New Build Floorplan, timberframe house, input appreciated

9 years ago

So I’m yet another person looking for input on a
floorplan. If you can get through the
short novel below, I’d appreciate opinions on my questions.

Background: Married couple, no kids, 1 dog. We both work
from home. We live in a nice low-cost rural area, and over the years have
acquired land so we can build our “dream” house. Our dream house is “not so big,” although we
think our goal of under 2500 sq feet is still pretty large (especially for only
two people most of the time. We currently live in 900 sq ft, although after so
many years, we’re bursting at the seams and are really looking forward to a
little more room). Our dream house is also a timberframe. The extra expense is
easily worth it to us. We have been searching for the right house plan/design
for years, but have not found the right design for our taste and the site until
earlier this year. After years of being frustrated with poor designs (often
with a lot of wasted space), we even hired an architect last year, figuring we’d
swallow the cost, and get something really good. That’s not what happened, and
we went back to the drawing board on our own.

The plan we’ve picked is a modification of one that’s been
done before.

Here is the original house, http://www.mywoodhome.com/floor-plans/lakewood#prettyPhoto

(ignore the style/colors/ etc, stylistically our house will
be different than shown. The wood beams and wood paneled ceiling of the
interior will be the same).

On our site, the house will face generally south. The
approach to the house is from the south. The long range views are to the
north-west, of mountains up to about 30 miles away. The property is quite a few acres, with the
house located very privately, so the rest of the views are of the woods.

Here is our modification.

The modification allows for views from the office of both
the mountains to the north west, and the approach to the house from the south.
We also get those same views from the upstairs “master” bedroom over the office,
which is what we wanted. We also want to try and see the approach to the house
from the kitchen.

Our goal was less than 2500 sq ft, as that is a palace for
us, and I don’t want to clean more than that. This plan right now is 2600,
which is ok, but this thing cannot get any bigger. Most of the living is on the
first floor, all one level. The upstairs has 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, and a small loft area. Foundation is a crawlspace, no basement.

Questions:

Garage placement: In the original version of this house, the
garage was at a right angle to the house to fit a particular lakeside lot. We have
plenty of space, and the house faces south, so we do not want the garage
blocking the south side of the house. We’d like the garage on the east of the house.
The way it’s drawn is certainly functional, but I’m not sure it’s the nicest to
look at. I’m willing to sacrifice aesthetic concerns to have it attached
however.

Mudroom: We would like a rather large mudroom and storage
area. (We have an unreasonable amount of gear for various outdoor hobbies we’d
like to keep in climate controlled conditions). The as drawn version is just a
placeholder, but I’m not sure how big to make the mudroom, or how to design a
really functional layout that maximizes storage. The mudroom also houses a small ½ bath, and
space for the hot water heater. The washer and dryer will initially go
upstairs, but the mudroom needs a spot that can be converted back to allow the
laundry to go in the mudroom for future 1 floor living.

First floor full bath: The room labelled as the office is
intended to be a future master suite (again, future one floor living, and easier
re-sale in case we move, although we intend to stay for many years). Since we
both work from home, we decided that while we are young enough, we’d rather
have the office on the first floor, and sleep in one of the two upstairs
bedrooms. That makes the most sense for
how we live now. However, there aren’t any en-suite bathrooms, and I’d really
like to lay out that first floor bath in a way that makes a future master suite
make sense. The bath that’s there is ok,
but can it be better? Can it allow for more of an en-suite layout? Does it
allow for enough accessibility? (Wheelchair access, or future easier renovation
for wheelchair access).

Kitchen: cross posting in the kitchen forum, would really
like input on the kitchen layout.

Fire away! Thanks!

here are some timberframe pics for the flavor

Orcas Island Cabin · More Info

Fly Fishing Retreat · More Info

Henry Island · More Info

My Houzz: Rustic Summer Home in Heritage Community Trinity · More Info

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Comments (16)

Lavender Lass
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Lovely photos...I especially like the second one :)

Working with this photo...I'm really struck by how charming it is. Fireplace and windows dominate the room, but the furniture is cozy and the space is inviting.

In your plan, the great room does not seem as much of a destination as a way to get to other rooms. The fireplace is not centered and the TV seems to take center stage. There is no view out the back...just access to the porch.

