Are you only asking for opinions on the exterior?

The rendition of the new house gives the garage a modern look which doesn't really match with the addition.

Have you looked at tri-level homes for additional ideas?

Otherwise it would be very helpful if you provided the current dimensions of your house along with the dimensions of the addition, as well as , current and future floor plans.

misecretary - Thank you for your response. Yes, looking for opinions on the look of the exterior. I've edited my post to clarify. The detached garage roof lines are existing and the budget won't allow reconstruction of the garage roof structure.

My goal is a more modern or contemporary look overall and attempted this by adding the metal roof and dark siding.

I did think about a tri-level. However, a 3 level requires sprinklers and would be too costly. Right now my inquiry is centered around the massing and look of the exterior. The addition is 16 x 32 and the existing house is 37 x 24. The addition upper level will likely be a modular that sits on a poured concrete foundation.

I like the garage and the breezeway. The color is great. You lost me on the lack of windows in the addition. I googled contemporary bi level homes and many have large windows. Any chance you can replace / add larger windows

misecratary - ok thanks for the feedback. The rear wall of the addition facing the backyard will contain very large windows. As you noticed, I kept the front of the addition minimal / simple for 1) didn't think it looked too bad and 2) putting the money into the expensive windows in the rear - which will be the living room area. The front of the addition is a stairwell.

But yes, I can add windows to the design and post the revision. Again thank you for the feedback

I'm sorry, didn't realize that your living area was in the back.

An addition should not be evaluated by a singular view. Your house is not a painting and does not exist in a two dimensional world. I am sure there is a myriad of information, details, and conditions (not communicated here) that exist that will effect the way your addition should be designed to meet your needs and respond to the site and existing structures.

Mark - most definitely and thank you for your feedback. Before I go any further with design and other details, I wanted to get some opinions on the shape, form and size of the addition, and whether it looks appealing.

The biggest objective of the design was to relocate the entrance / bi-level stairs out of the existing house. The existing entry / u- stairs is the typical raised ranch configuration that is very tight (and no closet) and still took up a lot of the space ( and can't really make bigger at that location).

The other important factors is to have the entrance at grade and having a connector to the detached garage which will be a studio / guest room, having a more expansive a well lit entry with a coat closet and mudroom, and by providing more flexibility in the existing space (with the stairs no longer there). I also like the fact that the entrance is on that side of the house.

Here's another angle to better show the form and connection between the garage & existing house. I had to bring the front of the addition forward to allow for the connector to the garage.

misecretary - no worries and thank you. I thought it might be easier in this forum to stick with the "curb" view to start, particularly since this is my biggest concern at this juncture. Would love to show the floorplans and other angles, but I thought that it might be too confusing right off the bat. Maybe not ?

misecretary - regarding the windows, another idea could be to go minimal. Something that evokes scandinavian barn. what do you think ? I have loads of windows at the rear which is where the living, kitchen, dining rooms are

You will benefit greatly by engaging an architect to design a home with you that meets your needs and fits your site. The sooner the better.

It looks intriguing to me. Why not windows in front and back? I would like to see floor plans to better understand the layout. I like the connection between the house and garage. The most awkward to me is the part sticking out with no windows in the above as well as first post. I think more windows might make more sense there. And there might be a way to make a roof with a pitch that parallels the garage roof coming forward at a more modern angle.

lafdr - thanks for the input. I was going in the direction of a modern nordic barn look. I originally put a lot of windows in the front and felt it looked too traditional. I will continue working on that. The rear of the house is where most of the living space is and this is where most of the windows are. see pic of rear below. Also, below rendering, I modified the garage roof to be more similar to main house. I also removed the eaves to see if this would give it more of a modern look. I'm not sure if this is what you were suggesting regarding the roof lines... I don't quite know what you mean. The rear exterior isn't quite complete and I will add windows above the sliders on the addition. Again, thanks and please feel free to make additional comments. much appreciated. I'll post the floor plans in a few minutes

Lafdr - Here are the floorplans. A bit crude at this juncture. A majority of the existing house remains the sam, i..e. - limited demo / wall additions. The addition upper level is a stairwell and living room. The lower portion of the addition is the stairwell & master bedroom. I am looking at a 16 x 32 modular (module) on a poured foundation (maybe ICF). Floor plans below - Living/Kitchen is upper level; bedrooms lower level

Mark - We did some preliminary work with an Architect - a barter deal of sorts. Very surgical - minimal demo or reconfiguration in the existing house. adding a 16 x 32 box and the breezeway. master bedroom is kind of its own wing. kids have bedrooms and play area with access to the outside. For upper level, media room and large pantry were important, as well as a decent dining room. Roomy entry foyer with coat closet and mudroom is also important. Some wasted space in the stairwell / hallway leading to the existing portion of the house and some dead space over by the laundry - needs further review. most of the deck is existing. We both work from home so the garage will be a studio/office which can double as a guest room.

