PPF, I love seeing what you do with people's plans. It's amazing what a difference that change in the dormer makes!

I love all three finishes..I just don’t like blue for the body of the house…too personal and too restrictive.

Before you make a final decision, consider a Gambrell roof for a larger upstairs within the roof line on the third floor -- and a more farm style look.

While this example is a two story, this roofline could be used atop a second story as well.

http://tomsonburnham.com/dutch-colonials-in-salem-oregon/

Alternately, having three open gables on the third floor -- one facing each direction (gables such as shown on only one side by PPF. in his pic) and with a "fourth gable" space of equal side adjacent to the garage roof would enable you to have access to yet more room -- space over the garage.

Also, do consider adding a full width front porch -- shown in the two inspiration pics but not the drawing -- but add a gable to the shed roof over the front entry.

What is your floor plan?

@PPF, thanks for your feedback. Have you seen a house with a dormer like this? I’m having trouble visualizing it built. Thanks!

What you see is all there is. Nothing changes on the inside.

M J - I'll share pictures of our house that have dormers like PPF suggested. We have three of them, including one over the garage. All three are nooks in bedrooms.

And by the way, our house is all board and batten, except for some shingles/shakes in the top part of the gable ends.

An older pic with not quite finished front.....

One of the front views from the architect....

And then our upstairs floor plan that shows the bedroom nooks....

Google cross gable dormer to see examples with one built.

MJ - It's a match to James Hardie "Light Mist" siding. We used Hardie siding but had it painted on site. A new construction house about a mile away had used the prepainted Light Mist siding and I loved the gray color. Sherwin Williams has the formula to match James Hardie colors.

The only metal roof we have is our front porch and it's a dark gray. Same with the shingle color. Roof color was one of the few things I did not over analyze. I sent my husband to Home Depot with color names written down for some shingles I knew they stocked. He brought home the one that they had enough in stock of for our house. The metal roof guy showed up and asked me if I had a preference on color. I said whatever will look good with the house color and shingle color. That's what he picked. Whatever it was, it turned out great!

I need to make a few comments.

I hope you realize that if anyone uses bathroom in bedroom 2 in the middle of the night you will hear it since toilet will be right up against your bedroom wall? Maybe your head?

Bedroom 4 will have the same problem if anyone else uses the bathroom in the middle of the night since the toilet is up against that bedroom wall.

Why the double doors into your bedroom dead center in the middle of the wall?

Are you saying bedroom without a number is over the garage? That will require additional insulation for safety. Personally I would never put a bedroom over a garage.

Additionally it will be extremely dark with only the single dormer window. It will be a dark hole.

Is there a reason you're wasting an exterior corner on a closet yet only bedroom 2 has windows on 2 walls? Closets shouldn't have windows inside since they can fade clothes.

Additionally that is a very large closet. Plus you have a second large WIC.

Same with the master bathroom. Lots of space for little reason.

Ideally you want bedrooms to have windows on 2 walls for light and/or cross ventilation.

The hallway will be quite dark with absolutely no natural light

The hall bathroom will also be quite dark.

The laundry room is quite large with lots of wasted space. What else do you plan to put in there?

Honestly, I think you can do better. I hope the downstairs is better laid out.

Yep, that upstairs plan looks like a bad remodel.

The location of the stairs on the end of the house is, I believe, a big part of the problem.

My layperson opinion is that there are too many textures on the facade. You have a shingle roof, a metal roof, shingle siding, and board-and-batten, plus a lot of trim. That looks very busy to me. I'd probably stick to one type of siding.

My two cents: First thing I thought when I saw your elevation is what a pretty house, but that dormer in the middle is too small. It works on your inspiration pic because the roof isn't as steep. With the big roof mass you have, it seems as if you need a bigger dormer.

