Opinions please- Hemlock Springs house plan

11 years ago

I think I've finally found a good side to my current house not selling...having the time to browse the internet, which resulted in finding this little gem which just may be "IT"!

I'm curious to see your opinions- any glaring issues that I'm overlooking? I want to put one more bedroom and a full guest bath on the first floor- will probably slide them in between the master and living rooms.

Will rework the kitchen to make it more traditional- don't need or want that huge window/door or breakfast station, and will extend the island back to the sink.

The only thing I see "wrong" is the lack of a powder room by the breezeway entrance, and I think I can live with that.

Having pictures of an actual house helps! :) (Although I really dislike the overly decorated rooms.)

LOVE the retreat room upstairs! I'd love to keep all the porches, but they're a little excessive- probably will delete 50% of them.

Anything I'm missing? What do you think of this plan?

(And just in case someone is interested, there's a smaller version of this plan called the Douglas Pointe on Stephen Fuller's website.)

Here is a link that might be useful: Pictures of Hemlock Springs

Featured Answer

virgilcarter

11 years ago

This plan is one of the few house factory plans that has given thought to the design and appearance of each exterior face of the house. All sides have a pleasant variety of projecting and receeding planes, and avoid the boredom, massiveness of unbroken planar walls and the inherent large, bulky roof masses that go with such walls. If you "square-off" any of the elevations you will be losing what makes this plan special and appealing.

Builders will tell you that you will pay more for more corners. What they won't tell you is the price you will pay for a visually boring and uninspiring "box" house!

The revised kitchen with the enlarged island looks very large to me, causing a lot of walking and travel, since the kitchen "triangle" is so interrupted. I hope your feet, legs and back are such that excessive walking on hard surfaces with hot and cold items is not a problem.

Your revised garage is located too close to the house for access to one of the garage bays. Turning it the way you have means: 1) it will have to be placed further from the house than the original plan; 2) your garage doors will be a major visible element from the front of the house and be what guests and visitors see, since the doors will be so large and numerous as to catch and hold one's eye. Garage doors are always the single largest item on the elevation of any house. More so with triple garages! It will be better design to return to the original plan configuration and hide the garage doors from view from the front of the house.

Adding the bedroom and bath on the first floor results in a much longer corridor and "tunnel" from one end of the house to the other. Is this of concern?

Finally, the stair is highly decorative and will be a major visual feature when using the dining room. Does such a stair work for your style of living? It will be beautiful, but quite expensive.

Good luck with your project!

Comments (11)

kelhuck
Original Author
11 years ago
Changes I'd like to make....

{{gwi:1512779}}
gaonmymind
11 years ago
Have you watched the videos of it?
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The kitchen and bathrooms seem to be stuffed into dark spaces with no elbow room in order to create a large LR and MBR. It's like something out of the 50's with some walls removed, more like a renovation than a new house. For instance, the MBR lavs should have their centers at least 18" off the wall to be able to brush teeth comfortably and the toilet compartment should be larger or have a window. If you live in the South with no children perhaps hooks on the wall would be adequate off the garage but not in the North with children. Without knowing something about your family and climate I wouldn't know where to begin with suggestions but I would let some light into the house in any case.
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I think I'd turn the office's door towards the foyer. It'd be more private that way. Secondary bedrooms look good, but both of their baths could use work: One has only a minimal vanity/sink -- no space for storage. This bathroom has no storage space -- no space for a hamper, barely space for a trash can. The other is trying to house two sinks in a too-small vanity; you really need at least 6' for two sinks to fit comfortably. I'd say make the mud room another 2' wider . . . so you can have shelves, lockers, or something else on the wall shared with the pantry. The storage would be very useful in that spot. Do you have a door from the mudroom /pantry area straight into the entryway? I can't quite tell, but I think you ought to have a door through that way. You don't want to be forced to circle through the kitchen if you want to enter the house and come straight towards the bedrooms. Note, too, that without such a door, you'd have to carry laundry through the kitchen and down the mudroom hall -- you're going to want a more direct route. Does the breezeway serve any function other than joining the house and the garage? I mean, I've seen some breezeways that also hold a couple chairs for reading . . . or whatever. The kitchen is large, but it's too choppy --- your work areas are divided from one another by walkways. I would want a pass-through between the kitchen and the pantry. If you're picking up lots of cans, or if you're moving lots of home canned goods into the pantry, you're not going to want to walk around that corner multiple times. Nice dining room and nice great room. Your plumbing is really spread across the whole house. This will be very expensive to install, and more plumbing lines = more opportunity for leaks in the future. You have three doors leading out to the back porch -- and two of them are within a few feet of one another. I'd cut out one of these. If you keep the one in the dining room, I'd consider making it a slider (take a look at the new sliders -- they're nothing like their 1970s counterparts) because a slider wouldn't interfere with the dining room table placement. Front porches usually end up being "just for show". As a result, I'd eliminate the steps on the sides. I can't imagine they'll be used much, and I'd save that money. This post was edited by MrsPete on Mon, Nov 3, 14 at 23:17
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Honestly, I am not falling for either on first sight. However, on first glance, I like the first plan linked above (pid=2592) -- except that I do not like the entry for Master BR from the Great Room. The porch behind the kitchen might never be used -- it has access from utility room and screened porch. Not easily accessible via main living areas. I'd try to make that entrance into MBR somehow from the foyer side (even though that might mean losing the study area). Also kitchen being of a trapezoidal shape is not something I can understand....why not make the kitchen just rectangle when it's possible? Plan #2 completely threw me in terms of its odd angles and all. But then I'm an urban dweller used to rectangular small lots with rectangular deep houses.
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Shawn, it sounds to me like you have a pretty good handle on what your needs are, and how you will live in your new house. That is the important information you need to bring to your architect. The more detail you can provide on your needs, desires, and lifestyle, the more quickly the architect can provide a draft plan that will work for you. Just reading through this thread, you have highlighted many important wishes. A good architect will ask lots of questions to help pin down your needs and wants even further (because it's impossible to think of everything at once, when we've never done it before). One thing to keep in mind - you've put a lot of time and energy into your plans, and an architect may come back with a design that looks nothing like yours. Please keep an open mind, and ask they why things are laid out a certain way. You may be very surprised at how well a different plan may suit your family! Another thing to remember is that your kids are going to grow up fast. It sounds like your children are fairly young; as teenagers, their needs will change dramatically. Plan now for them to have space away from the living room to hang out with their friends. Good luck!
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kirkhall
11 years ago
What is your budget?
It seems a little too bumpy of a foundation/roofline, though that is just an observation since I am not really in the know about those sorts of things.