Still assessing our approach with an architect/designer. Don't want to spend two or three months on schematics. Wife works in creative spaces / interior design. Possibly will go to engineer directly in conjunction with independent architect/designer for consultation.

"Don't want to spend two or three months on schematics."

Ok, I've posted this numerous before so for you regulars, you can skip to the next post of another thread entirely.

What you need to do Mike, is to get a local imaginative person to come out to your house and have a three or four hour design session over your dining room table involving yourself and any other decision maker(s).

I do these all the time and call them "charrettes". You look like you already have measured drawings to serve as a template for this but for the lurkers, we first measure up the parts of the house (or maybe the whole thing...LOL!) we need which takes about 30 minutes, creating a template to freehand draw over. And it's fun to go around a whole house, taking maybe 60 measurements and for the last measurement that bring us back to the starting point, I scale it and say "It should be 28'2"" and upon measuring they say "28'3 1/2""...Close enough!!

We look at many approaches including many where the owner says "We never thought of that!". At the end of these we have a basic concept worked out often entirely different than what they preconceived.

It shouldn't take "two or three months". The ones I do take four or five hours. To take some of the mystery out of these, below are photos of a few...one under the watchful eyes of King Tut!:

Like that the connector between the house and the garage but the whole assemblage could use some more work. As someone else suggested multiple views are helpful since you will never see the house from just one angle.

Norwood - thank you. When you suggest multiple views, do you mean that I post multiple views/perspectives in order for people in this forum to get a better sense ?

Architectrunnerguy - I would love to do this. Actually, we did do one session with our architect friend who we bartered with ( his architectural session traded for my wife's interior design). Considering our budget of $350K he recommended keeping it simple and surgical, which is what we are doing (trying). Raised Ranches are tough.

We received two quotes thus far, both $70K and neither was flexible on the approach. Neither liked my idea of taking a collaborative approach to include a GC from the get go. Both wanted to go through schematic designs ---> CD's ----> Bid

My concern (outside of the $70K) was that we would spend months on getting to bids to come find out that it comes in over budget and going back to the drawing board.

I'm certain there must be a more cost effective way to determine the cost within 20% of budget at an earlier stage. Do you think it makes sense to work with a local engineer to draw up plans that provide enough detail that can produce bids that within 20% ?

I'm willing to consider a cost + scenario (with caps) if I can find the right GC with some flexibility. I would love to have a charrette with a GC, engineer, architect, etc right from the get go !

We bought in an somewhat exclusive town and its seems like many of the local AE & GC's can keep busy with all the city folk (who seem to have substantial budgets) making their exodus from the City. From a GC perspective, we've fanned out further from the local town and have found GC's that seem to be more competitive.

Neither liked my idea of taking a collaborative approach to include a GC from the get go.

Wow! That's odd. As I've written here before, I like to have a GC on board from the start. They are active participants in most of my charrettes......and who do you think is taking all those charrette photos?

ARG - I’ve worked on all sides, GC, AE, client PM/CM. My field is in telecom (wireless) design & construction and compartmentalization is the norm. They all bring a lot of knowledge to the table and it only makes sense to have everyone involved from the beginning.

Your parole officer is also a general contractor?? Wow, that works out good.

Keep looking for an architect that is willing to have the general contractor involved in the design process. I find the general contractor's input during the design process invaluable, even if their only comment is, "It looks good to me."

I see lots of issues with the floor plan a couple are 1) your guests need to walk through the kitchen after dinner to get to the LR,2) the pantry is almost bigger than the kitchen a FR on the same floor as bedrooms makes no sense all those little windows just does not work IMO how do you even see out of them? There should be no entry from the FR to the master bathroom. I just think a good architect can do better

FWIW, here's a couple of houses we saw in Norway. The window size might look nice on your rendition. It may be a consideration if you are going "scandi."

Patricia - thanks for your input. 1) What's wrong with that ? Personally, I don't see anything wrong with having a separate dining area that's not directly connected to a LR. I would prefer to have a dining room with direct access to the kitchen, pantry, and the deck/grill area. Plus guests can drop off their plates on their way to the LR :)

2) we value a large pantry as we plan to grow/store food, herbs. we can have a secondary freezer, apothecary, etc. It will also function as a area to prepare preserves, produce, make tinctures, elixirs, etc. Could even put a small bar area for mixing drinks. This might end up being my favorite room !

