Journal
Designing for Minnesota winters and summers.
A house here lives two lives. The best ones are planned for both.
Two climates, one house
Minnesota asks a house to do two opposite jobs. In January it must hold heat, shed snow, keep the wind out and feel bright at four in the afternoon. In July it must open up, breathe, shade itself and put you outside. Most houses are designed for one of these and tolerate the other.
We start with orientation. Living spaces face south or toward the water, with deep overhangs sized so the low winter sun comes in and the high summer sun does not. North walls carry fewer, better windows. The garage, mudroom and pantry take the cold side.
The rooms that work the seasons
A screen porch with a real roof is the summer living room. A mudroom with a floor drain, a bench and a closet for boots is the winter front door. A fireplace you can sit beside, with a hearth that takes a wet dog, works in both.
We put the laundry where the wet things arrive, not in the basement. We put the hose bib where the boat is washed. These are small decisions that make a house feel like it was designed by someone who has lived here.
What the house is made of
Triple-glazed windows on the north and lake sides. A continuous air barrier, checked with a blower door before the drywall goes up. Roofs with simple shapes that shed snow and ice, and ice-and-water membrane well past the warm wall line.
Inside, materials are chosen for movement. A white oak floor is milled and acclimated to the dry winter air. Trim is detailed with reveals rather than tight caulk lines, so what moves can move without cracking.
Mechanicals you will not think about
Heated floors in baths and entries. An ERV that brings in fresh air without throwing away heat. A boiler or heat pump sized for the house, not for the catalog. A generator at the lake, because the power goes out when the storm comes across the water.
None of this shows in a photograph. All of it shows in February.
Start where you are.
Tell us about the place you keep coming back to in your mind. The one you already love. Or the one that doesn’t exist yet. We’ll tell you what we see, what we don’t, and what only you can decide next.