kirkhall the north side/wall is at the top of the drawing, the south at the bottom. (the north arrow is shown to the right of the first floor). The wall facing south is the one with the front door, so its where the sun comes from most of the day. just fyi, there is about 7.5 ft ceiling height 5 ft from the south wall in the master bathroom, and there is a dormer in the center, which adds extra ceiling height (although not where the toilet is shown) (Also the dormers are not very clearly drawn...sorry about that....these are my drawings, so you know...drafting standards are lax, or rather non existent....) having the master suite upstairs in these cape style houses is tricky, in my opinion. the layouts in these houses are really constrained with the reduced ceiling height at those walls. however, the overall style has a lot of appeal for many reasons for us (appearance, energy efficiency, cost to build, etc.) the ridge runs east to west, and there is a lot of height there (entrance to master bedroom, loft overlooking below, and guest bath) I was originally advocating for the master suite on the first floor, for one floor living if necessary. DH has successfully argued for keeping all of the "public" areas downstairs, and "private areas" upstairs. Upstairs will have a cozy feel. He says we can always put an elevator in where the closet by the stairs is (1st floor) if we have too (I bet that's not cheap!). I'm with you on walking into the master bedroom facing the closet. it doesn't seem ideal for sure. I'm open to ideas. just keep in mind, that big window in the dormer on the north wall in the master bedroom looks out over the property and has views of the mountains. I don't want to block it with a closet. kelhuck re point 1) - i didn't even think about that. We toured a house with the stairs arranged just like it, and thought it was great. That's a good point though. I've thought about the stairs quite a bit, but never from that angle (odd in retrospect). They also had a little more space between the stairs and front door than I'm showing. 2)laundry - yeah, this is a big one for me. I go round and round on this:) The trade-off is to just have a laundry closet, but have the laundry upstairs, or put it in the mud-room, have more space, but have to haul laundry up and down stairs all the time. right now, i'm leaning towards not caring if the laundry clutters up the loft a bit, but there is not much room there at all, its only barely works. currently, my washer and dryer are in our garage, which is not conditioned. I bring baskets of laundry back into our bedroom, and process everything there. S, its not far fetched to have a small closet, but the appeal of a little room I can close off is strong. I swear I want a new house just for a space conditioned laundry room:) 3) pretty much, yes. the appeal of timber homes is showing off the structure, those gorgeous timbers. all timber homes I've seen have a least some two story view inside. however, there is strong sentiment on this board against it, that its loud. since I've never lived in a house like this, I'm inclined to listen. its a valid point, especially when its more than just the two of us (guests and/or kids). even just making the open to below over the foyer instead of the tv/family/living room may solve that. I dunno yet. I'll have a chat w/ dh about it later. 4) dont' worry about insulation, the entire house is going to be wrapped in SIPS. initial calcs for the efficiency we are looking for are calling for 10" SIPS, whereas almost everyone uses 6". No worries, this house will be tight (and require mechanical ventilation). we are focusing heavily on the envelope, so our budget is focused on SIPS and windows. I may even hae to sacrifice my nice kitchen initially (blasphemy!) in order to pay for it up front, but we'll see. liriodendron - that's awesome that you are using PV. the price is coming down, so its actually starting to make sense to pay for it, instead of just being for people like dh and me, who just have non-mainstream tastes and interest (energy nuts, sort of:) the property was logged 5 years before we bought it, so it doesn't have many trees (no trees anywhere near the home site) (and its an ugly mess, we've just now started re-planting). the south facing garage roof will have full sun all day. if it weren't for that, we would angle the house more, so the back faces the mountains a bit better, but we didn't want to sacrifice the front/south wall of the house with respect to facing the sun too much. we like PV just cause we think its neat, and we're trying hard to justify it, but it may be a few years down the road before we consider actually paying for it.

It can take a lot of time to learn about the choices available, and then make the choice. Then order, wait for delivery, sometimes wait for the installation. Right there is one reason for knowing what you want before the build begins -- if you want an item x in mocha, it's better to know in advance that it might take 3 months before it can be delivered. Unfortunately, even in the best of plans, there can be totally unforeseen delays from late delivery, unexpected weather, unavailable work crews, or even theft [which can take time to replace the stolen material]. But with pre-planning, at least the crew won't be sitting around waiting for you say which faucet you want. You will have last minute decisions in approving the color/size/cut of stone or brick should you be using those items, for the reason that samples are always approximations and you won't know what you get until you get it. However, stone/brick is just about the only category that has a last-minute decision built into it. The next reason for getting specific in advance is that it can be difficult at best and overwhelming at worst to make a lot of important decisions in a very short period of time. Unless one is already a professional designer /builder /carpenter /tiler /plumber /electrician / decorator /et cetera, one is going to have make choices and decisions about things we just have never even thought about! It's an exhausting process, and that's a major reason for stress for the builder. Another reason for making as many decisions as possible in advance is actually the simplest: budget. And there is no way to have a budget without knowing what numbers are in it, and what those numbers represent. Unless you have an endless supply of money, there will be a limit as to how much can be spent. A pre-computed budget lets you know that if you spent $30,000 on kitchen counters then you won't have $20,000 for lighting. It gives you a chance to determine which is most important to you -- waiting to the last minute decision might find the counters installed but leave only $1000 for lights when in real life you don't cook much and it is the lighting that's important. Keep in mind that every time the owner changes his/her mind *during* the build, it is money wasted. Cosmetic changes [such as finding the "blue" paint is really brown when on the wall] can usually be fixed at once and during the build. However, changing the placement of a window or door is in the same category as changing a ceiling height or where the staircase is located -- the structural integrity of the whole house can be affected, and changes from blueprint shouldn't be done without approval of a structural engineer (ahem: $ and time), and the change may require re-inspection to be sure codes are still being met (ahem: lost time -- and $ while the crews wait). And another page of the budget is simply that there is difference between what the average GC thinks you'll be satisfied with and what you actually are satisfied with, in terms of quality, uniqueness, and customizing. Sometimes the difference is even more -- I've seen kitchens put together from the local discount-mass produced store and I've seen kitchens where every detail from crown molding to toe-step was handmade by a craftsman. Not going to say that one is better than the other, but IMO the wallet-holder should know -in advance- that there really can be tens of thousands of dollars difference in the final bill. The same is true of almost every detail on a home: you can get mass-produced in all levels of quality as well as getting custom-made or handcrafted. But if you didn't get specific on the contract, the odds are pretty good that you will be getting the least expensive whatever. On this same page is simply that item A can be the same or very little difference from item B, except in the price tag. Many builders are going to use the less expensive because they have figured a set price which includes their [or the subs] labor -- and the cheaper item will give them a bit more profit. And the last thing is, if it isn't written in detail in the contact, you shouldn't expect to automatically get what *you* want. The builder must make a profit -- and that's fair. But there is flat-out no way to reasonably expect the builder to know what you want if you don't already know, and finding out during the build is the most expensive way to go -in terms of time and money and stress-building.

