Help with architect's first draft
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11 years ago
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11 years agoHouseofsticks
11 years agoRelated Discussions
Please help with first draft floorplans!
Comments (10)I'm having trouble reading the details on the plan, so I can't comment on everything, but here are my thoughts on what I can see: - The first thing that jumps out at me is that I hate the kitchen island. It's like the island is escaping from the kitchen! You have an important walkway running horizontally through the middle of the house, and the island is interrupting it. This will be a constant irritation. I'd make the kitchen into an L and turn the island the other direction. You can still have island seating. This'll echo the direction of the walkway and enhance it rather than being a problem. - I'd add an extra foot to the width of the pantry. You have storage on only one side of the long, narrow pantry, which means you have essentially the storage of a reach-in . . . but you're using the square footage of a walk-in. One extra foot would literally double the storage space in your pantry. I'd also consider adding a pass-through door to the kitchen. - I vote absolutely NO sunken anything. It's an accident waiting to happen. - You say you're looking for square footage to cut. I would cut off the sitting room behind the master bedroom and some of the master bedroom closet. You have an office and another room I can't identify right there by the master, so I think you have a spot for one adult to sit and do something while the other is sleeping -- this is space that you will never miss. And the closet, even with TV/accessories, is larger than some NY City studio apartments! The other thing I'd cut is the kids' playroom upstairs. They each have their own generous-sized rooms, and they have space a-plenty to hang out and play. - Having addressed your concerns about cutting square footage, I've gotta say that I'd consider adding some space to your great room. You have a large kitchen and dining area . . . and beside them, this great room looks like a pretty good room. - I lived in a house once that had a jack-and-jill closet, and it worked well. In our case, it was a walk-through closet with hanging space on each side. One room was a child's bedroom, while the other bedroom was a guest room. This arrangement allowed the child to have an extra-sized closet . . . yet if the guest room had ever become "someone's", a closet would've been available. And, of course, we kids loved to use it as a pass-through. - I'd consider losing your son's bathrooms' exterior door. The only people who would be upstairs would be the kids' friends, and they'd walk through the bedroom of their friend to reach the bathroom. It's not that large a bathroom, and two doors take up too much space. This post was edited by MrsPete on Sat, May 17, 14 at 7:40...See MoreKitchen Design help - first draft from cabinet company
Comments (15)Several people here have mentioned that if your KD doesn't lay it on the line and let you know why you can't have what you discussed within your budget (or what it would cost to have what you discussed) -- in addition to your budget -- it's not so great. I agree. Mine took my total budget and came up with a sadly uninspirational plan that looked just like my old kitchen -- no creativity, no originality. It was thermofoil shaker style cabinets, 23 total. It included nothing but the cabinets, quartz countertop, and their installation. Any "style" or details in this kitchen now, are the result of my request. All I "requested" were two glass cupboards and some extra shelves but the company charged me 30K. No new appliances, no new flooring or structural changes. It was astounding and I should not have signed until I considered it carefully. Problem is, they charged a $1000 for the plan to be made. They charged another $5000 to "release" the plan so that you could use it with your own cabinets and contractor, so I was kind of stuck. What is the markup? What is the actual cost of each feature in a kitchen like this when you use a middleman? Who knows? Again, I was stuck. Their contractor turned down my job because it was "too small", so I had to hire my own contractor to demo the old kitchen, my own electrician, and plumber. These KDs were angry when I got my own contractor to move a switchplate because of their measurement error. They refused to cover the cost of moving the switch and when I wouldn't give in, they threatened me with small claims court - (but later gave up. )They made other measurement errors involving items that now do not fit in my "custom kitchen". So, at this point, warranty or not, I do not want these so-called "award-winning" morons in my home to fix anything in the future! (I am still awaiting replacement brackets for the wrong size they ordered originally-- over a month later!) I wish I'd read all these entries first but maybe someone else can learn from my experience. I believe I was overcharged and under-serviced... a sad commentary on my own ignorance and perhaps a sad commentary on the regulation of kitchen designers here in Canada!...See MoreCenter hall farmhouse first draft- am I on the right track?