So, I hope you don't mind...I made some changes. Just a few ideas :)

Also, what exactly is that little space in front of the kitchen....with the bench? And are the stairs kind of blocking the entrance into the great room?
Am E
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks lavender lass, I appreciate the time for the drawing.

“I'm really struck by how charming it is. Fireplace and
windows dominate the room, but the furniture is cozy and the space is inviting.”

+1. Yes. This is what we want to achieve somehow. I love the
balance in the photo of casual and formal (its not very formal). We are very casual people, and love
the charm of a “rustic” cabin, but want this house to be “nice” to some extent
as well. This is an inviting space that can be used, but isn't over rough either:)

I am thinking about your drawing, don’t have opinions yet,
here are some thoughts and explanations:

First, the views aren’t really directly to the north, the
views are more like this:

Maybe this is silly, but I kind of had a goal to be able to
sit on the couch, see the view out the window (it’s not a spectacular mountain
view, but it’s fairly long range), see the tv, and see the wood stove. (I’m not
sure why the wood stove isn’t centered, maybe it uses space better that way?)

On TVs: we’re one of those people who do not have TV
service, but do watch movies, and usually have a TV show (or sometimes two) (Netflix/hulu)
that we’ll watch a couple of time a week. (We’re actually between shows right
now, need to find a new one to watch). I do not place a high priority on hiding
the TV. I don’t care if its front and center with its audio system on full display.
That’s a major purpose for that room. Putting the TV against the stairs would
face all the seating away from the windows, but I’m not dismissing it just yet,
I’m still trying to think about what that would be like.

Yes, the stairs are sort of blocking the way to the great
room. I had not thought of it as a negative before, but I see your point. You
can walk from the entrance to the great room without going through the kitchen,
the bottom of the stairs is a 4-5ft landing space. It will look about like this:

The idea is a small entrance area that opens up to the great
room (smaller than shown above I think). I’m also abnormally disdainful of formal entrances on a lot of modern (er,
contemporary may be a better word) houses. (I think I am unusual in this, and
that’s fine). It’s an extra entrance to the
house that’s rarely used and wastes space. Often people have to walk out of their way from where they park their car to
get to the front door. One goal of ours was to try and make the front entrance
as useful as possible, and share circulation space somewhat with the entrance
we’ll actually use all the time in the garage. I’ve seen other plans that do
this more effectively than ours, but that goal got compromised to meet other
objectives. (The original plan does it a bit better). I do not want to devote a
lot of space to the formal entry.
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Just_janni thanks for your response. I actually feel like our design is very functional but I appreciate the perspective of others. The wall ovens are side opening so the landing zone for that is the counter to the right of the range top. That makes it easy to open with my left hand and grab the food with my right and pivot a step to place it on that countertop. I also don’t camp out in front of the ovens causing crowds, I put stuff in and pull stuff out and I’m gone. The fridge and freezer landing zone is the space left of the island sink as that will be my prep area so it’s all in one place. The microwave has a countertop below it for those needs. I wanted a clean up zone and I have a large one on the other side. The right side of the island is where I will store my every day dishes so that is the natural plating area for meals. I will also put my baking gear on that side of the range. That side won’t get as much use as the other side but it is a very large kitchen so it’s ok. I also didn’t want to have a bunch of stuff on that side because it’s the pathway to the laundry room and master suite. I think I will add a pantry door to the other side of the pantry, near garage/mudroom, so that is a walk through, and feel that will improve the flow.
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Am E
Original Author
9 years ago
The original sketch was drawn like this, with a window in the kitchen:
Lavender Lass
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
While I like the photo of the stairs (above) in your plan, the space between the end of the stairs and the kitchen wall....looks as large as the depth of your cabinets on the other side of the wall...about two feet. And your stairs don't end in the entry to the kitchen...then end in the wall, making a small space feel even smaller.

If you want 4' to 5' for the bottom of the stairs...then you'll have to modify your plans. If this is your rough draft, then it's an easy change. If this is a professional drawing...then I would be concerned about the space.

As for the TV...I'm a bit confused. If you don't watch TV very often, then having it against the stairs makes sense. How often would it be distracting people and making them face the stairs, if it's not on? Why have a turned off TV in the middle of your view?

And while a wood stove makes sense (energy efficiency) look at your photos! The fireplace is such a central feature in some of your photos...and it makes such a difference in the feel of the room. And an insert in the fireplace would give you the best of both worlds!

