For whatever reason they told us we had to use shake siding up in the gables, I will have to ask my husband why that was. That is why I have been super stressed with all of the different materials on the front of the house, it looked awful, like we had run out of one type of material and had to start with another one. I also like the look of the change in window placement you made. I questioned why the windows above was so small and I was told because they were just for looks. I will be blowing up our builders phone come Tuesday morning with a lot of changes for him to make that is for sure!

Good thing you are making them now before you've gone too far.

I can't understand why they would need to use shakes, especially since they are using stone in the smaller gables.

If anything, if you must use something else above I would choose lap siding over shakes. Shakes and brick go together on a craftsman house. You do not have a craftsman house.

I would also document everything you want in an email to your builder.

Here's how it would look with siding instead of shakes. Personally I still prefer the brick. With the siding (or the shake) it creates another element that takes away from the focal point; that being the front entry.

I have loved all of your suggestions and just got home to show my husband who also agreed. He said we could not put brick in the gables because there is nothing there to support it although going with the lap kind of siding in a great option as neither of us liked the look of the shake type of siding on this kind of house.

I absolutely love the look of the stone just along the bottom of the house, I even used colored pencils to color in various areas to get a better feel for it. I still am not crazy about using all of these different materials but if we are stuck with using stone yet I won't mind it as much this way.

Thank you again for spending so much time with us, it's been so helpful.

How is the roof being held up then if there's nothing to support brick? If it will support siding and the other gables supported stone, the large ones should support brick too. It might be a bit more work for your builder (which is probably why they're telling you it won't support brick), but that really sounds like a crock of baloney.

Honestly if they pull that one on you without explaining clearly why they can't, (and there may be a legitimate reason although I'm not following) I'd be very angry especially since the siding doesn't look anywhere near as good as the brick. Excuse me for saying this but it takes what is an elegant, high end looking house and turns it into a run of the mill builder special. Sorry to be so blunt.

I know nothing about masonry, but people put brick on gables all the time -- you can see some of that in cpartist's examples. How are other people bricking their gables? It's clearly possible and sounds as if it's something you'd prefer.

We will definitely check with our builder about the brick on the gables, my husband believes the gables set back a bit but maybe we can change that as well if that is what it takes. I don't know how that works or if our builder would then need an updated set of house plans or what but it would be worth it, even if it costs us a bit more because that is the look I was going for. We appreciate an honest opinion so you can be blunt, we really appreciate any and all advice we can get.

Ok so since I'm running all these ideas by you, I figured I'd run one more by you.

I notice you have a hipped roof. If you're in hurricane country, then you are better off with a hipped roof for reduced insurance rates. However if you're not, have you considered a gable roof?

I drew it out for you but I'm not very good with figuring out how roofs should fit with regards to elevations. (I'm an artist, not an architect.) However I thought this might give you some idea of how it might look.

Additionally, I'm hoping tomorrow maybe one of the architects can come on here and explain why you can't put brick in the gables if there is a good reason not to. And if you prefer a gable roof over a hipped roof, maybe they can show it to you with the correct proportions, but for now, maybe this will show you the difference.

Both types of roof are fine. It's a matter of personal preference.Top is the gable roof and bottom is the hipped roof

I have tried to find a visual tool on line that I could play around with but I cannot find one that I could input the brick/stone/roof/trim/window colors.

I have used the roofing and siding visualizer on www.menards.com, it has a large selection of products (not just one brand). You can also do facia/trim but the more you do the longer it takes to draw each area after you inport a picture of the house, so I generally avoided the trim. we were also not at our final design to put the effort into the little details. Good luck during your build.

I love all of your suggestions and we will be talking to our builder in the morning to see what we can change and what has been ordered already. My husband said he knows both the brick and stone should be ok changing because our local General Shale has told him since we picked the most popular brick and stone they always keep them in stock. Not for sure about the roof because the lumber was supposed to be ordered last week, along with the windows so we are hoping the builder can still change the windows in the gables because what you have showed us looks a thousand percent better! I will be really really happy if somehow we can get brick in the gables and do away with any type of siding. That would be my perfect house!

The use of shakes or lap siding on gables and dormers is usually due to weight of materials. In some applications, this limitation can't be changed. It is also a cost issue. I am going to assume there is a budget. Reality bites. The budget may intervene.

Have a conference with your builder. He can help you with a frank discussion of the budget and your options.

In order of design, I like the last one best, stone skirt and brick exterior. This is the most expensive and simplest. A close second is the stone skirt, brick exterior with lap siding at the gables, slightly less expensive. I like how the points of the gables make the eye elevate. Hipped roofs are more expensive due to the labor and materials cost.

