August 21, 2009 • 4:37 pm
Well, haven’t bothered to write anything on this blog since the big 180 degree turn we took in July. Basically, the first house design idea was canned. It was too big and was going to be too expensive. Just not worth having space we didn’t need in this economy. So, upon returning home from my vacation, I was met with a new floor plan design that was to make use of our hilltop plot by putting the garage under one wing of the house. We now have a quasi-split level house with the adults on one side and the teens on the other side. The girls lost their Teen suite and I lost my big laudry room, but we still have plenty of space and uniqueness in this house.
The new floor plan
Click on the above image for a larger version. I think one of my favorite areas is the way we did the girls bedrooms with the funky jack-n-jill bathrooms. They will have 9 foot long closets to store all their stuff and their own personal space to get ready. Having the closet in there is allowing them to have nice sized rooms with big windows. In the winter they will have some bit of lake view off on the other side of the road.
Meanwhile, a lot of the other details are kind of in limbo waiting on all the trades to get their bids in. So, … I have taken to picking up some odds and ends while I wait to shop for the other items we still need to chose.
I was in Z-Gallerie and found these cute mini-chandeliers for voltives that I think would look really cool over the whirlpool tub since you cant put anything electrical. The builder mentioned having the electronic/techno guy put a cable jack in the master bath so we could put a TV in. Now that would be some bathing in style.
Filed under: Architectural, Lighting
As I am flipping through all the clippings I am gathering, I am noticing that I seem to be drawn to white staircases with the step done in a dark color along with the railing, while the risers and sides are done in white. I think our GC is planning on using oak for the staircase and I hope there is no problem with painting them in this manner. I just love the contrast and it makes a utilitarian object like stairs into art. Our stair case will be similar to the first photo below. Open like that to the family, though the stairs do not corner around, they are straight the whole way down.
Source: Nathan Egan
I just love the way they didn’t use the same newel posts. I would love to do this, though I am thinking the GC would think I was nuts.
This is another Nathan Egan
Source Unknown
Filed under: Architectural , Architectural, bannister, newel post, Stairs
(click to enlarge)
It was so cool to finally get my hands on a copy of the blueprints this week. Makes it seem so official, and it also means I can see all the details we have changed recently and the official measurements. I took a copy over to the subdivision board for their discussion and hopefully approval.
The original plans had the measurements as:
1st floor at 1441 sqft
2nd floor at 632 sqft.
(sorry for the sloppy photo)
In the new plan we lose that porch off the kitchen, which gained us approximately 200 extra feet. It looks like when doing the roof and adding the bay window, we gained some there as well. Upstairs, after making the garage a realistic size for todays vehicles and finding a way to get a decent window in the girls teen suite (the room with a lake view), we ended up with an additional 152 to the upstairs. Our goal was really to make it as small as we could within the subdivision rules, which meant it had to be 2000+ ft. The original house was 2073 ft. and it ended up being 2428. SO, we gave up finishing the bonus room. It will be left in a state that will make it easy to finish later, but that is an additional 200 sqft, that we really don’t need. I am much happier to have put sqft. in the kitchen and the girls teen suite. In four years, there will only be 2 people living in the house … and that upper floor will go virtually unused except visits from the girls and company.
Filed under: Architectural , blueprints, construction, home design, Kitchen, new home, Teen Suite
Having made a few adjustments to the den (by adding a bay window instead of just a bumped out one) and adding more closet space to the upper bedroom, the front rendering has now taken on kind of a different look with the middle section being wider than it had been previously. We also enlarged the windows in the master bedroom so it has three windows because I conceded on not having any windows on the side facing our only neighbor to the left. On this rendering, the shutters are missing on the garage (far right) windows which I am going to ask him to add back and I also would like the eyebrow shutter on the top window.
Filed under: Architectural
