New Elevations, Please Review (Epiphany Late Last Night)
I've been struggling with wanting a house that has a craftsman feel but have several limitations because of zoning etc.
the two renditions are changes I made. Which if either of the two do you prefer?
I hope to have the corrected changes from the draftsman next week but I have to decide on whether to have the wider stonework or the lower stonework. I also expect his will look more accurate as to what I am trying to achieve.
Last night I was struggling with the overall look of the house, when I realized I should just move the upper gable (see this thread: Elevation thread ) down over the porch.
I removed the corner boards from the first floor. the first floor will be stucco.
I cannot remove the corner boards from the second floor if I want to do the siding (or ribbon coursing) upstairs which I do. I don't want the house to be all stucco. However, I can have them painted the same color as the rest of the siding upstairs which will minimize the effect of them. I know some have said it's been done before, but why create a problem with the builder if he's not familiar with doing it without the corner boards. (trust me, this is FL we're talking about and sometimes it's best to just go with it.)
Originally the upstairs had 10' ceilings. We lowered them to 9'4" which I think will also help to lower the overall feel of the house. (I did lower it in my drawing. Not sure it's exactly 8" lower.)
the builder said it's no problem to have the rafter tails and not box in the cornice. (I just don't know how to draw it correctly.) And there will be no muttonchops! LOL.
We cannot go higher up on grade. Something about runoff and flooding because the lot is already above grade. the disadvantage is it doesn't give me the porch with steps. the advantage as a retired person, it doesn't give me the porch with steps.
Renovator asked for a plan which I'll post after this since many have seen the plans already.
Comments (36)
cpartist
8 years agoRenovator asked that I repost my plans, so here they are.
FYI:
this is a house in SW FL. the average age of people in our city is retired.
Our "family" consists of DH, myself and our little 10 lb dog. We have guests and kids over for days at a time and we enjoy casual entertaining. No sit down dinners! Our lot is 6100 square feet. We wanted a large entertaining area that opens to a courtyard backyard. We are on a corner lot with street views east and north. the whole backyard area will have a pool cage.
Zoning allows us to build only on 35% of the lot. that 35% includes the porch and the garage (and a lanai if I had one.) the porch is required and must be a minimum of 6' x 10' or 6' x 1/3 the width of the front of the house; whichever is larger. the garage is required by zoning to be set back 15' from the front of the house. the placement of the garage is set in stone as the plot has the curbs set already.
DH needs a study (and insisted on it being downstairs) and I'm an artist and need a studio. My studio will double as a second guest bedroom if needed. the balcony will be made out of decking material so as not to be considered part of the 35%. I need the deck to do spraying of art and I shoot still life setups for reference material in late afternoon sun so the orientation is perfect for me.
the elevator is not needed by us at this point but in our neighborhood is a must for resale if we have more than one story. the bathroom upstairs will be widened by 6", shortening the width of my studio a bit, and there will only be one sink in the guest bath with a 48" vanity. the additional space will be added to the closet.
Ignore the kitchen. It is not correct in terms of layout
yet and I've been working on it.
