I will post pictures when we start. :)
The changes we made were pretty minor: mirror-reversed plan, extended garage, added pool bath to back side of garage, moved refrigerator to opposite wall, large range (no wall ovens), built-in in dining room, changed dining room french doors to windows, added brick where stone is shown, did all hardi plank (no shakes) otherwise, pantry under stairs, extra fridge in old pantry spot. That's pretty much it. We also had them draw a separate structure outdoor kitchen/pool pavilion.

Here's my quickly-photoshopped image of how our Shook Hill will look:
{{gwi:1408544}}

I can't wait until we start!

Here's the local MLS link to the Shook Hill that was built in my subdivision. If it doesn't work let me know.

It has a few modifications, but they're minor. I've been in the home, and I love the general floor plan.

http://valleymls.com/(S(uiocbugnr3fbltway5eija5p))/Version15Results.aspx?ID=07E9A841D61B2D68F6A30B0DE1F6CC5F&TP=DV

I agree with chilibeans, that having an open kitchen/living area is very doable by removing the wall that the kitchen and living room share.

I love the sound of your modifications and the pic! Are you doing white with black shutters? I always love that combo. Looks great and I can't wait to see your progress.

Mfowler- Yes! White with black shutters and antique brick. :)

Buildinginal- And nice to hear from someone who has walked in a Shook Hill! That one looks like it had several modifications, as well.

Chilibeans - I LOVE your rendering. Can you share any more images you have? I understand if you don't want to put your floorplan on here. I really like the Elberton way but the exterior of yours. I am sure they can be combined. We are planning a traditional farmhouse with black and white and red.

Parkview603 if you like the red and white farmhouse look check out the shook hill built by Welubhi Homes

Here is a link that might be useful: Welubhi homes

Parkview- that's the only 'colored in' picture I have. I didnt fill in any of the other elevations. I was trying to decide whether or not I wanted the front gable brick or if I wanted the whole body of the house to be hardi plank. So I hastily colored it in both ways on photoshop. I'll post the other (all hardi, no brick) version when I am home later, though. In the end, I couldn't decide which way I preferred- even after photoshopping- so I let my husband pick. And "with brick gable" it will be. :)

Okay, here's the no-brick-gable version...
{{gwi:1408551}}

Thanks, guys!

I love the interior of the Elberton Way and the exterior of the Shook Hill. I showed my husband last night and he still loves our original plan, which will be cheaper to build (less roof lines and jogs) so we will stick with that.

I would love to see progress - so keep posting! :o)

Thanks Chilibeans for posting the no brick pic. I have always wondered what that would look like. Seriously I like it either way and it probably depends on what look you are going for. Can't wait for you to start so I can see pics of the real thing with the white, antique brick and black shutters. We are playing the waiting game as our current house is on the market.

Mfowler (and any other shook hill-ers)- where are you planning to build (if u don't mind my asking)? We are in south Louisiana. We are hoping to start in the next month or two.

I am in Alabama. Most of the Shook hill pics I have found have been from Georgia real estate listings.

There are some good pictures of the Shook Hill on Zillow. Put in 615 Keystone Court, Fayetteville, GA. Not sure how long the pictures will be up - it just sold last week.

Here is a link that might be useful: shook hill zillow

I am curious as to how they modified to obtain access to a bonus room over the garage as well. Is your kitchen modified? My concern is that if it isn't more like the elberton way kitchen space/size that there wouldn't be enough counter area. How large is your island? I also would like a large gas range instead of double ovens (which I believe is a modification chilibeans is making)

My Shook Hill kitchen has a 6 burner gas Jenn-Air cooktop, and double ovens. The new island is 36"h x 54" d x 74" w and is all one level. We did it in a contrasting color with a different counter top than the rest of the kitchen. I like the way it turned out. We are waiting on a 30" h x 24" d x 71.5" w table with two legs custom made to attach onto the back of the island for the kids to do their homework. We'll put two chairs under the island table, and will have plenty of room for the breakfast table. I don't feel like the kitchen is small (and I've had some much larger kitchens in prior houses to compare it to), and now that I have the new island, there is plenty of counter space. I can tell you I do not like the break in the cabinets on the wall that separates the kitchen from the living room. That counter top collects junk and dust and is one of the first things you see when you walk in the "friends" door off the porch. In the future, I will probably rip that out and put in a solid wall of cabinets floor to ceiling. As a note, one of the things I liked about putting in the new island: it allowed me to add a second dishwasher, pull out trashcans, more drawer space, and a hidden charging station for all of our electronics. I can also sit at the kitchen table and watch dinner on the cooktop. The other island was 2 levels, and I couldn't do that.

