Give more info.

Family makeup. What part of the country. How big a plot? What direction is north? (Yes I know but others don't.)

It's very hard to read the plans right now. Can you enlarge them so we can see the numbers?

Why do all the front windows have grids but none in the back do?

Also how far along are you? Can you make changes or are you just looking for approval? (I know it sounds like a dumb question but people come in here asking and then tell us they can't change anything.)

Love the front, but the back I consider an eyesore. (Too many windows, porch columns look too skinny, and it lacks the attention to detail that the front of the house has).

I couldn't review the floor layout because the drawings are too small to read.

House is in NC. Lot is 1.5 acres.

Family 2 kids young and old, dogs.

Front of house is facing S / SE back of house N NW

Windows with the grids is a function of draftsperson lack of detail. Not supposed to be any grids on the windows.

How do I enlarge the pics? I had to snapshot them off PDF file and save them as JPG. (just found online converter, I'll try that)

Porch columns to be changed to stacked stone, they were simply drawn fro representation.

Forgot,

Things can be changed, we are at the final review stage.

But like the approval too :)

Some comments after a quick review:

- that is a lot of brick, take your time to pick the perfect hue.

- Is that a real window in your shower ... facing the street and all who walk by?

- In a house this size, having a dining room with one "small" offset window seems strange and poor design

- I don't like that your front entry/walkway will have a solid brick wall that will be around 30 ft long and 15+ft high on the left side, as you approach the house.

Personally I think even the front is too busy. I would simplify it.

I'd get rid of the baby gable in front of the garage.

I'd get rid of the shutters as they don't add anything.

I'd get rid of the shower bay.

And I'd certainly get rid of the jerkin head hip on the right side!

Notice how now, with the front being simplified, your entry becomes the focal point and you aren't trying to figure out where to look first?

I agree the rear definitely needs work.

I also think the left side of the house contributes to a fatter roof and could be simplified.

As mentioned in your other thread, can you flip the house so your kitchen is on the right side and your bedroom on the left?

Ideally you want most of your windows opening to the south, but if that's not doable, at least let the kitchen open to the east vs the west.

Why are you angling closets and rooms inside the house? It just creates awkward spaces that become wasted corners. Straighten out your master closet and the room to the right of the foyer.

See if these pictures work. Think you can zoom in now.

No better. Message me and I'll give you my email address and you can email me the pdf files and I can enlarge them. I've done that for several folks here on the forums.

Um I see it's a side entry garage. Where will guests park?

Can we also see how the house sits on the plot?

Without the grids it's going to look like large dark holes.

I think that if you have 1.5 acres, having a garage that protrudes that much should not be necessary. Unless you have a circular drive, there's no gracious entry in a home this large and formal.

I think the front has promise (after dealing with the garage) but that back is not very pleasing and does not appear to be designed cohesively with the front.

The rest of the plan is too small to read.

You have two kids but the bedroom accommodations are nowhere near equal! The bedroom at the back of the house is much larger, a view into the back yard, has a private bath, and a large closet. One of the other bedrooms has a door into the bath and the third bedroom does not have direct access to a bath. Seems the square footage and budget should allow nice rooms for 3 kids/guests upstairs (whether they are yours or a future buyer).

Narrow balcony over great room: why other than breaking up a two story wall. Will it be wide enough to comfortably clean?

Study to right of entry: seems like this room's height is going to be its largest dimension which will make the room feel unwelcoming and I think seldom used. Does anyone work at home? If so seems like a one story version of this room with some natural light would be more suited to an office than the area by the garage with no natural light.

Sorry, I don't like the house with the massive roof and the repetitious symmetry of the front and rear facades, but I'm at the point where my mom's old adage "if you don't have something nice to say keep your mouth shut" is kicking in. It may be a difference in personal styles and regional preferences.

Lots of questions and comments, trying to keep up.

The angle on the two rooms mentioned. One is double french doors into a study (next to foyer)

The closet, angled a bit to help open up the bath /vanity area.

Getting rid of shower bay I believe would change the whole walk through shower.

Unable to flip house.

Parking will be in court to left of garage. Possible another detached garage 30x30-50 to left of side load garage. Would have 40-50' of usable parking I believe, would have to go back and look.

Don't like grids on windows.

Agree with the dining room window, was and still a fight with designer. Front elevation would have be completely changed I believe etc....

Long brick wall is the side load garage. Kinda required on shape of lot and having to come into the lot on left side. Small front property line, widens up largely further back into lot. Almost a 5 sided pie shape.

Questioned the open ceiling in the study. Designer suggestion was to take advantage of dormer natural light into the study. Otherwise it would be going into unused attic.

Narrow balcony is walkway to other side of house. Will have storage on upper level there. or future bonus room.

