Hi,
New to the site, no ideas for you.
Wanted to say how nice and what a good idea the cutout in the kitchen wall is looks beautiful and opens the kitchen up without it being fully visible. If I'm observing correctly.
Either way beautiful home. Good for you and your loved ones.

Mara

Sunnny - can you post a front elevation? If I remember correctly, you were looking for something that has the feel of the Walton's farmhouse but on one floor. From what I can see of the roof plan, is that the look you are going to get?

Jo Ann

YES you are so corect about the farm house. I love both the Waltons house and the farm house from the book Building the Not So Big House. I LOVE both of those. Right now it doesn't have a wrap around porch but with everyones help maybe I can afford to add it or at least to the end of the house. I gave up a few things such as the porch for a central vac.
The front door will have 2 side lights/windows. I'm not thrilled with the front and how it just opens to the living room so I'd love som suggestions on how to work this area.
I'm open to any an all suggestions!! :)
Mara, Thank you for the compliment. I took this plan from the steel home site and nearly totally re-did it. I like a semi-open concept. Not a big fan of all open - just too noisy for me so I like some seperation and definition yet want to be a part of the living area.
The roof pitch looks very high to me. Does it seem that way to others?
We will have a 'pocket' office in the back of the laundry room, too.
S~

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sunnny - I'll let the architects & designers chime in, but I'm just wondering why you have a fairly complicated hip roof rather than a more simple roofline based on gables, if you want a farmhouse look?

Best regards - Jo Ann

Jo Ann, I agree and have asked my builder to see what he can do. The roof looks HUGE to me.Would anyone be able to give me ideas on making it simpler?
Thanks,
Mindy

Mindy - we need put a holler out for the real architects to look at this. I'm a bit nervous treading in their area of expertise & I don't have the right technical language, but this is what I see:

I understand that you didn't do a wrap around porch because of the cost. I don't know how much it would increase the price, but if you just extended the porch across the whole front and added a teeny porch across the back at the master bedroom, you would be able to straighten out some of the "kinks" in your roofline.

Even if you stayed with a hipped roof, you would now have one main, long ridgeline and it might be easier to build. It would raise the highest point of the roof by 1 - 2 feet depending on the pitch. In any event, it would give you a simpler roof which, I think, would better suit the look you are going for.

Also, please, don't spec the windows with the lights as they are drawn in the elevations. Lights should be more vertical that horizontal. I might lose the sidelight by the back door. I don't think you are getting much bang for your buck with that. I don't know what your exterior back doors are like, but we just put in a new steel backdoor at our current house so DH could redo the doggie door. Anyway, it has glass in the upper portion which would probably bring as much light into your mudroom as you are trying to get with that sidelight.

Again, I don't know how much cost the extra porches would add & I haven't tried to reconfigure the basic house, at all. I'm just looking for easy ways to make the roof plan less complicated.

HTH - Jo Ann

The roof is complicated because the interior layout has so many bumps and jogs. The only way to a less complicated roofline--which will save you money, btw--is a simpler layout. You can't just keep the same layout and throw another roof on it. Roofs relate to what's below. And the overall proportions of the house aren't farmhouse-y.

You have to make a decision. Do you love the layout and are willing to have something that looks nothing like a farmhouse, or do you want to start from scratch on the design and begin with a farmhouse-like shape and work from there? You can't get both with the current floorplan.

We got a bombshell last Thursday and might be changing our entire game plan. My husband found out Thursday his company may be re-structuring and we won't know anything for 3 weeks. He MAY be taking a pay cut in the next few months so we are once again back in nowhere land.
We've had such a roller coaster ride and will either start looking at houses again in a lower price range (YUCK!) or a much smaller floor plan.
So I want to thank everyone for your suggestions and I WILL RETURN!!! LOL
Sunny