Recent Activity
Any design starts with the site. Design does not stop at the exterior walls, it stops at the property lines but of course will be influenced by factors beyond the property lines. You need to show us the house as it sits on the site.
And any architecture is three dimensional. We need to see elevations and a 3D model.
You mention having a lovely river view out the south side. You are taking advantage of it upstairs, but ignoring it downstairs. I think that is a missed opportunity.
Awesome update Architectrunnerguy. A true example of what makes this forum awesome.
@architectrunnerguy is truly a gem! So knowledgeable and friendly! We talked through my project and he gave me great feedback and confirmed my reservations about trying to do this project remotely. I’m going to recast my net locally and find an architect that can evaluate the site in person. Thanks Doug!
"@architectrunnerguy is truly a gem! So knowledgeable and friendly! "
I agree, but I'm still not sure about those clouds.
Off topic I know but I didn't comment earlier because I didn't know what kind of vegetation existed but now that we know....
The elevation that has the rear of the garage and the master bath may need some attention. We know now there's woods between it and the Indian Trail but it looks like it's only about 60' at best. That's ok when the leaves are out but it's nothing during the six months (Nov.-Apr) when the trees are bare. That elevation may look a little bleak. Well ok, it WILL look a little bleak. And as Mark always says, all four elevations need to be designed together and that one especially, as in reality you have two "fronts".
I think the placement is ok, outside of the sharing a wall with the kitchen which isn't good. But it allows you to get windows on two walls which is something we shoot for.
Not sure where I would put it in that house, but I definitely don’t like the location of that master bedroom. It’s basically off of the mudroom and in the kitchen. I’d want some sort of hallway and extra door/separation. I also wouldn’t want to walk through the long bathroom to get to the closet. I’d also prefer a separate closet from my spouse, especially if I was building my house.
If it were my house, and not knowing all the particulars of the site;
I would use the garage as a buffer from the most immediate neighbor and sprawl the spaces of the house to create and design exterior living spaces, perhaps move all the spaces to the first floor to help isolate sound.
Just playing around.
Also, those front porches. The porch at the front door looks huge. It's the size one would normally find at a high school. And the side porches look purely decorative. Too narrow to be of any real use.
I'm starting over from scratch. I appreciate all of your comments.
I don't know what that means. I just figured that I'm not familiar with how to read a plan, and that if I see it in 3-D I'll understand it better.
You just described why YOU NEED AN ARCHITECT!
You need a professional who will help you design the best house possible. This is not it.
And yes in Wisconsin, you want all the main rooms facing south. NOT north.
https://www.houzz.com/discussions/what-does-the-view-from-your-bed-look-like-dsvw-vd~825079
https://www.houzz.com/discussions/what-does-the-view-from-your-couch-look-like-dsvw-vd~777779
It's not too late to change this. Reminds me of @cpartist experience. She had her house in permitting. Pulled it out and got a better house because of it.
Kudos to you for being so receptive to all the input. My comment on the master bedroom size being small is based on the usable area where the bed would go. It feels a little bit tight for me given the size of house. It looks like you have roughly 14x15'. The sitting area also isn't useful as it would mostly need to be walkway space. I think the total size of your master bedroom suite is pretty reasonable. I would just reconsider how you divide the space up between bedroom, bathroom, and closet, and the layout.
For a larger higher end house, I would consider a larger Master shower that can comfortably fit two people showering at the same time. I would also do larger bathroom vanities with more counter and cabinet storage space.
I would highly recommend keeping the toilet in a separate room. At least around here, I have not seen a newer luxury home with a toilet that doesn't have a separate toilet room in many years. Contrary to Mark's opinion, I think the toilet room helps to isolate any smells as it allows the bathroom fan, assuming you have a good one, to very effectively extract the air from the room. Without the toilet room, the bathroom feels more like a public bathroom and smells will permeate the whole open space.
You've certainly come in with an open mind. It's so easy to get stuck in "I want what I want...". Flexibility is really important.
For us, when we stepped back - We reevaluated our "needs" or what we thought we needed - our kids were getting older, so in only a few years it would be most often 2 of us, with kids (and friends) making guest appearances. Little did we know - that COVID would have all of us back together again... We did build for us, but we also knew that we would eventually be selling. It was not our first rodeo - it was our 4th custom home in an upscale resort market. We also talked with our realtor about trends in the market to help us understand what people were looking for, knowing that we would sell and downsize for retirement.
Some of the things we noodled about: Did we really need large additional bedrooms - could the kids share baths, or did the rooms all need to be ensuite? How big does that master bath need to be? Does it need 2 sink areas or will just one (with lots of storage) be OK? Do we really need a large games room? We made each space more efficiently sized (measured up the old house spaces and worked from there). Did we need a huge pantry? Huge laundry? How about a pocket office? Would we use the rooftop deck/hot tub area? How much wine storage is needed? (We did not make the mudroom/gear storage space any smaller!) Our design kept in mind that lumber is generally sold in 2' increments, so we tried to make efficient use of the materials to keep our costs in check. When designing - counting doors and windows, being mindful of how many there are makes a difference... Further - will the doors be 7', 8' 9'+ ? Things snowball - casing, door hardware, window covering, not to mention the doors and windows themselves, it all adds up quickly! Using a simple roofline, and smooth(ish) perimeter walls helped us use our financial resources where there was the most "bang for our buck".
We also moved the footprint on the site to be farther from our only neighbour (we backed onto forest), and took better advantage of the views by shifting some rooms around. Further, this placement on the lot required less blasting/site prep.
We chose to leave ample space in the public areas, and make more private spaces more efficient. We turned the "kids floor" into a 2bed suite that helped us with our mortgage. Ended up with about 3500 sf plus a 3 car garage with large workshop. The upstairs/main floor became "one floor living" and was super functional for us.
The pause, also gave me time to connect with our designer - to make all the choices for interior finishing so I was not holding us up making design decisions as we were building. I had most everything chosen before they had the forms on the ground.
Yes, we had an elevator - amazing to get firewood to the upper floor (house was designed "upside down" to take advantage of the views). Fabulous for those large grocery runs, and as it came up right beside the kitchen it became our "recycling storage". Handy to send it downstairs to take out when needed. Definitely more cost efficient to put in while building and as others have said - almost "expected" in our market. I'd definitely do it again.
When we sold recently (8 years after the first tree came down) - the biggest feedback was that folks wanted more bedrooms which in our case was easily done by taking the suite portion back into the house and gave us the flexibility to accommodate what others were looking for.
I totally understand the pressure to get things done, and not let them drag out especially when you are carrying more than one property. It's a stressful juggle. In our case, super glad we paused and re-designed. Good luck with your project!