Here is a candidate floorplan, one of the front runners as we come down toward the start of construction. I am designing it like an electronic or software engineering project, in modules with established interfaces. This is to contain/constrain ripple effects. When you try to integrate a house all at once there are too many variables and interdependencies. If one thing changes the "domino" effect ripples through the design changing many other things.
Take, for example, the Master suite module: You can rearrange and resize many of its components without effecting the adjacent Great Room Module. Similarly you can rearrange/resize the Great room with little or no effect on the other modules.
Now, a walk through... South is at the top and the entry is centered on the north side of the great room. 42 inch door with transom and sidelight windows opens into foyer/entry hall where you can go up the stairs or proceed toward the center of the room where yo can turn right into the living room area, left to the dining area, or U-turn to the left into the kitchen. The island between the kit and dining is bi-level with high side toward dining room. High side is 48 inches and low side counter top is 36 in. A single deep sink large enough for a large pan with handle is there with dishwasher to left below. There is a second sink under the window at the north end of the kit. Running N-S along the Kit/Util wall on the Util side is floor to ceiing shelves inset into the wall. This room also is the laundry with front loading appliances on a 20 inch high platform with storage beneath. There is a large deep util sink and clothes sorting/folding counters.
The east door of the Util room goes to the breezeway to the garage/shop/wife's project room/storage (not designed yet but I'm leaning toward a "Miracle Truss" steel building).
There is some interactivity in the interface between the Great and Master modules. The closet with bifold door has walls of steel rleinforced concrete as it limits the sightlines into the master suite for windblown debris (Think F-5 tornado). The walls of the master mod are steel reinforced concrete (ICF) and the door between the bedroom and sitting room is a steel safe room door with decorative skin. The bedroom itself is windowless until and unless I come up with an acceptable storm shutter design. The master bath and sitting room have sindows.
The bathroom oposite the util room has a doorless shower and serves as the day guests powder room as well as the mudroom shower for when I come in needing a good hosing down. It is opposite the laundry and note the closet with bi-fold door opening to the hall just across from the bath room.
[I come in dirty in dirty clothes and exit the module clean in clean clothes with dirty outfit in laundry, never have taken a single dirty step beyond the laundry.]
This bath room has two doors to facilitate its dual use, mudroom access and powder room access fron border of kit and dining area.
The back porch is about 50 ft long and 10 ft wide with 2 ft more of overhang (12 ft roof/10 ft floor) (4:12 pitch) Front porch is also 4:12 but only 8 ft floor and 10ft roof. Front porch will likely not grow and could be cut down in length to about 1/2 shown size (centered on entry) as it is ornamental and will not receive the heavy use of the back porch.
The back porch might grow to also cover the sitting room window wall (with french doors in center) and could wrap around the west end.
The second floor will be comprised of the space captured under the 10:12 or 12:12 pitch gable roof and will have 8-10 ft center ceiling heights with sloping ceiling sections as dictated by roofline and insulaltion with a minimum finished ceiling height of 7 ft at the sides to accomodate standard doors to access the attic storage.
I'm behind in updating this plan and have changed the master bath to include a 5x5 ft whirlpool in place of the 30x60 inch tub shown. Ignore the tub/shower nomenclature, it isn't so. The bathroom change takes away 1/2 ov the linnen closet in the connecting hall between the bedroom and bath and puts the twin vanities where the tub is shown. A few sqft of the N-E corner of the bed room are "borrowed" as well.
There is a small office/computer room in the N-W corner of the Great Room Module. There is a propane gas log fireplace with piezo-electric ignition (no AC required) in the Great room flanked by book cases. To the south is a window wall (two ponds in view less than 100 yds away, frequented by turkey and deer and ...)
Please feel free to make suggestions or ask questions. This is NOT an ego trip for me. It is considerable work for me as this is only the second house I have designed and I sure as heck want to know of any potential problems this month, not in two or three months when the concrete will have cured pretty well (90% of final strength in 30 days).
If there are a couple of posts folowing this, it means I was successful in getting some elevations to accompany the plan, otherwise, use your imagination for now.
P.S. This is the output of Punch Software's Professional Home Design (Staples, $79, if I recall correctly). It is 1 of 4 architecture programs I have.
Pat
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