3) The FR is really a kids space. They will have that entire portion of the lower level including the family room. This will be even more important as they get older and have more friends over. The FR has a beautiful slider going to the back looking into the woods. The windows in the bedrooms are almost 3 x 3. I haven't really assessed the windows at this point, but probably will make them larger. My question to the forum was specific to the exterior look of the form and shape of the structure massing - which is my primary focus. No point going into many interior details if the massing changes.

4) there is no entry into the master bath from the FR. What appears to be an entry is actually an auto generated measurement. Thanks for pointing that out !

5) We did work with an Architect ! A very good one ! This is how we got to where we are.

I haven't really delved into the window designs on the front and sides of the house. Still working on the addition and its connection to the garage/studio

Thanks again for your feedback. Grateful for this forum

Here's the rear of the house - thus far

Shasta - Thank you ! A beautiful looking place. I've been wanting to visit Norway. I have a lot of work to do on the window design. I'm torn between a modern nordic barn minimalist look and the desire to bring in more light. Most of the front of the house is not primary living areas, so this helps if we go with the minimalist look. We do have a lot of windows/glass on the rear. I posted a rendering of that just above this response. in any case, more & bigger windows are bound to go in ( cha ching$). The lower level is completely above grade, I just haven't figured out how to slope the grade on my software program ( Chief Architect, which is an awesome program). The architect we met with initially was really amazed with it and amazed that I had learned how to use it in a couple of weeks time.

Mark - I totally agree. And a structural engineer. Even subs.

Use a structural engineer only if the architect needs one. If the architect and general contractor need a structural engineer at design meetings with the owner, you have the wrong architect and general contractor.

Rear image is stunning. So much light. Love it.

I love the back windows. I would still add more to the front :) I agree with you about involving a builder earlier to keep the job more on your budget. :)

First I really like your new massing and the dark color. I don’t mind the smaller windows either. The elevation looks like the entrance is on the lower level but your floor plans show the entrance is midway. I would prefer the entrance on lower level and having one straight flight of stairs on back wall of addition up to living room. I would keep the space of the formerly split stairway open leaving a dramatic 2 story space. I would also use glass railing on stair and living room overlook connecting living to entrance.

Mark - the rear wall of the existing house will be mostly sliders & windows, there will need to be two large openings in the lower level exterior, and the existing garage shed roof structure might be replaced with a gable roof. I would also like to look at the existing deck to see if can be reused/renovated to include having 12 - 14' span between posts. Should I have a structural engineer at meeting ? Thanks for your previous response.

Keith - Thank you for your response. Grade level is about 2 feet below the lower level floor. So it doesn't appear that I can have a single flight of stairs. At least I'm eliminating the exterior stairs that bring you the split stairs. I do like the idea of having the stairwell open. I'll have to produce some renderings with the glass railing along the stairs. Here's what I have thus far. I have installed some large windows in the front of the addition to see what that might look like ( and to just get a better view of the renderings. I managed to get a closet in the lower level along the length of the front wall. What do you think of the closet ?

suezbell - some great ideas, thank you ! I really like the idea of extending the breezway back to make a foyer and covered porch on top. I love porches ! One thing though - the top of the floor of the breezeway is at grade whereas the top of the floor of the house lower level is about 2 feet below grade. It doesn't look like I would have room for a porch above, plus stairs would be required to access the porch from the living room. Also, I don't think we have the budget for anything additional to what's proposed. So, you think the garage with the shed roof looks ok with the breezeway & addition ?

• Definitely will consider a single door w/ sidelights at the breezeway entrance. Makes perfect sense.
• Still on the fence with windows at the front of the addition. See post above this one that shows possible window scheme. I'm not so keen on octagonal windows.
• The upper level full bath is existing. My design can keep it exactly the same except for the door. I could have the entry to the bathroom placed in the media room if I moved the bathroom sink across the room to where the proposed door will be. I know that it seems a little strange to go through a pantry. But it could be interesting. The pantry won't be a typical pantry - but more like a provisions store/ apothecary / elixir bar sort of thing. We are a bit unconventional.
• I agree that the living room is a bit long at 23'. based on this feedback, I moved the fireplace and sofa/sitting area towards the stairs by a few feet. The idea of a partition and closet is a good one- very practical. Something to consider, but I'm guessing my better half will want the expansiveness and view of the two story stairwell. I did manage to squeeze in an 18' long closet on the lower level at the front of the addition. You can see this in the renderings just above this post. What do you think of this closet ?
• Your idea of accessing the pantry/ storage from area near the stairwell is a good one. Something to look at further. As you mentioned, maybe split up the pantry into two seperate rooms. I would probably still want to access the pantry from the kitchen, but at the same time, I could get another 8' high wall cabinet in the kitchen. It would also give the kitchen a even more refined look. Below is a rendering of the kitchen as it is proposed now ( with the entry into the pantry).

