We "built" the house we live in now, tract home in new neighborhood, with some customization. House conversations with friends and neighbors always have regrets in there. Bump-outs, boneheaded designs we should have caught, upgrades that should have been made, upgrades that aren't worth it... the list goes on. Based on our experiences here, I already know there will be design / decor issues that will have D'oh! moments. It's impossible to think about EVERYthing. I think we've hit all the major points, and have enough flexibility to change in the future. Our lives changed quite a bit in the 6 years since building (the once large pantry is now crammed because I now do the majority of grocery shopping at Costco and that not change for at least 15 years for example). I can't see into the future, but we learned from this build, and kept the evolution of our family in mind with our design. 1) The architect/draftsman is only as good as the information provided. They don't know us, or live our lives, ( I wonder if there'd be a benefit to having separate design consultations with the clients, much like relationship counseling, to get a really clear picture, lol), which is why we rely on their education and expertise. 2) The reason copy editors exist: to catch the technical mistakes writers make, and can no longer "see" due to closeness to the project. Same reason med errors occur. I think when we originally like a design, then look at it, dream about it, obsess over it, we can't "see" the flaws or potential problems that others might. Hence all the floor plan critique posts here. I think too, that online and builder plans lull us into a false sense of security- "they design and build houses all the time, they're experts, hundreds of people have bought the design, what could go wrong?!" We found that customizing our builders plan threw them for a loop, and didn't realize it would do so, until after the house was built, and weird things weren't right; towel bar location, depth o linen closet, outlets, etc. 3) We are often playing on tilt. We're all living SOMEwhere, right now, and designing a new place to live, with many features that we love (or would love to have) or without the ones we loathe, those HTOD, that we obsess over in our current or past homes. Finally, the same way any artist of any medium does, we aren't always satisfied with the end result of a project. Sometimes you just have to be DONE, even if to your artists eye, you could have kept going. Having said all that, I know there's going to be some regrets, but hopefully -I believe- the joy will outweigh them!

Zennifer I understand what you're trying to do, totally understand the location and blood/sweat/tears you've got in the current home. But prepare to be shocked. My guess is financially you'd still be better off moving. I wouldn't attempt an addition onto your house without an architect's help bc I agree it could easily look funky and wrong. The examples above proved it for me. How much would it suck to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into it, only to have it look bad in the end? Good luck. I've been there. Loved my old little home but it didn't make financial sense to add on. We moved. Sometimes I still miss that old house but it was the right decision.

Your architect should take a holistic attitude towards the project and deal with the issue of the big blank garage in front of the house. This will not be a cheap project. Several hundred thousand. Be sure to verify that your architect is actually an architect. It’s a state regulated term, and most states have a professional lookup online for architects and contractors both. A software manipulator isn’t an architect.

Sample this where the two woods meet. So you can see how big of a contrast there is. On my screen, the water base looks good.