Hi there

I dont have any plans back yet. I just went to the drafts lady last Monday or Tuesday. I am about to burst waiting on it.

And I don't know that it is "farmhouse" but country style. To me anything on the farm is farmhouse :-)

The plan I kept coming back to was the Southerland by Don Gardner. The other style I really liked was the O'Neale. There are several versions of that style, with different square footage.

Someone mentioned the Brentwood by Don Gardner to help me save square footage.

Basically I am trying to achieve everything on the first floor for me and my husband. I am 44 (did I type that outloud) and he is 56, and starting to accumulate grandkids.

I want the main floor for us for our retirement years. I am keeping a couple of rooms upstairs for guests. (one of which is a daughter who is going back to pharmacy school so she will live with us for as long as she needs) Also a bonus room over the garage.

Then I want a full basement for a son who is still at home. Bedroom, game room, etc. This will open up to the back for entertaining etc.

The first ideas where coming in at like 5000 total square feet. I don't need that much really. I want things like geothermal and radiant floors and just in researching that system looks like that alone might cost around 50k.

So I am trying to really cut back my square footage so I can get the other things I want. And since I don't know what it cost per square foot, I am just trying to trim the fat from the start. I don't want to mortgage, so I thought I would try to trim it as much as I can, and once we get the plans back, I can try to get some estimates on what it will actually cost to build.

Anyways, when I get something, I will post it :-)

I guess you could say what I'm wanting is southern/country/farmhouse - wide porch, transoms, foyer etc. DH is 51 and I'm 50. We have a daughter and "son" and hopefully grandkids are in the future. We need to stay within 2200 sf, and one story, with the look of a 2 story with wide dormers. Stairs became an issue because of the cost - I wanted a "pretty" staircase which didn't make sense since the one upstairs bedroom would rarely be used. I do like the look of Don Gardner, William Poole, Frank Betz. Mitch Ginn is a designer you don't hear much about but has designed some homes that are in Southern Living magazine and are really nice. I know you are excited about your prelim! Can't wait to see your plan!

Does sound alot like me :-)

I wish I could say I need 2200sf (for example). But since I have no idea what it costs per square foot, I am just kind of winging how this process should go.

I did have a contractor tell me that the style I like might cost $115 so that gave me a place to start. The trouble is, as I see it, the 2nd floor cost less than the first, and the basement costs less than the 2nd (?) and the floor plans only talk about the square footage as it relates to "Heated", so does that mean the garage and the bonus room are free? (being silly of course) so still have to figure what that square footage is going to cost.

And when I think of the big ticket things like roof, flooring, cabinets, WINDOWS, radiant heat, heat pump.... I just get a panic attack.

And I can't get an idea what it will cost to build without having an idea of the house plan, and I couldn't decide on a house plan without knowing what it is going to cost..........(deep sigh)

So took my likes and wants and ideas to the drafts lady, will see what she comes up with, and then see if we can live with it or not.

There were some things I knew I didn't really need, and there were things I knew I really needed, so I am anxious to see how she pulls it all together. I felt like she "got" most of what I was saying, but I guess that is yet to be seen :-)

Keep me posted to on how things go on your build, any cool ideas, etc.

:-)

Hi gopintos and niecieb - I would call our plan a farmhouse. we haven't broken ground yet, but should be starting in 2 weeks! Our plan looks like the don gardner brentwood on the outside, but it is a customized frank betz floor plan on the inside. We loved the look of the brentwood, but needed to customize it to meet our needs. I'd be happy to share with you. I will try to post here and hopefully the images will be big enough. In the plan, bedroom 5 will be our office and the study will be our playroom. I'm 44 too, but have 3 kids at home including a 1 year old!! :-) Another thing I should mention is that we have changed several things that are not reflected on these blueprints (master bath & kitchen).

pdessena, your plan looks great - I especially love that great front porch! How exciting to be starting so soon. We are likely going to begin this summer, just a few more details....

gopintos, I love the country / farmhouses as well, I can't wait to see your plans!

Obviously, I love it too!!

I can't imagine a 1 yr old of my own at home haha. But I couldn't imagine having my kids so close either haha

I am so excited, my plans will be done either later tomorrow or Friday morning!!! The first draft anyways. I am sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited!!!!

I am excited for you! Be sure to let us know how your draft turns out!

