skip to main content

Building a Home

Dream home-pics and plans suggestions?

16 years ago

Well I think I have finally found an idea of what I want for our future build. I love the porch and mixture of painted brick and stone. We are going to change a few things when we go to our draftsman but I'd love to hear other ideas before we do that. Our exterior will be either painted brick or Boral Brick pastelcote. I love the buff color but haven't seen it on a real house yet. Very European I think. Bring on the suggestions! Have I mentioned how much I love this site?

Comments (10)

allison0704
16 years ago
Somebody else here had picked this house to build - I recognize the last photograph.

That said, I love it. Boral brick and the Pastelcote is used a lot in my area.

These are things I would consider:

I would make the porch of breakfast area more breakfast room area. With the screened porch, you probably won't sit on this one often. Unless you are going to use it for a grill.

Delete the porch and door entry from the laundry room.

In our last home, we only had a back stairway going up. I would rethink having two staircases, maybe keeping the front one - powder room can become another pantry for bulk items when it is moved to the back stair area. Looks tiny.

Upstairs, change the loft to a bathroom so that the middle bedroom can be large and use the moved bathroom area as a walk-in closet. Or keep the middle bedroom closet where it is and their bathroom can be larger. Or if you keep the loft and delete the back staircase, the loft will be larger.

If you leave the baths as is, at least put fixtures back to back in those two baths. This will save dollars and you really don't want to put plumbing on outside walls unless you have too. Same with left bedroom bath - move plumbing to the interior wall.
saskatchewan_girl
16 years ago
Hi,
I just stubbled on the new home site while lurking for bathroom ideas........normally I'm on the kitchen forum : )
Just so you know, I have no experience with building a new home but I have renovated 2, with plans to build some day !
While looking at the pics you posted, I think the outside photo is absolutely gorgeous and I do like the more pastel earth tones shown.
With the main floor the first thing that I wondered was that is seems a long way to the DR from the kitchen if you plan to have most of your meals there. I like the BFnook but I would also enlarge it using the covered porch space, also I'd put in large (4) french doors on the side of the BFnook windows and take out the door leading outside from the laundry room.
Same with the MBR, I would utilize the large windows to put in large french doors there too and not have the smaller one off the side, which would be very nice especially if you had a Hot Tub on the side of the large porch. Mmmmm.........hot tub; )
A mud room would be important to me especially with children, so I'm not sure if that would matter with your family at this time.
I agree with the above post about the upstairs rooms. I'd prefer 2 larger bedrooms with larger closets and not have the 2nd set of stairs but a large bathroom with double sinks etc. Maybe you could incorporate a laundry shoot/lift to the upstairs also........that would be so convenient : P....
I realize that there are different trends in different areas of the Country and more from Country to Country but it's just my Canadian 0.02 cents worth. All in all I think it's beautiful and you should tweak it to your liking/satisfaction.
Related Discussions
front landscape plan- need suggestions- pics included
Q
Comments (11)
I like the contrast between Limelight Hydrangea (which gets tall) and the Knockouts. I have several Knockouts and they are great plants requiring no care plus they bloom their heads off. I'd just suggest being careful of the Limelight in front of that window. How far out from the foundation will you plant it? Judging by the color of your car in front, your house is more grey than tan, right? So, in my opinion, you need more color contrast in the overall design. You might want to look at shrubs with different stem color or leaf color to stand out against the house. I wouldn't suggest specific plants unless I knew what kind of sun your front yard gets. Did I read your plan correctly --- there are lilacs on each side of the front entrance? Do you know what kind they are and how tall they grow? Lilacs are wonderful but can become huge. I know there are smaller, longer blooming varieties and wonder if these are what you have. I agree with the poster who said the beds need to be more substantial --- deeper.The peak on the left is quite tall and would be 'balanced' with larger planting bed in front of it. FInally, please don't plant a tree where it will block the view of the front door or the windows on the left. I think the inviting front entrance and porch are two of the nicest features of your lovely home! Molie
...See More
I think I found my dream home! (pic and questions)
