Thanks! We have a trailer but don't stay there full time yet. The two smaller 8x8 sheds are cat and dog houses, one for the 4 cats and one for the two dogs( 75lb golden/lab and a 120lb Great Pyrenees). The 12x16 shed is the power building that holds the generator, batteries and inverters. Here is a link that might be useful: Video of generator etc

It's not really what I would consider either Victorian or Farmhouse, more like Gothic Tudor, but it's nice. I called it Victorian because I live in a gold rush town and there are tons of houses labeled as Victorian that have the exact same exterior shape. The Gothic and Tudor influences are our own, although I have found examples of those styles incorporated into Victorians. I guess its all semantics in then end though. I think you'll end up wanting some type of overhang on the office windows, especially the south facing ones. IÂm so embarrassed, I put the direction arrow exactly backwards, it should be pointing the other direction! I didnÂt shade the office windows because they face north and west. who would want to stay cooped up in a bedroom? (Well, maybe a teenager) We do happen to have a teenager for that room, and IÂm sure guests will appreciate the view. When it gets decommissioned as a teenagers room it will probably be a library / sitting room, so a view will still be nice. OTOH, if you did move the bathroom, and replace the shower with a tub/shower to soak in, it seems like you'd have the perfect place to relax and enjoy the view. ;^) We have a big jetted tub in our current master bath and never use it. We plan on putting a wood fired hot tub in the roman ruins on the other side of the pond at some later date. ( no the ruins arenÂt there, yet ) I know you're off the grid, but do you have children? An 18 year old daughter who is there off and on, away at college and then back sometimes. or heirs that you care about? Saying we donÂt care would be a bit insensitive, but we arenÂt worried so much about it that it would affect our building decisions, we are building this house for us and nobody but us. Someday, you'll be gone and the home will go up for sale. No AC will mean no sale. If my wife and I are gone, other people can find their own way in life and not be mad at us for not wasting money on a planet destroying A/C system. Do you really think that A/C tech is going to stand still and HVAC systems in 50 years are going to in any way resemble what we have today? ItÂs impossible to look or plan that far into the future. Perhaps your design should anticipate eventual connection to the grid If IÂm generating all my own power, why would I want to connect to the grid? I hate utility lines so had them run underground 500 feet to my home site. Dig 1100+ feet of trenches and bury thousands of dollars of copper wire for some possible future eventuality?? I have a few swords and armor pieces of my own by the way. Cool! Ever put them to use? ⺠I think jedon is going for a stick style Victorian which this isn't too far off That is the closest Victorian style and we threw in some other touches as well. Thanks. Holy Hannah! Who told you that you could design a house? Why do I need someone to tell me what I can and canÂt do? This thing is horrendous! Our sense of aesthetics must differ, perhaps you could post some links of your own designs? the gothic windows(fighting with the other window style) There is only one gothic window and itÂs in a place where rectangular windows arenÂt visible close to it. Plenty of "pretty" buildings mix gothic and rectangular windows. Here is a shot of Notre Dame Cathedral http://www.bornemania.com/civ/gothic_architecture/notre-dame-front.jpg , OMG it has gothic arched windows right next to a big circular one and the doors are rectangular! EEEEEK! combined with tudor accents Victorian Stick Style, see above comment for link vaulted ceilings(which are one of the biggest offenders for inefficient heat usage) The house is highly insulated (R22), almost airtight, and compact. I have a virtually unlimited supply of firewood and a woodstove rated to heat 3000SF of "normal" house. I really donÂt think heat in the winter is going to be an issue. Keeping cool in the summer on the other hand is very important to me, thus the vaulted ceiling thermosyphon system with cross ventilation. The floor plan has major issues such as the placement of the pantry....why is it there? I roped off the plan onto the building site and tried it out, itÂs 5 steps from the kitchen to the pantry. There are lots of wall cabinets in the kitchen for often used items so the pantry can hold the full freezer and 50lb bags of stuff along with enough beer and wine for a protracted stay if we get snowed in. Why is there a window in the shower Because we like the light and to be able to gaze out onto our lovely property while we shower. The parcel is 97 acres, nobody can see you shower the washer and dryer in your office? ItÂs close to where we remove our clothes, the master bedroom and there was room there for it as opposed to downstairs where itÂs already cramped for space Is there a reason that there is a bedroom and bathroom next to the kitchen The home theater needed to be on the north west corner so it was in the least desirable place for looking out, the kitchen and dining and living rooms want to face the pond to the south as well as the view of the 300ft cliffs. That pretty much only left that corner for the bedroom and bathroom and since a small bathroom doesnÂt need nice views, the bedroom went in that corner. and why have you placed all those beams on the ceiling? Because it looks nice and also to hang a pot holder off of etc. It will look a bit different when we actually build it, hard to get everything looking just right but if you look in books and magazines you will find a whole lot of kitchens with beams. I don't know what a construction advisor is but you should find a different one.....someone who will be honest with you about your plans and the need for some professional design advice. We went and looked at the houses our construction advisor has built and they were very nice. He loves the design and would like to live there himself. It's "purple polka dots" time! What a luxury!! pinktoes, you have hit the nail on the head! If bellamay doesnÂt like this place, wait till he seeÂs the castle! SHEESH JEDON! YouÂre just not following the program! (the nerve!) what next...no cultured stone? No 3 car garage? No two-story entrance foyer? No 2,000 sf master bath? No butlers pantry? How do you expect to move in 5 years??? If you keep spreading these kind of ideas, people might actually think they can design a house for.....