I like the front elevation. The main part of the house satisfies my clinical need for symmetry. I also like the dormer wings. Is that a Don Gardner plan?

I like the idea of pasture in front and hay in the back. Maybe you should post the floorplan for comments?

I like the look alot! You might also check out the Cedar Ridge by Don Gardner. The photos of the real life house show that it overlooks a farm- it looks so relaxing!

First floor:

Second floor:

Rear:

Well, no boys or cattle here, but we have horses, pasture, hay fields and lots of visiting nieces and nephews, on 80 acres. How far are you from the store? What kind of winters do you have?

It's a very nice plan, but I'd want a mudroom, with lots of storage for work boots and coats, as well as everyday boots, shoes and coats. Also, a MUCH bigger pantry, with lots of storage for not only food, but paper products, household cleaners, etc. Do you can, freeze, have a garden? Might need some space for that, too :)

Are you planning on having the daylight basement, in the photo? Maybe the mudroom and extra storage would work down there, although you may need to relocate the coat closet...unless you're putting the basement stairs off the laundry area and relocating that to the basement, as well.

Also, while those are lovely porches, you might want to think about screening one of the porches in, depending on how many bugs you have, in the summer. Do you get a lot of wildlife on your porch? We do, so screens (heavy duty screens) will help there, too.

It's a beautiful home and I think it will look good in your surroundings. Lots of nice views and good light, with all the windows. Best of luck with your new home! :)

Thanks! We are planning on having the daylight basement. I agree w/ the pantry, mudroom, etc. The property is 20 min from the grocery store. Yes, I plan on canning. We want the back porch to be screened in. We want to extend the garage another 4-5 feet. We may be able to rearrange some things to add for mud room, bigger pantry. I also thought that the stairs beside the laundry could be taken out and used for the pantry. Don't really need both sets of stairs.

Very pretty! I'm only seeing the first floor plan, so...

Like all Betz and Gardner designs, the rooms are too tight for me. The layout seems fine, but it's not very roomy.

Your property is one place this pretty FRONT porch is more than just decorative 'icing' on the house!

Having 'back stairs' looks affected when the two staircases are this close -- and there is no 'staff' to use them. I agree about skipping that. Who wants to clean two staircases anyway? lol

Do you want a double-height great room with a 'balcony'? Many people dislike the way noise carries up and down stairs, and it's difficult to regulate the HVAC. People aren't always comfortable being 'looked down upon' either.

Yes, you need much more 'back hall' space. My 'pantry' is part of an oversize closet with double doors in my back hall, right off the kitchen.

You need a deeper (screened) back porch if you plan to eat out there. I would not have MBR access to/from the porch. I'd either skip the portion to the right of the breakfast room or enlarge it. (Odd to be squeezing past the bump-out.) You do need to be able to get out to the porch from the kitchen area.

It doesn't look like the windowed area of the breakfast room is large enough; the 13 X 13 is the whole square. A 12 X 12 is a nice breakfast area.

I'd be unhappy bouncing around the master suite between MBR, closets and bath -- especially the smaller closet. Our plan might work here: A rectangle suite with BR at one end, then a pair of closets flanking a short hallway, with the bath at the other end. I can't see how the master suite is screened from the great room.

I think you are on a much better track here!

We like the loft and high ceilings. We are building in the Ohio Valley. Our home will be in full shade appx 5pm daily. It stays pretty cool at night. My father in law has a 2 story farm house w/ no AC that is 1/4 mile from us and his is not in full shade by 5pm. I will have a/c in my house, but it lets you know that it's not too bad out there. I def would take out the bump in the breakfast nook. Don't know why it is there. We could prob rearrange the closets/bth w/ the master. I love that the master is on the back side of the house. This will overlook our hay field. I don't think that we will keep the door from the bdrm to the porch. The breakfast nook has a door to the porch as does the 2 doors in the family room. The lvg rm on this plan is possibly going to be my husbands office. Also the bonus room on the 2nd floor will be our Tv/movie/game room. We have big family gatherings and I want my Tv out of the way.

