PLEASE HELP! Dormers or arch over front door with a front car garage?
Reese Network
3 years ago
example of where the garage will go and how the garage will look (does have arch too)
Dormers with side garage
Arch with side garage
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Front Landscape Do Over Help Please!
Comments (15)Can you shoot the house from across the street, showing the whole front area? It looks very narrow and deep, and landscape has to be done as a whole, not spot by spot. Take picture of the front from various angles and with a paint program, scribble in the mature size of the plants you have and any you think of buying (before you buy) - I'm not good on northern plants, but I think you crowded them and in a few years you will have problems. The house is very tall and has strong vertical lines that need some equally strong, wide horizontal lines to balance it, and a few tall things to connect the house to the ground. That redbud will be great as the tall thing - can you add one along the left property line aligned with the corner of the house and one on the other side of the driveway? It's worth repeating. Don't be afraid to repeat plant materials - some of the most striking landscapes have a very limited range of material. I think I see seven or more varieties on that side, which is going to look "spotty". To have an effective accent plant, you need to have mostly "not accent" plants as a background. http://www.sxc.hu/photo/771900 (two species, maybe three) A raised bed in the middle of the lawn would just be a "pimple" in the lawn, and rocks create a mowing problem. The wobbly edge doesn't look as good as lines that reflect the lines of the house: bold straight lines like the pillar and shallow arches like the garage doors. Serpentine landscape curves need a lot of room to pull off. In a small area they look like the gardener was drunk when he/she dug the beds. I would bring the beds out from the property line squared with the corner of the house, then even with the width of the house until they are even with the pillar of the entry, then to the middle of the window and until they are past the start of the sidewalk curve, then go back straight to the drive. Then I would make a low wall with a short pillar at each corner of the bed, in stone or with low-growing evergreen shrubbery. Make an emphatic formal terrace look to the front, squaring up the rounded sidewalk too. Make some outline of beds using bright string or a garden hose and see how they look, use boxes and paper bags as plant stand-ins (and ignore the neighbors pointing and giggling) Keep adjusting until you see balance. PROBLEMS: Whatever you have growing next to the house under the windows looks too close to the wall. Foundation plants need to be a minimum of one and a half rake widths from the wall for easier maintenance, or 1/4 the mature size so you don't deform the plant. Move them now while they are small. The evergreens directly in front of the door will be a problem. It's a very pretty entrance and they will hide it soon. They will also overgrow the sidewalk, and aren't a plant that takes well to pruning. Plants should be set back from a walkway at least 30% or even 50% of their mature size so they don't block the walk and don't......See MorePlease help me choose a front door!
Comments (18)Good thoughts Bronwynsmom! Our garage door is the Garaga overlay design. The rectangles that you see are in fact recessed as you guessed. The framing around the rectangles is over a flat door panel. The way the garage door is shown on the Sketch-up elevation picture is a bit off. Our garage door will have three rectangles across, not four as shown (the garage door is 14 feet wide). As a result the rectangles will be even wider on the true garage door. I will see about getting the different doors we are considering put into the Sketch-up picture. I will also investigate if we can get rectangles rather than squares into the two doors (sort of like the first door that you posted above, but with two doors). The two doors will at best be each 32 inches wide so the rectangles can only be so wide. I wondered what you thought about the window above the door. I definitely want this window above the door. The entrance way is 12 feet high, so there is plenty of room for the window above the door, and currently the doors we have looked at have been standard height (around 82 inches), although we could look at a taller door. The ceilings in the rest of our house are only 8 feet, which is still the norm in our area, and all interior doors are around 82 inches high. Do you think there should be a space above the door before the window starts? Should the glass in the window include frame to break up the shape at all? Perhaps it should look like two stacked rectangular transoms? Any thoughts on this? I really appreciate your help, and the help of others on this site. Carol...See MoreHelp with dated front door and arched window
Comments (20)Dear Hunt7191, I couldn't agree with you more! The door, window above and the stone treatment all violate the pretty facade and proportions of the rest of the exterior. This entry is badly scaled and the finishes are not complementary to the house design. I would redesign the entire vertical area of the door and window by paying attention to the scale around it. The arches above the windows on either side of the protruding entry door are well scaled. I would not widen the door because there isn't enough surface area to support a double door width. This would just push it uncomfortably close to the edges of this stone area. I would simply remove the window above the door and fill the area with solid wall and face it with the same stone. I would replace the door and transom window with the same style and size of arch that is over the window to the right of it in the head on view you posted, and at the exact same height, though more proud (forward). Actually, I would make the door skinnier (if you can get away with it by code) so that it better matched the proportions of the windows. Then, I would paint out the stone to match the house. You could call out the door in a fresh fun color of your choosing, but leave all the trim to match the beige that is rest of the facade....See Moredormer(s) above the garage?? help please!
Comments (23)If you're set on livable space above the garage, the pitch of your existing roof looks insufficient. The only other option, for what you want to do, is to remove the existing roof and reframe using pony walls and a new roof structure. The existing footings will need to be checked to see if they can support the live and dead loads of a second floor. Where will the stair to the second floor go and how will you access it from the first floor? Hint: more remodeling to the first floor may be likely. Is your electrical service sufficient for the additional load? How will you get the HVAC to the new area? Will there be a bathroom? If so, how will supply, and service and waste drains be handled? Hint: A second floor addition is more than carpentry and dry wall... Good luck!...See MoreReese Network
3 years ago
PROMark Bischak, Architect
3 years agoReese Network
3 years agoReese Network
3 years ago
PROVirgil Carter Fine Art
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoStart by removing the obviously fake stone on the front facade, and using the same materials on all sides of the building. Then study McMansion Hell...
Reese Network
3 years ago
loobab
3 years agoKristin S
3 years agoReese Network
3 years ago- PRO
Virgil Carter Fine Art
3 years ago loobab
3 years agolast modified: 3 years ago- PRO
kmg11
3 years agoReese Network
3 years agotiggerlgh
3 years agotatts
3 years agoReese Network
3 years agohomechef59
3 years ago- PRO
Barbara Griffith Designs
3 years ago 
cpartist
3 years agoReese Network
3 years agoThese are the only photos that show elevation.
Barbara, I know you said the second elevation is the best and it was my favorite at first. Look at this Live Photo and tell me if you think I’m crazy for not liking it in person. It doesn’t look symmetrical and one leg is bigger than the other. Please let me know what you think. This is why I’m open to installing dormers and moving to the other elevation. I look forward to hearing back!
Reese Network
3 years agohoussaon
3 years agocpartist
3 years ago
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