I like the architectural roof shingles in a dark grey, not black. It's neutral and it will give you the option to stain or paint the doors any color you want.

Before you get too far in to the process, be sure to pass the kitchen plan through the GW kitchen thread. They can fix any design flaws in the kitchen before it goes too far. Some of them can be a little too helpful, but they will get things squared away.

The use of shakes or lap siding on gables and dormers is usually due to weight of materials. In some applications, this limitation can't be changed.

homechef, so I'm assuming because the shakes were only on the larger gables that might be the reasoning?

Lisa, at this point, I doubt you can change the roof line as that would take reengineering of the roof. My apologies for even suggesting it.

If you want to do the whole house in brick which is what I would do, you better make sure you have a brick ledge. I don't think that brick can be installed above the manufactured stone...if it is manufactured stone.

i like your house. I agree with CP...it has a nice feel.

The problem with brick on the big gables is mainly these areas, as that is over a ceiling of an interior space. (Floating in mid air)

We drove around our city this morning to get an ideal what we could do if our builder says bricking the gables is not possible and wondered if we had to go the siding route for the gables if we went with one that either matched the roof or the brick, if that would look nicer? We noticed a lot of new homes in our area are using the stone around the bottom and it makes the homes look longer, I never thought about that but we noticed 2 homes that looked to have the same design and one had stone as a skirt along the bottom and one just had stone on 2 of the gables. We appreciate everyone's help on here, I'm going to try the Menards web site and see if I can play around with it, I am very much a visual person and need to get this all worked out so I can sleep at night! :)

"White Windows have already been ordered as well."

If your windows are white, then your trim should be white. Personally, I think white trim goes fine with an all brick house, but not so much with a stone and brick house. My preference would be to change the windows to a sandstone/clay or terratone/bronze color, along with the trim, and do the stone skirt along the bottom.

You have 5 gables. Which two gables did the one you saw today have stone on it?

cpartist - they had stone right by the entrance. I thought I had taken a picture of it but I can't seem to find it on my phone.

All I see on the second one is the white windows because everything else is so muted. I also do not like the look of the windows looking like they are resting on the stone. I much prefer the stone looking like it's the house foundation like I drew it and not like it's trying to hold up the windows.

Interesting how your first inspiration looks so much like what I wound up changing your house to. Notice how in the first one, even though the windows are white, that because the trim is white too, it doesn't feel like the windows are so stark?

The one you think is a craftsman is nothing like a craftsman. That is what I call a builders idea of craftsman and you are very correct in that it is very mismatched. See? You have a much better eye than you're giving yourself credit for. :) That one that's a "craftsman" is really BAD. LOL

As for the stone. Notice on the gable how the stone is just placed on the front facade and doesn't even wrap around the side? You want the house materials to look like they were built from the materials and not just look like applied decoration.

A wonderful book I highly recommend is called What Not To Build by Sandra Edelman, Judy Gaman and Robby Reid. Here's a link to it on Amazon. Link To Book On Amazon

Bigger

Using stone along the bottom, consider letting the cap piece that will separate the brick and stone double as the lower window trim.

Here is an example using brick and stucco.

Might also use the stone as the lentils over the doors and windows.

This house really wants brick in the gables, unfortunately, as Fred showed above, the design is wrong. I'd use steel or reinforced concrete beams to support it, but that's $$$.

Stucco might also work in the large gables.

I'd make the window above the door a scaled down version of the ones flanking the door. 3/4, or 4/5 might work.

Using stone along the bottom, consider letting the cap piece that will separate the brick and stone double as the lower window trim.

Honestly ppf that is where I disagree with you because then it looks like applied fake stone vs being part of the foundation.

Stucco might also work in the large gables.

I had thought of that too, but then how would you color it especially since they've already ordered the white windows?

@cpartist

What about using the same material above and below? The band becomes decoration. A brick house would typically have a brick, or brick clad foundation, not cut stone.

3/4 size upper window shown.

Brick and stucco. Also notice the brick water table detail

It is an option for us to just do away with using stone, although that is not the look my husband prefers but we were not planning on having to use something like the shake siding as well.

I am definitely going to have to order that book but hopefully it's not too late since we already have started.

Thanks everyone for your help, we are loving all of the advice, just wish I would have posted here before we finalized our plans!

Keeping my fingers crossed for you that you still have options.

A brick house would typically have a brick, or brick clad foundation, not cut stone.