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please review. Last chance before construction plans
Comments (16)Be sure to post your 1st floor plans on the kitchens forum for good layout feedback. For example: Most prep is done between the fridge and cooktop, and your counters near there are all short and broken up (unless that's a single under-counter oven on the cooktop wall - not sure.) Please don't build the lower wall next to your cooktop/range. It will limit your landing space and I don't see the purpose. The cooktop in that space without the lower wall will be much more practical. (Imagine taking a big pot off the stove... where can you put it? Not next to the stove - the walls are in the way.) Once that wall is gone I'd move the range a bit down the wall so it's farther from the upper wall. Your island is a barrier between the sink and the fridge (for washing fruit, veggies, etc.) It would be great to have a prep sink in the island for that. Also, if someone is sitting at the island, you won't have landing space for the fridge. Consider having the island overhang in an L shape: right side and part of bottom. Left of bottom is landing space for fridge and room for prep sink. Sitting at an L means people can speak to each other more easily than if they were all in a line. I'd offset the pantry door to one side or the other so it doesn't break up your cabinet / fridge run. That way you'll get landing space next to the fridge. I'd probably put it on the right (in the picture) so the fridge is closer to the range, but that depends on whether you access pantry items more frequently than fridge items while cooking. Not sure if your ovens are in the best spot. The ovens limit that space and right now open into the opening between the front hall and kitchen, which is likely more traveled than the opening between kitchen and DR. I think I'd prefer to have the ovens in the upper left corner and leave a nice long counter run by the cooktop. I hope you're planning on all or mostly drawers for your lower kitchen cabinets. Great for access and organization. (See thread below.) Here is a link that might be useful: Drawers vs pull out shelves...See MoreTotal Epiphany--about the cream/ivory paint
Comments (23)I think I'm going to go with a white ceiling. Not because I'm chickening out, and not because I can't decide. I think white is what will look best. I really like the way the Cloud White trim looks against it. I dragged a white lamp up there to see it. I'm going to go with white bedding, maybe a hit of that wasabi/pear/apple/lime green. I think it looks fresh. And I won't just go with regular ceiling paint white, I'm going to specify a really really bright one. Based on my post asking for the whitest white, (when I really wanted to make the cream/ivory walls pop), it looks like Super White could be the one. I'll try to get that. So tired. Did all the trim today. And I crawled into the bathroom and worked on finishing the drywall that was 1/2 done from a leak repair. Got that primed. I also finally did the caulk on the woodwork, which was never completed the last time I painted this room. Sometimes it takes sending your better half out of the country to get some of these little details done. Would love to do that room in the Wasabi, but I'm a little afraid of that color in the bathroom. Eeeks, what would the reflection in the mirror be? I was figuring to do it in just the Eagle Rock, same old paint strip, two or three colors darker. Same as the laundry room. it's a very rich looking. Might as well try it. Already have it, and if I hate it, I'll just change it again. What the heck. I have until Saturday. Need to take dogs out, and go to bed. Very tired. How is auntjen painting until 2 am anyhow?...See Moremy decorating epiphany- seekingperfection and so on.
Comments (20)Some aspects of this thread remind me of what my DD calls my "Lunch Lecture". It goes like this....you are hungry and heading out to lunch. You want Chinese food and you're dreaming of a particular restaurant and what you'll order when you get there. But first, you stop to drop off dry cleaning. Then, as you head to the restaurant, you remember that you needed to get something at the mall during a one-day sale. You stop at the mall. Really starving now. Really wanting the Chinese special at your special restaurant. On your way again, your husband calls and asks if you can pick up some paperwork for him and deliver. It's almost 2:00. You run his errand and practically fall over in a faint from starvation. You know the Chinese place is already closed for lunch, but at this point you just need food. You pull into Taco Bell's drive-thru and get $2 worth of tacos. You inhale them, washing down with a coke instead of perfect iced tea from your perfect place. You head on to the grocery store to pick up some things for dinner. You contemplate the fact that you now don't care about Chinese food. Why? You are no longer hungry. True.......you didn't get what you wanted but the moment has passed and you probably saved at least $8 you can now use to buy steak for dinner. This happened to me several years ago and when I actually stopped to think about it, I realized that there are so many times that I think I need to obsess over food or paint or fabric or things, and once I have what I wanted, I move on to something new. And sometimes, even when I don't get what I wanted, after a few days or weeks or months, I don't care any more either. It tells you something about the importance of the details. Xantippe's story of bookcases made me nod in recognition. I too, searched for months for the perfect bookcases, except in my case, I wanted them to be really nice ones really cheap from an estate sale or Craigslist or through the classifieds. Didn't find them. So, finally, we went to Lowes about 3 years ago and spent about $100 each on some heavy ones made of particle board. They look nice, hold the books, and now that I have them, I've stopped looking for "perfect" ones. How shallow am I? Red...See MorePlease review my new home design
Comments (30)Actually the gabled roof looks a lot better than the cut off hipped roof that National One is suggesting. One thing I didn't see mentioned is which direction is north? Your exterior is mixing various styles of architecture with nothing that creates a cohesiveness. I realize how frustrating it is to work on something for a year and then to have it torn apart. It's like telling you that your baby is ugly and not smart. It took me well over a year with help from this forum to get my house to a stage that will really work well. And I do have a design background, but still needed so much help to make it work well. It probably would have been faster and cheaper in the long run if I had let an architect design my house. The problem with internet plans is most of them are fairly generic without really considering how the family really lives. For example, in your home, do you really need 3 eating areas inside the house plus the one I assume you'll have outside? When designing a custom house, everything can work for how you actually live vs how a generic family would live. The fact you're on a couple of acres means you can move the garage from the front of the house, and have the house oriented so it takes best advantage of passive solar heating/cooling. Designing for electronics also needs quite a bit of skill regarding creativity, but it is a heck of a lot different than trying to design a house, which also needs a critical eye for design, layout, flow, etc. Someone who does architectural design will be able to think outside the box, just like you think outside the box when you're doing your work. You trained for years to learn your job, and then have spent years trying to perfect what you do. It's the same with an architect or person of design talent. Please consider taking what you've done and refining it with the help of someone who has the years of training to make it work even better for you. Let them suggest ways to make it more visually pleasing and flow better....See More
Lavender Lass
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoYou took out the window seat upstairs! I tried to accommodate that with the little bump out. Any chance the elevator could scoot back just a foot or so? Storage over washer dryer, instead of in between?
