sorry that you've had a bad experience ...
if you can post the plans you've gotten , and what you desire , i'll be happy to help ...

THANK YOU... I just scanned them all in, and company is at the door.. I'll post in a couple hours!

Thanks for taking the time to look and give me feedback. I just don't think he knows what he is doing.. and I'm afraid I may be wasting more months trying to get him to make it correct.

First I'll post my "Inspirational" pictures, which I gave him and discussed in details in regards to the roof line, how the front roof slopes... the back was suppose to pretty much look the same, with the back porch to have a shed dormer.

** Inspirational **

NOw for what he gave us...

First floor, I designed, gave him a cad file and he tweaked. He never offered any advise or suggestions, so thank goodness for everyone here.. I was able to make adjustments and think overall it is pretty good. {{gwi:1402135}}From Drop Box

SECOND FLOOR
here is when we kinda thought we were in trouble with him.. he kept wanting to put bedrooms in the front, and his measurements were larger than the floor below.. we knew it couldn't work and told him to put them in the back. There is so much room there we shouldn't have an issue, but he put one in the back, added a shed dormer, making the whole exterior look ODD (in my opinion.. maybe it's normal, and someone just needs to tell me!) I just don't know what the heck he is doing on this 2nd floor! I need to bedrooms, 1 bath and a nice "bonus room". {{gwi:1402136}}From Drop Box

Front Exterior

Left side - looks okay, but what is he doing over the garage? with the 1000's plans I have looked at, I haven't seem one that looks like this! {{gwi:1402137}}From Drop Box

REAR ELEVATION

The whole roof over the porch is wrong.. I told him at least 3 times (in writing) that I wanted a shed roof, and old fashion porch. The shed dormer on the right is odd to me as well as that 2 story garage wall on the far right. {{gwi:1402138}}From Drop Box

RIGHT SIDE
Here is the odd looking right side.. I'm not an expert, but this just looks a bit wacky to me.. it is not what I expected to see. {{gwi:1402139}}From Drop Box

LEFT
I could live with this.. this is pretty much what I expected, except for the back porch roof... {{gwi:1402140}}From Drop Box

Hope this is large enough to read.. it is 2nd floor framing & roof beam {{gwi:1402141}}From Drop Box

Last drawing..
{{gwi:1402143}}From
Drop Box

Hope you made it to the end of Summerfield, or anyone else! I just need opinions, do you think he is lost? It has taken him months to get this to us, and I gave him the cad file of the first floor (which he did use). I checked him out, and he has worked for some large building contractors in our area, but now I think he just modified existing plans, and never did it from start to finish... although he came across of on first interview that he was capable.

THANK YOU!!!!!

What is with the roof lines? Is that from the trusses? I would not think these were acceptable, either. Why is he putting a turret over the master bay window?

I love your inspiration pictures and I would think his drawings should look a lot more like them. Do you need such big closets, upstairs? Part of the charm of older homes is smaller bedroom, with little walk-in closets, a simple bath, and maybe a playroom or reading area, tucked in somewhere. You've got plenty of room, he just doesn't seem to know how to utilize it.

I'm sure you'll get much better options from Summerfield and others! :)

Tinker, your instincts are right. Run away and run away quickly. We had the same issues with our architectural designer. He promised us 2-3 weeks for our drawings and it took him 7 months! I wanted to fire him after the first month, but my husband really liked him and his price. So we stuck it out after his repeated broken promises of finishing it. When the framers started building it, we found one major flaw of the plans. It now doesn't look like what we agreed to and we have to live with it.
Don't give up the lot if you love it though. We stuck with the same guy and it's worked out more or less. But I had many, many meltdowns along the way. We're happy with our contractor so things have been moving along well after we received the building permit.
Best of luck!

Sorry to hear about your issues, those plans look completely unacceptable. I would require a stop work and void the contract. With our clients, we have strict AIA contracts that both locks and protects both parties in the design process. I say it many times, architects are expensive, but they certainly have a purpose. We have drafters in our office that just draft. They really have very pore concepts of space planning, flow and design.
Out of all of the plans people post here done by "architectural drafters", very few of them seem to have happy clients. Sadly, so much time (and money I assume) has been wasted for you so far. I am sure the designers here can help you out.

