Post by bunnymendelbaum on Jul 23, 2013 11:14:30 GMT -5
The final product will likely not look anything like this, but we worked it up to show the contractor Thursday. It is one level 1,700sf slab on grade. Polished concrete floors with radiant heat. Wood ceiling. Stucco or metal exterior walls. Big flat deck out front that opens to large flat yard. I show 3 double doors, but we'd LOVE to be able to afford a whole opening glass wall system.
Lots of tall cabinets for storage. Guest room maybe with separate entrance. Girls have tiny sleeping rooms off a bigger playroom (could be divided later to make 2 real bedrooms). My "office" would be two tall cabs at the end of the hallway. There is a normal full bath, then our family bathroom which has a toilet room and a shower room.
Post by bunnymendelbaum on Jul 23, 2013 12:20:20 GMT -5
It's a weird layout right? I know my mom is side-eying it, but honestly we know how we live and what we want. It is a little different than the norm because we live a little differently IMO.
We are toying with the possibility of renting that room out on airbnb some weekends. It's a really popular thing to do here because it is a vacation town. In that the second bath would be closed off and secured from the main house for only their use. Might scrap that idea though. We will see. We've use airbnb before for ourselves and love it, but with this redesign we are thinking the guest room isn't separated enough from the house for our comfort.
No closets. I actually hate closets. The cabinets will be more like wardrobes in most places. 30" deep and ceiling height. We will have a shed for bigger stuff but honestly, a big goal of this house will be to really pare down our belongings.
Of course my husband now wants to rotate the house 90 degrees which changes everything.
Cool thanks for sharing! I like the LR/DR/kitchen layout, the big deck with glass wall, and the playroom. Where are the W/D at? Why is there an exterior door in the guest room? Where does the TV go? What is the gray hatching in the first plan mean? Is that a different type of landscaping?
I personally am not a fan of no closets (plus cabinetry is so expensive!), pocket doors (they always get stuck and are impossible to open/close with your hands full), no door on the bathroom sink area (no way to hide the mess from guests), and no master suite. Also I'm a privacy nut so I would be nervous if the LR/DR could be seen from the street at night when we have the lights on. I know your lot is wooded but is it densely wooded or are they evergreen?
I never saw your follow up with Fox about the radiant heat. Is the Wood stove going to need to provide much heat for you? That would be the only other thing. If it was going to be a primary source if heat, I would have done a more split plan with the living area in the middle and girls on one side and master on the other. It would offer the privacy I would want too and better heat distribution. I feel bad saying this because I'm not trying to give negative feedback and you guys CLEARLY know what you are doing
Yes thanks for reminding me...I need to go find that.
Post by bunnymendelbaum on Jul 23, 2013 12:49:10 GMT -5
Actually I love the feedback. We feel like we DON'T know what we are doing because I've always done commercial and my DH has always done super high end renovations in NYC. We just don't have a handle on costs here and a wide-open lot is so much harder to design on than a tight area with tons of restrictions. Too many possibilities!
The cabinetry will likely be ikea with the possibility of us doing our own doors. I think it will end up being a wash $ wise because closets = square footage = $ and right now the storage utilizes the corridor. I think the wall of cabinets will be enough separation for us and Franca. My DH keeps just showing a wall and I keep putting the cabs in!
We are hoping to do only radiant floors and the wood stove. Not sure on secondary heat for the bedrooms, probably depends on what we do for a/c. I like the idea of putting the stove in the middle though.
We have learned to not worry about resale. Our old house sold in 36hrs because it was modern and different. We know 2 other people here who have sold modern 'weird' houses here and both ended up in crazy bidding wars. I think there are enough ppl who move here and like weird/modern.
The street we are off of is super small and we are really high up from it so I'm not worried about ppl seeing in.
I think we are going to use the existing driveway. Our friends might still do the steep one if they can't get an easement from other neighbors up higher.