though, if you are missing the powder near the side entrance, it might "square up" the plan and foundation to tuck one in between kitchen and hallway--pushing kitchen back to even with the FR, for example.
kelhuck
Original Author
11 years ago
@ga- oh yes! :) Over and over! Like I said, I'm not overly fond of the decorative choices made in the model home, but I think the layout is great and would fit well with my country/rustic tendencies.

@kirkhall- I'd be curious to know if the bumps are excessive, as well. Though it looks like I could probably even most of them out without affecting the overall layout too much.

It's definitely a long "skinny" plan, but I like that because I'll have lots of light streaming thru the house throughout the day. And it would fit well with our land, sitting on a West-East axis and facing due south.
kelhuck
Original Author
11 years ago
@virgil- I appreciate your response! You've pointed out issues that I've been struggling with the last couple of days.

The longer corridor- yes, I'm not a fan of that, and I'm hesitant of what it will do visually to the exterior. I want it there for an elderly relative or handicapped friend to have a place to sleep. Perhaps I should look in to elevators, instead. Hubby and I are debating this.

You're completely right about the corners. I like the elevation and the little nooks the corners provide. We're going to keep them.

Regarding the stair- do you mean it will be expensive because of the structure itself (lack of wall support, I presume) or (assuming you looked at the pictures) were you referring to the cut-out spindles the architect designed? It's one of the first things I fell in love with, so I'm thinking it's going to have to stay as designed, but with different spindles.

The garage is actually supposed to be angled on my modified version, but I can't angle it with Paint. However, I'm definitely not a fan of garages-with-a-house-attached, so we'll be really weighing the pros and cons of the set up.

Thanks for your remarks!!
kelhuck
Original Author
11 years ago
Oh shoot- forgot the kitchen! (Really need an edit function for these posts!) If we end up with this plan, I'll have the kitchen forum help me figure out how to set it up. I don't like the range being on the wall away from everything, but I really want double ovens, so I'm not sure how to arrange everything. I do like the long island- we entertain a lot so I can see it being filled up with dishes and a long line of people filling up their plates, buffet-style. Goal #1 is a big kitchen with lots of natural light!!
Lisa Bear99
7 years ago
Kelhuck, I realize this is an old thread, but we're looking at building this house (or some iteration of it) and I am curious whether you did build it and how it went. I love the look of this house and have it in my mind that if we go forward with it, I'm going to go very simple with the interior, agreeing with comments re: the decor (too busy for my taste, stuffy)....
soundofsilence
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
Hi LisaBear99! We ended up bring relocated, so we didn't get the chance
to build. Every once in a while I get nostalgic and always come back
to this house and dream about what could have been! :) If you do end
up building it, I'd love to see how it turns out for you! Good luck!
(Edited to add: my username changed.....)
Lisa Bear99
7 years ago
Awww, thanks for the reply, Soundofsilence. I sure know how that goes, the moving..heck..the nostalgia, too! :>) I will share pics if we go that route. Thanks again
mrssparre
2 months ago
Hi LisaBear99! Even though i see your post is 7 years old, i thought i would reach out, because i am about to build this plan. Did you ever build it?

Opinions please- Hemlock Springs house plan

virgilcarter

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