Once the purchase was finalized, the couple who were on a tight budget, yet still wanted a Frank Lloyd Wright-esque home, approached a local architect who had studied under Wright in the 1930s. Although early meetings were successful, Gerald and Rosalie were ultimately unhappy with the architect's design and cancelled their agreement in early 1954. After some discussion, they decided to contact Wright himself with a proposal for the house and a budget of $25,000. Shortly afterwards, Wright invited them to Taliesin in Spring Green, Wisconsin to discuss the design. Their meeting was a success and the first half of 1954 was spent discussing designs via letter and telegram between the Tonkens and Wright's personal assistant Eugene Beyer "Gene" Masselink. In mid-1954 Wright asked if the couple would be interested in being his ‘guinea pigs’ stating his desire to design their home as “an experiment in Usonian Automatic architecture”. They agreed, and Wright's preliminary designs for the home were completed in October of the same year.