Thoughts on our house plans, please?

[dmccarty]

To attach the garage or to detach the garage. That is the question!

I don't know the right answer. :laughing:

Our house was designed to have a detached garage. We have a back porch that really is designed to be a part of a covered walk way to the garage. We don't have a garage but we do have a spot for one.

We wanted a patio and to have said patio the garage has to be detached. The patio was supposed to have been built with the house but we decided to NOT build the patio. In stead I put down gravel and we park our vehicles in that spot.

WHY do we not have a patio? Well, it became obvious that when the garage was built right next to the patio, which is the plan, we would have two walls in place. The garage wall on one side and the house wall on the other. With two more walls and a roof we would have a big room. We don't really need a big room but there it sits. What to do? We punted, dropped gravel, and spent the money else where. We can always have the patio built. One reason to NOT build the patio was that if we did built a big room, we would have to put some footers under at least part of the slab. If not all the way around.

So if you detach the garage will that take up space you don't have to spare? Will the detached garage create a space that would be useful?

To attach the garage or to detach the garage? In our case we will because the house is built. What we do with the space between the house and garage is Our Question.

Regarding existing house plans. I know of two houses that used existing house plans. To be kind, those houses have issues. The owners seem to be happy but I would not live in those houses. One house was shrunk from a much larger house plan and I just don't see how the built house would be comfortable. The plans would have worked as written, but as built, placing furniture and LIVING in the house has to be interesting. The other house has quite a bit of wasted space. Wasted space is wasted money. It has THREE areas to eating areas within 20 feet or so of each other. Do you really need THREE places to eat that close together? Tain't two enough? :laughing:

Certainly look at existing plans for ideas. Both good and bad ideas.

Later,
Dan

 

[sdkubota]

We built a large 26' x 40' detached garage on my insistence. Our home is in the country and I wanted the look of an old country homestead. I have never seen an attached garage on an old country house/farmstead. It has some disadvantages, ie: walking to garage when 10 below and snow blowing and doesn't receive the heating benefit of having a shared wall with the home. However, I do not regret my decision, knew what drawbacks would be beforehand, and created a 100 yr old looking farmhouse (from the outside that is).

 

[dave1949]

A over-sized two-car attached, or indoors accessible via a breezeway, garage is a nice thing to have. Assuming you and your wife both need to drive, there is no substitute for pulling into a garage and be out of the weather. If you come home late with sleepy kids, from the grocery store, in the dark in winter from work, etc. you don't need the hassle of parking temporarily to unload, then put the car away in an out building. Or, put the car away and then get to the house.

If everything is in an outbuilding, whenever you need a tool or whatever, you go for a hike, or start duplicating a few hand tools in both locations.

For kid's outdoor toys, you might not want them going to an out building to get them out and put them away. There will be locks and keys to deal with no doubt.

I have an over-sized one-car attached garage, it was a mistake, it should have been an over-sized two-car garage, even though I have a detached outbuilding for the tractor, implements and small work area. My attached garage holds one car, all the firewood for the winter, outdoor clothing (boots, jackets, snowsuits, hats, gloves, etc. which are real normal size closet killers), and some general storage shelves for things we use frequently in the house.

There are some nice house plans based on the old New England house-ell-carriage barn layout. Interestingly, that layout was not the original set-up. People actually moved detached free-standing buildings together to arrive at that layout once it became popular. In wintry climates, the advantages of being able to access everything without going outside are huge.

Besides looking at e-plans, it wouldn't hurt to look at some of the classic layouts used in the old federal, colonial, cape and saltbox traditional designs. Visits to a an open museum house or the like can be well worth the time.

Living is different now with more space used for bathrooms, but the flow and area separations of the classics still make sense. One thing that makes them hard to translate to modern day wants is they usually didn't have a first floor master bedroom. But, those designs are timeless in their own way and possibly hold their value over the long haul better if done well. They are beyond "trendy" and will always look like classics, not just the design of the decade.

Energy cost and conservation considerations should be a big part of any home design these days. I would start by determining how my home will be heated, and in your location, cooled, and let those drive some design elements. A relatively new home that is an energy hog will be more expensive to operate than necessary and have a reduced market value should it be necessary to sell--something you should always plan for IMHO.

 

[rtimgray]

Nothing wrong with soliciting ideas from others, but probably helps to remember that a camel is a horse designed by committee.

In my opinion, the most important thing to consider is whether or not you forsee a situation in which you will need to sell the house. If you think selling, and possibly having to sell quickly, could be a concern, then it's much more important to include features that are commonly desired, or at least look appealling on a sales sheet.