(dont freak)...themselves! HONESTLY!. Now there is someone who understands where we are coming from! This is our final resting place. Even if it isnÂt it will be a special person who would want to buy our project anyway, no matter what we build first. I donÂt care about resale value at all and there are no home owners association rules etc so we can do as we please. jedon: Are you getting the kind of input you want here? I have gotten some good feedback and ideas, as well as the input from people who donÂt really understand our situation or aesthetic vision but I have a thick skin. I'm not wild about the idea of the laundry in the office space. I think I would find that distracting. I used to have the laundry downstairs but it took too much room away from the pantry, and the clothes would just have to be carted up and down the stairs anyway so it made sense to put it upstairs. I agree that it could be distracting, I'll be sure to put extra sound deadening material in the floors and walls of the laundry room to help with that. Check with your local code guys - if you have them where you're building - on the suicide doors on the upper floor. Make sure what you want will be something that passes inspection before you actually get started. Same with the upper landing of the stairs. It's looks kinda tight as you have it drawn. The drafter and I were trying some different ideas to try and make the landing larger but nothing worked out nicely. Thanks for the tip about code, I'll ask about that. My personal preference would be to create a mudroom/laundry area in the currently drawn pantry space. My wife really wants a large pantry, since we are a couple hours away from places like Costco it will be good to be able to buy in bulk and stock up. Our mudroom will be the huge porch ⺠My suggestion for the downstairs bedroom and bathroom I had a version where the show was where the closet is now, that worked great for the bathroom but really cut into the bedroom area since I then had to put the closet jutting into the bedroom. I donÂt disagree that that bed/bath area is a little less than optimal but the space limitations really make it difficult. I like your version but without a good place for the closet itÂs not doable. If the kitchen beams are suspended below the ceiling Sorry, in the rendering the beams are actually a foot lower than the ceiling but that was not on purpose, I had raised the ceiling height from 8' to 9' and hadn't moved the beams up yet. still make sure you have a good lighting plan in order to avoid creating aggravating shadows in the kitchen workspace. The kitchen will have a combination of spot task lighting, 4' fluorescent area lighting and ambient LED lighting. I've tried to give a lot of thought to lighting since I know it can play a pivotal role in the aesthetics and mood of the house but of course that doesn't really show on the plans since I haven't done most of the electrical schedule yet. Actually, if you're willing to make the room smaller you could back a standard 24" deep closet up against the bath wall. That room is already pretty small. I did try and have the closet in the room but it was taking up too much room and looked awful. Even that 3x3 closet isn't enough, there will be a armoire in there in addition. don't think many things are an issue for Jedon, including guests. Hehe that's true for sure! Jedon, why are there two doors to the home theater? hmm you have a point there, the entrance by the foot of the stairs was there first and I added the other door later, I didn't even think of removing it. I'll try taking that out and see how it works, thanks. Are you planning on having operable gothic windows Due to the high cost of custom windows the one remaining gothic window in the master bedroom will be a fixed glass window. The vaulted area in the living/dining room area will be vented by the clerestory awning windows. Maybe we could use a fan to pull the hot air out of the master bedroom vault. Is there a passive solar reason that your kitchen is up front or is this your personal preference? We wanted the views of the meadow and pond from the kitchen as well as morning sun to make it seem light and cheery. Perhaps I need to learn more about passive solar in order to understand your plan. Do you have any recommendations on where to start? This article mentions some of the guidelines for passive solar with regards to heat: http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/121/cool The things I tried to pay most attention to were: Lots of insulation - SIP panels R22, Cross ventilation, Low-E double pane windows, covered porch around the south and east sides of the house shading most of the windows on those sides, having a garden around the house and using thermosyphon theory to allow cold air to be pulled from the lower windows filtered through the plants and exiting through the high clerestory awning windows. I think if you would reduce all those beams over the kitchen and have more in the living room, you'd get something that looks like authentic timber frameing. I would love to put more timbers throughout the house, we'll see what the budget allows. I do think the 3D view doesn't accurately reflect what we will have in the kitchen, it will probably be some larger beams mixed with smaller beams and not look quite so domineering The columns that support the porches seem too thin The program automatically generated those, since part of the porch has a second story porch I bet the engineer will specify some larger timbers there.