Fireplace...

And the wood stove....

See how you lose the 'presence' that the stone and mantle provide? How much more inviting would that be (rather than a TV) between the windows of your mountain view?

And...what exactly is that little room in front of the kitchen? I asked before, but didn't see the answer (maybe I missed it). Is it just a walkway between entry and mudroom? It has the ability to be so much more. Let me know what your plans are for that area :)
lexma90
9 years ago
I like the look that you're going for. I also share your feeling about formal front entries. I feel so sad that people have gorgeous front entries that get used about 10% of the time, and then the owners of the house enter through (IMHO) a rather unattractive garage entrance.

In the house we just built, which is a weekend house right now but will be our retirement house, the layout provides that the front door and the garage entry share the same entry foyer. Not as large an entryway as your plan, but we also have a ton of outdoor gear. Where our house is, due to the cold, all garages are heated (about 55 degrees), so the gear is ok in the garage. In your plan, if you wanted to consider having front door and garage door entering into the same space, you could swing your garage to be 90 degrees to the front door, expand that odd space that lavendar_lass asked about, and then the mudroom / laundry room could be in roughly the same place, just pushed back and accessed from (or part of) the entry area.

Re your office / master bedroom, I think if you try to plan for that to be a master bedroom in the future, you'll end up with a space that's not ideal for either a master bedroom or an office. I would say, design it as a master bedroom (with walk-in closet and huge bathroom if you want that). After the house is finished, then you can decide whether you'll retain it as a bedroom or use it as an office.
tcufrog
9 years ago
Mudrooms are on my mind right now so I thought I'd think about that. What sort of outdoor gear are you talking about? What seasons? For example, you wouldn't use beach gear and ski gear at the same time so you could store the out of season gear somewhere out of the way when not in use but still climate controlled such as dedicated storage in the guest bedroom and just store in season gear in the mud room.
Am E
Original Author
9 years ago
Ok, lots of stuff to respond to here, I’ll just start one
part at a time.

Regarding the screen porch; lavender_lass, we think you are
right about moving its location. We had gone back and forth about its location
before, but located it off the living room for various reasons. My parents have
a house with a similar arrangement with an open deck off that location, and we
love it. Also, we wanted to sit out there in the best spot with views on 3
sides. However, a screen porch is not an open deck. In the pic below, you can
see the wall of windows on what will be the north wall in our house (this is
from the video at the link above that shows a house with a very similar floorplan.
We modified the design of this house for our site). Those windows make that
room, and will show our best views. A screen porch would limit the windows (the second row would not be there), and
block some of the view. More than one
person (not just on gw) has said we should move it, and we agree, so it’s
getting moved. (Don’t have drawings yet).

On fireplaces vs woodstoves: Yeah, I do really seem to like
the big stone fireplaces (they are also very typical in “cabin”, log, and
timberframe houses, so there aren’t a lot of pics showing something different).
However, we are both function over form people. We intend for this house to be extremely
energy efficient. We will have a woodstove, but that does not mean it has to
sit on its own like the bottom picture you used to compare (although I still
think that looks cozy). I would like to have some sort of stone hearth. I
really need to find the right inspiration pictures as I’m not sure about the
design, but I do know I want a stone hearth with a fair amount of “presence”. I agree that our particular room really calls
for it. (Again, see the existing living room pic in this post). As far as
location, I think I still disagree with you. I like the woodstove in the middle
of the house, its better if we actually needed to use it as a heat source if
the power went out in the winter (again, rural area). I’m also still stuck on sitting facing west,
and being able to see the fireplace, tv, and views from the couch.
Am E
Original Author
9 years ago
On the kitchen layout and mudroom entrance, (the space in
front of the kitchen). Everyone is right, that’s awkward and needs to change.
(again, not just on gw)

Ok, here is how that came about. Like I tried to explain
before, we both have an aversion to formal front entrances on a lot of
contemporary houses. Those entrances tend to be useless (causing people to have
to go out of their way to use them), as well as taking up lots of space for no
reason, since most people use the garage most of the time. We really like plans where the garage and
front entrances share circulation space.
We really want our front entrance to be useful and not waste space. We’ve seen this done really well, and the original version of this house
does it to some extent as well:

