Preliminary drawings for new house....shutters or no shutters?
ILoveRed
3 years ago
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just_janni
3 years agoRelated Discussions
To shutter or not.
Comments (12)What color are you planning on painting the hardi? If you are going bold with a red, med gray or any other bold colonial color then you may not need shutters. If you are going for a pale gray or white hardi, Shutters will break up the mass of paleness. We have a Charleston Plantation style house. We have white Hardi with a Black/gray roof. We used authentic salvaged shutters which really make a difference. Here is a photo with the shutters. The bay windows do not have shutters and all that white is really bothering me. I am thinking of trimming out the windows in black or Charleston green just to have more contrast....See MoreNew Home - Elderwood
Comments (151)Hello everyone, it's been a while since my last post. I drilled my well which ended up being over 200 ft deep and costing ~13K to drill. Unfortunately I drilled it in the wrong spot. I was using a giant stump on the property as reference to drill because it was marked on the survey. Well, turns out the stump on the survey isn't the one I was using as reference. OOPS. I ended up needing to move the house and garage twenty something feet north to accommodate. Since my original post it looks like certain construction details are going to change. For one, I don't need the Prosoco Cat-5 WRB. I still think it's one of the best products for this application but because much of my siding is protected by the wrap around porches, the fact that roof leaks will be minimized with a full standing seam metal roof, and the siding I'll be using is immune to the elements it seems like using Cat-5, which is over $500 for a 5 gal bucket is unnecessary. My builder recommended a product they have used in the past with great success by Tremco called Enviro-Dri. Prosoco also makes a product called MVP which is less than 1/3 of the price. Speaking of siding, it doesn't look like I'll be using Boral. One of the issues with Boral is that it's very fragile. I have some samples and the edges will deteriorate quickly even when handled gently. I think once attached they work great though. Secondly, it's really expensive, like twice the price of fiber cement at least where I'm at. I spoke with Foreverboard and they're going to rip the magnesium oxide panels into clapboard siding for me. I'm using MgO for the wallboard so why not for the siding and possibly the roof deck too? It's a superior material. No soil gas venting system. The radon levels in my area aren't too bad so I can get away with a sealed crawlspace with active exhaust fans that will depressurize the crawlspace, forcing conditioned air from above to enter the crawlspace instead of the other way around which is better for indoor air quality. Finding an HVAC contractor has been extremely difficult. I've contacted almost every company in the area and most don't do residential new construction. The ones that do are completely booked up. I spoke with Cardinal Heating which estimated around $15-20 a square foot which for me would be $80K on the high end for a simple heat pump system. Looks like I'll be going with Ranger Heating which quoted me $30K. Single 4 ton heat pump, two zones. It's more expensive than I was expecting but I don't have a choice. I'm still doing engineering. I hired a civil engineer who said he would be available in December. He's doing my soil testing, grading and erosion control plan and drainage plan, He keeps delaying and just asked for another one. I was originally planning on breaking ground this summer but he made me miss my window and it looks like fall at the earliest now since King County estimates permit approval will take 16-18 weeks.. It's not like he was the cheapest option either. I'm very disappointed. I've been working on the garage. I added some awning roofs over the garage doors. I found a guy in Texas on Etsy who builds custom cedar doors like the ones in the photo. Very good price too - ~9K for all three shipped. I got a quote from another company that wanted at least $7300 per door! If got a panel design from Premiere SIPS. I'll be using 6.5" Graphite impregnated SIPS for the walls which are R29.8 at 40 degrees. Here's what the preliminary panel drawing looks like:...See MoreSpecific questions about our architect's preliminary designs
Comments (46)Am I seeing correctly that the half bath opens directly onto the living/dining area? Agree. This is a complete no-no. I also don't understand why you'd have two half-baths. The master shower looks tiny. 3x3? You are not going to enjoy it. Agree. 3x3 is do-able, but it's a bit summer-campy. I'd give up quite a few other things in order to have a more comfortable shower. The kitchen does look "off". The kitchen is "off" because it's broken up into fragments, meaning you'd have to walk from section to section to cook a meal. The space is here ... but the kitchen needs a complete re-do. Nice pantry though. You want the southern exposure for your bedroom, right? I'd rather have the prized southern exposure for my great room -- the room where I spend most of my waking hours. In the laundry room, well, just put the machines along the outside wall and the sink on the inside wall. No, don't vent into the garage, you will have encrusted lint and moisture all over the cars, and everything else. Trust me. Experience. You could easily run a long dryer vent along the length of the garage ... but why bother /why make it more difficult to clean your dryer vent, when you could easily move the washer/dryer to the other side? General thoughts on the plan: - I like this style of house very much, but I do agree with the poster who says that proportion is key. - Imagine yourself bringing large furniture into the master bedroom. How are you going to make the turn from that small hallway? - The master bath could be so much better. It's a large room, but everything's kind of "strung out" with a bunch of empty space in the middle of the room. - If the great room were JUST a living room -- not a living plus dining room -- it'd be a nice size. But it isn't nearly big enough to house both. - I love that you have a broom closet. One of the things I anticipate with the most joy for our new house is a cleaning closet ... where I can keep all my cleaning goods in one place. Don't neglect to include an outlet in this room ... you're likely to want to keep a hand-held vac and/or a stick vac plugged in here. - You've included three eating areas ... all within a few feet of one another. Does this fit with your lifestyle? How often will you use the big dining room table? Where would your family of four eat dinner most evenings? - The whole mudroom /half-bath area seems over-done /overly complicated. So many doors inside -- more than are needed for a mudroom, and they're going to be in the way ... I also don't care for two entrance doors on the front of the house. - I do not care for the idea of a full bath near the mudroom (note that I grew up on a farm and own a working farm today -- I have never once wanted to come in and take a shower by the back door). Think it through: it's more trouble than it's worth: It's another shower to keep stocked with towels and toiletries ... and after you've showered, you're across the whole house from your closet /clean clothes. Two better options: 1) Put a foot bath outside the entry so you can take off your muddy shoes /come in with clean feet and walk to the bathroom in your bedroom. 2) Place the master bedroom near an entryway so you can go straight into your own bathroom, where you have all your stuff at the ready. Design the master suite so that you don't have to walk through the bedroom and the closet area to reach the shower....See MoreDoor and Shutters Colors on Raised Ranch
Comments (23)We have decided to go with grey (with a hint of blue) shutters and a bight red door. We took everything down, power washed it, primed, put on several coats of paint and put it all back up. We like the result. Really weren't fans of burgundy and think it looks a lot better now. We also did see the house without shutters in the process and it really doesn't look right without them. Thank you all for your input!...See Morelittlebug zone 5 Missouri
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