Also, you might think to reconfigure bedroom #4 and the bath in the hallway. Why not turn the bathroom 180 degrees, put it between the laundry room and bedroom 4 so that it takes the place of the walk-in closet and you could have a window in the bath. You could still access it from the bedroom and the hallway. Right now it feels like you have to go through the bathroom to get into bedroom 4. Is that the bath that the person in the bedroom over the garage will also be using?

I played with your upstairs layout to give you an idea of what might be possible. This is not by any means a finished idea. However, now 3 of the 4 bedrooms would have windows on 2 walls and all 4 bedrooms are on corners.

The closets don't take up valuable corner spaces and don't have windows. The secondary bedrooms are all reach in closets but well designed reach ins can provide more storage than a poorly designed WIC. The laundry is slightly smaller and there is extra storage in the hallway.

There are not the odd jigs and jogs which will wind up saving money.

Plus assuming you have kids who are or will someday be teens, having your bedroom by the head of the stairs will be a good thing. ;)

following

IMO, there are too many materials/colors on the elevation. I don't like the two tone effect. It would be fine if it were all blue or all white. It's a very busy elevation and the two-tone color design just complicates the design. Do one or the other, but not both.

cpartist, I like your layout a lot better. Would you move the closet in the lower right bedroom up to the shared wall with bedroom 2 to provide some sound buffer?

Kristin, I had debated back and forth between those two choices. Yes, I think it probably would be a better choice to flip the closets to the wall shared with bedroom 2.

Personally, I still think it needs work in that I'm not a fan of the hallway to bedroom 2 but I wanted to show another way of laying out the upstairs and getting rid of the dormer over the garage.

The other problem now is the second floor window over the front entry door.

Actually...all the second floor windows are a problem.

Why?

As I posted in the OP's other thread on this design, a timeless approach to window proportions is to have the first floor windows the tallest; the second floor windows obviously shorter; and any higher windows (such as a dormer) shorter than the second floor. Here's one good example:

It also creates a pleasing vertical proportion.

And then...there's the second floor windows above the front door. These confuse the clear visual sense of a classic 5-bay façade. It would be greatly improved if this was simply another window to match the (shorter) second floor windows. If this is a bathroom, simply install interior wood shutter or louvered shutters.

Virgil, yes that's what I was trying to explain about why that window above the first floor door was wrong in my version too. :)

The second floor center bay with two windows is a closet!

Change the windows to a (shorter) window to match the other (shorter) second floor windows, and make the façade a true classic 5-bay façade.

I don't think either version you show is good.

Both have your owners suite in the middle with only windows on one wall.

Both have the master bath AND one of the WIC on corners. Why would you want a window in the closet? All it does is ruin clothes.

Only bedroom 2 in the second version has windows on 2 walls.

I agree a laundry room shouldn't be the size of the master bedroom.

Why does the kid or person in bedroom 3 get the small room?

Why does the closet for bedroom 3 get windows but the bathroom doesn't?

Why in both versions is the master bath so large with lots of wasted space? Why do you want to pay for wasted space in a bathroom?

Ideally the bedroom should be on the corners and the bathrooms, laundry, etc should be between them. Bathrooms and closets don't need windows on multiple walls. Bedrooms ideally do.

How far along are you in your plans and design? Have you broken ground yet?l

I'd still like to see the other 3 elevations and 1st and 3rd floor plans.

You nailed it PPF.

How would you consider reworking the second floor to match what you drew?

This is what I was thinking. Tried to give all rooms windows, and bedrooms on corners. The exterior walls are correct, but I guessed at the location of the interior ones. Center front window is real, but closed off on the inside.

Ok can you label the rooms and do it in 2d?

That's a really long second floor corridor. A relocated stair to the center of the house might make the second floor much more efficient.

While the exterior has issues as pointed out, a bigger problem is your upstairs interior. Get the interior working right.

What stage are you at with this build?

Is this a tract home or a custom home?

MJ can you message me?

Click on my name and you'll see in the upper right corner a link to Message.