Post by bunnymendelbaum on Jul 23, 2013 12:59:07 GMT -5
Sorry, I'm on my phone doing naptime w DD1 so I have to keep replying to only the feedback I can remember!
I actually did a bunch of research on bedrooms and closets. Appraisers do not require closets in bedrooms. It is their discretion really and a built-in wardrobe suffices. Same for realtors, there is no written rule.
Crap. Now I forget the other stuff.
Oh, Mosquitos! We are hopeful they won't be bad up there. DH has been up there a lot and never seen any. We have a friend who lives on a similar slope in the area and has zero issues. That being said, the idea is to put a huge screen curtain on the edge if the deck. Removable of course. We've done that at this rental on the front porch and it works great!
I think DH has an idea of the tv being a flat panel on the wall hidden in paneling. Beyond Netflix some nights, we don't watch too much and want it hidden to keep it that way! Related: a friend of mine years ago put her tube tv on a swivel stand, so if she wanted to watch it, she had up go swivel it around. She said it worked really well in curbing her tv watching.
Oh and I have the same misgiving about pocket doors, but DH is a hardware nerd and insists that we just get the good hardware he used to spec at work and it works great.
For the master bedroom, what was your thought process for not bringing that wall all the way across the hallway so that that entire back section of the house could be bedroom. Having lived the last 7 years in a city condo, I'm definitely drooling over all the storage in your house plan, but a hallway with cabinets seems like a wasted space when you could connect the wall across and add some space onto the master bd (Hell, you could do that AND keep the cabinets).
;
DH had it that way and I changed it. I like a really small bedroom (that is a king bed tho). The idea is to give me a really small place to work there at the end of the hallway. I actually really like my cramped pantry/office right now. Plus, we need an exit at that end of the house. Right out that way is where we are making a little play area between our houses, so we need an exit to it and it would be nice to be able to see them playing from my desk. DH wants to see if we can afford a little porch out that way too.
I love the girls room/playout setup. And the visual in my head with all the glass across the back and the wood ceilings and the polished concrete is fantastic.
as for the weird/modern aspect - I think particularly in your location because it's become known as a fun/quirky kind of place those houses are going to fly off the market. It's probably be more of a hurdle in somewhere more typically suburban chock full of planned develoments where people are used to looking for the fauxlonials w/ granite, stainless and walnut pleaseandthankyou.
Aside from previous comments, are you really okay with having such a small desk? Do you have room to roll out plans? With the door right there, too, is there enough clearance for a comfy chair and for the door to open without moving the chair around?
ETA: I must have started typing as you posted above. Sorry!
Not really, it needs to be flushed out. The whole plan really! And I never use fullsize sets anymore. It's all halfsize.
DH had it that way and I changed it. I like a really small bedroom (that is a king bed tho). The idea is to give me a really small place to work there at the end of the hallway. I actually really like my cramped pantry/office right now. Plus, we need an exit at that end of the house. Right out that way is where we are making a little play area between our houses, so we need an exit to it and it would be nice to be able to see them playing from my desk. DH wants to see if we can afford a little porch out that way too.
Gotcha. A porch on that end would be nice. It would kind of "cap off" the end of the house and make the exit feel less like, "Oh, okay, so here's a door that is required but will never be used."
Do your housing codes require windows in sleeping spaces?
There are actually high windows their sleeping rooms, but the cut plane on this plan is so low it doesn't show them for some reason. I am a little worried about our bedrooms being stagnet with only windows on one side. I'd love to figure out a way to get cross-ventilation.
If you are serious about wanting to use that guest space for rentals, then I would want another bathroom. I think 2 are fine for the day to day, but once you have that rented out to a stranger, that bathroom becomes unaccessible to the rest of the house. I think the hardest thing for my family when we stay in a hotel is only having one bathroom, so I couldn't imagine doing that in my own home!
