It just takes expert guidance to put it all together!
All of us in the home-building industry understand the value of blurring the lines between indoors and outdoors. To expand one’s line of site beyond the immediate room provides homeowners with a feeling of freedom and expansiveness that, once they have, they will never want to lose.
The same goes for architects and designers — all this work is done to carefully craft every element, both in and outside the house. But if these areas are too siloed off from one another, the ambiance that was intended with the design can be harder to tap into. Allowing these elements to exist in the homeowner’s eye all at once provides exponentially more value to the work architects and designers put in to create the perfect space for their clients.
The Bigger the View, the Better
The easiest way to achieve this is simple: bigger, custom windows and doors, with more glass to see the view on the other side. Andersen understands this, and has been hard at work in recent years developing their product lines towards this notion of dramatic, customizable sizes as part of their Architectural Collection.
With the rise of bigger doors and windows in custom homes being relatively recent, there are many new structural factors and variables to be accounted for. This can be a lot for a general contractor, architect or construction team to manage. Human nature, then, is to simply retreat and go back to what we know.
This is not what happened with this project. Here, our Trusted Advisor Gunther worked with all parties involved and utilized Andersen's Architectural Collection to find a custom window and door solution that met the needs of the homeowners and let the architect and designer’s work truly shine. The result was the first set of Andersen MultiGlide sliding doors with E-Series windows in Colorado, and a breathtaking view from all angles.
Understanding the needs of the Project
When the contractor originally brought the plans for this project to our Trusted Advisor, the window plans throughout the house were drawn as sets of six windows. Not only did this mean a need for increased structure added to the window design, but the mulling required also meant heavy lines and less glass for the homeowner to take in the view.
After a little discussion it turned out the homeowner preferred the clean lines usually associated with steel windows. Based on this, Gunther knew the heavy lines originally drawn up were not what the homeowner wanted, and decided it was time to rethink.
After a period of careful analysis, Gunther put together his recommendation. Rather than using six individual windows on each set, Gunther pointed out the potential for one Andersen E-Series window to replace all six. This was possible due to the massive custom sizes Andersen can take their glass up to in their Architectural Series. An aluminum grid with the look of steel could then be added to the glass to produce the classic window lines the homeowner and architect desired. In this case, though, the lines would be smaller, cleaner, and all connected, negating the need for any heavy mulls to take place. The view, of course, would also be improved dramatically.
Custom Specs for Custom Window Recommendations
With a custom recommendation such as this, redrawing the plans to incorporate the updated windows is no simple task for the architect or contractor. Luckily for them, they were working with Mountain View Window & Door, so there was no need to. When making custom window and door recommendations, our Trusted Advisors gladly take on the heavy lifting of redrawing the plans and elevations to fit them. They do this in Bluebeam, a digital takeoff software they use to draw up the window quotes based on their custom recommendations. Not only does this save our clients time, but it often provides more accurate measurements of the window and door sections of their project than they originally had in their own software.
After seeing the updated plans Gunther drew up in Bluebeam, all those involved in the project were on board with the custom window setup. They liked it so much in fact, that they wanted the same element of large, uninterrupted viewing glass to extend to the doors of the home as well. With their recent emphasis on Big Doors, Andersen products were also keen here to provide exactly what they were looking for.
When looking at the options, the homeowner fell in love with the Andersen MultiGlide Door. At this time, the MultiGlide door wasn’t exactly on the public market yet; but this did not stop us from using it for this project. Gunther took the reins and began a back-and-forth dialogue with Andersen, acquiring custom tests and value reports to ensure the custom MultiGlide doors would meet all building codes and requirements, as well as properly integrate with the structural integrity of the rest of the home. You can see this process in action in the MVTV video below.
A Luxury Colorado Residence for all time
The results, as you can see, were spectacular. With such a beautiful back and front yard, the homeowners deserve to bask in their home’s full glory no matter which room they are in. With the Andersen E-Series windows and MultiGlide doors, they are now able to do just that. The home turned out so amazing it was even featured in a spotlight article in Luxe Interiors + Design Magazine, which you can read here!
As we said at the beginning, there truly are unlimited possibilities when it comes to Andersen Windows & Doors, especially with their Architectural Collection. With these endless possibilities, though, comes the need for expert knowledge in order to put it all together. At Mountain View Window and Door, we not only provide this expert knowledge up-front, but throughout the entire building process. We do this because we know how much our clients appreciate the time and energy we save them, as well as the beautiful and structurally sound results we deliver.
We were honored to work on this amazing project with JF Design, Woodley Architecture, and Northbrook Consulting.