CAD Drawings Are In!

Jen and I met with Joe yesterday to go over the first set of plans created with the aid of a computer. As I have mentioned, we were very curious to see how our space changed when we had to deal with actual engineering and spacial limitations that we didnt have when Joe was doing things by hand. Posted below are the four floors plans. There are some changes that I detailed on each floor, but generally things are pretty much as they have been since after our first meeting. Joe has been making some fantastic decisions, and coming up with some even better ideas for changes to the home, he is invaluable to us, and seems to have read our needs and desires accurately and has us pegged. I have to say that I think we are pretty much set on the interior design of the home. I know that a few things are going to be tweaked here and there as we get to materials designation and the like, but I would be very surprised to see major changes to the layout from here.

By the way, I am sure most people reazlied this, but you can click on the posted drawings to get the full size view of the document, which gives you a much clearer picture.

Next up we are going to be meeting with Joe early next week to focus on the outside spaces and seeing some CAD and 3-D modeling of the home itself.

First Floor and Lower Level Plans

So here is where "CAD-ing" the soft drawings really showed how the aforementioned variance in feasibility from soft drawing to hard drawing. We found out that when this was being put into the more finite drawings, that we couldnt fit the pantry, stairs, and powder room all on the east wall. The good news is that Joe had plan, and a good one at that. If you look at the drawing above, you will see that we were able to move the powder room to the space between the living room and family room, and this will then clear the way for a butlers pantry on the west side of that space. Both Jen and I agree that this is the perfect way to use this space, and we actually like the new layout better this way! So this move then sets it up so the up and down staircases will be side by side, we will now have a built in something (yet to be determined) in front of the downstairs, and a double pocket door separating the dining room and family room.

The move of the stairs naturally meant there would be changes in the lower level as well. This also worked out to our advantage. With the stairs moving 4ft or so towards the front of the house, this pushed the guest bathroom further towards the front of the house as well. This move created an open space just outside of the mud room. So, we decided to extend the mud room and add a place that could have both the stand up washer/drier, and utility sink that can we be used for any number of things. Whats even better, is that Joe came up with the great idea of putting in clerestory windows between the mudroom and playroom to allow light to be shared by the two spaces. Here is a good example of a clerestory window setting. This is from a Frank Lloyd Wright home, so its not quite the same, but its the concept of windows at eye level. Further changes were made to the back of the house as well. Joe decided that it made sense to extend the foundation under the deck where the space wasnt going to be useful anyway. This was an idea that I had gotten early on from a friend, and it just didnt seem to make sense at the time. Now its looking more like this will be very useful storage space. We have two other storage spaces at the front of this level as well that we think we might turn into something else, but we have yet to come up with something we both think is necessary.

Second Floor & Roof Plans

There are really very few changes here from the soft drawing layout. Joe said that when they were laying things out in CAD he noticed that we had enough room to make the girls bathroom's independent, and they could each have their own tub/shower. After talking it through, Jen, Joe and I agreed this was a favorable change. Along with extending the lavatory/area in both bathrooms, everything else is basically the same. The roof continues to to be mostly speculative with the only thing set in stone are the location of a future bathroom, and the ideal places for the green roof and exit onto the roof from the stairs below. More to come here as we begin to understand our cost base for things in the home, and where we are going to have to cut things off to stay on our budget.

Green Thoughts.......

Jen and I went to a local building supply store that focuses on green products over the weekend to get a feel for some of the things we were hoping to incorporate in our home design. Philosophically, we are not looking to make a statement about our "eco-friendliness" but to make sure we focus on the things that we find important for our family's health and pocketbook. The two main things we find important: indoor air quality, and energy efficiency. Looking at these things from a surface level, it seems that we should be able to accomplish these tasks with a minimum amount of increased cost. So, we decided we would get a more hands on feel and see what things actually looked like in person, instead of on the web as we have been doing up to now.

As we were looking around at the EVO free paint, the urethane free cabinetry, and the spray-in insulation, it got me thinking about what exactly we were going to be able to do to make our home as efficient as possible without spending massive amounts of money to be green. So the question that really comes to mind is: even if the green products are of a commensurate cost to the normal construction materials, will they install the same way, and can a general contractor install it with the same easy they would the normal construction product? There is SO much more to making a green home then just choosing the right products, and thats becoming increasingly clear to me.

I fully expected the process of building a home to be a learning process, and to this point it has been a challenge, but nothing that we have not been through with the remodeling we have done over the years. This is going to be much more of a challenge on both our part, and the part of any builder that we contract for the construction. We are going to have to be cognizant of the potential for our bids to increase as a result of a GC not being familiar with the installation of a certain type of product. Qualifying that is going to be one of the more important cost factors to the bid process, and eventually the building of our home.

More to come.....next up LEED certification, and the green "process"...

After Some Digestion

Ok, so now that Jen and I have talked about it, and I have had some time to let the design ideas settle, I have to say that I really like the layout for several reasons. One - we are going to have some great light in the house. Good light into our bedroom in the morning through the master bath and back windows (especially in the winter). Same goes for the Kitchen. Tw0 - the front and west sides of the house will get much more light later in the day. Since we will be spending the bulk of our waking time in the common areas, and as a family in the afternoon/evening, the windows in the back of the first floor and the in the basement will provide some warm light. I can see us having many a nice meals sitting in the dining room enjoying the sunlight.

More important then anything else, I had thought that it might take several iterations of design style for the front of the house to be what I wanted, but I think that its pretty much on the head. I am still unsure on the porch design, and I think that we are going to have to figure out how we want to do the stairs, but for the most part, I dont have many changes right now. I know that as much or more like the inside, things will change. However, I think we are talking about 20% or less, and thats going to much more focused and will be easier to work thru!

We are going to be meeting early next week, and then we will have some CAD drawings of the inside that will have a much more defined space. So far so good!

The Elevation Drawings Are Here!

Sorry its been so long since I posted, but things have been moving along in a way that is hard to really update. We are working through getting the interior design into CAD right now, so its a slower process then just drawing them out. Above you will see the front and back elevation drawings and below the drawings from the east and west. I will update later this weekend with thoughts on the whole thing.

Elevation Drawings - West Face

Definitely the more exciting side of the house! The prominent features on this side are the Sullivan arch which is going to garner the bulk of the attention, but also the large windows in the back of the house that is going to give us a lot of great evening light in the kitchen. Coupled with the windows on the back of the house, this is going to make the main living space very bright! The turret is prominently shown here as well, and you can see how nice this is going to look with the full 5' diameter rounded front and the stone on the top and the bottom.