He started with three basic boxes that meet to form a Y shape. The short legs of the Y contained the living area, connected by a hallway to Lesnett's study, and a two-car garage, respectively. The longer box held the dining room, followed by a powder room, the family room, two kids' bedrooms, and the master suite. A bumpout off the dining room housed the kitchen. All the boxes were built the same way: with an especially thick 6-by-14-inch ridge beam supporting rafters 3 feet on center, resting on a header that transmits the roof's weight to posts on the perimeter.
"It's a simple grid," Lesnett explains. "Wherever the exterior wood wall panels meet, which is about every 6 feet, there's a structural post. It's the same with the wall-sized panels of glass. So aside from a few bearing walls, you have an open plan where the partition walls can come and go with no additional roof support."
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