Project Team
Allan Homes, West Chicago, Ill.
President: Jim Walker (designer and builder)
Superintendent: Pete Hale
Company Profile: Design/build new-home construction, typically two to four homes a year with construction costs up to $500,000.
Market: Western Cook, DuPage, Will and Kane Counties in the western Chicago suburbs.

Project Profile
Description: Build a 3,300-square-foot "dream home" with a challenging design that maximizes a forest-preserve view.
Style: Contemporary
Type: New home
Location: St. Charles, Ill.
Homeowners: Francene and Jeff Andresen. They spent two years locating the perfect site for their dream home. It was their desire to "bring the outdoors in."

Narrative
Key considerations: Match the CAD-designed line drawings conceived by the homeowner. Create a great room with two window walls. Make a 20-foot-high bay-window wall rise to meet a steeply sloping ceiling.

Result: A stunning home that’s a perfect fit for the homeowners.

Highlight: Walker specifies only Andersen Windows -- exactly what the homeowner researched and chose.

Testimonials: "Every time my clients use their Andersen® windows and doors they’re going to confirm in their minds, ‘I’m so glad we went with these.’ And that reinforces their choice of me as their builder." -- Jim Walker, President, Allan Homes

"With Andersen windows, I can worry about what’s above and below and between the windows, because I don’t have to worry about the windows themselves. We wonder why anyone would go with anything else." -- Pete Hale, Construction Superintendent, Allan Homes

"We moved from a 1,700-square-foot house to a 3,300-square-foot house with 20-foot-high floor-to-ceiling windows, but our heating bills in January have been about the same. It’s a feather in Andersen’s cap that their windows are so efficient." -- Jeff Andresen, homeowner

Execution: Walker initially designed 20 large areas of glass for the wall. He wanted it to look like one window, so he framed it and trimmed it as one. That made it more difficult but gave it more drama.

The difficulty was compounded by slopes on 3 planes away from the window, including the 12/12 slope of the cedar ceiling. The reveal above the trim needed to be consistent, even though the wall and the ceiling sloped away at different angles.

Solution: First Walker made separate, detailed drawings for both the framing and the oak trim, which was made and prefinished by cabinet-maker Reuben Kaufman in Arcola, Ill. To guarantee a precise fit, especially the challenging angles above the windows, Walker installed a trial run of plywood trim before the drywall was hung, then sent the plywood "patterns" to Kaufman.

At the same time the windows were framed and the trim was prepared, the custom windows were being built by Andersen windows. It was a cooperative effort that Walker says was the greatest success of the project.

Design Solution

Tricks of the Trim
Detailed drawings and plywood patterns helped simplify trimming the bay-window wall, but so did another trick. Anywhere one piece of oak trim butts into another, Walker used different thicknesses, so no flush seams or joints are visible.

The sill is 2 inches thick, but the outside perimeter trim, which sits on the sill, is only 1-1/8-inch thick. The vertical trim inside the window is ¾-inch thick, and the horizontal trim is ½-inch thick.

"If you use trim with different dimensions, it will look perfect even if it isn’t," says Jim Walker of Allan Homes. "It works like a charm. It looks very complex, but it’s really very simple."

Featured Andersen Products
Andersen® custom trapezoid windows, Andersen® custom picture windows, awning windows, casement windows and Andersen® Frenchwood® hinged patio doors.