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catb2013
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Floor plan feedback please. (crowd-sourcing my house design ftw)
Comments (12)kirkhall the north side/wall is at the top of the drawing, the south at the bottom. (the north arrow is shown to the right of the first floor). The wall facing south is the one with the front door, so its where the sun comes from most of the day. just fyi, there is about 7.5 ft ceiling height 5 ft from the south wall in the master bathroom, and there is a dormer in the center, which adds extra ceiling height (although not where the toilet is shown) (Also the dormers are not very clearly drawn...sorry about that....these are my drawings, so you know...drafting standards are lax, or rather non existent....) having the master suite upstairs in these cape style houses is tricky, in my opinion. the layouts in these houses are really constrained with the reduced ceiling height at those walls. however, the overall style has a lot of appeal for many reasons for us (appearance, energy efficiency, cost to build, etc.) the ridge runs east to west, and there is a lot of height there (entrance to master bedroom, loft overlooking below, and guest bath) I was originally advocating for the master suite on the first floor, for one floor living if necessary. DH has successfully argued for keeping all of the "public" areas downstairs, and "private areas" upstairs. Upstairs will have a cozy feel. He says we can always put an elevator in where the closet by the stairs is (1st floor) if we have too (I bet that's not cheap!). I'm with you on walking into the master bedroom facing the closet. it doesn't seem ideal for sure. I'm open to ideas. just keep in mind, that big window in the dormer on the north wall in the master bedroom looks out over the property and has views of the mountains. I don't want to block it with a closet. kelhuck re point 1) - i didn't even think about that. We toured a house with the stairs arranged just like it, and thought it was great. That's a good point though. I've thought about the stairs quite a bit, but never from that angle (odd in retrospect). They also had a little more space between the stairs and front door than I'm showing. 2)laundry - yeah, this is a big one for me. I go round and round on this:) The trade-off is to just have a laundry closet, but have the laundry upstairs, or put it in the mud-room, have more space, but have to haul laundry up and down stairs all the time. right now, i'm leaning towards not caring if the laundry clutters up the loft a bit, but there is not much room there at all, its only barely works. currently, my washer and dryer are in our garage, which is not conditioned. I bring baskets of laundry back into our bedroom, and process everything there. S, its not far fetched to have a small closet, but the appeal of a little room I can close off is strong. I swear I want a new house just for a space conditioned laundry room:) 3) pretty much, yes. the appeal of timber homes is showing off the structure, those gorgeous timbers. all timber homes I've seen have a least some two story view inside. however, there is strong sentiment on this board against it, that its loud. since I've never lived in a house like this, I'm inclined to listen. its a valid point, especially when its more than just the two of us (guests and/or kids). even just making the open to below over the foyer instead of the tv/family/living room may solve that. I dunno yet. I'll have a chat w/ dh about it later. 4) dont' worry about insulation, the entire house is going to be wrapped in SIPS. initial calcs for the efficiency we are looking for are calling for 10" SIPS, whereas almost everyone uses 6". No worries, this house will be tight (and require mechanical ventilation). we are focusing heavily on the envelope, so our budget is focused on SIPS and windows. I may even hae to sacrifice my nice kitchen initially (blasphemy!) in order to pay for it up front, but we'll see. liriodendron - that's awesome that you are using PV. the price is coming down, so its actually starting to make sense to pay for it, instead of just being for people like dh and me, who just have non-mainstream tastes and interest (energy nuts, sort of:) the property was logged 5 years before we bought it, so it doesn't have many trees (no trees anywhere near the home site) (and its an ugly mess, we've just now started re-planting). the south facing garage roof will have full sun all day. if it weren't for that, we would angle the house more, so the back faces the mountains a bit better, but we didn't want to sacrifice the front/south wall of the house with respect to facing the sun too much. we like PV just cause we think its neat, and we're trying hard to justify it, but it may be a few years down the road before we consider actually paying for it....See MoreNew House Selection Meeting coming up soon...advice/tips
Comments (3)Take the $711 credit for the Northstar... if you want a disposable softener get a Sears for less, it's the same thing. You will be smarter having the builder leave a softener loop (intercepting the water service), drain, and AC outlet and then bringing in a local water treatment professional to test your water and quote your needs....See MoreWhat modern high-tech gizmos and doodads go into new houses?
