" Macky Hill [unk] is design coordinator here at Ion [unk] and you are a native of Charleston and a real, well a real student of architectural history."

" Yes. It's been my great love since I was a child."

" Me too. Let's talk about some of your houses here coz this is a brand new, what is it?"

" Its an example of low country vernacular architecture."

" Yes."

" Its not exactly classical but it has a lot of classical hallmarks. You see the 2-storey porches are fairly deep and very tall. The idea is to shade you in the summer sun from the direct light and which brings heat in the low countries."

" Everything has a function."

" But, exactly. Yet we still want to make them tall enough so in the winter, when the sun is low like it is today------"

" Yes."

" You can catch a lot of direct light when you want it."

" Sure."

" And it heats the house."

" And what about this very tall green house here behind the oaks and the Spanish moss?"

" This, this is a more modern interpretation. You see a little more classical detailing around columns. But what were trying to do is really not copy the past. Were trying to teach the architects the old ways of looking architecture. So in the modern designs like this, it still would have fit long ago. It's the tradition."

" Now, here we have a similar house with the double-storeyed porch, but its all in brick. Is that typical here in Charleston?"

" Yes. Brick actually was the most common material Charleston burned to the ground several times. So after about 1740, just about everything became brick. Its locally made and it was the most available fine building material here."

" And I've heard it right now as we enter the millennium, its tough to get masons and its tough to get brick in building materials to the building boom."

" Its tough. And right now, its about 180-day wait on good bricks. So, we've precluded many brick houses. People [unk] have 6 months to wait."

" What kind of brick are we using here?"

" These are of modern approximation of the old Charleston grey bricks. Charleston grey bricks were the standard local clays. They're elegant and they also cost about $2,000. $1,000 if you can find them. Custom-made is $750. So these are more affordable fortunately."

" Okay and they're meant to have that kind of flash in them?"

" Yes they are."

" Now I just noticed that on this facade you've got 4 windows and then what looks to be openings that were bricked up already and the house isn't finished yet. What's the story?"

" Basically, what were trying to do is follow the fenestration, the traditional pattern of lining up windows. Coz one of the key is to getting the old look. And you'll notice above those is the chimney. Rather than have just a blank expansive wall in the old days, they would have put a niche there and they'd still give it a sill and a jack arch over the window to give it the appearance of another window. Its basically just to give the pattern to the fenestrations."

" It's a nice touch. Now this house here------"

" Yes."

" has the look of a Palladian house."

" It does. It supposed to be seen from across the lake a little bit."

" Yes."

" And you can actually see that when its finished and the greenery is all filled in on either side, it looked like a little temple from the other side of the lake and you even see the lack of detail in the [unk] tympanope------"

" The triangular part, yes."

" triangular part we've gone with not overlapping siding but shiplap [unk] . Very flushed. And its to take away detailing so that you bring attention to that."

" Those are the subtle new [unk] that will make Ion very distinctive. Thank you. We'll see you again. Right now, its time for us to visit our building site and meet our contractors."

" Betsy and Kevin Calmon [unk] are the general contractors. And you are not only partners in business but partners in life. You're married right?"

" That's right."

" How long?"

" 12 years."

" And how do you divide the partnership of the business. Well who does what?"

" I do the office management, book keeping, money stuff, insurance and marketing."

" Yes."

" I take care of the onsite supervision and dealing with the clients and the [unk] ."

" It's a nice partnership. The dream house, how did you get this job? It's a great job."

" Fabulous job. Were members of the [unk] guild here in Ion."

" Yes."

" We were chosen to do the job. We feel very strongly about the concept of Ion."

" Yes."

" So much so that we built our own house here."

" So you live here at Ion as well?"

" That's correct."

" Great. And we are looking now at the corner where the dream house is underway and you've already got the foundation pretty far long right?"

" Yes were getting there. Were starting on the first floor deck and the foundation is just about nearing completion."

" Bob Riley's been a contractor and a carpenter in New England for over 30 years and Kevin, Kevin Calmon [unk] you guys have met."

" Hey Kevin."

" Hey [unk]"

" Kevin was an [unk] carpenter."

" That's what I had."

" Yes. Used to build on the vineyard------"

" On the vineyard yes."

" Right."

" Chester island."

" you all come from digging down 8 feet to get beyond the frost and here in south Carolina, you don't have to worry about any of that."

" Now the frost line is basically grade. So we build, we dig down 12 inches below."

" Yes."

" To the bottom of the footing."

" And what were looking at, what were looking at right here is the, basically the structure for the front porch right?"

" That's correct."

" He's got a footing on graze with a bunch of concrete block pierce."

" Yes."

" Some [unk] that comes up inside here with the Simpson strap that will tie the footing to the [unk]."

" Okay."

" And will visibly lag in through these holes."

" Right. This house was designed by Andres [unk] and in fact, if we take a close look at the elevation here on the foundation, we can see the front porch and all these, what kind of columns are they?"

" These are gonna be Chadsworth polystone columns. They're fiber glass style column and they're hallow in the middle."

" Okay. And this strap is part of tying the whole thing up with the roof, right?"

" We have to create4 a continuous load path from the footing up to the rafters and so for us to be able to dot that, we will bolt this to the [unk] as they said and then we'll run a strap from the [unk] up through the center of the column and tie that into the header. And that'll create a continuous load path all the way to the rafter."

" Yes. And the main thing with hurricanes is you don't want that uplift."

" That's, that's our bog problem."

" Exactly. Now Riley, have you checked out the knot basement [unk] . I think its just the cross base."

" Yes. All of the hallows is here just on cross bases and what they're using are 5 cinder blocks to create it. And------"

" And what size footing do you have to put underneath?"

" We have a 12 by 24 footing [unk]"

" Okay. And there won't be a slab or anything. Just a, the, the, the soil."

" Just the soil. It's been treated already for termites and at the end of the project, we"

" bring in a 6 mil polyethylene."

" Yes."

" Put down a vapor barrier."

" And of course, this is where you out all your air-conditioning dock[unk] work."