From Thermotech's website: Firstly a double hung window is not as air tight as a casement window. The double hung window has to slide, so its weatherstripping can't be as tight as a casement or it won't slide. That's obvious to most people. What is not so obvious is that sliding windows aren't as air tight as casements because the weatherstripping changes plane. Think of the bottom sash of a double hung. The bottom and side rails are weatherstripped along the edge of the rail. But what about the meeting rail? It's weatherstripped along the outer face. It is difficult, very difficult, to maintain the integrity of the air seal through this change of plane. Despite the fact that double hung windows are inherently draftier than casements, this does not have a major effect on your annual heating bill. The reality is that as long as new windows can maintain their tested air tightness (this topic will be the subject of a future column) very little of the window's heat loss is due to air leakage. Most of the annual heat loss from reasonably tight windows is from conductivity losses through the frame, spacer and glass. This is where double hung windows really fall down, (so to speak). All sliding windows have inherently cold frames compared to hinged windows, like casements. The sash in a casement window is "insulated" on the inside by the hardware cavity. The sash in a double hung window has no such advantage. Another inherent thermal weakness in any sliding window is the meeting rail. Thermally it is the weakest part of any sliding window. The upper sash in a double hung not only loses heat through its outer face, but also through its lower edge. It is cooled on two sides. That's why the bottom edge of the upper sash experiences condensation before the lower sash.

Wow! Thanks so much for the advice! Pps7, your house is going to be beautiful. Your clippings look very similar to mine. Have you chosen your materials yet. Macv, I so appreciate your input. So the cornices should look like pps7's and the stone house I posted? Is that difficult to change at this point? Do you think my builder accomplish it? The facade originally had angled bays with kind of a "circus tent" looking copper top (can you tell I have no vocabulary for much of this?). We needed to make a bay on the side into a 90 degree to address a problem in the bathroom - not enough room for the tub -so I thought it would be better to make the front bay a 90 degree also and ran into the problems you see. As for the 12/12 roof pitch. I guess it's probably too late to do much about that. Is the fact that its a single story part of the problem? Like Hadley, I'd love to know if there's any good way to introduce more Cottswold-y elements such as asymmetry. Thanks again for everyone's help. Obviously I need it!

I'm working towards building a ~2500sf 1/2 storey 'cape cod/colonial/shingle style' inspired home in a neighborhood of similarly sized homes with cedar shakes and a min. roof pitch of 9:12 (as per covenants). For what it's worth, the neighboring homes have varying style influences. The footprint of the house is basically square (~36x34 sf), plus an enclosed breezeway to a garage. The front elevation has 2-4 steps up to the porch. The back has shed dormer to take advantage of the view from the Master Bed/Bath. The dilemma is with the front dormer options. Here is the "very preliminary" interior of the 2nd storey (closet size dependent on dormer sizes). With most nantucket/shed/gabled dormer options I've seen (and like) there is an odd number of windows, with the middle window centered over the front door. Is there a way to balance the windows between the 2 rooms, while maximizing interior space? I do like the walk-in closets on the side walls (although it does take away a south facing window on the left). Could a nantucket dormer (my favorite) work with 2 bedrooms? My thoughts: 1) forgo the 36' porch for a smaller covered entry way with it's own gabled roof, flanked by the bdrm dormers on each side. 2) Move the closets to the middle. Make them small walk-ins, and put a single window in the front closet. 3) Say g'bye to the beautiful 1/2 stories I love, and go for a more simple 2-storey. Opinions?

This is not a difficult design problem and does not need so much condescending discussion. Adding width to the dormers on the inside faces and tuning the plan at the stair is one way to do it. Perhaps adding a shed dormer between the gabled dormers and set back 3 ft would help too. A “classic Cape Cod style house” would not have a portico, dormers or a porch and a common 3/4 Cape would have one window on one side of the door and two on the other side. You can’t drive far on Cape Cod without seeing one. Criticizing someone for an imbalanced elevation when they have asked for a solution to that very problem and failing to offer a solution is ridiculous and unkind. There were some unusually mean people here a decade ago and it appears some may be back. I’m not surprised the OP canceled her account.