@Palimpsest, Thank you for pointing out the complexity of the design as shown by the too many corners on the exterior walls. I have to admit that I am sharing at least three blames of the current design. First, I single-handily designed the essential parts of the floor plans. I started from an empty paper, started drawing rooms based on my understanding of our needs since we have a lot under serious consideration about 4 months ago. I later used floorplaner and am now using skecthup. I read a 2 story floor plan book, several books on home designs and the architect book on how to build house right. At first, I knew nothing about house design and no idea about room sizes etc at first. I later figured out where to place the staircase and . In the process, I decided not to do a two story living. For sure I received tremendous help from many GWers here while posting floor plans for reviews and by working with first a home designer, and now an architect. Second, I have a reduced fee proposed by the architect for the design. When I met with the architect with my original plans, he thought he floorplans were so well thought-out that he would be able to complete the basic architect service less than he normally do for a residential home. So that is why I was reluctant to let him to continue the angled design because I was not sure if we would like it in the end. I willing to pay him extra outside the contract fees to try alternative exteriors/roofs but I need to make sure that we can get there not just for trial-and-error. Third, I had no idea about what are considered ‘good’ house styles/exteriors/roofs. So I let the architect to do whatever he feels best to meet our needs for a functional, budget, yet attractive house. As a matter of fact, I do prefer aligned walls with less jogs, and I believe in intrinsic beauty in simplicity. I proposed to align the walls to remove several bump outs to both the previous designer and the current architect, both of their responses are no need to do that. Otherwise, house would lose some interesting looks. I also talked with several builders about extra costs with jogs and the complex roof lines, their answer is that no much difference , not to the degree to justify the removal of the bump outs for the sake of reducing cost. I am disadvantaged due to my lack of knowledge and experience in the field. It is easy for me to defer my judgments to the architect/builder. . If I insisted on less corners in the first place, the design may have a simpler shape. Thank you for explaining the angled design with your personal experience of living in a mid-century house. The example of elliptical room is very interesting and I think I get it. I personally think that we made the right decision of not following the architect’s suit of all angled walls. It is good a decision has been made and we move on. If there is any doubt, it is that I might have given the architect more benefit of doubt and let him finish his design and make decision later. But the design budget would not allow that arrangement so that is the best decision we could make at the time. I think I shall ask him to see if there is way of making a simpler footprint of the house with fewer corners and we shall set a goal to come up with a simplified design. @Live Wire Oak, You had a great point regarding budget for the house. We could go ahead with the design anyway with the plain looks or unncessary complex roofs. However, if the budget is not there, the house would not be able to be built and the design will be paper drawings collecting dusts. I would respond with more details later on the budget issue. Thanks! JF

Hi stacyneil, No pics yet...we aren't finished. But those Pro Wood people have literally hundreds of cool brackets and good pergola components you should look at! I feel like doing a big ad for them on the kitchens forum because they have cool (simple) corbels for counter overhangs and range hood mantels and of course fireplaces. I had someone make brackets for the outside of our mudroom door and they're so awful compared to what I could have gotten if I had known about these guys earlier! I really like the pergola idea... And I am "Vintage Cream in the City" kitchen--HOPE that's the fabulous one! (-: (-: (-: ~Amy

You don't think 18x20' is big enough for family room? We like to gather in the family room and that's where we spend most of our time together as a family. Are there any wasted space that you see? Yes lots of wasted space and the room sizes are not what they seem. Here in the first plan, I drew in red the walkways to get to other rooms or to get to a door to get outside, or to a closet. These need to be a minimum of 3' and 42" is better. 3' is tight feeling. Notice how much of the house is taken up with walkways? So for example. The living room which says it's 16' x 22' really isn't. The 22' is really only 15'-16' deep because of pathways. However the width is even worse. First you have the fireplace wall which takes up 1'6" right there. Ideally behind a seating area at a counter you need 5' of walking space between the counter and for example your sofa. So now the 16' width has been reduced to 9'6". (16' - 5' - 1'6" = 9'6") Even if you skimp and make the area behind the island 4', that still only leaves you with a living room width to put furniture of 10'6". Considering a sofa or large chair is 3' deep, that now leaves you with a space that is only 6'6" from the fireplace or again if skimping on the space between island and sofa 7'6". Similarly, the nook which says it's 10' x 8' isn't. You'll lose 3' because of the door to the porch so the 8' is now only 5'. However the loss because of the pathway to the game room is even worse. It's not a loss of 3' like someone above suggested. It's almost double because those are double doors. Assuming those double doors are 5' wide, then the space for the nook is only 5' x 5'. A very small table is 3' x 3' so where is the seating room? The second layout is a bit better, but still nothing wonderful. The living room will not be 20' wide but will be 17' wide. Still not shabby though. However the 18' width again you need 5' between seating and island countertops so now your width is down to 13' wide. Plus you will have the problem of how to lay out furniture with a corner fireplace. Corner fireplaces are a bear to lay out furniture in. And again with the nook. the nook will not be 10' but 7' wide and the length will not be 12' but 9' wide. 7' x 9' is doable for a small table and chairs. Also as others have said, even if the houses are oriented north/south, they will still be dark on the interiors. Light can only penetrate so far. One thing you haven't told us is how big is your property. These two plans are meant for suburban lots and not if you have acreage. If you're building on acreage, look for plans that are long and lean. Or, I, T, or H shaped Add to that a U or L shaped plan too.

Everybody's needs, desires, wants and finances are different. And they can be quite different for the same people at different stages in life. For our first 5 years of marriage we lived in an 820 sq ft home in a neighborhood of similar homes and narrow streets where kids played in the streets without worry of being run over by a speeding car. We loved that home and neighborhood and still miss it. Soon after our first child was born we moved in to a larger home of about 1700 sq ft and later finished the basement for another 800. It's worked well for this time of our lives. Now we're building an 8000 sq ft home (http://bamasotan.us). Neither of us particularly likes big houses and we didn't want this one to be nearly this big. However, my wife comes from a large family so it's not unusual to have 40 people over for dinner (like Christmas eve every year as well as a dozen or so other times each year). We also like for people to be able to stay with us (family & friends from Alabama, Sweden, Scotland, etc.) and we both need home offices (we've been splitting home offices w/ guest quarters which works but isn't ideal) so we effectively have a 7 bedroom home though 2 are offices. At one point early in the design process our architect said "so what you want is an inn". I'm still trying to figure out how 3 extra bedrooms and a bit more elbow room in the kitchen and family room ended up being 3x our current house. Frequent quote from our architect "It wants to be this!" Translated: Our and the builders revenue model want it to be this. I think we'd be just as happy going back to our 800 sq ft home though and I'm guessing at some point as we age we'll move in to a much smaller place. A friend just moved from a 3000 sq ft home to a 600 sq ft flat along a bikeway. She can ride her bike to the same village as us with a grocery, pharmacy and a few restaurants. She's been there about 3 years and says that she couldn't be happier. Though I wouldn't give up my wife or her family or all of our friends that come to stay with us for anything, I'm also a bit envious of Jeff's plans for his small place.