Please help regarding a new build
5 years ago
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need help with new build house plan... please critique!
Comments (9)The best houses are 1-1.5 rooms deep, absolutely no more than 2 ("rooms" include garages and covered porches). Light and breezes have a harder time reaching interior spaces when the house is fatter than 2 rooms. Because of this, the best course of action, I think, is to toss this plan altogether, sorry. :-( The Philippines is a beautiful, friendly country, with a rich culture... Would you consider hiring a Filipino architect to design you a great place that works with the spirit of the locale? You could really get something awesomely special! Side notes: -- Bedrooms on corners are awesome, but take care to place windows where you have enough space for drapes... extending the curtain rod 8"-12" on either side of the window is best, to make a window look larger, and to allow the fabric to be pulled completely away from the glass. -- Most Americans will think it's strange to have an outdoor laundry area, but if this is normal/expected in the Philippines (it was where I spent most of my childhood, outside the US), then having a powder room instead is a good idea, I think. :-)...See MoreHere goes..newbie new build exterior help and interior feedback please
Comments (33)To piggyback on Virgil's comment...could you design the empty nest space on one floor with separate climate zones so that later on you can completely close off part of the house unless you have guests. This makes perfect sense. Specifics I'd care about: - Place everything you and your spouse will need once you're "empty nesters" on the first floor ... and make sure it's elder-friendly. - This is an ugly thought, but it's realistic: It's easy to consider you and your spouse living in this 4000 square foot house together as empty nesters ... but one day one of you will be widowed. Will 4000 square feet still feel okay then? - Put the kids' bedrooms upstairs, but make sure you can close off that space when no one's using it. Be sure you have at least one bedroom that can hold at least a queen bed so that visiting adult children (who bring along a spouse) can be housed comfortably, and think about a room that could become a grandchildren's room. - This upstairs space might one day be needed for a live-in caretaker (who could be a child or grandchild, or could be a paid caregiver). - Lose the loft and instead make the basement a kids' hang out space. - A completely different thought: Design the house so that you have two bedrooms upstairs for your younger children ... and a one-bedroom apartment (with a separate entrance PLUS a lockable connection to the main house) for the older boys. My mom has this set-up in her house, and it has proven itself very flexible over the years. In her case, the one-bedroom apartment is connected to the main house with a breezeway. Initially an elderly relative lived in the apartment. Each of us kids took turns living in that bedroom. It's been temporary housing for a number of people. Now my mother lives in the apartment, while my brother and his family have the main house. Heck that double bedroom might not even get a year or more out of it before the boys are off to college. I say that because it may be another year or two before the house is built. Yes, realistically, the oldest boys will barely ever live in the house ... but assuming they're going away for the traditional college route, they'll be home for holidays and summers. They may or may not come home after college, but they're not likely to stay long. My oldest has been out of college two years now, and as I think about her high school classmates, only one is still living at home with her mom ... and it's because she is a single mother. I know plenty of empty nesters living in 4000+ sq.ft. houses and none of them are overwhelmed. Eh, I bought my current 2400 square foot house from an empty nester who was overwhelmed both with the upkeep and the cost of the home. I know a couple other people who would like to downsize ... but they can't unload their large houses and/or can't find something small and manageable for the same cost now. I do know one retired guy who stocks grocery shelves part-time literally because he can't afford his oversized house ... neither can he sell it. As for maintenance and upkeep, well, if one can afford to build such a house, they will probably still be able to afford it 30 years later. And also afford the help to clean it. Totally disagree. Speaking hypothetically, definitely not pointing at the OP, whose financial situation I don' t know: pretty much anyone can borrow to build a big house ... but that doesn't mean the individual can afford to retire AND maintain the big house. No one wants to discover too late that he cannot afford to travel, etc. in retirement because of the necessity of maintaining a big house. I have always told my husband that I wanted a home where all the kids would have a bed to sleep on when they chose to come back home to visit. Yes, I always want to have a space for my kids ... but at 4000 square feet, you have space for other people's kids too. Remember that an average house in America today is 2400 square feet; you're looking at practically double that size. I agree that's important too, but a few thoughts on that. How many will be moving far from home and how many will be staying with you at the same time? This is more unpredictable than your own health. With four kids, will they live nearby and visit but never stay the night? will they move far away? will they likely come back to visit at the same time? will they send their kids to stay with you two weeks every summer? Other thoughts: - That's a lot of garage for anyone. - I like the connection between the laundry and the master closet. - The master bath could use improvement. - You're devoting a huge amount of space to bedrooms ... but not nearly as much to eating space. Fast forward a decade or two: imagine four children, spouses and grandchildren ... you don't have anywhere to feed even half that group! And, in my experience, you're more likely to have family for a day /a meal than for overnight. - The placement of the toilet in the shared bathroom seems to be very much "out in the open". I get that this bathroom is designed for sharing, but it could be better....See MorePlease Help, New build and New marriage!
Comments (7)I would not order the furniture until you are in the home. Here is my wedding gift to you, a floor plan with a grid. Each square equals one foot. I suggest you allow your new husband the opportunity to lay out the furniture to meet his requirements. I have my doubts that anyone will be able to satisfy the list.. I took a few minutes to lay out a 9x12 rug on the floor and some furnishings. There is no way to have two sofas unless they face one another with a back to the fireplace These chairs are 36" square and the sofa shown is 36" deep and 90 inches long. You could have something like this below if the beige sofa is a loveseat. Here are two 90 inch sofas facing one another. You can see there isn't enough room to add a recliner to this layout and still be able to walk between the kitchen counter, which I assume will have barstools, and the recliner. Good luck to you....See MoreNew build/First home. Please help with fireplace design!!
Comments (13)Thanks for the feedback on this everyone. Just wanted to update in case anyone else has such a dilemma. I DID find the material I was looking for (grey with white veining) after searching inventory systems all over the country for weeks. The material is a marble, and called Blue de Savoie. I ordered a sample of from a slab and fell in love. Sadly, the slabs were only available in NYC and I was outside of their delivery range. I tried everything to get the slab or something similar sourced through local vendors and could not make it work. I ended up going with a Carrara marble instead which wasn’t exactly what I was looking for but did turn out very nicely. I think the fireplace complements the kitchen and other finishes we chose well. Please see attached for initial Savoie de blue marble I found, how our fireplace turned out and a photo of our kitchen which is located at the other end of the room that the fireplace is in. The house is still under construction hence some incomplete finishes. Thanks everyone for the feedback....See More- 5 years ago
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