house

Would this be considered a lot of jogs? I know the large covered porch would add to the cost as it will increase the size of the roof...is there anything else glaringly obvious that would up the cost of something like this? I should say that we would be building in concrete or ICF, not frame construction, and we live in a flood-prone area so would need to build up either by filling or by using pilings.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Here is a link that might be useful: Floorplan: Hancock

This post was edited by caymaiden on Wed, Jan 2, 13 at 21:20

We are building a ~3500 sq ft 2-story french country home with a walk-out basement on a front to back and left to right sloped, wooded lot.

The upstairs and basement levels are driven by what we do on this main level, so I'll post those once this level is complete. I think we're about there.

Thanks in advance for your continued feedback!

Brad

I didn't want sconces - we used three cans in this area, plus a small three light chandelier in entry "hallway" from MBR thru bathroom to closet. I had the cabinet installer cut the bases off all bathroom cabinets and ordered feet. He ordered extra paint and glaze to finish the feet on site. I had the mirrors made to my specs at a local framing shop.

So far I have
- Plugs in kitchen pantry for charging, or for items that may end up living there
- Full size broom cupboard in pantry or laundry room to hide all the cleaning items away from sight.
- Solar tubes in areas that don�t get natural sunlight
- Prewire security system
- Run wire and prepare roof for future solar
- Central Vac with vac pans

Any others to add?

Then I asked him to put the pantry in the back of the kitchen. I just like the symmetry better this way (having a door on either side of the stove - similar to this pic - but now I'm thinking that maybe it cuts down on my counter space too much. What do you think?

I also don't like the bridge thing upstairs. I told him to take out the previous loft area to save sqft. but I hate bridges, so I will put it back in.

I'd love to hear your thoughts! I just want this process to be done so I can build. It always feels like I take one step forward and five steps back - ugh. Thanks so much :)

here's the previous 1st floor for reference:

i think this is the mudroom that you mentioned ...

I've taken the concept from Summerfield and shrunk it down a bit to fit my lot. I'm actually really happy with the result in terms of layout, functionality, simplicity (roofline especially) and square footage.

Coming in now at just over 1700 sqft with a simple roofline and I think if we're conservative with materials and finishes we can build this house for under 200k easy (my uneducated and only lightly researched estimate based on looking at property costs in the area and sale prices of new homes, assuming 10% builder markup).

A few things of note. The secondary bedrooms are on the small side. Aware of this, but as I see it this plan fits my lot and price range and designing a house seems to be a series of compromises. To keep the living areas and bathrooms at usable sizes, the bedrooms had to be a little small.

The 'main' living area in the future will be the basement with home theater, wet bar, seating/table gaming area. So the living area I think is comfortable, but also a little on the small side.

Dining room and kitchen look to me to be larger than average when looking at catalog plans. I think I mentioned before, we love to cook and cook for others, we will use these areas a lot.

Bathrooms both have a privacy wall for the toilet area. These walls will not be load bearing (I expect the joist supporting the roof will run front to back, so these walls will be parallel to those.) If the need arises, we can do away with the privacy feature and remove these walls resulting in a 5' diameter space in either bathroom. Master bath shower, at 6'10" deep, I'm thinking I can go with an open plan here? No door/glass and just an opening? The tile will be the same in both the shower and main bathroom area, so a little splash out shouldn't be a problem I wouldn't think.

The back entry cabinets are cubbies/coat hangers/drawers with power in each upper cubbie. Saw this somewhere on here and loved that idea.

Living area cabinets are for tv/etc. I mulled this over and it will be good to have two separate media areas in the house in the long run.

Kitchen will have a double wall oven at the lower right corner on the plan. Cooktop to the left under a hood/microwave combo. Small prep sink added to the island. Seating counter on the island has been raised for stool height. The area in the mudroom above the freezer will be the 'pantry' cabinets. Also, there's an odd space between the dining room and mudroom that's about 6" wide. Hoping I can fit a pull out pantry there (about 6' tall) and have a narrow cabinet above that for storage of extra cookie sheets etc.

The other odd wall is in the stairs to the basement. The placement of this double wall is in order to have the garage wall be continuous/regular on its side and to have the stairway wall be directly above the matching wall studded out flush to the basement cement wall (hope that makes sense...)

So, again, I submit to your review. I'll try to answer any questions as best I can.

The Tapmaster. Well, that thing is da bomb. It took us a while to get used to it but now we love it. And we're both kicking the toe kick in our master bath sinks all the time, wondering why the water isn't coming on. I can see what's coming next hah. We got the Tapmaster with hot/warm/cold pedals and they work fantastic. Our builder had a dentist and his wife walk through our house to show them his work, and the dentist had never thought of putting the Tapmaster in his home but I think he will now. We were highly enthusiastic ;)

Kohler Karbon faucet. Looks cool and works amazing. Love not having a pull out faucet or a separate spray. Incredibly convenient.

Hide a Hose. I still haven't gotten out the attachments to figure them out, but I love the hoses. The only thing I wish I'd added was the toe kick opening in the kitchen, just to make life easier when sweeping up. Right now I make a pile right in front of the HAH opening, pull it out and suck the pile. Which is about as easy as getting out a dustpan and dumping that in the trash, but neater.

I love our slightly sunken great room (one wide and shallow stair, so two easy steps down)with all the windows. I know a lot of people are against sunken rooms but it looks great.

My office right off the mudroom. Well it's really just a small room, but it is the mail drop and paperwork catcher.

A small additional powder room off the mudroom. Using that one a ton already. Highly convenient when you're running out the door or just working in the kitchen.

The bench under the window in the kitchen. Already a favorite perch for everyone to sit and talk with the cook (me!) and also have great views.

I did use site finished walnut floors and there are a couple of minor scratches already that I can easily address. But they are gorgeous.

So far I am really happy with most of my decisions. The only thing I keep thinking is I should have added one foot in the great room (it's 18' to the step). And maybe another to widen the master bedroom a tad (14'x17'). And that toe kick central vac opening ;)