mrsfiremangw - Your home beautiful!! Did you use Hardie siding?

I think the length of my plans have something to do with the reason it looks odd to me. Yours looks like a sweet home and my elevation looks like a long stretch of never ending B&B.

Thanks for sharing:)

In your house, with the windows in the gables, I would not mix and match the B&B with horizontal siding. Also the nicely scaled gables in the bottom elevations contrast sharply with the low pitched poorly proportioned gable in the top elevation. Get them all the same.

This house, near you in east Texas and shooting for the same "low country" look had the same problem as yours (see the embedded link to see the original what we started with...scroll down to see all the elevations and, like yours, the poorly proportioned gable) http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3865411/project-design-update?n=11

Can you post a plan?

Yes, except for the battens we used red wood for those but that was strictly a cost saving measure. Everything else is Hardie. Mine looked the same, a bunch of lines on the elevation. Here is before it was painted

Architectrunnerguy- Thanks for pointing that out...It didn't occur to me that the side gables should mimic the front elevation.

Here are the preliminary plans...

Edited to add: There are many changes that need to be made and the Kitchens forum has helped me greatly already.

Well, the front definitely has "good bones" to make the exterior work but now, along with the side, I'm questioning the rear too. To be honest it looks like a house where the plan was developed independent of the elevations which came later. As you can see I fixed the house above to get the look right (although we eventually went to a one floor house). If you're open to plan changes I'll see if have time to integrate the two.

That's very generous of you!! I'm open to considering anything at the moment. I truly want this planned/executed correctly the first time.

I truly want this planned/executed correctly the first time.

There's probably only going to be a first time. Building a home, for better or worse, is an endeavor with no "do overs" but unfortunately involving huge sums of money.

Roof is all 10 in 12 pitch, not like your elevations show.

One way to get the main ridge height down.

Thanks so much PPF!! I was having a hard time visualizing a 3d version. I do like it with the ridge height lower.

I'm still hoping ARG can show you something even better. :)

Actually, it seems to me your major design challenge is not the siding or the roof pitch. It's the lack of imagination in the style and placement of your windows. Your front elevation, for example, has 8 similar window styles, placed almost equally across the elevation, resulting in a rather boring result. By comparison, look at your "inspiration" photos, posted above, and see how the variety of window types, sizes and placement animates and improves the exterior of those houses. Perhaps you might want to try something similar?

Another variation.

My pick, for the roof at least. Agree with Virgil Carter Fine Art about the windows. They need to be spaced evenly if all the same.

Here are some interior changes we are considering that will affect the exterior of the house...the goal is to reduce square footage:

Completely remove the jack n jill bath and add a half bath near the garage entrance...the kids will have to share a bath that's equally accessible.

Create room on the left side of the porch for the porch swing that's in the first inspiration picture.

Move Tool & Storage area with Carport further back (maybe in line with the kitchen). I feel it competes with the front porch.

The master bath & closet seems overly large to me...maybe there's a way to cut back there?

We do homeschool and will be using the dining room for school but at 17' I wonder if it's too large.

The Kitchens forum was very helpful in removing the corner pantry in the kitchen and making a walk-in pantry accessible from the laundry room and kitchen. The pantry will take up the space between the Tools & Storage and the kitchen (if that makes any sense.)

Will your study be used by the kids or for an in home business (with potential client visitors)? If neither of the above, I'd swap bedroom 4 with the office, flip hall bathroom and ditch kids baths. Kids rooms could all be clustered around shared bathroom in front hall.

I don't know much about home-schooling life, but I'd steal 2'6 off your dining room and put a line of closets in that wall. Somewhere to easily put the supplies/workbooks etc. You could throw a desk surface in them so when you open the doors they work as individual study nooks.

Also, where are your stairs? Are all the 2nd floor windows going to an attic space that could potentially be built out in the future? They don't make sense to be cathedral ceilings based on plans so I'm just wondering what the point of them is.

If you're going to use classical columns it would be best if they adhered to the classical tradition of equal spacing. It looks like vandals stole one of the porch columns. But it does distract the viewer's eyes from the rest of the house.

stephja - yes, my husband wanted the office in the front due to future clients that may be visiting (this is not a current business but something he dreams for the future.)

We've had a designated home school space in our last home and it was never used...we always gravitated to the dining room table. I like the idea of storage in the dining room. I'll have to research storage solutions that won't look out of place in the dining room.

Initially the cathedral ceiling in the dining room was placed by our designer because a lot of time will be spent in that space. I don't agree with the dining, LR & master bedroom ceilings on the plans.

JDS - Haha!! Yes the columns were the first things I noticed. I want the 5 columns in the top inspiration pic with no railings.

Curious to know what board and batten siding you're going with on this project?

We are using Hardie board & batten siding