An online journal documenting the planning and building process of our modern home from start to finish. It is intended to share our experiences throughout this project with all those interested in modern design.

a fun wedding and serious research


On lucky 7-7-7, we made another trip back for Anne’s sister, Kathy’s wedding. The trip was a great chance to get some great pictures of the dam and mill building while the water on the lake is still down. You can see the two “plugs” on the dam – one is a three foot culvert running under the dam on the north side, the other is a concrete "box", approximately foot feet by six feet in area. During this trip, we had a great time, enjoying the weather (it actually rained!) and family, making the idea of moving back to the Midwest more real than ever.

Since that trip, we have gotten serious with preliminary planning for the project. We’ve got a copy of the Village’s ordinances, along with the appropriate Zoning and Variance applications for our project. We also have the as-built locations for water and sewer in the vicinity of the site. Both sets of survey data, along with the water and sewer information, have helped to develop a better site map (here). Anne has been busy researching and doing her own hydrology studies for the region. Anne’s sister, Karen, was also able to find some cool, old blueprints from the last time work was done on the dam in 1975 through the local engineering firm she works for. Soon we will be making our first submittals to get the project permitted – stay tuned!

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