(46,746) : (168 days 4 hours ago.)
Dear Doug, This is a matter to be determined between you and your structural engineer. Best to all and Happy Holidays, AG

Response from Ralph Pressel ^(46,746) : (172 days 12 hours ago.)
Dear Anonymous, AG and The Missus suggest you consult with a local house designer. Thanks, AG and The Missus

Response from Ralph Pressel ^(46,746) : (172 days 14 hours ago.)
Dear Laura, AG and The Missus have no "after" pictures. This commission involved consulting only and no formal plans. The client's intention seems to have been to take the consulting work to a local draftsman for drawing up. Thanks, AG

Response from Ralph Pressel ^(46,746) : (211 days 13 hours ago.)
Dear Sir or Madam, Building costs vary widely across our fruited plains. We've home-designed in places of less than $50 per square foot for building cost and over $350 per square foot. From where AG sets, there's no telling. Please consider gaining a sense of home design and home building costs local to you in your own neighborhood. Reputable local design-build firms and other well-experienced home building contractors should be able to fully satisfy your interests in these regards. Thanks, AG

Response from Ralph Pressel ^(46,746) : (217 days 11 hours ago.)
Dear Anon., You are welcome. Far as AG can tell, such info - clear and concise - is otherwise hard come-by, if come-by at all. Good luck with your project, AG PS: If you're interested in sounding like a real pro with concrete, one "places" it, not "pours" it. Sounds a bit odd at first, but you'll find that even the doubters within earshot will usually come around to your pro-lingo.

Response from Ralph Pressel ^(46,746) : (312 days 12 hours ago.)
Dear Pam, You're very most welcome. As the AG intended, you have achieved. Uplifted, proud of you, he is. As for relevant issues, the principles, the geometry, the latitudes. . . they're worse than hard to find. Unless you come across this old boy's work, they're impossible to find. Not there. Dark void. AG looked hard for years and returned every time wondering how better to ask the questions to get the answers he sought. Try Googling "light flutter" and you get AG. End of story. Try Googling "lighting aging eyes" and the like and you get: a) AG; b) semi-accessible clinical and behavioral research; c) penetrating glimpses into the obvious prescriptives; and d) political policy platitudes. Yeesh. Finally, a few years ago, AG got to work shoulder-to-shoulder with one of the two best lighting professionals he's ever met. So he inquired to learn her secrets about light flutter. She gave up her own proprietary algorithm, which the geez took home with home and cogitated. Once AG figured out why she said what she said, it wasn't too long before he got it that there were plenty of ways to blow the walls off that algorithm. And the old boy was off and running. The lighting aging eyes work, on the other hand, arose by selectively knitting together sensible bits and pieces of this and that into whole cloth with mentalities of both home designer and home builder. Lighting for aging eyes, avoiding light flutter, designing fire safety into stairways and home elevators, a thorough-going review of residential concrete slab-on-grade, a comprehensive presentation of both designing and building an adaptable bathroom, properly venting an attic, for good reason stepping up electrical design about the National Electric Code, etc. - AG still doesn't get it that other folks haven't been out there with this stuff forever. You are in the high cotton. You got 'er done. Congratulations, AG PS: If you've got a big enough email box (16+MB), AG'll send you a complimentary .pdf copy of Home Design Standards - Home Building Standards 3Q07 Edition by Before The Architect. If not, he'd be pleased to mail you a complimentary c/d if he knows where to send it.

Response from Ralph Pressel ^(46,746) : (313 days 6 hours ago.)
Dear Pam, The Den/Library space in the article is in a new house under way in western Washington State. We're pretty sure that it's not finished yet. And, in all our time designing for others, we've never seen the finished inside of any of 'em. No clue what this one'll look like for nightlighting when the dealings' done. Not much concerned, either. Here's why. Luminaire number, type, size, watts, colors, and everything else about lighting the room is not up to this house designer. It's up to one or more professional lighting extperts, the homeowners, and, possibly, an interior designer. Your project would involve the same process. What our work brings to the party: lumens - types and the places to put 'em and, if there's a ceiling fan, then where downlighting can and cannot go to avoid light flutter, along with the basis for those judgments should conditions warrant. We don't decorate interiors anymore, we only design 'em. Our design conceptions in regard to home interior lighting as expressed in the e-article you reference and others of related subject matter all post-date our interior decoration work by years. One can say about the finished lighting: 1. That fluorescent bulbs and tubes will be used almost everywhere if not, indeed, everywhere. Those'd be the only reasonable materials to develop lumen levels suggested. Furthermore, their loads per watt are very light compared to incandescent illumination. 2. Expectantly, more than one ambient light source will be applied in this case study instance from a long list, including but not limited to wall-aimed, pendant, cove, valence, soffit, etc. 3. Dimmers, dimmers, and more dimmers to gain greater control of illumination. I suggest, if you haven't already, that you take a look-see at several other e-articles of mine on this website, which articles address other aspects of home lighting design: "Home Lighting Design, Avoiding Light Flutter: How Ceiling Fans and Ceiling Lights Can Get Along Together" at http://searchwarp.com/swa123990.htm; "Home Lighting Design For Aging Eyes. Part 1: the Basics" at http://searchwarp.com/swa124510.htm; and "Home Lighting Design For Aging Eyes. Part 2: the Math: at http://searchwarp.com/swa124664.htm. These three other articles summarize our unique work to-date in home lighting design in the form of shrunk-down versions of presentations in our e-book Home Design Standards - Home Building Standards 3Q07 Edition, 629 pages. In retrofit design, reasonable choices diminish. Cove, soffit, and valence may be less disruptive. They can deliver heaps of ambient illumination. Lutron, I do believe, may have a switching system for three- (and maybefour-way) application that involves only one hot switch. For tasking and more localized ambient lighting, there are wall, table and floor lamps galore, even some uplighting, none of which needs outrightly to be disruptive, especially of wall surfaces. All this assumes a hard ceiling. If it's soft, you're pretty free to play the whole table of luminaire possibilities. So, from this home designer's vantage, you need to calculate the lumens you'll be looking to the lighting professional to deliver, taking along ceiling height and surface area dimensions, and, if there's a fan involved, take along the case study article and the other noted by title and url in regard to light flutter. Tell 'em it a retrofit and you're not interested in tearing up any more walls and ceilings that you can get away with.

Response from Ralph Pressel ^(46,746) : (362 days 4 hours ago.)
Dear JL, Well know you've done it. Yes, you have. AG and The Missus have looked for years to find other pics of after for this Garrison Colonial's exterior and only came up with that one. 17 years to be sure. Until now. Motivated solely by your note and its right-mindedness, The Missus looked once more and there they were. Not many, but more than one. None exactly depicts the Before pic; however, taken together, the new sense of our work abounds. AG and The Missus are sorting, digitizing, prepping, and packing now and may have more up today or tomorrow, the Searchwarp's cranky uploader be willing. Thanks for the win-win. You get to see more of the new. AG and The Missus get to see more of their good times. All the best, AG and The Missus

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last updated 4/10/2008