This isn't the easiest to read plan, so I am stabbing in the dark a bit here: - Many of these rooms are vastly over-sized -- they'll be expensive to build . . . and to furnish, maintain, and heat/cool -- and that extra space isn't arranged in such a way as to be particularly functional. For example, you could cut the master bedroom down significantly and still have a generous-sized room, and if you flatten out the back wall of the house, you'll simplify your footprint and save on building costs. - The bathroom is literally large enough to park a car, and do you have two toilets? Both crammed into tiny closets in such a way that when you enter the room you'll have to scootch up next to the toilet to close the door. - The large staircase backs up to what I think is a closet. I'd definitely extend the closet to take advantage of that under-stair area. It'd be "short storage", but it'd be great for suitcases and boxes. - The plan has good sight lines throughout. - The washer and dryer would be better placed on an exterior wall (so the dryer could vent directly to the outside). I'd lose some of the cabinets in the laundry; unlike most of the house, this room appears a bit cramped. - I think I'd do away with the wall that creates a hallway to the laundry. It blocks traffic in that back hallway -- you'll walk in, and there'll be a wall right ahead of you. Instead, just let that back area be a larger entry hall. You might want to put in a door to block off the whole "casual entrance /laundry" area -- perhaps a pocket door there by the edge of the dining room. - The dining room's a fairly long way from the kitchen. Carrying dishes and glasses back and forth will be a real chore. - You have lots of "dead space" between the kitchen island and the great room. - Note that your plumbing is strung literally from one side of the house to the other. This is expensive to install, and it means more potential places to leak in the future. You can't fix all of this, but you could flip the mudroom and the laundry so that the laundry would "back up to" the kitchen. And perhaps the half bath could go over to that corner too.

bpathome Thanks for your comments. I definitely understand your reasoning on the placement of the master bedroom. To be honest it was placed there at our request. We wanted both the kitchen and the master bedroom in the rear of the house. Earlier on in the project the master had it's own small hall that led to the kitchen. Even then it included a door to the laundry room and a small pantry door. The difference at that point was that it was separate from the mud room (mud room and laundry were separate). We are actually okay with the placement of the master. Having the master bedroom near the laundry is a plus for us because that is where most of the laundry comes from. Also, being close to the back porch to enjoy the mornings is a plus for us too. We like the feeling of privacy that the back of the house offers. Just our opinion though. Good point about the lower storage in the laundry room. I sent my designer a different option for the garage storage. I think 8 foot was going to be too small also for the laundry. I think it needed more counter space too. Also, another good point about the guest closet. I could reduce it but what would I do with the space gained? I could add it to the garage storage I guess. I could also add some short shelves for him to the right as you enter the closet at it certain size. I agree though that it is too small to think of it as an actual walk in closet. In regards to the noise from the living room in my sons room.... I agree totally and it was something that I thought of earlier on. One reason I am not all that concerned about it is that he will be moving upstairs eventually. But it is a great point. I like where the room is because eventually I plan to use it as an office. As for extending the house some. I don't mind it in regards to the exterior look. Mainly I am okay with the size of things at this point. I've played around with adding a hall to the left of the stairs and just don't want to lose the square footage to a hall. I'm one of those people that would rather use the space for living. Also, we've actually been on a mission to bring the house down to less than 2200 sq ft to save on cost. It was 2500. I know some have had an issue with the flow of the house but for us I think it will flow really well. It meets our needs. At the moment I'm just trying to make a few last minute tweaks (e.g. placement of windows in the kitchen, pantry placement, wall space in the kitchen, garage storage, etc. I truly appreciate everyone's suggestions. I have taken each into consideration. Also, thanks bpathome for the compliments about the bon ton. Although it's not ours yet, we love this house. We spent a lot of time looking for craftsman style homes / plans and once we saw this one we were hooked.