Fire him. Anything you save now will be spent on 'fixes'. The plan the is key cog in the whole process - get a rock solid one.

I had a decent plan but it was rushed - we managed to get through it but not without a number of framing/rough-in changes and much effort on my part. It (especially the kitchen) could have easily gone sideways.

Okay, I'm sorry but I don't get it. Why not take an existing Cape Cod plan and modify it? Your downstairs plan looks great, but nothing outrageous that doesn't exist or nearly exist in a plan already.

Take this one for example. Shift the garage / kitchen back some, move the master bathroom to the side and shift that section back to recess the porch between the kitchen and bedroom and you're nearly there. The upstairs plan remains the same (except maybe bedroom 2 changes up a bit and the bathroom looks dreadful to me). All of that to say that Summerfield could probably whip that out in a few hours from existing plans, heck I could do a rough version.

And I'm sure there are many plans that are very similar to this and to what you want. You have a lot of space to play with and no reason to end up with those ugly elevations except a poor designer.

That's a nice plan! :)

brickton, where is this plan online?

drafter.. HE'S FIRED!!

The plan I am using is from one I found online, but tweaked and thought it would be easier to have someone local create the blueprints, so that it would meet all our Fl hurricane codes. I know I just can't buy a plan online and use "as is".

Thankfully, I'm only out a $600.00 deposit, the time lost is what bothers me the most! After my melt-down, I did decide to keep moving forward and to build on our 5 acre parcel, that I love. I guess we won't be starting soon.. and I really don't even know how to start again! I already looked through 100's on plans online today, found a few I like, but I really tweaked my plan, and liked how it came together. *sigh*

tinker - The plan brickton posted can be found here: http://www.thehousedesigners.com/plan/covington-2587/

lavender_lass wrote: Part of the charm of older homes is smaller bedroom, with little walk-in closets, a simple bath, and maybe a playroom or reading area, tucked in somewhere.

She may be right about old houses (although I'd say those were cons accepted to get the charms of older houses), but part of the appeal of *new* houses are larger bedrooms, large closets, nice bathrooms, and real recreational space.

It's clear that you need to start with someone else--but it's got to have been frustrating to go through this.

I'd also strongly advise you take the first floor kitchen plan to the kitchen forum before finalizing your footprint. I think you can do better than what is in the drawing.

tinker
I would be more then happy to assist from design, plan prep and drawing, full photo real rendering, specing, energy efficient design, product suggestion and review, etc.

lzerarc, could you email me more info..? What do I need to worry about in regards to building permits here in FL?

bethohio, that is the basic way the kitchen layout will be... after numerous posts and suggestions from the kitchen forum. Once I submitted the plan to 4 different kitchen people, they all felt the layout was the best.. what do you have in mind that should be different? I'm not looking for a modern, wide open floorplan into the family room, like how the old kitchens were away from the noise.

I like your kitchen...lots of counter space and good layout of the appliances!

I can't read the dimensions on your plan, so if you don't mind, I just have a couple of questions. Is the microwave over the range, or by the fridge? How much room on either side of your island (aisle space) do you have...and did you want any stools?

If you do want stools (and don't want to travel around a peninsula, between the sink and breakfast room) a small peninsula off the fridge wall would give you room for two stools and a little 'bar/snack' area.

The microwave, fridge and maybe a small prep sink...with the peninsula would give you a second work area (salads, drinks, etc.) and a place for the kids and guests to use...but be out of your main work area. You might still be able to fit in a small island or work table...just a thought :)

finally had some time to tweak your plans ...

not sure exactly what you are seeking upstairs ... it's a large space and i included 2 bedroom suites and a bonus room ... there are many possibilities , with this much space ...

i find the roof height to be a bit overwhelming , but it can be lowered , to include a shed-type dormer at the rear ... this would reduce costs , and allow for rooms without deep , narrow dormers ...

are you planning to build on a city lot ? a country estate?

please let me know your thoughts...

Wow.. I'm at a loss for words! This is so much more than I expected!! I LOVE the upstairs, and it's hard to believe that you did all this in what a day.. and I've received nothing even close to this in 5 months!

Sending you an email to chat more!