Q
Comments (29)
I was in exactly your situation two years ago. We weren't really looking, but then found a house that was unique (it had won a major architecural award), and was perfect for us. And we knew it was not going to stay on the market long. We put in a full-price bid contingent on selling our house, and lost out to someone who made a full-price offer with no contingency. A week later our realtor called and told us the successful bidder had left the country on a business trip, and had not completed the deal before leaving. The seller was willing to cancel the winning offer and let us have it...if we went with no contingency. We decided to say 'yes,' even though we did not have our own house on the market. The only saving feature was that the house was being leased and the lease had 3 months to run before we had to close. We put our house on the market on November 1st and got an offer in the first week...that fell through. We got another offer in December...that fell through. We moved into the new house in January, with our old house still on the market. Even though the market was hotter 2 years ago, Thanksgiving, Xmas, and the first months of the year are not a good time to try to be selling. To make a long story short, it took 2-1/2 months after we moved to sell our old home, and it only sold because we agreed to come down in price by about 8%. Fortunately, we had no mortgage on the old home, but all of our equity was tied up until we sold. We had to take out a humongous interest-only bridge loan, and had about $2300 going out the door in payments each month for the privilege of owning two houses. In addition, we had utility payments and property taxes to pay for both houses, and had to drive across town to check on the old one a couple of times a week to clean up muddy footprints, clean sinks that had been used and left dirty, lock doors that had been left unlocked, and turn down the heat that had been cranked up. So how do we feel in retrospect? Great! We are really glad we did it, and still love the new house. It was nerve-wracking to have a huge (temporary) mortgage that we had to pay for out of savings, and it was annoying to have to keep checking up on the old house. But it was worth it. As long as you know what you might be getting into, go for it. Just have a backup plan. If the seller doesn't take a contingency offer, are you prepared to make another offer that's not contingent? (You could make an offer that is not contingent, but gives a closing date several months off.) And how long are you able to handle having two houses, both financially and emotionally?
...See More
House plan design (suggestions/advice)??
Q
Comments (8)
I love how much storage you have planned into the house. Good storage really seems to make a house seem bigger. I am jealous of the laundry room. I agree it would make sense to have the laundry plumbing and the bathroom plumbing in the same wall. It looks like you have two doors into the storage room. This will reduce your wall space available for shelves. So you should consider whether the second entrance is worth the reduction in storage, depends on how you will use it. The 3 doors in the office will also limit furniture placement. You might sketch furniture into each room to give you an idea of traffic flows and size of rooms. In the kitchen you might consider moving the refrigerator to the bottom end of the counter. It seems to interrupt the flow between sink and range. The dining room room looks like it will only fit a 4-6 person table, which maybe plenty big for the two of you but would be something to consider. It does seem small in comparison to the great room, even at the smaller 22x26 size. At 22x36 it is bigger than my current house (with 4 people, a 100 lb dog and 2 cats) : ) Maybe the dining room could move into some of the current great room space and the spare bedroom could move to where the dining room currently is? You could consider having the dining and living areas mostly open to each other, this would allow each to expand into the other if you need a bit more space. That depends on how you feel about open living spaces. With the bedroom gone the stairs and foyer could shift to the left to make room for the spare room closet. That would depend on how important the stair location is for upstairs layout. That could also simplify your footprint possibly saving you some money. You could also get rid of that one small jog in the foundation meets the laundry room, it doesn't seem to add much. Looks like you have a good start on the design process. What's upstairs? Downstairs seems like a very nice space to me all on its own.
...See More
New home, big backyard (see pics), vegetable bed location suggestions?
Q
Comments (6)
