With a computer animation of their new house projected on the wide screen at the far end of their architect’s conference room, Alison and Nate Meadows finally allow themselves a moment to breathe.
A few clicks of the mouse and a small loop of the architect’s hand swings into view a 360-degree rendering of the home on Saint Andrews Lane: a two-story modern farmhouse, resplendent in bright white, with a black metal roof and a front porch.
Sam Rodgers, one of the Meadows’ architects, sits across the conference table. The couple is just one of about 33 new clients, 30 of whom have come from the Coal Creek neighborhood in Louisville, where 134 properties were destroyed in the December 30 Marshall fire. In total, the blaze destroyed just under 1,100 buildings.
More mouse clicks, more rotations. Rodgers watches Alison and Nate carefully. “We’re a little bit like a therapist these days,” Rodgers says before meeting the couple at Asher Architects’ Berthoud office this past March. He nods knowingly when Alison suggests her boys have same-size bedrooms, each with their own bathroom; he smiles when Nate talks about the small wine cellar he wants in the basement.
Alison studies the screen. By next year, the new house will replace the one she’d shared with her husband for the past decade, where they celebrated holidays and neighborhood parties and were raising their sons—Saxon, 12, and Fletcher, seven.
“This is just beautiful, guys,” says Alison, 43, a human resources executive at a vacation rental company in Denver. She turns to her husband, seated next to her. “What do you think, hon?”
“I can definitely see us there,” Nate, 50, says.
Alison looks back at the drawing and tilts her head. There’s one small issue: “I think we need more storage,” she says.
Rodgers runs the mouse’s arrow over the basement layout. Maybe a wall could be moved here? Maybe the space below the stairs could be widened?
Alison and Nate watch Rodgers’ work appear on the screen. It’s easy for the couple to get lost in this daydream of hope, of a new house in the old neighborhood, of the kids once again playing in a backyard overlooking the first hole at Coal Creek
