To do the sun/shade studies I propose here two things need to happen. The site plan needs to be rotated to true north and a set of shade templates must be constructed. The site plan rotation makes it possible to use the same templates for all projects in the same general area. The templates work well over about a 30 mile radius, which can probablly cover the work area of most designers. To do sun calcs one needs the Lat/Long location of the area. This can be found at ... www.topozone.com Below is a screenshot of me looking for Shawn's project at Campbell, CA. Note on the left I have set the "Corrdinate Format" to "D/M/S". Then at the top of the map the Lat/Long will be shown as degrees, minutes, seconds. At the lower right True north is shown with the difference for magnetic north and grid north. A lot of mapping will use a grid north and I suspect Google maps may well be shown to the UTM grid which is a 0.636 error from true north at Canpbell, not something to worry about for sun studies. We don't have the sun observation described above to pin down the rotation needed, but looking at Google Maps of his house I was able to determine that the roof edge is near azmuth 215 degrees. Azmuth is direction of a line in degrees or rotation from North. Think of it as the hand on a clock where 0 is at the 12 position of the clock and as the hand swings clockwise, 360 degrees is the full circle. 90 degrees is East, 180 is South, 270 is West. Sun calcs are easily done at the following web site ... http://www.srrb.noaa.gov/highlights/sunrise/azel.html Below is a screen shot of a sun calc for Shawn's project. Above I have set the "City" box to "Enter Lat Long", and the values I got from topozone are entered. The time offset box is set to 8 (7 for Mountain, 6 for Central, 5 for Eastern time) and set Daylight Savings Time to "yes". A date and time was entered, and then the calc button is clicked to get the results. By changing the time by trial and error I look for an azmuth of 215 degrees, the roof edge direction I got from google maps. The time comes out to be 1.49PM. Though Shawn missed the sun observation last Saturday, he guessed it was near 2PM. It looks like rotating his plan so that the roof is at az 215 is what we need. Next I need to complete the templates for this area.

Okay, the bottom line here is clear. Gobruno is emotionally committed to the courtyard and won't be happy without it! LOL! I totally understand her feelings because I fell in love with a design that had a second floor deck built above a wrap-around porch. Everybody told me that the way that upper deck was designed, it was like a huge bath-tub sitting atop front porch and it would be impossible to build without having water leakage problems on the porch underneath. After hearing about all the potential problems often enough, I couldn't just couldn't close my eyes to them anymore so I tried to walk away from the plan and find some other design I could love. No go! Try as I might, I just couldn't do it. Nothing else moved me in the least. As far as I was concerned, if my house couldn't have the element, I didn't even WANT a new house anymore. My dream house just HAD to have that element or it wouldn't be my "dream house." As far as I was concerned, every other house plan I looked at might as well have been concrete shoebox. I had fallen in love and I WANTED what I wanted. It was TRUE LOVE and no amount of nay-saying was going to dissuade me. LOL! I even told my DH, "if I can't have this, then I really just don't care. Find a house you're okay with and buy it. I don't even need to see it first." Believe it or not, after much searching, I finally found an engineer who was able to figure out a way that I could have the design I wanted while solving the drainage issues! They say "true love will find a way" and I do believe it. I'm happy I stuck with it and every time I go visit my home (currently being built) I fall in love with the design all over again. I'm so happy I stuck with it instead of settling for some other design that I would never have truly loved. So, I think what we need to do here is stop trying to talk gobruno out of loving the courtyard - I suspect that will be impossible anyway - and focus on how her design can be modified to solve the "lack of light" issues as much as possible while allowing her to keep the courtyard and the overall look and feel of the rest of the design. I think gobruno has already started that process by changing the gable roof on the screened porch to a hip roof which will let more light into the courtyard. The lower one can make the roofs over the screened porch and the garage to the immediate west of the courtyard, the more light will get over those roofs and into the courtyard. So, if the dining room has a 10 ft ceiling and the screened porch ceiling was also going to be 10 foot, perhaps lowering the screened porch ceiling height to 8 ft would be an option. It might also be possible to drop the floor of the screened porch so that you take a step down when you come out of the dining room. That would drop the screened porch roof-line a little bit more. Another possible modification might be to shift Bedroom 4 and that whole "Jack & Jill bathroom & closet complex" forward so that they are positioned over the two northernmost garage bays instead of over the two middle garage bays. That would allow for a low hip roof over the two southernmost garage bays which would let in more light. I'm not sure, but I think doing this would also allow for a real window in the J&J bath instead of having to have a skylight which, IMHO would also be an improvement. Skylights don't seem to let in enough light in the winter and get enormously hot in the summer plus they are prone to leakage problems. I would avoid using them if there was anyway to have a real window instead! Or alternatively, if there is room enough at the front of the lot, maybe the fourth garage bay could be cut off of the back side and shifted to the front of the house. One could then run a 6 ft tall brick wall from the edge of the truncated garage to the gate attached to the screened porch to create the enclosed courtyard. A low wall would provide much the same for the courtyard but would allow a lot more light to enter it. I'm sure others must have additional ideas! Gobruno, I do wish you all the best in winding up with your true DREAM HOME! The whole building process is so stressful, it's just not worth it if you don't LOVE the house you're building.

Please take a look at the revision below. Two main updates: 1. Shed dormer between to dog house dormers as suggested by live wire oak. The architect said this is a traditional look, but will definitely be more expensive due to additional framing. I don't feel strongly one way or another one this one, so not sure it's worth the extra expense. I don't think three dormers over the garage is too much, personally. 2. Simplified the main gable over the front porch. I think this really accentuates the swoop and cleans the lines up a bit. Honestly, I'm getting analysis paralysis at this point. We're going to pay for a 3D rendering, but at some point I think we'll probably just call it good and move forward. Huge decision and I'm not sure if I'll ever be 110% ready to call the front elevation "perfect" before moving forward. Love to hear your thoughts!

The Sawyer will cost less to build than some of the other plans due to the simplicity of the framing and the roof even though it's less square footage. So, you would be getting those extra 300 square feet as bonus space. You do have to keep in mind that this house will be located in northern Louisiana. Traditional design is common. Contemporary very unusual. The area is an interesting blend of Acadian, Spanish and American rambler influence. That's why you see the arched windows in the first plan. I like the Sawyer. I am familiar with some of Versaci's designs. I lived in the next town from him. I've appraised homes all over the area and some of his inspiration homes. This is real farmhouse rather than faux farmhouse. A lot of the original structures feature a stone wing or stone center. Some of them have a log wing. Allison Ramsey is also designing historic homes with a more modern twist. I get a little crossed-eyed looking at her website because there are so many homes. Her designs are worth consideration.