Thanks for the new pictures and info, 2c2u2t2i2e!

Yes thanks so much for your kitchen information. You had some great ideas to make it a better working kitchen!

I should have mentioned the island required us to get a counter-depth fridge, which I preferred anyway. My kitchen is similar to the one in the Zillow pictures (except for the island), but if I remember, my fridge and stove are reversed from theirs. One of my neighbors has the "smaller version" I think you were also looking at (Stone Creek maybe?). She had it on the market a while ago, and would probably provide pictures if you want some. If you get out to Georgia at any point, there are plenty of Mitchell Ginn homes to walk through. As an aside, I emailed the builder of the Shook Hill in Carlisle, PA. He modified the plan on the fly to get to the space above the garage, so it can be done. If I go out there to check it out, I'll post pictures. I originally came to this site myself to try to find pictures of the house in different colors, as I'm going to have to paint mine soon. If anyone knows of a tool I can use to easily change house colors on a picture, please let me know.

We are about to build the Stone Creek house near Charlotte NC and would really appreciate if you could posts the pictures you mentioned.

Thank you very much!

I have added more stone creek photos to my album in the original post. Click that photos link and it will take you to them. The first ones are from a listing I pulled a while back (stone creek2 is how its labeled but some labels didn't save). Sc1 is one currently under construction

Thank you for the Stone Creek pictures! Any idea how tall the ceilings in the living room with the coffered ceilings are?

I am so glad to share the pics i have pulled! I can't remember what city this listing is from but it might have that info if it is still for sale. I know it was in Georgia. The plan calls for 9 foot ceiling in the stone creek if I remember correctly but I am not sure about doing a coffered ceiling unless its 10 foot ceiling. Of course the only homes I have been in with coffered ceilings are 10 foot but maybe someone else who has experience with a 9 foot coffered ceiling could provide insight.

The extra pictures mfowler423 loaded are from my neighbor's expired listing. I'm pretty sure the ceilings are 10 ft. I attached a link with a few more pictures.

Here is a link that might be useful: Stone Creek

We plan to start the Shook Hill next month. We had ours modified with access to the bonus room above the garage. They extended the mud room 4 feet and added a stair case from there. I love the way it turned out and he added a bathroom in the bonus room!

We started last week! Only dirt work so far...

Exciting chilibeans! Can't wait to see photos as you progress and from you to Jenibama1980

Here's the kitchen with the island described. The table for the end of the island has not yet arrived. I will try to remember to re-post once it is added.

Here's a picture of a previous kitchen I've had. When I said I'm going to take out the cabinets on the wall between the kitchen and the family room and replace them with floor to ceiling cabinets, this is what I meant. This kitchen was much larger than the one I have now, so I'd have to scale down the width, but you can get an idea of what I meant. I would call these cabinets more "almond" than the ones I have now. I'm excited for all of you building. Hang in there - eventually there's a great house at the end, if you can survive the process :-)

Love the pictures of the kitchens!!! I have already talked to my builder about taking out the built in china cabinet on the wall between the kitchen and living room after reading your post. I'm going to show him this picture to give him more of an idea! Thanks so much!

buildinginal - Send me an email, if you see this :)

We are at the beginning-sheetrock-today stage of our Shook Hill build. Adding pictures in case they are of any help to anyone.
(We are having solid plywood walls under sheetrock, by the way.)
Exterior still needs porch columns, shutters, railings, maybe a couple of other things I'm forgetting. (Forgive bad cell phone pics)

Front porch- I think they are doing floor brick mortar today...

Family room-

Looking back toward front door-

Standing in foyer-

Dining room

Study

I'm out of time for now! I can add more if needed later.

Hey Chilibeans we are about to start a reversed Shook Hill and would love to get in contact with someone who is currently building. We love seeing the pictures. Would you be open to the idea of us bouncing some questions your way?