Post by emoflamingo on Jul 23, 2013 13:22:59 GMT -5
Okay I'm stealing the playroom in the center idea for our basement if/when finish it. I wanted a Jack & Jill bathroom but the plumbing for the toilet is on the stairwell side of the house and I'm not interested in the special stuff my FIL mentioned to have a toilet in that area. Too much hassle!
as for the weird/modern aspect - I think particularly in your location because it's become known as a fun/quirky kind of place those houses are going to fly off the market. It's probably be more of a hurdle in somewhere more typically suburban chock full of planned develoments where people are used to looking for the fauxlonials w/ granite, stainless and walnut pleaseandthankyou.
LOL! I have just added "fauxlonial" to my personal lexicon.
Oh that's hilarious because I thought I stole it from you! Now I'm wondering where i got it.
Oh that's hilarious because I thought I stole it from you! Now I'm wondering where i got it.
Not me. Maybe emmybean. She had a lot of words like that: mullet house, vinyl jungle... The only thing she and I ever agreed on was her disdain for non-modern modern architecture.
I am LOVING the visuals. Except that the wall of cabinets just makes me feel like I'd have to open every.single.one every time i was trying to find something.
but i'm wildly disorganized so i'm sure that's just me.
Post by mrs.jacinthe on Jul 23, 2013 13:53:56 GMT -5
As regards cross ventilation, what about doing a modern take on the transom window? Maybe some sort of automated fancy thing that you could put above the cabinets in the hall to allow more air movement?
Post by bunnymendelbaum on Jul 23, 2013 13:56:32 GMT -5
Wawa- I thought the same this with that photo if cabinets. I have a friend who has this cabinet setup. This year for April fools day, her husband switched all their clothes around. She woke up all groggy and said she opened and closed the cabinets about 10 times before she realized what he did!
As regards cross ventilation, what about doing a modern take on the transom window? Maybe some sort of automated fancy thing that you could put above the cabinets in the hall to allow more air movement?
Wawa- I thought the same this with that photo if cabinets. I have a friend who has this cabinet setup. This year for April fools day, her husband switched all their clothes around. She woke up all groggy and said she opened and closed the cabinets about 10 times before she realized what he did!
Oh god, I'd probably cry if that happened before I had my coffee.
For stuff I use every day I'm sure I"d get the hang of it though, I know where all kinds of random shit is in my house despite the complete chaos.
Post by hbomdiggity on Jul 23, 2013 17:25:27 GMT -5
I love the girls rooms/play area and open concept.
No master bath (or 2nd bath if guest is in use) is a deal breaker. One bout of family food poisoning or dealing with your girls in 10 years will have you wanting another bathroom.
Post by bunnymendelbaum on Jul 23, 2013 17:32:13 GMT -5
We've lived with ONE bathroom for 11 years now including tons of guests. Two seems like a luxury! We are just trying REALLY hard to keep the cost down and a third bathroom in 1,700sf just doesn't work!
I'm so glad I'm finally off work (and out of training for today) so that I can finally look at this!
I love it. I love the play room, the small sleeping quarters, the fact that the guestroom has a separate entrance, the kitchen and living room facing out on to the giant deck. It kind of reminds me of Rocio Romero LVL prefab--modified of course.
I've come back in to ask two three questions: What is the pocket door hardware you were talking about? Can you post a link? Also, why did you opt to close off the shower/tub area, why not put a door in the bathroom entrance and open the bathroom up?
We lived with one bathroom for a long time too, and I have to say one of the small luxuries I really thoroughly enjoy about our house is the master bath. It's so tiny. So so so tiny- and doesn't have room for a tub, just a shower, single vanity and toilet. If we ever put on weight we are screwed. But I really love not having to share a bathroom with the kids. Is there any way you can squeeze out a few extra sq ft for a 3/4 master bath?
I've come back to ask a fourth: what style house are your friends building? I'm curious what their style is and how the houses will relate to each other.