Anyway, my idea was to make the porch the focal point and the roof "look lower" by taking out all the gables and hiding the kitchen bump-out with a pergola. What is more Craftsman than a pergola with wisteria....or the Florida equivalent?
This may not work, but thought I'd post it.
Oh...and you don't really need the planter boxes at the bottom of the pergola...just trying to give the picture some dimension. And that's a long, low bench under the wisteria :)
cpartist
8 years agocpartist
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8 years ago
User
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoThese posts were rarely freestanding. They were part of a porch design that was a major design element supporting a substantial beam rather than being decoration. Something needs to be done to anchor this house to the ground and strengthen the roof forms
Lavender Lass
8 years agoIdeally, the porch would go across the front window....but I don't believe that's possible with the square footage limitations.
The 'side porch' is that the roof over the bedroom wing?
What about putting peak back on top and having lower porch roof? Did we already do this? :)
mary8153
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoI like the posts better too. However now the beam doesnt line up properly with the outer edge of the posts. Those small side posts next to the right and left of the beam
shouldn't be there. The gable should visibly be supported entirely by the beam. I would stretch the beam left and right so that the outer edge of
the post is directly under the edge of the beam. Also don't forget the beams going back to the house.
Also to my eye I think the beam could also be made about 50% thicker.I just noticed that the left gable also has those little side posts. Since its a gable on a wall you don't need a beam so I'm assuming that the rectangle is just trim. So I would remove the posts and extend the trim past the edge of the walls.
I think the proposed changes will do a lot to "strengthen the roof forms" per Renovators point. To make the columns not so free-standing and look tied in to the house you could just install a handrail on the left and right as in the photo below.
cpartist
8 years agocpartist
8 years agocpartist
8 years agomary8153
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoI was talking about the two little boxes on the ends of the porch beam and on the ends of the frieze of the gable on the left. Maybe I don't understand what they are but I don't think that they belong. see below
I also mentioned that the far edges of the porch beam should align directly over the far edge of the post and not align with the edge of the capital. In other words the capital should stick out a bit from the beam on the front, side and back. You can kind of see that in the photos posted by renovator. Or to get back to the source see 2nd pic below. You should be able to draw a straight line from the edge of your beam and it should hit the edge of the post. Minor detail I know but I thought I would mention it.
cpartist
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agocpartist
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8 years agocpartist
8 years agoSo for those who are interested, I did some elevations for the inside too. Just for some of the details to show my builder. these were done in photoshop by me so are not 100. the first one is the divider between the kitchen/dining and the great room.
Yes I know that all natural wood is more craftsman but I wanted a lighter look and paint grade is a lot less expensive than furniture grade moldings. Especially since my wood of choice is cherry. Yes the columns will also be triangular like the porch columns. :)
the fireplace wall is opposite the kitchen entry and that wall will be cherry. there will be handmade tile around the fireplace. I am considering doing a coffered ceiling in the living room again using paint grade and then painting the ceiling itself in a color. I'm not sure yet whether I'll go with a picture rail or a frieze board. I'm leaning towards the frieze board. Crown molding will be simple to work with the rest of the moldings.
Maybe this for crown molding.
cpartist
8 years agoUser
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoThey won't be building it my way but the important issues will be the thickness of roof sheathing (5/8" +), the quality of nailing of the sheathing to the trusses (no staples, ring shank or equiv. nails with correct spacing) and that the trusses are tied down to the walls not just the top plates.
The columns are square and tapered
cpartist thanked Usercpartist
8 years agocpartist
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mushcreek