Chilibeans,
My wife and I are starting our Shook Hill in January. I am just curious if you went with the 10 foot Ceilings downstairs and the 9 foot upstairs as the plans call for? Also do you know how high the ceiling is in the study, I can't really tell on the plans? The photos you have posted really help us visualize things. Given that we live near Newnan GA, which is where Mitch Ginns office is located, I would figure there would be more Shook Hills around that we could look at- but alas! Thank you for your posts!!! Can not wait to see more. Also, if anyone out there is reading this and if you are in GA and would not mind us coming my to look at the construction please leave me a message here. It would be greatly appreciated.

Twiinfreaks we are getting ready to start our Shook Hill in SC and we were wondering about the ceilings. We were thinking of doing 9 downstairs and 8 upstairs but were worried about stairs protruding out more. Anyone know anything about this issue?

TwiinFreaks I have a Shook Hill near you. Email me.

Ford150f- I don't mind answering any questions that I can. I think I am email-able via gardenweb.
Twiinfreaks- yes our ceilings are 10 downstairs and 9 upstairs. In the study, after framing per the plans, the ceiling didn't seem high enough, so we had them raise it up a little. It was raised at least a foot. I will have to measure to really know the height we have now. I will try to remember to do that when we visit later

This is such a helpful topic. I am trying to finalize a house plan for a beautiful riverfront lot that would be perfect for the Shook Hill plan. Like many of you, however, it seems as if I'm leaning toward a hybrid plan that incorporates the exterior of the Shook Hill and some of the features of the Elberton Way.

Here are the changes I'd make to Shook Hill:

kitchen/family room open layout like Elberton Way.
Keep side porch and 1/2 bath
Extended side porch width to include staircase (if possible) to bonus room above garage
Extend master bedroom for sitting area. Move porch door to back
If possible, I love the laundry room/hallway to the master br in Elberton Way
I also like the staircase of Elberton, but I think the upstairs layout for Shook Hill works much better .

Any ideas? Has anyone built a hybrid? I love Shook Hill but would make these changes and make sure the master bedroom and family room/kitchen area are bigger.

Another thought is to keep Shook Hill's kitchen separate, but enlarge the family room and master bedroom. I'm concerned 18 x 19 is way too small, especially since the plan lacks a formal living room. Also 16 x 15 is way too small for the master. The best of both plans with this is mind would be to also incorporate the laundry room in between the master as in Elberton Way, and adding a staircase (where -- help!? ) to the bonus space above the garage.

This post was edited by Emptynesteralmost on Tue, Oct 22, 13 at 14:31

sspeed..... Did you build Stone Creek?

We are hoping to build Stone Creek and would really appreciate any pictures and helpful hints. Thank you.

Swetton I posted some photos in the other Shook Hill/Stone Creek thread. What types of questions do you have and where are you thinking of building? We're only partway through the process but we are GC'ing it so I probably can give you some insight.

We are also beginning the process of building Stone Creek. Do you have any modifications that you made to the plan that you would recommend?

Cvazqu, I love the look of the exterior of your home! My husband and I are beginning to build and have chosen to do brick instead of stone as well. I am wondering what brick you chose for your house? I love the aged look of it... Do you happen to know the brand and name? Thank you!

cvazqu, I see from above that you are in south Louisiana. I am near the DeRidder area. We are just starting to decide on plans and this is a big contender although we will have to have a few modifications. I just wondered how near we are to one another! I didn't see a way to email you. Thanks!

Almostemptynester, did you enlarge the master bedroom? We are considering some remodeling... I am almost certainly going to sacrifice the "friend's porch" to get a true mudroom, and to try to get to the "bonus" space above the garage (barring that it won't cost a true fortune).

Karen Brubaker -- I think we did. It literally has been so long since we had the plans modified that I really can't remember. I know we enlarged the kitchen and living room. One of the really beautiful things about this plan is the windows. The lumber rep kept asking me if I wanted to shrink the window size and I refused. So glad I held my ground. We have a bonus room above the garage -- they are still working (does it ever end?) on the bathroom tile up there, but the views from that room are amazing. Here is a photo of the master bedroom.

Almostemptynester, We are finalizing our Stone Creek Plan and I was wondering if you could tell me what the spacing is between your three sets of windows in the Family Room. They came out so beautifully! Thank you! Maria

@jenibama1980 if you see this please email me regarding the staircase to the bonus room. Very interested in pictures if you have them. Kelly dot tyndall at yahoo dot com

@2c2u2t2i2e if you see this, I would like the see more pictures of your completed kitchen island with table. you can email me at Kelly dot tyndall at yahoo dot com