Again, thank you for all of the feedback. Very good information and much appreciated. I will take a closer look at your ideas and see what I can do.

Mike

suezbell,

btw - here are updated floor plans

• increased the addition - wider by 2' and brought the front out by a few more feet. I also shifted the back half of the garage structure to align with the front garage structure.

$350K budget seems very low for this amount of remodeling.

ulisdone - I agree. Well, not very low, but it's tight. Probably have to forgo reconfiguring the garage roof and going with a 15'9 x 30' modular versus the 18' x 36' modular. The modular quote for the latter is $54K to include delivery and setting on foundation (lower level). The existing house floor plan configuration isn't really changing that much. I'll be finishing the garage myself. Same with the two existing bathrooms (tubs and toilets are new/nice). The three existing sliders are nice and can be reused. I'll refinish the existing hardwood floors (sub out the sanding). Some things will be contracted directly by me. I'm looking at $150k-175K for the modular addition, leaving 200k for the remaining.

Like the longer foyer. Still not a fan of double doors not enabling you to even put a hat rack in the foyer. Have you considered a sliding door for the back of the foyer and a standard single door with a pair of sidelights for the front door?

The shorter living room will likely be less awkward to decorate. Since you want open stairs, you might want to reconfigure the stairs and how you shorten your living room space what you leave open or build in a mini-office beneath the stairs, etc. Have you played around any with different shaped stairs rather than a pair of parallel stairs?

If your new living room is two or three steps up from the new foyer and you want open stairs, putting a standard front door with left hinge might enable you to create steps that lead from front to back toward the living room to reach that living room. From the living room a pair of angled "landings" within the stairs creating a "C" shape (but probably with square corners -- more [ shaped) could take you from the living room to the upper floor.

The second set of stairs from living room to upper floor could be shaped similar to this but with fewer steps going from living room to the first corner landing, then a longer section with more steps (along/beside/inside your front exterior wall) and then the second/final shorter section of stairs would be front to back taking you toward the upstairs bedrooms. That last few steps to the upper floor would be well above the steps from the foyer to the living room giving you plenty of head room and enabling you to have the open stairs you seek.

Could you move the fridge over toward the living room -- leaving at least an 2' wide counter between it and the closest side wall) and, instead of the current pantry door location, create a tiny 3'x3' hall accessible from the kitchen from which you could enter EITHER the bath by the existing door or the pantry via a door across from the bath door? That would give you a longer uninterrupted countertop left of the fridge, a single 24' base cabinet and overhead cabinet on the right side of the fridge -- a mini butler's pantry -- that could be a great place for an under counter wine fridge and/or a counter top coffeemaker -- or other items that might be useful to have near the living room for rest/relaxation/entertainment purposes.

Forgot to add the link to the sample stairs:

https://cdn.homesthetics.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Image-8.jpg

The two corner "landings" from living room to upstairs could be angled steps

https://cdn.homesthetics.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Image-9.jpg

The two corner landings creating a 180 degree turn are sometimes called "winder stairs".

These give you a space beside the longest length of stairs that, if you don't want usable floor space there (for desk, hall tree) , you can leave it open (instead of adding a floor against the longest length of stairs) for design/appearance sake and do so either from foyer to all the way to the upstairs or just from living room to the upstairs. adding railing as needed for safety in whatever material and configuration suits your style.

Building codes permitting, there are circular stairs and modified versions of circular stairs that could also give you an open stair look.

https://homesthetics.net/architecture-stairs/

https://cdn.homesthetics.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Image-19.jpg

https://weldwide.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/winded-11.jpeg

---

https://homesthetics.net/architecture-stairs/

Just because code allows it doesn't mean it should be done. Stairs are dangerous enough with out making them complicated.

Love the wall of closets.

Which garage looks better with the house ? The shed roof with eaves, the shed roof without eaves or gable roof ? The one with the shed roof (with eaves) is currently the existing roof.