It's going to be beautiful! You did a great job with the layout. I can't wait to see it, be sure to keep us updated.

OK, it is finally here. Just the rough draft.

I must admit, at first I was disappointed. Doesnt look like the Brentwood. But with some cosmetic changes to the outside, it is growing on me.

This is a long read, but here goes if you want to read it haha (puncuation and grammar goes out the window)

i took several of the styles we said we liked and kind of combined them.
here are the things I told the draftlady we liked.
i told her david liked brick and stone
i told her we needed the garage on the left, closer to the horse barns, which worked out well on the right side with the wrap around porch. that is what everyone will see when they come down the road.
i told her david liked one of the plans that had a bay or bowed out window on the front, so you could see down/up the road while standing there, so she incorporated that idea into the foyer.
i told her if i could only afford one big punch, one "wow!", i wanted it at the front door because all visitors will probably come to the front door because of the circle drive and location of the back door in relation to the driveway. so for that "wow", either the stairs, or the balcony above, or being able to see straight through the family room to the pond out back. so she took the curved foyer, the stairs, the balcony, and seeing straight through to the pond out back and looks like she was able to incorporate ALL of them!
i told her if we had a fireplace, probably just a gas one.
i told her david liked the kitchen bar opening up into the dining area and the family room. i wasnt crazy about it at first but it is growing on me.
i told her i didnt want the entire kitchen open to the family room, incase i didnt feel like doing dishes
i told her i didnt need a window by my sink. cuz if i see how pretty it is outside, i wont do dishes.
i told her we needed a larger mudroom/laundry room/bathroom area. we needed a place for our stuff when we come in, cubbies for coats, shoes, and a place for a bench. a dump station.
i told her the laundry room needed to be big info to hang david's clothes especially, as soon as it comes out of the dryer. and that sometimes we need to iron
i told her if possible, a bathroom in the garage, and if no room, at least one close to the garage and back door.

i told her a shower in that bathroom if possible.
i told her an entrance to the bonus room either from garage or outside.

i told her a kitchen island
i told her separate closets in the master.
looks like the bathroom is only roughed out, and same with the kitchen.
i told her no living room and no "formal" dining room, as I was trying to conserve square footage to keep the cost down for things like the radiant floor heat, etc.
i told her if she could take some of the "formal" dining room space and turn it into an office, that would be great, otherwise we can put the office downstairs. take the rest of the dining room space and make the kitchen larger. a bigger kitchen and office would better serve us than a dining room table we never eat at.
i told her one dining space that opened up into the family room was all we really needed

i told her the main rooms- dining, family room and master bedroom, i wanted views to the back if possible.

on the second floor, i told her if possible, balcony
if possible little sitting/reading area

if possible laundry

wanted access either to garage or to outside incase of fire
told her two bathrooms not necessary but might be nice
told her at least 2 bedrooms
told her bonus room or a 3rd bedroom that could be used as a bonus room
this space is going to be for courtney and braydon, my 4 year old grandson, as long as she is going to school and wants to stay. once they are gone, then it will be for guests and grandkids. my husband's daughter's children are old enough they could come and stay with us for a week or two at a time in the summer. his son's kids are too for that matter. and then my daughter has two kids. so that is 9 grandkids already, and my 2 sons havent started, and penny isnt finished yet, and courtney probably isnt either. So probably at least a dozen, or baker's dozen of grandkids.
the lower basement level, she said we would work on once we figure out the dimensions and size of the first floor.
but the basement will be a full walk out basement. this will be the man cave. adam's room. he is a freshman in HS. a pool table/tv room/game room, maybe some card/poker tables, maybe a bar, maybe a kitchenette area for things like bbqs on the patio.
will have a pond out back. hopefully a dock or something. nothing real big, probably no more than 2 acres.
so............. it looks like she got pretty much everything that i asked her for.
the only trouble is, it is larger square footage than i wanted. but i dont really want to cut anything off of the spaces, so maybe at least now I can get a rough idea how much it might cost to build, and then we can cut it down if we cant afford it all. but i wanted to keep it smaller, so the foundation cost less, the flooring, the roof, the insulation, the radiant floors, so all that stuff would cost less. my goal is no mortgage. our old place was almost paid for, so i am trying really really hard to have no mortage, and trying really hard to get the things that will make it energy efficient for the future.
i know, it is pretty much a 3 story apartment complex.............. but i dont care if courtney ever leaves. i dont care if adam ever leaves. with the economy as it is, if i can provide a house that is efficient, that is fine with me. a modern day walton's. probably going to see more and more families doing that. if things get bad for susie or whoever, they have some place to go. everything for david and i are on the first floor. when no one else is there, we can not heat/cool the other two floors.
ok so now.... everything is there that i asked for, but there are a few things that i would change.
here are my changes.
i know it is just a drawing, but i am not crazy about the rock and the brick. i would rather use the rock and siding.