If the possibility of selling is minute, then make the house any way that you want to, because you are the ultimate customer. Again, nothing wrong with getting suggestions from folks on a message board, but you will end up with as many recommendations as people have opinions. Many of these are contradictory, i.e. - make the porch deeper/no eliminate or minimize the porch so you get more lighting; a two story house cheaper/a one story house is cheaper; walk-in closets are a waste of space and money/I love walk-in closets.

Beyond that, the only other suggestion I might make would to see if there are any drafting/design students at any nearby colleges/universities/tech schools that are interested in cranking out some plans. When I was in school many years ago, there were always folks coming to our department looking for that service, and several of us got to do some designing. Granted, some of the house were 30 x 60 boxes, but some got pretty elaborate. One that I worked on with a friend was almost 5,000 sq. ft. with a full basement, two stories, plus bonus room over garage, and it had laundry chutes from the 2nd floor all the way to the basement, dumbwaiters, multiple stairs and "open to below" area, mechanical chases, etc. In the end, it was a very challenging but similarly very rewarding process.

Good luck, keep trying, and don't get discouraged. Take care.

 

[dmccarty]

Energy cost and conservation considerations should be a big part of any home design these days. I would start by determining how my home will be heated, and in your location, cooled, and let those drive some design elements. A relatively new home that is an energy hog will be more expensive to operate than necessary and have a reduced market value should it be necessary to sell--something you should always plan for IMHO.

Another thing for the OP to consider is passive and PV use. Our house has passive solar heating design elements. The house design does not try to be fully heated by passive due to lot limitations, money limits, and design impact. But I did design in some passive and it works. It cost us nothing but a 28 inch roof overhang. We were putting in large windows anyway so a bit of trig to get the overhang depth and we were done. Passive heating gives us a couple extra degrees on the south side of the house for no cost.

Our roof is at just the right angle to maximize PV energy production. This did not cost anything to do and the angles gave us the roof line we wanted as well as the right head space in the attic. One day, when PV prices fall to be affordable we might put up PV. If that does not happen, so be it, having the roof at the right angle cost us nothing. The roof angle is also just right for a solar hot water heater which is really the best bang for solar energy usage. In theory, we should be able to still use our current 80 gallon water heater as part of the solar hot water system. Building the roof at the house location's Goldilocks angle for solar production just requires a bit of research, maybe some math, and should not cost much, if anything to build.

Earlier in the thread I posted a link to Building Science. I cannot stress enough how important it is to read that website for house construction details including energy efficiency. Building a energy efficient house is pretty danged simple. Listiburek's books have the details needed. In our case, we designed the house for cooling and not heating. We put in large windows, lots of them, because we wanted to see out of the house as well as be able to open the windows to cool the house. We have a 10 foot ceiling, which helps keep us cool in the summer, but also in the winter. We heat with a wood stove, so the ceiling height heat issue is minimized.

The OP has a long list of suggestions which is most excellent. But a house design is a set of compromise. We certainly wanted a house that is slightly different than what we have. As the design process went forward, and plans were done, priced, and tossed aside, money pushed us into a different house plan. The original plans were for a two story house that allowed us to maximize passive solar. The house was just too expensive and too big for what we needed. We could buy quite a big of expensive power for what the design would save. This morphed the house into a single story that is much more money efficient. I think we are much better off with the house we built compared to a house from one of the first designs.

Later,
Dan

 

[Obed]

My observation regarding the existing house plans we reviewed was that energy efficiency was not a high priority in most of the plans. Almost all of the plans were intended for houses in subdivisions with narrow lots to maximize the number of houses the developer can fit on a street. The narrow lot size dictated the overall layout of the house, ie. narrow and deep with a front entrance garage. That shape house doesn't make sense if you are building a house on acreage. This shape house does not allow for a front-to-back cross-breeze if you want to open the windows to cool the house. It also doesn't plan for a north/south facing house to maximize using the low angle winter sun to heat a long south facing exterior wall. Most of the new houses I see have a 12" or less roof overhang/eave which prevents shading the south facing exterior wall from the sun in the summer.

Common new house "features" include 2-story foyers and 1 1/2 to 2 story high living room ceilings. Just try keeping a big room with 15+ foot ceings warm when it is 20 degrees outside. With energy costs continually going up faster than incomes with no foreseeable end in sight, many of the new house plans just do not make sense.

