1.5 story straw bale floor plan
Continued from this thread.
We are in the early planning stages of building a house. We have land (80 acres) in a rural area near the Columbia river gorge in western Washington state. The walls are shown extra thick because we are currently considering straw bale construction. Areas where walls are thinner is to keep wet areas away from the straw. These plans will go through an engineer to make the timber frame work and possibly through a local architect who is familiar with straw bale to make that work.
We got a lot of great advice in the previous thread and we feel like the 1st floor is just about there. I would love advice on window placement for both floors. We would like to keep most of the window area on the south side but some smaller windows on other sides to help with natural lighting as needed. I am also wondering if the West door should be directly in front of the stairs or if I should slide it south a bit?
I have added the 2nd (.5 story) floor plan. We are planning on ~3-4 ft stub walls and a 6 in 12 pitch roof. So it will be about 11' high under the peak which runs E->W. Right now we have two, probably shed, dormers planned, centered on either side. With a few solar tubes or skylights for additional light.
There is some flex space upstairs which I think will work well for us. We will be able to use it for a guest bed, play/craft area initially and then it can morph as the kids get older and interests or needs change. As you can see a small area is currently set aside as a bouldering cave for practicing rock climbing. This is my daughter's main request and something that the whole family would make use of.
If you see something that would significantly reduce building costs or help us get more for our money we would love to hear it.
Comments (18)
sheloveslayouts
8 years agoChelwa I'm enjoying watching your home plan come together. I've had three thoughts regarding your 1st floor and I'm just now taking the time to comment about them.
I'd consider changing the west door so it opens to the living room and move the mudroom pocket door wall to the exterior wall. I just prefer when there is a wall perpendicular to the hinge side of a door (ours doesn't and it's kind of awkward, but we didn't really have an option) and moving the pocket door over provides that wall. Also, traffic from the front door to mudroom won't be impacted, but traffic flow from the stairs to mudroom might be improved and traffic from living room to mudroom will stay out of the door-swing area of the front door.
I'm always so verbose! ack.
I don't see an advantage to a pocket door between mudroom and powder, it might be a disadvantage. If you move a swing door to the stair side, you can have your light switch on a logical/knob side of the door and you could add a medicine cabinet into that wall you presently have a pocket door in. Since your vanity is small, a medicine cabinet would be a nice addition.
Finally, I don't know if you've worked on windows yet, but in the main floor powder you might just have a small window above the toilet so you can have a mirror above the width of the vanity.
I have a suggestion for your 2nd floor. Coming up.
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Straw Bales vs SIP Raised beds
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chelwa
8 years agoLavender Lass
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoBenjesbride- Good observation about the bathroom! Maybe something like this?
It's so fun to play with these plans! Hope we're able to give you some good ideas :)
chelwa thanked Lavender Lasschelwa
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agosheloveslayouts
8 years ago
Our last house had the master bedroom door open with our closet behind it. It was a slight annoyance to me because the bedroom door had to be closed to open the closet. It's not a big deal, but you could put a small broom/vacuum type of closet outside. (I think this is your most recent layout.)
chelwa thanked sheloveslayoutschelwa
8 years agochelwa
8 years agosheloveslayouts
8 years agoHi, Chelwa. I just saw this photo and thought of your house. Was thinking if you have room to have the base of your stairs like in this photo it might look cool to have wood storage where the dresser is and the stove to the right.
I hope your planning is proceeding nicely :-)
chelwa
8 years agoThanks Benjesbride. We are feeling pretty good about it. Every once and a while I go off on a wild hare and think what if I tried something totally different? but in the end I think there are only so many ways you can accomplish a specific set off goals. Right now the kitchen we are leaning towards is the one I think everyone else would pick last :). I think our taste in kitchens may be a bit odd...
I love the idea of wood storage tucked under stairs, that is a great photo. Some combination of these maybe would look very nice
chelwa
8 years agoLavender Lass
8 years ago
sheloveslayouts