Now I can see the second floor and rear elevation. I really like everything you plan here except the size of the rooms. I'd want to just balloon the whole plan a little.

Would you be OK without the small formal DR? It's not big enough to seat many people as it stands. Would you like a larger, front-view kitchen with a larger eating area behind it at the rear of the house?

I'd reverse the closet and bathroom in the left front BR upstairs if the bath could then have a small window.

You mention TV in the loft, but...remember you'll have all that great room in the daylight basement too!

Do you have an architect or draftsman who can take this plan and alter it with your improvements? Then a builder can bid on it!

there is a plan just like this one on www.greystonecountryhomes.com The Wilmington I. The problem is the only build in Cinn.,OH. It is laid out more what we like. The upstairs in this plan has the third bdrm, the wilmington only has 2 bdrms upstairs. This plan has the bdrm the way we want it, but not the closets or bathrm. The kitchen is better in the wilmington. (the wilmington is 300sf more than this plan). My husband likes having a formal dining, but I like your idea of moving the kitchen to the front and having a big dining area overlooking the hay field. So glad I found this site. I want to make sure we are happy w/ what we build.

I think you can tweak the Gardner to please you. You don't have to build from one plan or with one builder. Show an architect or draftsman the plans you like as a starting point, and ask him to incorporate your desires in drawings you will put out to bid. Do you have to get building permits from a town, township or county?

The Wilmington has its' faults too -- like no powder room near the family entrance. I like its' master suite better; just flip it if you want the MBR to the rear.

I'm delighted to have my kitchen sink with a big window looking out to the front of our house. I can see who's coming up the driveway!

Do you *often* entertain a large number of people *at formal dinners*? Figure how much space you'll need to seat your parties. Will you have a buffet in the room too? Every chair needs two feet of 'push-back' space. Our DR is 12 X 15 and seats eight to ten -- no more. Building costs in our area are about $250/sq ft. My seldom-used DR = $45,000.

If you have plenty of room around the family dining area you can expand the table or add more tables in the area when you entertain. Guests are happy to all be in one area together. I think this might develop as the 'heart' of your home -- the family dining table also being used for studying or 'projects'. In some plans this is called a 'keeping room'.

I'm very leary of your plan for TV on the balcony/loft due to the noise migration. Good for internet and studying -- not so great for anything that generates noise if you want any peace in the rooms below.

Don't mean to be a broken record here, but seriously check out the first floor of the Cedar Ridge. It has your large mudroom/pantry areas, the study for your hubby's office, large kitchen and lots of porches for your beautiful view. You could add a second floor for the rest of the bedrooms and flip the master bedroom around so you can see out the windows of your bedroom if you don't want to sit on the screened in porch. You could easily make the outside facade match the one you have pictured above. It's all just a thought! ;) My hubby and I wanted to build this plan, but it's just too big for us.

Good luck!

Thanks. The Tv in the bonus room would be over the garage. So I'm not worried about noise below. What do most architect or draftsman cost? I have only checked w/ 1 so far and he is at $1.25 sf including all areas under roof, even porches. For this house that runs really high.
We will look at this other plan again, but really like the Wilmington. Just need to tweak some things. Like extend the area by laundry to make it a 2 car garage instead of 3. Adding a larger pantry, mudroom, laundry, etc. Still working on ideas. It will all come together.

@ kelhuck--Cedar Ridge is very nice, but not much in the way of bedrooms for the amount of sf.
@ chisue-- I'm glad our cost per sf are not that high. I wouldn't be building this type of home if it was. We plan on doing a lot of the work ourselves. My husband, father and father in law have a lot of experience.