In general, landscape design looks at the clients' needs and wishes for the property as a whole and the creates a design that then meets as many of those as possible in the most pleasing way. Other than the sheds and the veggie garden, how do you want to use the yard? To my mind, that needs to be answered before any real plans are made. Is privacy (fence) more important than the veggies? Does it need to be there year round, or is privacy only really important in the summer when you will be outside more? Do you want a large open space for games or running around in the center? How much shade is there over the course of the day along the chain link or in other spots of the yard such as along the deck? Do you want a "pretty" yard or a kid-friendly yard or is the growing of food more of a priority or are they all of equal priority? Where will you be most likely to walk or drive and so will need to be left open? Where is water available, and would you be able to add hose bibs in other spots as needed? Do you want afternoon shade for the deck or other areas, and would you be more likely to plant a tree, or add a structure such as an arbor or shade sail? What other wishes do you have for the yard? As others have said, the more sun, the more successful the veggie and fruit beds will be, so too close to the sheds and the nearby solid fence which will provide shade should be avoided. You also will want to change your grouping/way of thinking about the plants from culinary to cultivation. Melons, like all your veggies, are annual plants, while most other "fruits" you have listed are perennials. The annuals and perennials each should have a planting area so that when clearing out and replanting annuals each year you aren't disturbing the perennial plants. The strawberries will need renewing every few years while each of the the shrubs and vines, which are fairly permanent, have different maintenance needs, and so should be planted in separate areas. If you grow herbs, some are annuals and some perennials. Consider overall goals and how else you will use your yard to help determine the best spot for the veggie beds. For instance, if you want the center of the yard left open, then think about putting your food plants along the chain link instead of a fence since it looks like it gets good sun. Or is the solid fence important enough the you should stockpile your soil for now or make temporary beds and then when the fence has been added, create the beds and plant food crops? Could you use the berry bushes and kiwi vines for your privacy instead of a solid fence? They are deciduous, so wouldn't be great for winter privacy. You would need to leave room between the shrubs and the chain link for accessing the vines. Fruit plants don't need as close access as herbs or veggies since fruit tends to be picked in chunks, while veggies tend to get harvested for particular meals, so think about putting the veggies and herbs closer to the house where there is easy access from the kitchen. Would you want veggies as a border around the deck, or does that either not fit the plants' needs or your wishes? So create a list of uses and priorities for the yard as a whole (swimming pool? play structure? bocce court? badminton net? trash can storage? etc, etc), prioritize them, and then start thinking about placement. You have already made one big decision, the shed size and placement, and so before making others, I would stop, step back and look at the yard overall. Take some time over the next growing season to look at sun and shade patterns (if you map sun as it changes from the vernal equinox until the summer solstice, you will have a good grasp on how it will look but in reverse for the rest of the growing season) as well as wind before planting anything permanent if successful cultivation of food crops is a priority. Once you have a good handle on growing conditions and your overall goals for the yard, then you will have a better idea of where is the ideal placement for each of the various uses you have for your yard.
...See More
jeannekay
16 years ago
I agree that I'd incorporate that loft into the bedrom. 9x7 is tiny, it won't be useful for much of anything at that size. If I ever had a 2 story house I always wanted 2 staicases so I can't knock that aspect though. Maybe combine the 2 baths upstairs too unless it's necessary for them to be separate and not share a tub or something. I posted on your cubbies thread about moving the powder bath.
ideamom
16 years ago
I heard that you were looking for me a few weeks ago regarding that house. That is the house we will build whenever the real estate market improves and we sell our home. However, we had the interior changed quite a bit to better suit our needs/wants but the exterior basically remained the same. It is a beautiful home and I can't wait to build it! The house plans are all ready and waiting!
nanner10
15 years ago
I have very fond memories of my two brothers, my standard poodles, the cat and me gleefully chasing each other up the back staircase, down the long upstairs hall and down the front stairs of the circa 1900 house we grew up in! No wonder that kids back then were rarely overweight, LOL!