the front door in the drawing is a bad one. need something different.

would rather have a double window on the right side, to match the one on the left side

with the roof, it will be metal unless that is too expensive. if that is too expensive, would like to do metal roof on the porch. the kids and i, and now braydon and I, love to sit on the porch swing while it is raining.
on the rear elevation, would like to see the master window on the back become a french door or slider or some sort of door.

would like to see a deck and door off the bonus room on the top floor.
there will also be a full basement which isnt on the plan yet.
on the main floor, would like to move the fireplace to the front right corner if possible. need to feature the tv on the bigger wall. would rather watch the tv than the fireplace
possibly the wall could be a rail to the downstairs stairway. i would rather have a rail. but wall might be better if we want to conserve energy some day when the kids are all gone. or maybe we could worry about that some day when (if) the kids are all gone, and keep it open for now.
could save some money if we took off some of the covered wrap around decks/porches across the back side.
in the master, mentioned already the door to the back, but only if there is a deck there :-) make either a matching window on the north side or a double window. probably two twin windows, then the bed could be centered on that wall, with a window over the nightstands.
second floor

would make a door and deck at the top of the back stairs. maybe a stair of some sort, spiral, etc from that deck to the lower deck.
might move the w/d either to the hall closet, and make a stacker, or to the smaller bathroom closet, or just move it around in the space where it is at.
my thinking for moving the washer/dryer, is that the space by the back stairs, would like to have a kitchenette area. maybe open up the wall that goes into the bonus room. that closet on the right side, would be part of the kitchenette somehow. could even put the washer dryer on that wall in a closet.
the second floor will be for courtney while she finishes pharmacy school, or however long she wants to stay. she will have a separate entrance both inside and out, a little kitchen area, her own laundry, bathrooms, etc. then later it will be for guests and grandkids when they visit.

and that is all that i would change :-) at least that initially jumped out at me.
still need to figure out kitchen and masterbath, but no point in those details until we have the dimensions figured out.
i think she did a good job capturing our, well maybe mostly my, wish list. but i tried to include as much of the stuff that i could drag out of david. he hasnt given me just a whole lot of input. hoping he will now.

I think with two of the dormers gone on the front, that is why it looked so different, that and the brick. but with two less dormers, that should save some money, but i added one to the back though. also the garage really looks lopsided, but i dont want it on the front, and i dont want it on the back, and i want it attached for the bonus room, so it will have to grow on me too.
the only trouble, it is right back up to around 5000 sq feet. arggh... but the upper and lower levels are cheaper square footage, right? so maybe it will all work out.
let me know if anything jumps out at you :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: 1st Draft

Impressive, I second the french door off of the master. I am interested to see how turns out.

Ty :-) I LOOOOVVE the look of your house, and you inspired me to go with the Brentwood. I was disappointed that this really looks nothing like it, ha. But, I am trying to incorporate a few things that my husband liked as well, so this is how it turned out.

I am not digging the front entrance too much. Havent pictured it in my mind yet, but maybe making columns to match the others on the porch, and making that a more narrow archway. The other style that I loved was the O'Neal, Halloway, Luxembrough, etc and what I loved about those was the 2 story entry, just looks so grand and majestic, so I think she was trying to include that in some way. So I need to put more thought into my entry and make it work with the front porch.

I woke up about 2 am (actually I dont think I was asleep) but thought of adding dormer windows to the garage. I rough sketched it in and I think I really like it. The garage doesnt look so lopsided to me now, or not so stuck on there, or whatever it was looking to me, it looks better with dormers.

Thinking a tray ceiling in master, but start lower and build to 9 ft, then I think I can get one more bedroom even if small up on the second floor. Even if just a "bunkroom" for grandkids.