The problem is, we do not want our garage on the south side
of the house. It does not work with our site, and we don’t want to block that
southern exposure to the sun. So we moved the garage, but tried to keep some of
that shared circulation space. I had imagined a bank of windows there with
benches/entrance area sort of thing. I’m don't think it’s working very well. It also compromises the kitchen layout and
stair landing. A lot of things may work better if we move the mudroom north,
move the entrance from the mudroom between the kitchen and dining, and move the
kitchen to the south wall. We’ve played with this possibility before, but
dismissed it. I’m working on my own drawings now to investigate. If anyone has
any better ideas let me know.
Am E
Original Author
9 years ago
What about this?
I changed the first floor bath - it has a 6-ft double vanity, and a 3x5 walk in shower, and can be made into a master suite.
I changed the mudroom and kitchen.
Not shown is the screen porch, which is now off the north/top wall of the dining room.
sheloveslayouts
9 years ago
I haven't followed all the comments. I'm curious why the house is sited 45 degrees to the view rather than directly at it?

We have a mountain view basically out the corner of our main living area. We only have 1/3 acre and the front of the house is parallel to our street. I love our view. However, our next door neighbors' house is sited 45' different than ours so the rear of the house directly faces the mountains and I could swear their house seems dramatically closer to the the mountains than ours.

Comparing the two--angled view or direct view--I'd chose the direct view. Why the angle?
Am E
Original Author
9 years ago
1. my arrows for the view are a bit wrong. the views are more straight out the back than drawn
2. solar gain. we want the house to face south.
3. site layout. the house is angled a bit from south to fit the natural land contours, and the way road makes sense to come into the property and approach the house. we'll also catch a bit more morning sun, and less afternoon sun.
energy_rater_la
9 years ago
just fyi..while I love the exposed look something I've learned from
testing homes with a blower door is that these are very leaky
(air leakage) ceilings.
better to use tyvek or sheetrock on the ceiling joists and
then install the wood ceilings.
it doesn't show (as most efficiency upgrades are hidden) but
will improve comfort & lower utility bills to make
the building envelope tight.

just info for going forward!

beautiful pics & best of luck.
Am E
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks, but its a SIPS roof over the timber frame, very tight. Will be doing a blower door test. The wood paneling is just finish on the inside because we like how it looks. We are definitely focused on the envelope to reach our energy efficiency goals, and have budgeted accordingly (the windows are SO EXPENSIVE). The construction is timberframe, wrapped in SIPS on roof and walls, with a crawlspace foundation (probably pressurized).
energy_rater_la
9 years ago
good deal, didn't realize you were using sips for roof.
wishfulthinkinginmn
3 years ago
I just discovered this post. We also live in a timberframe home and I was wondering how your plans turned out and if you are now living and loving the timberframe home life?
Am E
Original Author
3 years ago
Hi. I shouldn't, but I'm going to make time for a quick answer. I haven't visit this thread in years. You can see more about the finished house here:https://amytracker.wordpress.com/2017/04/08/house-2-0-certificate-of-occupancy/, and here: https://amytracker.wordpress.com/2017/09/07/house-2-0-moved-in/. a lot of build info is in that house 2.0 category. I don't have time to find the updated floorplan right now, sorry. Its very similar, but the garage is at an angle to the house, changing the mudroom. the kitchen is G shaped and on the front of the house. the stairs are U shaped to the loft.

1) we LOVE the timberframe and SIPS construction. I would 100% choose that again, and never want to go back to conventional construction.

2) I feel like I won the lottery every time I come home. I almost can't believe we got to build a house this nice. (the mortgage payment reflects how nice it is. totally worth it:)

3) that said, if I had it to do over, I would change some things about the house design. I think this is true for a lot of people, all design is compromise. (Also, The curse of becoming obsessed with residential home design, partly through this website. When you don't know any better, you don't realize how good it can be. You can't un-see/unlearn the problems once you see them). Nothing about my house is bad or unlivable, in fact other people might love it as is. Its just our particular preferences could be better met if I a had a chance to take another crack at it. The architectural design is a mess, I would prefer a different exterior style (although I don't dislike how it came out), and I could do better with construction cost, while still achieving some functional improvements. I really like most of my finishing choices and interior style, that came out pretty well, considering I'm terrible at that stuff (I had help from an an interior designer). I work from home, and spend time in my home office in the loft nearly every day. Its one of my favorite spaces in the world. I regularly tell my husband, out loud, that I love this house.