Nice house!!
che1sea
15 years ago
I would disagree on getting rid of the loft it is a perfect little nook for the kids to have a little play area in or a built in homework station or even a small "office" (desk) or reading nook. I would find something more fun to do with a nice little space like that.

I don't have too many other suggestions at the moment because your master suite is almost as big as the whole first floor of my house (current and the one I want to build) so it all looks way too big to me :) lol
Phobie Privett
15 years ago
Looks BEAUTIFUL! Someone mentioned a mudroom area...we have a similar setup, where you walk into the house from the garage and the laundry room is on the left. To the right, we had our carpenter build a "mud bench", with room for shoes underneath, places for coats to hang, and a spot to sit. It has been the "dumping area" that we couldn't live without. You could incorporate one on the angled wall of that 1/2 bath.

That said, I've always loved that house. Seen it many times while searching for my own. Good luck!
missstaceyh
Original Author
15 years ago
Wow! Thanks for bringing this topic back to life nanner10! We are still in the early stages of building our dream home. We purchased a lot and are getting our house ready to sell. We have a FOR SALE sign in the yard but have not advertised yet. We did take the original plans to a draftsman. We have an initial set but are meeting him again to tweak it some more. Somehow it ended up being over 5000 sq ft-YIKES! I do not want to pay for that or clean it! I can't wait to be able to post our plans for all of your expert advice. We are having a mud room. We kept the 2 staircases, I love that! We dropped the screened porch and will have a nice sized patio out back. We kept the loft and added a bonus room over the garage. DH has 3 car garage-more space for his man tools! :) I'll keep everyone posted!
learn_as_i_go
15 years ago
I really love this style of home. We've been looking for something like this. Can you or someone please provide the source for this homeplan? We'd be very grateful. Thank you!
missstaceyh
Original Author
15 years ago
I found it on www.dreamhomesource.com

Sign Up to Comment

Related Stories

LIFE Inviting Kids Into the Kitchen: Suggestions for Nurturing Cooks

By Alison Hodgson

Imagine a day when your child whips up dinner instead of complaining about it. You can make it happen with this wisdom

HOUSEKEEPING 7-Day Plan: Get a Spotless, Beautifully Organized Bedroom

By Laura Gaskill

Create a sanctuary where you can relax and dream without the nightmare of lurking messes

WORKING WITH PROS How to Find Your Renovation Team

By Erin Carlyle

Take the first steps toward making your remodeling dreams a reality with this guide

REMODELING GUIDES Create a Master Plan for a Cohesive Home

By Rock Paper Hammer

Ensure that individual projects work together for a home that looks intentional and beautiful. Here's how

REMODELING GUIDES 6 Steps to Planning a Successful Building Project

By Ventana Construction LLC

Put in time on the front end to ensure that your home will match your vision in the end

MOST POPULAR How to Refine Your Renovation Vision to Fit Your Budget

By Erin Carlyle

From dream to done: When planning a remodel that you can afford, expect to review, revise and repeat

TASTEMAKERS 'The Collected Home' Offers a Wealth of Design Tips

By Becky Harris

From planning to decorating, the father of 'new traditionalist' style dishes out scads of design suggestions you might never have considered

LAUNDRY ROOMS Luxury of Space: Designing a Dream Laundry Room

By Elements of Style

Plan with these zones and amenities in mind to get a laundry room that takes function and comfort to the max

REMODELING GUIDES Plan Your Home Remodel: The Design and Drawing Phase

By Bud Dietrich, AIA

Renovation Diary, Part 2: A couple has found the right house, a ranch in Florida. Now it's time for the design and drawings

OUTDOOR KITCHENS How to Cook Up Plans for a Deluxe Outdoor Kitchen

By Jennifer Christgau-Aquino

Here’s what to think about when designing your ultimate alfresco culinary space

Sponsored

MCR ROMERO WORK LLC

Innovative & Creative General Contractors Servicing Franklin County

More Discussions

Composite Decking? Photos?

3

Does this tile and slab compete?

96

What splurges in square footage do you love about your home?

2

What type of siding should I use on our house?

18

Please critique my floorplan

14