I love the classic white with black shutters. DH wanted some stone, so I can live with that. Maybe even do a stone part way up on the house and then siding the rest. So not sure what the color scheme will be. My barns are barn red, with white trim. Will probably put a white fence behind the house again. So not sure exactly how to do the outside yet.

I didnt end up with an entry closet, but I am okay with that. Growing up, we just piled coats on the bed. There is plenty of room for a coat tree. Or if I just had to have a closet, could use space from the pantry. I think I will end up with plenty of cabinet space. Also have more cabinets in the laundry room.

I had forgotten that I mentioned to her that if it worked out to aline some closets or something, for a future elevator if we needed it some day... and looks like that could be achieved with the pantry and the upstairs sitting area okay enough.

I am excited. I started talking to a framing guy this morning. Framing, shingles, siding, decks, etc. Talked to my heating guy, too. Thought maybe if I could get some rough ideas on this floor plan, I would rather stick with it. If it looks like it is going to come in too high, then I will reduce the square footage which will rearrange maaaaaaaaaaaaaany things. Probably most everything. So I dont really even want to think about that right now, but at least I have some ideas and my draftlady has a plan B in mind if we need to cut out some square footage.

I feel like a GC though. I have been talking to subs. I dont even have a builder yet.................. am I going at this Bass Ackwards?

Ok, I am thinking this is pretty much the one. Unless it comes in much higher than I am expecting, in which case I will be changing alot to try to lower the square footage.....

But, if I go with this size, I am liking this.

Just a few things that I can see I need to change. She increased the front door, so I think the window upstairs over the door should be larger?

The front entry porch is more what I had in mind, but I think it needs more arch. I have a couple of pictures in mind for that.

The window on the right, should be a double, dont you think? To match the rest.

I can't decide if I should keep the dormer on the far left or not, over the garage.

I was kind of thinking the bottom of the columns would be in stone, but that is when I was thinking stone up to the bottom of the window sill. If it is full stone, probably should keep them full columns. So I will need to decide that.

And stone across the bottom of the porch and steps too probably.

Okay the inside, first floor -
I havent messed with the kitchen yet. I want to be sure of my square footage before I go into too much detail with the kitchen and the masterbath. I know I will need a tub in the master.

I might make steps to the basement under the back stairs. If I do, probably add a window too.

Probably wont have a fireplace. That is the best wall for a TV and we are bit movie watchers. This floor is for my husband and me. I have seen the tv's above the fireplace, but looks like a crook in the neck to me.

Maybe a door that I can close from the mudroom/dump room, into the dining area.

I like everything else about the first floor.

I am hoping that from the entry, you will be able to see the pretty stairs, a pretty balcony above, and see through out to the back of the house where the new pond will be. I wanted one big wow. I am hoping that will do the trick.

The second floor -
Again, the kitchenette, will worry about those details when I am sure of the square footage.

The back right room that says storage, I will make a bunkroom for when grandkids come to visit, so that needs a window, so then the front bedroom will need a window to match.

The basement - Have to work on that, again once I know this is the one and I dont have to shrink it, I will work out the basement.

So...........whatchathink? Yes please be honest, nevermind the fact that I do LOVE it and you might crush my heart into a million pieces.... haha. No really, if you guys see something I am missing that wont work, or might work better, please do tell me.

I am kind of thinking the stone, and a pale yellow siding, and dark cranberry door? or at least the shutters, etc. maybe dark gray metal roof? I have found a reasonable door that is very pretty, that is white. My barns are barn red with white trim, and they won't be just all that close together, so I thought a dark cranberry type color might help to kind of tie the house and the barns together.

Thanks for any input!

Here is a link that might be useful: Revised Floor Plan

gopintos - the revision looks great! sounds like you're getting to where you want to be. as far as going "bass ackwards," you are doing things like we did -- we got the design first, then did a little research on costs, then interviewed builders and got line-item quotes from them. In our case the unexpected size (3500, we planned on 3000) made things more costly than we had planned, but we stuck with the design and are getting ready to break ground any day now! It will all work out -- it can be so painful at times though!

oh thank you... and best of luck!! Do update us often :-)

Oh, and I keep calling my barns, barn red, and they aren't. They are more of a maroon color, thus the "dark cranberry" I was hoping to use to tie them together. That sounds more hip & designer than maroon :-)