Summer- your upstairs is very similar to my ideas, great job. Infact, the concept was almost exactly the same.
Bonus room in front, bedrooms spit in back. I see you were going with an attached bath as well. Good idea too. I was keeping a single bath in the same spot as yours, and your attached bath was the closet. Then Open up a balcony in the middle to the great room below. Add some transom windows over the back french doors and really back that great room....great.
As you said, all options!
I think tinker has her hands full now ;)

OMG.. I'm just so thankful to you both! I'm just amazed.. a few days ago I was down and out, ready to just give the building idea up, and today - I'm just EXCITED!!!

Summerfield- That's such a beautiful plan!

Tinker- Congratulations! I'm so glad you're excited about your project, again :)

thank you tinker , lavender , lzerarc ... very kind :-))

YES!! That looks FANTASTIC! I love how you have the lights above the garage doors and between the kitchen windows, I wouldn't have thought of this. I love the little roof above the laundry room, and side door.. I was planning on having a pergalo there, but now.. not so sure!

Summerfield, where are you located?

We met with the other designer/drafter and he has by far more knowledge, and we were able to actually see some of his houses. The funny thing is, once we got there, we realized he did our home plan (the one we currently live in).

He did say it's a difficult house to build... in our area. The framers in our area aren't use to "building" roofs (they order trusses - at least that is how I understood him saying.

Is there are reason to have the two dormers on the back different sizes? I really love the plan, but it just seems like two double window dormers on the back would look a bit more balanced. I thought it looked a bit odd in the plan but wanted to see the elevation to confirm. Just a thought.

If you put the bigger dormer in the other bedroom, it will be more difficult to arrange the furniture.

Could the side wall windows in that bedroom be higher, so the bed could fit under the windows? (More the height of the bathroom windows, next to it?) This would give you space for the bed and allow a larger dormer...and a similar furniture arrangement to the other bedroom.

Beautiful plan...I hope the builders can figure it out, Tinker, because it would be an amazing home! :)

sorry ... it was very late when i drafted this ...

here is the corrected version

changing the furniture arrangement is simple , as the door to the wardrobe can be relocated anywhere along that wall ...

Oh this is so nice!! Summerfield, I just LOVE, LOVE all the details in your drawings! I love the exterior molding, lighting placements, and how you have the arches in the brick area under the back porch! Theses are things I wouldn't have thought of.. all the little details!

I have studied and studied everything you have given me (THANK YOU AGAIN!) and plan on incorporating all the little tweaks on the first floor you have improved on with one exception, the laundry room. I really like your set-up better in someways, and less expensive with less cabinets, but wonder if I'll miss that outside window and more countertop space? Do you see any other suggestions in this area?

Also, wondering about the size of the island in the kitchen, you have it much shorter than what the kitchen designer(s) were going to use, and would love your thoughts and reasons on the shorter island.

Upstairs.. I really was looking for much less, something we could just close off someday, but this matches the feel for the downstairs, and I just LOVE IT! I have struggled over this upstairs now for months, and our "fired" designer just came up with nothing to offer..., just boring layouts. I can't find a single thing I dislike!

What do you come up with in regards to square footage main floor and 2nd floor? My design program was showing the downstairs to be about 1995 sq ft, but our "fired" designer calculations were much higher (over 2230 sq. ft)

Haven't been on here in awhile, but just wanted to give credit where credit is due: Nice job, Summerfield!! I don't know what you do for your profession, but after seeing these drawings I would assume you're a designer (if not, methinks you've found your true calling;)

AGREED... !!!

Do you know what the square footage on the main floor is? This is almost exactly what we have in mind but would change the library to a bedroom for my daughter. I love it!

update, new designer is very good, and knows what he is doing! In one week, we have more from him than 5 months with the other guy!

We'll be able to start getting some bids in another week or so! I LOVE, LOVE summerfields upstairs design, but he insisted a different layout would work better, save us money on roof trusses .. so 2nd floor will be a bit different, but I'm okay with it.

Summerfield, if you are reading this, I would like to ask your opinion about having a roof over the side porch/deck area (off the breakfast room). This side of the house faces east, and here in FL - it will be very bright and hot during the morning hours. I designed this area to be sunny and bright (afraid it might get too sunny). We will not be using tinted windows. Off the great room/family room we are thinking to make this more of a deck/patio and not extend the roof... hope you read this (or anyone else who has an opinion!)