Nathan's new design has the potential to make use of all the energy design benefits which the houses I described above do not. His LR can have a cross breeze. The design has a long wall that can face south if he wants and the lot allows for it. He can make a roof overhang at least 2 feet deep. He can make the ceilings any height he desires.

Obed

 

[dmccarty]

...
Nathan's new design has the potential to make use of all the energy design benefits which the houses I described above do not. His LR can have a cross breeze. The design has a long wall that can face south if he wants and the lot allows for it. He can make a roof overhang at least 2 feet deep. He can make the ceilings any height he desires.

Obed

Ah, I forgot about cross breezes. The major rooms and bedrooms are on corners of the house so that rooms have windows on two exterior walls. Why? For cross breezes. I forgot we did that. We use that feature frequently when we open up the windows so you would think I would remember.

Later,
Dan

 

[Obed]

Ah, I forgot about cross breezes. The major rooms and bedrooms are on corners of the house so that rooms have windows on two exterior walls. Why? For cross breezes. I forgot we did that. We use that feature frequently when we open up the windows so you would think I would remember.

Later,
Dan

For some reason, many, perhaps most, Americans these days appear to never, I really mean never, open their windows. I know people who run the heat at night and run the air conditioning during the day. Some of it might because people have grown up in houses that have not been built to take advantage of nature's free air conditioning and heating features.

My wife and I love to open the windows and get fresh air in the house. We love to sleep with the windows open and listen to the nightly symphony made by the cicadas, crickets and frogs. Being able to open the windows greatly increases the rural experience that leads many of us to reside in the country.

Obed

 

[sdkubota]

I am one of those Americans who never, ever, open my windows and here is why: In the summer time humidity is a real problem. I run dehumidifiers in my home and air conditioning and try to keep humidity levels around 50%. At 60% humidity mold begins to grow and I can't tell you how many new homes become unlivable or unsalable once mold growth begins...huge problem. The other issue is pollen and allergys...now I don't live in a plastic bubble and am outside many days but I also take alergy pills everyday during the summer. There is no air so sweet as to make me suffer from allergys and I try to avoid pollen as much as possible.

In the winter time in South Dakota you don't have pollen or high humidity but they will find your frozen lifeless body with the window open and say: "what a moron".

 

[schweizer]

This thread is great! You've risked a lot to ask people's opinions on a public forum, though. Glad your feeling aren't too hurt yet. I agree with most of what the other guys have said already. In the end, you have to live in the home and you have to like it, though.

We just went through this whole process with our house -- designed and built. Just moved in 1.5 years ago. The finances almost wrecked our marriage. We started out with lots of sketches on graph paper, then worked with an architect for almost 2 years. After multiple $10k invested in research and architecture, we got construction bids and found out the real costs. It was going to cost 2-3x what our budget was, so we scrapped the whole thing and started over. In the end we "settled" for an old fashioned log home with 3/4 wrap around porch. (I put "settled" in parentheses, because it's much better than we imagined.) The cost of architecture and engineering was included with the company we used, but I think the architectural input was well-worth paying for even if you don't use a company like I did. (And I've even had a few years of architectural design in school.) The style may be similar to what you are looking for. We got around your dilemma for a bathroom for the multiple-purpose room/guest room downstairs by putting a complete bathroom directly next-to but separate-from the guest room. Now my wife can use that room for sewing or other projects, and guests use it often. The bathroom is convenient for the guests who stay overnight and for the occasional large gatherings. It's right next to the laundry area so as to group all the pipes in one location (much easier construction as several have said). Just some thoughts.

Our home is super efficient -- about 4x more than our tract home in town was -- and we are completely off-the-grid. We built in a meadowy area so there are minimal trees around the house -- optimizes solar heat gain and light in winter -- but the wrap-around porch shields us from 90-100 degree heat in summer. We have no A/C and the house has stayed in the 70's all summer because of opening the windows at night. (May not work in the south, though.) The simple roof line is much easier on the pocketbook during construction, too. Again, just ideas for you to think about. Energy costs will always rise, not fall.

If you build a wrap-around porch, definitely do not make it less than 8 ft deep.

Like others mentioned, I'm not saying my house is/will be better than yours. I'm just giving you ideas that you may not have thought of.
Here are a few links to my floor plans and website. Our master bath and walk-in-closet have changed a little since these plans, but you'll get the idea. Somewhere around 2700-2800 ft2. Since I built this house before coming to TBN I don't have a thread to point you to like Obed does!

Marcus

3D rendering/Cover Page (pdf)

Main Floor (pdf)

2nd Floor (pdf)

Mossy Hollow Website