I think the plan is quite typical for the area, inside of a community with approved builders and designed by builders or designers and will blend nicely with the neighborhood. However, I think that it also lacks the detail and sense of permanence that should be associated with a home of this size. What I mean by this is - take the roof - there's very little detail on the trim. The scale appears off - it appears that this will simply be larger roof with the same size and type of trim you'd see on a home half this size. It also appears that the bedrooms upstairs are getting "cheated" out of the thought into the overall design with (again) a bedroom that would be at home in a home half this size and price.

Instead of the two story study why not make it one story so it would become a more intimate space for adults (whether an office, library, after dinner cognac/cigar room, media room for movie nights ... whatever). Or, maybe a main level guest room plus small bath if you expect that elderly parents uncomfortable with stairs might be visiting or living with you in the future?

Then you could use the 2nd floor space above the study to extend the narrow balcony and use it as a reading nook or kids homework area (away from the playroom). Or use it to give the front bedroom a private bath for a guest suite.

Not sure on the what you mean by the detail on the trim?

Not sure by what you mean by the bedrooms being cheated? It was decided to cut down to 2 full baths upstairs, as 1 kid should be out soon, and 1 has 18 yrs to go. So there's a psuedo master suite upstairs and then two guest bedrooms. Generally don't have lots of over night guests.

House itself should be a 20yr house when we get done with it.

As to outside, the idea was to attempt this look on the outside elevations....

Stan Z,

There was discussions on doing as you suggested stated with the 2 story study, and it's a function of the roof line I believe I was told, making the space above study unusable. . That's why the ceiling is vaulted. Not sure why the rooflines are different or whatever We had same discussion on back side of house when I saw the vaulted ceilings. This picture is what or why it was such.

There's a huge amount of detail in that home pictured that isn't in your drawings. For example, all the gables in that have an elongated curved section that makes for deeper eaves and a more gentle slope, IMO adding some elegance - also adds cost. It creates a depth of the return on that that is substantial and has multiple levels of trim. Also - look at the depth of the copper flashing over the window that is in the garage - VERY heavy and very detailed. Your current drawings lack this attention to detail / authenticity.

The upstairs bathroom layouts just feel "forgotten" - small rooms with little counter space and fairly cramped layouts. Get it that you don't often have overnight guests - but the design "feels" like all the good stuff will only occur downstairs.

Not sure how to explain to designer more detail....guess I can tell him to look at picture again?

Parking will be in court to left of garage. Possible another detached garage 30x30-50 to left of side load garage. Would have 40-50' of usable parking I believe, would have to go back and look.

So what you're saying is that your guests will get out of their cars and not see the front door and then have to walk around your garage to get to the front door? Not very welcoming.

crzipilot wrote: Not sure how to explain to designer more detail....guess I can tell him to look at picture again?

I think that this is one of the differences in a designer vs an architect. An architect will understand your style and make the execution capture the essence of the style vs a designer that often takes "elements" and tweaks them without the advanced artistic training. You are about to spend 7 figures for a home - I think that getting someone trained in architecture would be a great investment.

What is the most common direction people will approach your house from? Here's why I ask: we visit a house that is most commonly approached from the south. The garage is on the south side of the house, and extends to the front just as yours does. So when you drive up the street, you see the garage, and not the house. They do have a driveway that splits: when you turn in the drivway, you can go straight, then turn to enter the garage, or split off to go past the side of the garage to circle in front of the house and park in front of the front door. The house is quite similar to yours.

for yours, is there a reason that the garage can't be tucked back alongside the house?

Your house will look contemporary/eclectic without the muntins in the windows. It will look nothing like your inspiration pic.

How do you get the mashed potatoes to the dining room while they are still warm? And how do you get the dishes in the dishwasher before the leftovers harden? How does the trash get taken out?

Walk them in? Walk them out? Invariably, I end up with the trash duties?

The implication, I think, is that your kitchen is a very long way (in house interior terms) from your dining room. And it is an equally long trip from the kitchen to the garage, where your larger trash receptacle is likely to reside? These are the sorts of practicalities of living with a certain plan that may not initially be a consideration. But after the 9th trip into the kitchen with plates of dessert in and dinner dishes out - might become so. Perhaps you won't find it bothersome - only you can say. It is, however, the sort of inherent "design flaw" that most people will object to.

Another set of little details that would be annoying in a house of this size and cost: I see swinging door collisions in multiple places. These matter because the doors can get damaged if they collide with force (you do have a youngin in the house) plus you have to open slowly to make sure the space is clear. The basement staircase door and the patio door open into the same space (in the middle of a major passageway between the great room and the rest of the public areas). The powder room door by the kitchen opens into the hallway (an indicator the powder room is too small to maneuver in). The master bedroom entry and coat closet doors open into the same space. Front door and coat closet in the foyer. Upstairs Suite #3 entry door opens against bath door and the two bath doors collide with each other.