Agree with you but apparently Tim likes the combo of the stone and brick. I was just trying to use both in a more pleasing way.

cpartist - I appreciate you trying to help us with the brick/stone combo, I am leaning more towards doing away with using any kind of stone if General Shale and our builder will allow it. I hate the ideal of all of the different colors and started out wanting just what you had drawn up, isn't that funny?! I don't know how we got so off track but hopefully we can backtrack and redo some of our choices.

I hope you can go back to just the brick. It's such a classic look.

As for how one can get off track, it's easy. I started out in early March of 2015 to design a craftsman house around a courtyard. I can't tell you how many renditions we wound up with trying to get it right. Not only the interior but the fact the draftsman didn't have a clue what a craftsman house actually looked like. I knew it wasn't right, but couldn't explain it. Thankfully, the good folks here, especially the architects were able to help me get it right.

It's now well over a year later, we're finishing up permitting and I think we've finally got it right. If you want to read about it, let me know and I'll give you the links. LOL.

GREAT NEWS!! My husband called the builder this morning (because I am at work) to see what we could change to incorporate the awesome advice we received from all of you. Our Builder said we could definitely change the trim/garage/roofing colors but the white windows are already ordered although we can change the layout of the windows such as what cpartist has drawn up on the top. He is going to see about changing the structure where we would have a brick ledge in order to lay brick where the siding is being shown up in the gables. He said this may cost us a bit more but he had "beefed up" our masonry bid anyhow.

And yes cpartist, I would like to read what all you have gone thru. I have figured out that this is a long, long, process and so many decisions need to be made somewhat quickly sometimes. My husband and I are "empty nesters" and decided to downsize 3 years ago. In between selling our big family home and deciding what to build this has taken us 3 years! We moved to a Townhome with rent being over $1500 a month so we are very eager to get this house built instead of throwing money away each month. I have been lurking on here for a couple of years and I wish I would of actually posted and asked for advice before we finalized our house plans. I will for sure be posting on the other forums for advice about the kitchen layout, bath, etc. My husband and I both appreciate all of the advice and have also learned so much by reading other peoples questions and answers.

Now you'll have the best looking house in the neighborhood.

Thanks to you! :)

You came here because you knew something was off. You have a good eye and that eye was telling you it wasn't working. Just promise you'll post pics in the monthly thread as it gets built.

When you read my posts, you'll see I started with something much worse than what you posted! And while I secretly knew it was wrong, it still took me quite a while to get it right.

My house is a craftsman with prairie influences.

It all started with the links in the second post down

After that, was this too

And it continued into this small saga.

Here is the final saga.

And here are the final elevations

You'll need a nice spot to read to wade through all of it. LOL.

Back again - needing more advice. We talked to our builder and we can use brick in one of the gables but the big gable over the front door we have to use shake or siding of some sort because like my husband thought; this area sets back a bit and would not support using brick. So, my question is, should we use siding on both of the gables or go ahead and brick the one? And should we use a darker siding/shake to match the darker red/brown brick so you don't notice the siding? Our builder liked the ideal of still using the stone as an apron but now we are back to having 3 different things on the front of the house, although he also suggested us to use a darker stone than the light mocha colored. Our General Shale salesman is ok with us changing our order but we need to be deciding all of this by the end of the week. HELP! Please! :)

I'm thinking I'd do siding only in the one large one over the door. If you do it on both, your eye will be bouncing from one to the other.

Could you possibly do stucco in the gable or would that too be too much weight?

Stucco is very rare in our area but my husband said it would be too heavy for that area as well.

That's what I thought. How about running siding vertical? I'm wondering if that would work better?

Ok here it is with siding running vertical and horizontal. I extended the brick to the ground as I would hate to introduce the third element at this point.

I really like the look of the one with the siding going horizontal. Then what color siding would you go with? One to match the brick or the roof or neither?

Running vertical may work better though, I'd have to ask our builder I guess.

What color is your door going to be?

Also are you doing stark white windows?

BTW: In the elevation drawing I agree with you that horizontal looks better. The problem is it's hard to match a red brick color.

Our windows are white.

Beautiful door.

Will they be painting the siding? If so, I'd wait until the brick is up before deciding on a color. Much will depend on what's surrounding and how the overall look will be.

We have to order the siding in the color that we want it to be, they won't paint it.

Oh dang. What is the siding?

I really don't know what brand or type at this point, I really just wish we could eliminate it.

Find out the brand if you can and then we can look up colors, although you really need to see samples side by side and not just on a computer monitor.

Color choices can often be different by region, or the factory that does the finishing. Be sure to check on that too.