New Home Construction

   / New Home Construction
  • Thread Starter
#151  
Don,

The 8 1/2 ft height is in the area below the garage. The steel trusses are supporting the slab of the garage floor and hang down into the space below. Nevertheless, I will take a measurement when I go out there next time.

The effect of the trusses on the workshop below is going to affect the garage door down there. I wanted an 8 ft high garage door in the workshop in order to allow safe clearance for the ROPS on my tractor. Now, I am limited to a 7 1/2 ft door which may mean I have to fold the ROPS each time I enter the shop. This will be a disappointment.

Thanks for taking the time to analyze the photo. Now you have me wondering. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
   / New Home Construction #152  
Have been enjoying immensly your new home building. One suggestion since you eliminated the front hall closets. Suggestion is to find slim line, meaning they don't stick out to much, non obtrusive coat hooks. Paint them the same color as the walls. You won't belive how handy coat hooks on a wall are. It will be hard to drill into your nice new walls to put in the coat hooks but believe me you will love them. My family won't hang but they will hook. I jsut picked up a dozen more coat hooks last week that I need to put around in various rooms. I have found to make them the color of the walls and they are not obtrusive estetically. So you are a bit **** are you? Well you can have fun measuring how wide a average coat is for plaing the hooks. The of course there is designing vertical spacing, gotta have two rows. FWIW... No biggie on the closet loss, hooks will serve you better anyway. If you go for the clean look, jsut don't use them until you have company, they will blend right in.
 
   / New Home Construction
  • Thread Starter
#153  
rox,

Thanks for the suggestion. My wife is planning to have a hall tree in the foyer for guests to hang their coats. We will have a closet in the mudroom for our family coats. However, I do like the idea of low-profile hooks. I'll pass this on to my wife. Afterall, she is making most of the decisions on interior details.

Glad you are enjoying the thread. I'll have some new photos later in the week.
 
   / New Home Construction
  • Thread Starter
#154  
<font color="blue"> I did a rough measurement from your picture and, if the doors are truly 10' wide, then they're slightly less than 8-1/2' high </font>

Don,

You are an eagle-eye. The width of the garage doors is a little over 10' and the height is 8' 7". That will be plenty of height, I'm sure. The Unimog is only in my dreams. Don't think I'll really ever be in a position to garage one of those bad boys.
 
   / New Home Construction
  • Thread Starter
#155  
One week of construction has passed since my last photos. In that discussion, I told y'all about the problem with the ceiling height in the guest bedroom / bathroom on the second floor and that the framer's solution was to add a knee wall to raise the roof. I honestly don't think there was another reasonable alternative to solve the problem so we proceded with this "fix" to the poor design.

Well, I can't say that I'm happy with the result. It certainly accomplished our goal as far as the interior space is concerned. We now have living space in the guest room with ample ceiling height. The problem is the effect this has had on the exterior elevation of the front of the house.

This first attachment is a diagram of the front elevation, as the home was supposed to look. We told the architect that we were looking for a "farm house" appearance (whatever that might mean) and I think she achieved the general look we seeking. Sadly, the design could not accomodate the floor plan she included.
 

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   / New Home Construction
  • Thread Starter
#156  
This photo shows the front as it stands today. The red arrow on the left shows where the peak of the roof on the right and left wings wre supposed to be. The yellow arrow shows where the level of the eaves were supposed to be.

We think that the character of the house has changed. To me its looking more like a colonial style (I'm not very knowledgable about various architectural styles so forgive me if my interpretation is off here) rather than a farm house. Now, that may be an insignificant issue to many (if not most) of you, but it is somewhat disappointing to us.

The real issue now, however, is not that the style seems different to us, but something just looks goofy. I think it is because the distance from the top of the windows on the main floor to the new level of the eaves is too great (depicted by the green arrow). Keep in mind that the house will be clad in Hardiplank siding. This just looks like too much bare siding with no visual interest. Maybe I'm being too picky, but it just doesn't look right to me.

I've discussed this with the builder. He will talk to the framer as soon as weather permits a return to work (don't yet know what effect the hurricane will have on our weather yet - it is looking better for us). If they can't come up with something to break up this expanse of siding, I guess the next step is to hire another architect to get some creative ideas.

It probably seems like I've done more complaining than anything in this thread. It is not my intent. Early on, it was suggested that I post the problems, mistakes etc. so that others may learn from them. I guess I'm just doin' a whole lotta teachin'.

We are very happy with our builder and the interior spaces (given the limitations of the design). It is ultimately going to be a very nice home (better than we deserve). I just hope the corrections of the architectural snafu's don't break the budget (more than it has already been broken).

If anyone has any suggestions for the front facade, I'm all ears. The things I've come up with thus far include additional windows, maybe some dormer-like bump-out things (like in the center section). But, these may just add to the goofiness or be impractical. I really have no clue. I will appreciate any input on this.

Note: the problems and arrows are depicted on the garage end due to the angle of the photo. The need for the addition of the knee wall came from problems on the opposite end of the house where the guest room is.
 

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   / New Home Construction
  • Thread Starter
#157  
Here's my obligatory view from the garage end. As we really didn't need any more living space, this will be our unfinished attic (I think I mentioned that before). Now, I think one should recognize blessings whenever they occur. So, here is a positive consequence from the elevated roof (in addition to the fully functional guest room). A HUGE storage space in the attic. The framer had planned to add partition walls in this space to support the roof. I asked what it would take to leave the space open, to which he replied "big beams". I got the price for the beams from him yesterday and told him to "beam me up". So all of this space will be open for tons of storage and easily accessible from the second floor (just walk through a door - no pull-down steps or ladder to climb).

I think I mentioned earlier that I had hoped to put the air handler of the second floor in this space. The builder nixed this idea as it would reduce the efficiency of the unit being off to one end of the house like this. He says it need to be more centrally located. So, up in the attic (the real attic above the bedrooms on the second floor) it goes. Being totally ignorant about home building gives me freedom to ask rediculous questions. Every once and awhile, my requests are doable and it makes a positive change in the plan.
 

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   / New Home Construction
  • Thread Starter
#158  
Not to belabor the point, but I've done a crude "artist's rendition" (and I use the term "artist" very loosely) on the front elevation to (a) see if my concerns are warranted and (b) maybe better illustrate to you folks what I've been blabbering about.

This attachment is a rough approximation of what i think we will end up with without any additional changes. I don't know, maybe it lends a lack of sophistication of design that would be found in a true farm house.

Any comments?
 

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   / New Home Construction #159  
My taste is all in my mouth, so you can take this with the proverbial grain of salt, but I think the "new" version you drew looks more like a Southern farmhouse than the architect's orginal plans. The blank areas make it appear to have very high ceilings on the first floor, which is kind of neat because behind that blank is actually the flooring for the second floor -- which is disguised because it doesn't look as if there is a second floor at that point. Kinda neat, actually. And, it looks as if you ever finished that "storage" area, you could hold square dances up there...
 
   / New Home Construction #160  
Okeedon's got a pretty good eye. I might suggest that you consider carrying the porch across the front of the house further to each side. Either to the last window or between the middle of the two windows. This will help break up the height issue with the porch roof and give it more of a farm house feel. The other thing to look at might be the design of the columns. Your drawing suggests somwhat large stately square columns which is consistant with the colonial style. Narrower columns with a railing will soften up the front and give it a somewhat more country feel indicative of the farmhouse style.

This is a sample for illustrative purposes. In your case I would stop the porch as I had mentioned above.

Here is another sample.
The joys of construction.... /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Good luck with your project.
 

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