Holly,

Thanks for the explanation, makes better sense as to what he meant.

Aware of the door issues, some are fixable, others seem to be, the way it is. Supposed to be working on getting it fixed. Easy fix on basement is blow that back wall out just a bit. Or maybe swing basement door in instead of out.

Pwdr room is actually slightly bigger than the one we have now. Do swings the same way.

Master linen closet can be reversed. Some of the detail things that the designer hasn't fixed,

Bath 3 door can be turned to open out instead of in.

For the driveway, can the driveway enter the lot from the right, go across the front of the house, and loop around to the garage court? It's just...at my dad's, if for some reason we park in the garage court garage and have to walk around to the front or service door, it's a trek!

Consider adding a service door to the outside in the laundry room.

What is the open space between the kitchen island and the stairs?

The roof on the left side is too out of proportion with the rest and looks super awkward. Visually, my brain wants that roofline to be straight or somehow symmetrical. I also agree with the garage sticking out so much.

Your laundry room is clear across the house. Are you ok with shlepping laundry back and forth that distance? I wouldn't be ok with it and would prefer my laundry closer to my master bedroom.

Is the laundry room doing double duty? I ask because it appears to be almost 16' long and if it's only a laundry room, that's an awful large amount of space devoted to doing laundry for a family of 4. However if it doubles as a sewing room, crafts room etc then yes it's a good size.

And it is a trek to walk from the garage court to the front door, especially in lousy weather.

Heck bringing in groceries from the garage to put away in the pantry and fridge will be a hike.

What is the distance from the master bedroom to the toilet? I just tried to measure and from the edge of your bedroom to the toilet I measured to be close to 18'. (I can't read your dimensions) Add in the distance from the bed and that's even a longer walk, especially in the dark in the middle of the night when you absolutely must get there.

Speaking of bedrooms, your master bedroom is almost the exact same size as your living room. Only you can decide if you spend that much time in the bedroom that it's worth creating such an oversized room or if the space could be better spent in more public rooms.

Same with the master bath.

Do you entertain enough that you need 3 eating areas?

You have 2 kids but your mudroom area is large enough for a family with a heck of a lot more kids.

And you have a large mudroom but your powder room is tiny in comparison.

Getting rid of shower bay I believe would change the whole walk through shower.

Each one of your vanities looks to be almost 10' long. So if you make the vanities smaller, move the tub forward, you could easily have the walk in shower. 5' vanities should give you plenty of space.

BTW: Do you have a walk in shower now? This one is what? 11' x 6' or more? If not, I'd first go to someplace where they have them because quite honestly, they can be quite chilly and it's one of those things you either love or hate. I hate them.

I notice you have a deck but no enclosed screened area out the back. Do you spend time outdoors when you would need a covered area?

Agree with the comments regarding the upstairs.

There's an excellent book I recommend regarding exteriors. It's called What Not To Build and I used it when designing the exterior of my home. I highly recommend grabbing a copy.

Did you use a designer or an actual architect?

If this house will cost as much as I think it will to build (upper 6 figures or low 7 figures), I would strongly suggest spending some of that money to get an architect or person of design talent to get it right both inside and out.

Think your right cpa.

think we may trash this and start over...

While it may not make you feel better, we started the beginning of March 2015. By December we thought we had a plan that would work on our narrow infill city lot. (6100 square feet). So we told the builder put it into permitting

However what we didn't like was the fact that the backyard faced west, my DH's office was too small, the kitchen really needed two more feet, the guest bedroom was too narrow, and our master suite really didn't work well. Additionally up until now we got by with one car. However last year, we had a second car for most of the season (we're in SW FL for 7 months), and decided we preferred having two cars. Only problem was we had designed a 1 car garage for the house.

So in February of 2016 we told the builder to pull the permits and we went back to the drawing board. For us that meant buying an extra 1/2 lot, turning the house so the back faced south, increasing the kitchen space by 2', making DH's study larger, adding a second garage bay, making the guest suite larger and fixing the problems with our master suite.

While it's been a long arduous haul, we are finally building and I'm expecting when we finally do move in, we'll be a heck of a lot happier. When spending this much money on a custom house, make sure it's truly custom for you and how YOUR family lives.

The best thing you could do now is read up on Virgil's post on bubble diagrams and then also put together a list of all the things you do in your house and the frequency. Also what is most important. Not only which rooms are in the house, but also how you want to feel when you drive up and how you feel when you're in the house. Then put together a bubble diagram.

Ya, we pretty much did the, what and how we live, put it together and tried to translate that to a house, or an idea ot the designer. our bubbles took about 2 yrs or so.

Would love to see the layout of you place...can you post it? or have you posted it?

I was going to wait a few weeks until at least our stem wall was in, but posted a thread with my final plans along with a link to all my old threads about improving the house. (Warning there are lots of them!)

Here's the link.