Comments (21)Hi! A couple of things my hubby worked into the plans for our big remodel that now I love: - Speakers in the ceiling of virtually every room. His plan is to eventually hook them up to a wireless Sonos music system. We can't afford to do all that now but the ceiling speakers aren't actually that expensive (they aren't particular to any system,) and it's A LOT easier to put them in when a ceiling is open or house is being worked on than later! In the few rooms where they are hooked up, I LOVE it - my favorite is the music in the master bath when I'm getting ready! Hubby listens to sports and news podcasts. - TASK electric strips under our cabinets instead of wall outlets. It's easy to install and then outlets run along under the cabinet like an angled power strip. It means the tile looks nice and there is no cutting or ugly outlets in your tile pattern. We also put it along the whole side of our island under the granite overhang. My iphone battery is dead but let me know if you want photos (b/c the ones on the web don't match very well, in my opinion!) We got cocoa (dark brown) for dark wood cabinets and then a white (called "snow") for under our cream pained cabinets/granite. Match like a dream! - USB outlets in our power outlets in our Master BR - I put the link below b/c it's a little hard to explain. But in addition to regular outlets, you have two USB outlets that pull off the same power supply. That means I can plug in to charge my iphone or iPad without taking up a plug, so alarm clock or bedside light still has plugs available (without a yucky power strip.) Honestly, there are a few more places I wish I had that, including one outlet in the kitchen and family room. Electrician hadn't installed them before but didn't find it to be a problem. - NuHeat tile floor heaters in bathrooms - it's just heavenly to have a warm tile underfoot. It is electric and then hooks up to a timer/thermostat on your wall. One word of warning, we did only part of the floor in our guest bath thinking it would radiate and warm the rest of the tile near it (just like 2 rows.) It does not. Half the tile is ice cold and half is warm - bizarre. We did every part of our floor in our new master bath. Much better. - This one is fairly everywhere but we did "bonus" outlets under every bathroom sink and we did them inside the tall cabinets next to the sinks in our master bath. Hubby plugs in his razor and I plug in my Clarisonic face brush INSIDE the cabinet instead of it having to sit out on the counter - I don't like anything on the bath counter if I can help it! That's super easy to do but has to be planned for when they are pulling the lines. - Moen MotionSense faucet. That little guy is really convenient and works so well! You can put your hands under and it runs for 30 seconds (or longer if you leave hands there) or swipe over and it stays on until you move your hand over it again. We actually put it in our laundry room b/c I'm always getting detergent on my hands or other mess so then I don't have to touch the faucet to clean my hands. - If you have walls open, my hubby put in these little recessed boxes that have the power and lines for a flat screen tv, then the cable, HDMI or internet runs down in the wall. You don't have to see a single cord which I especially appreciate in our family room over a fireplace mantel and in our master bedroom (where I resisted a tv in the first place but at least didn't want a bunch of dangling cords!) - Dimmers on EVERY light switch. So easy to do, so much nicer for lighting your life. OK, that's all I can think of for now - let me know if you want pics or more info on anything! Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: FastMac USB Outlets...See MoreModern Farm House - Nicholas Lee Plan
Comments (20)Thank you all for your feedback. It is striking in its simplicity and yet consistent geometry. The site location works for the home as do the overall dimensions. Currently the existing house faces West on a gentle slope out looking over acreage and pasture and out towards the Coast Range in Oregon's Eola Hills and backed by old growth White Oak, including a very large one that anchors the existing location in the circle drive directly South of the home. This limits what we can do footprint wise. This plan is slightly narrower that the existing home and slightly longer, but very close on both sides. We would probably make it 28 wide to minimize backfill and yes, the house would have a basement, simply because we already have one and this would be slotting into the same space. Parking is currently under the house in the basement and would continue to be so. This is simply due to constraints with the site setting. The questions around whether a great room space with shared kitchen/dining/living vs more closed off space is a valid one and I'm not sure there is a right answer there. Clearly that has been the trend in modern housing, although I'm not sure if it is the right one. I know for us, we would in fact modify the floor plan. Instead of the large vaulted space in the great room, we were thinking of making the second story complete without the loft. That gives us more square footage, storage space, and room for kids and would keep heating and cooling costs in check. We like the double masters just because we have aging parents and aren't sure if one is going to end up with us. Plus, it allows us to gracefully age in place. We would do away with the giant sliders that roll back into the walls. While we love them, they aren't practical for our acreage. Instead we would use a double set of French doors on each side. Se like the idea of porches on both sides to provide symmetry and more importantly to shade provide shade to the main floor and to provide outside space to enjoy the views. Is porch space on slab really that expensive? Are we sure the windows are steel or alumnum framed? Perhaps they are darkly colored vinyl or painted fiberglass? As for the kitchen, I would definitely change the layout and location of appliances. Anyway, thanks for the feedback and food for thought everyone. Any other input, we would love to hear it!...See Morecatb2013
last yearMark Bischak, Architect
last yearGIRSH DEVELOPMENT INC
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last yearVirgil Carter Fine Art
last yearMark Bischak, Architect
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last yearlast modified: last yearMark Bischak, Architect
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