After a long day of rearranging the LR, hooking up electronics, and being w/o phone/ internet service, I am back!!!! Parma - that's exactly what I envision. Since I do sweep fairly regularly I want to find a real handmade broom to keep in the corner in the kitchen. I'm sure that DS1 would call it mommy's witches broom! Martha Stewart did a segment on handmade brooms one time and I wish I'd have paid more attention. And old flooring - I think the more aged, worn and dinged up it is the better for me! Stinky - Gardener (Great name) -I've actually been buying stuff here and there and packing it away for a few yrs. now. The house that we live in is Victorian on the inside but I've known the house we are moving to for a long time and it's more in line w/ our simple comfort level. There's no way that our current bedroom style would work in the other house but I am very happy w/ it and yrs. down the road I'm sure that it too will morph into a French Country Farmhouse style. For now I just want to enjoy the finished product. Tish - that sounds perfect, European Farmhouse! I will def. have to google that term and see what pops up. I'm thinking that Shabby Chic look too but w/ way less cottage & flower prints and a lot more farm and durability! Kmcg - thank you very much for the link. Guess what I'll be doing during downtime at work today after all of my work is finished?! Polly - that sounds so pretty - hopefully you will opst some pics anyways despite living through a reno. A real nice thing about GW here is that we've seen pics of eachother's homes at their worst. One of my favorite threads was one where everybody had to go take a picture of their kitchen in the moment and post it. It was great to see kitchens in their 'disaray state' that were typically posted after having been 'staged' for their GW photo op.! I really want DR chairs w/ rush seats and a farmhouse table but DH is so attached to his grandmother's fancy set that I don't even want to suggest it. Ronbre - both of your homes sound very lovely. I can see where it would be tough to decorate in the exact same manner after such a horrible event. I'd love to see pics of the man room and your MBR. Tina - right now I have much of the hardwired stuff packed away like my chandeliers and sconces. Most of it I'd pick up at deep discounts when I worked at Bombay. Our storage rm. was laid out so poorly that items would get stuck in the most hidden spots and forgotten about until I'd rip the place apart and find things that had been there for yrs. My 2 favorite chandies were only $59. Currently I visit them in my attic and peek in the boxes and dream. I didn't want to hang them all and then have to turn around and take them down to sell this house and put all of the original stuff back up. If things pan out alright I will take pics of the LR after I have some more stuff done. I def. have to paint again. When DH moved all of the entertainment stuff I forgot that I hadn't painted behind it all. There's a big bright blue patch! I'd also like to pick up a ceiling fan and paint out the ceiling after 9 yrs. here. There are just wires hanging from the ceiling now. Someone here had recently posted a photo of their Baby Turtle walls and Limestone ceiling and it was so gorgeous so I am going to follow suit and do the same.

I collect abstract nudes. I usually commission about half a dozen pieces a year. I never give the artist details of what I want, I just say I prefer it to not be easily distinguished as a nude. I never give any other input, exactly because of the Death of Expertise comment. I don't want the best painting I could do, I want the artists interpretation of that. This is the exact opposite of The Death of Expertise, it is the fact that I don't know how to describe what may come of setting the artist free and trusting in him to develop something, it means I am not willing to subjugate his expertise to my limited understanding. The Death of Expertise isn't about knowing the right words, it is about recognizing that there is value in not being an expert and admitting you are not an expert. However, the experts still have to be willing to accept that limit also. ----------------- Graves, one of the architects who started the whole idea said it was about innovate from tradition, which I think is an apt description. If I say to an architect, I want a contemporary house that is influenced by the traditional farmhouses in the surrounding area. Suppose we then discuss what I want for size and rooms and then set him free, to let his expertise design something that I couldn't. Isn't that better than walking in and saying I want a "Colonial Revival" home, because I, who haven't studied architecture, should tell you, who have studied architecture, exactly what I want you to do. --------------- The tragedy here is that you are using the entire point of The Death of Expertise exactly backwards! You are using it to defend the idea that people who know a little bit (the proper name to a house style) replacing the expertise of people who are actually educated in home design. If anything Dr. Nichols would strongly advocate for using the improper words and letting the architect use his expertise to develop the home. ---------------- ETA: Maybe I completely missed the point as I am too entrenched in my own circumstances. But much of this thread seems to be a different flavor of the "I am better than you, because...."