The Wilmington living room overview

Living room

@kramerkel- I'm getting the feeling we may be neighbors.....are you in a county that features Pirates, Chargers and Cougars as mascots? :) I grew up there and am now a county to the west. Want to protect your privacy, but I can't resist the urge to find out how close we are! Didn't see an email address on your profile, otherwise I would have msg'd you privately. Sorry if this freaks you out....if so, just ignore me! ;)

I would make the utility room the pantry and leave the door there so you can come right in from the garage and drop off groceries, and then also put a door in from the kitchen so it is a walk-in pantry w/ access from both the kitchen and the area by the back garage. That's what we did and everyone who comes into the (under construction) house comments that it is a super convenient feature. Then, I'd make the area where the back staircase is into a mud room and make it bigger so there's a door into it from the garage. If it were me, I would also make the utility room just a mud room and I would put a small laundry upstairs in that area where the stairs used to be because I like upstairs laundry rooms when that is where most of the bedrooms are. We did that and then put a closet washer/dryer stacked in what was originally our master linen closet so the laundry room(s) are where the laundry is generated.

@kelhuck -- we are in Buckeye nation. A little southeast from Columbus, Ohio. Where are you from?
scrapindivas@yahoo.com

@beaglesdoitbetter --thanks for your input. I'll check it out. Some good ideas. I like the main floor laundry, but maybe put in a chute from upstairs.

If you plan to use the larger more formal trim over the windows (as shown in the photo), you should make the vents at the peak of the twin gables round (like the first version of this house that you posted) or delete them. Also, if you use more formal window trim, the twin gable cornice returns should also be more formal/historically accurate instead of modern "mini pent-roofs".

It's important to decide which way you want to take the design: toward modern vernacular or more formal/historically accurate. Whatever you like you should try to be consistent which is difficult in this age of casual eclecticism.

I would not use brick on the lower elements unless it was also used on the sides and/or lower walls of the main house.

Gee, those photos make me think this house is in Texas, not Ohio. To each his own, but this is too 'stage set' for me -- and we have three archtop windows (and entry and garage doors).

I like windows in the great room, but yes too much ---Just giving the idea of how big it would be. This is the model home of the house we are looking at.

I like windows in the great room, but yes too much ---Just giving the idea of how big it would be. This is the model home of the house we are looking at.

Ok, we're not close. There's a bunch of Kramers near me (S Ind) who are farmers and carpenters. Thought for sure you were one of them! ;)

Nope.
So what does everyone think of this plan??

Nope. lol

No powder room near the family (garage) entry.

Daily traffic always doing an 'end run' around the DR.

HUGE Foyer.

Dark, interior kitchen.

Round-about to master closet.

Dinky front porch.

(I could go on, but I won't.)

We are in a similar situation with our property. We've got cattle and horses. The things I required from our house plan were the following. 1) A mudroom with a door to the outside (not through the garage) so we could easily enter when we are filthy from doctoring animals and such. 2) Laundry facilities in the mud room so we could easily wash dirty clothes and a bathroom with a shower attached to the mudroom. 3) A large enough pantry and kitchen that we wouldn't have to go to town frequently for supplies. 4) A spot for a chest freezer so we could have a spot to store meat and such. We ended up putting it in the garage in an alcove. And, 5) the master bedroom is on the bottom floor so that if we get hurt (and grow older) we don't have to climb stairs.

We ended up building a two story farmhouse style with a large wrap around porch on the backside and another porch on the front side.

Borderline McMansion

How about this plan? Very similar to your original plan's facade (also Donald Gardner) but nicer pantry area. Check out the basement plan to see the coat closet moved for the basement stairs.

Here's a link...and the porches could be larger and/or screened, as you described above. Also, easy enough to put a bay window in the dining room. What do you think? :)

Here is a link that might be useful: The Hartswick House

We actually have looked at the Hartswick House. We think we are going to downsize a little and go w/ the Southerland. Same style but a little smaller. We will be adding a mud room and pantry to this plan though.