I am not sure which windows you are talking about?

The side that has two sets of three vertical windows along the side.

Why not two tall windows centered on the wall? ETA: one on each floor

You have a mix of squares, skinny rectangles, and wider rectangles. I think you are missing some consistency. Not that they all have to "match," you just want them to look like they were intended to be on the same house.

This is what I had when my mom said it looks like an apartment building. What can I change to make the windows the same?

Are they going to be all fixed all venting or a combination?

on that wall they are all fixed windows

What about something like this?

It's not just the windows that are making it look like an apartment building. It looks like you designed a plan and stretched it to a height of 2 stories, added some bump outs, put a hipped roof on it and wrapped it with brick then randomly placed the windows. The cost of a design professional would be money well spent.

From here...:

......to where you're now is a HUGE step backwards.

Are you sure your "designer" is actually a designer? I could call myself an auto mechanic but that doesn't mean I can fix your car.

I agree with chewla, prairie's the way to go. I haven't got time to put pen to paper now to clean this up but an example of where I'm headed is the difference here (not my first few posts there but the one with the elevation, 14 down):

[https://www.houzz.com/discussions/need-help-with-exterior-design-of-this-house-dsvw-vd~263597[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/need-help-with-exterior-design-of-this-house-dsvw-vd~263597)-

Almost identical design issues.

My designer has done many many houses but I think maybe because I had a complete layout and exterior vision he didn't think he should change anything. As a professional though he should have realized the flaws in the house from the get go and told me the way it should be done. But that's neither here nor there now because I just need to get it to a point that I'm happy with it preferably without having to start from scratch.

It does appear that the house could be turned into prairie style and it sounds like I have a very similar situation as to the last post. After I posted the other week I realized I wanted ahouse that is a more transitional style house but I'm not sure I can get that out of this house plan...

Giving a good designer a completed plan is a waste of talent and experience. You should have made it clear that it was only for the purpose of providing a graphic program. All you can do now is sit down with the designer and work out a better design. If the designer can't solve this problem quickly you need to find someone with more talent and experience. Good luck with it.

Thanks JDS for the input. I thought I made it clear that what I was providing was by no means finished and just an idea of style and layout we wanted to achieve. I figured he would have taken my thoughts and made it his own at least that's what I would have done. When the first set of drawings came back with minimal changes I thought the plan must be good otherwise he would have changed it . After not seeing the drawings for a month and coming back to them I know the house isn't what it should be, sigh. I'm trying to help figure this out so I have something to go back to him with since I know now that he's obviously not that creative and sticks to basic houses and only changes what you ask. I would rather try to help him so we get something half decent without having to start from scratch with someone new and incurring more expenses.

What is holding up the exterior walls that seemingly float above the garage, but are not over other walls? And they are brick clad, no less!
Casey

Lol, they have beams that run under them in the garage.

"Transitional" isn't really a house style. It's supposed to describe something that can work in both modern and traditional spaces. Or, a traditional space with a few modern pieces mixed in (or vice versa). It's starting to be used when someone just has no defined style, "I like some modern things, and some traditional things, so I guess I'm transitional?"

So please, don't try to design a house as "transitional". Or, if that's not really what you're going for, then finding a more accurate word will help your designer figure out what you want.

In regards to the windows in question, the reason they look off is that they should be the same height as the windows on either side (the ones that face to the front of the house, on different walls from the ones in question.) And having some be a single pain and some divided doesn't make sense. Looking at the "apartment" windows, wouldn't there be a floor going through the middle of them? If these are in a stairwell, then wouldn't the ones on the front be off? The revised version is less obvious as that, but the change in height is still there.

The "apartment windows" are going through the stairwell. I think the windows looking off between the front and side is part of the reason it's not looking right.

I looked through prairie style house photos and I really liked those ones but the more modern ones. I think that is more the look I am going for.

I purchased the book what not to build that was recommended to me by cpartist, I hope that will help me in figuring out what needs to be done.

Also get The Not So Big House by Sarah Susanka. Both are fairly easy reads that will help you.

Throwing good moneyafter bad on a poor ''designer'' is going to be far more expensive long term than severing ties and beginning anew with someone who is more expert and talented. Just like Casey pointed out those ''floating'' walls that have $$$ engineering requirements, and still end up looking stupid, the whole home has these expensive stupid errors that are just being compounded rather than eliminated.

Time to cut bait and move on.

Apartment buildings have elevators and stairs are for egress during a fire so stairs are typically on the exterior wall. Since that wall is not fire rated it is possible to put windows in it. These stairs are required to be concrete and/or steel and can be independent of the exterior wall therefore it is common to see stair stringers and handrails through windows.

Private residential stairs are not required to have a fire enclosure so they traditionally have interior stairs open to a foyer or living space and sometimes use an exterior wall for support with windows (if any) only at landings. Allowing the window to show the stair stringer is a modern design idea borrowed from commercial/industrial buildings. This is not a "Transitional Style" design idea but if you use such a commercial/industrial approach and try to marry it to traditional design ideas (like the portico) it will be a great design challenge to maintain a residential scale and not fall into commercial developer cliches as demonstrated by your current house design.

In my opinion designing in plan instead of in all three dimensions and arbitrarily assembling architectural elements from different eras and cultures is not true "Transitional" design that simplifies and modernizes traditional design ideas so they work together without looking cobbled together. In fact, transitional design has accompanied every major shift in architectural styles.

What you are calling "Transitional" is a developer/realtor term for anything that can't be otherwise categorized. Your house would be called "Neo Eclectic" by architectural historians.

Read this thread started by Cpartist. A bunch of great thoughts on what makes a good house. Have your "designer", either current or hopefully new, read through it. In my post pay attention to #'s 4, 22, 48, 52, 60, 69 and 76.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3285825/what-makes-a-house-have-good-design?n=39

Well at least there is a name for a cobbled together house, lol... and the name even sounds interesting. So basically what you are saying is that you wouldn't put large windows at stairs because it will be hard to make it work with a style?

No melanin we're saying you might have to go back to the drawing board. It really is not working well right now. :(