Comments (38)Another couple of thoughts, FWIW. All of your "social spaces" are facing north or east, while your bedroom is facing south and west, the hottest part of the house. Personally, I like to sleep cool, and have my living areas warm and sunny. You could do this simply by flipping the plan. That way your kitchen, dining room, and living room are getting sun, and some sun should penetrate all the way into the "hearth area" in the winter. If you eliminate that back hall and turn it into closets for the master bedroom, you can make the master bath and the office bigger. The office could then have a seating area, and serve as an "away room" a la Susanka and Chris Alexander. I would center the fireplace on the living room wall-- just plunking it down anywho will not look good. The big opening between the kitchen and the hallway needs development-- if it's just a wide cased opening, it will need a lot of support. One thing you probably don't want is a huge beam there that is lower than the rest of the doors and windows-- in a traditional design, most of the windows, doors, cased openings, wainscots, etc. will "coordinate" and harmonize with each other. To achieve that effect here, you could break up the wide opening with columns, or even columns and half-walls. I can't see any good reason for a wall between the cubbies and the laundry. It's really one big mudroom, and that extra wall costs money, even though it serves no real purpose. Personally, I hate the sound of HVAC/HW etc. so I would never put that stuff near a bedroom or office, where you are presumably trying to concentrate on some brain work. Nor would I put it in the garage, unless the garage is heated and you have a backup generator, because you don't want the pipes to freeze. In some jurisdictions, you can't put that stuff in a garage anyway, or only under strict rules. it's a safety issue. Why not build a small storm cellar, which should come in handy during the next tornado, and put your mechanicals down there?...See MoreFirst draft - please take a look and give feedback
Comments (49)To be honest Sunny, while I could recommend further on specifics, for better or worse, it sounds like we're down to the "where do I put the towel rack?" stage, you already know pretty much what you want and any more "big idea" discussion would be pointless. And that's entirely ok. More often than not when I do these "pen to paper" exercises I do them for the lurkers rather than the OP anyway. And for the lurkers, at least one of my three points above has been addressed, that of house area. For a house with basically 4 bedrooms and the support spaces here, 2100SF is plenty. That number might represent a challenge to achieve but that's what a good residential designer does. The other two points, that of maximizing views and circulation remain largely untouched. Two bedrooms are looking elsewhere (one onto what I think will be a largely unused covered patio) and parts of the circulation paths look like the white squares in a crossword puzzle. In concluding, let me get back to Sunny....I guess in a larger sense what I was trying to illustrate is your house has no soul. Sure it has all the pieces (place for piano CHECK......screened porch.....CHECK.......pantry.....CHECK......place for hutch.....CHECK.......walk in closet.....CHECK....etc.) but add all those pieces up and the sum does not make for an inspiring whole. And inspiring wholes do not cost a dime more to build than uninspiring wholes. Designing a skyscraper, where there's a lobby floor with 50 identical floors above is in many ways an easier task than coming up with a well designed small house. Let me reference some threads you might find helpful before you spend a healthy six figures of your hard earned money in an endeavor with no "do-overs" (and again, I'm keeping lurkers in mind here). Read up on what makes good design. First here's a great list of book suggestions: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3281434/book-suggestions?n=10 Second, here's a bunch of great suggestions from others here on what makes good design: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3285825/what-makes-a-house-have-good-design?n=39 (And Sunny, if you thought some of my comments above might have been a tough read, note #31 in my post here). And third, get someone local of talent to sit down with you for a highly interactive "brainstorming session" on the design of your house. And this doesn't have to be expensive or time consuming. Just look at the idea I drew above.......which took an hour. I do these all the time and call them "design charrettes". And don't think I have a horse in your race as I only do these locally, face to face, and I'm plenty busy with the locals anyway (some I even reference here!). In lieu of doing another big retype here's a coupla threads that explain those: Not my first post here but the photo heavy one further down. In the charrette photo that's me pen in hand with the builder flanked by the owners (and from the photo you can see I'm a piano player too). http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3178541/question-for-architectrunnerguy-or-others?n=24 And a colleague of mine wrote the process up in his blog http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/design-in-a-day/ And again Sunny, the best of luck with your build....See MoreHouseofsticks
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