bruuunooo, Here are images for the plan you reference

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This looks like it already has 2x6 framing on the exterior walls. Notice on the second floor how the exterior walls appear "thicker" than the interior 2x4 walls. You would need to confirm this with the supplier though.

Making the second floor bath into a hall entry shouldn't be too difficult as long as you are willing to give up one of the small linen closets or relocate it to where the entry from the right bedroom is.

In general, I would say that you might want to run the kitchen by the kitchen forum. I think, in particular, the placement of the fridge might be uncomfortable with no landing space on either side and the breakfast area looks really tight to me, even with benches. I also see a lot of potential for banging doors in the back hall between the powder room and pantry.

I like the little office tucked in the rear of the house. I'd love to work there and look over the wetlands!

You might want to look at changing the closet door which opens into the living room. If that is to be used for coats, I'd have it open into the foyer instead, maybe.

I'm sure other's will have a lot of more useful comments! GL! Jaymie

I like this plan a lot. I agree with Jaymie's suggestion about the closet.

I don't like the kitchen the way it is shown, but there is plenty of space there to work with.

I really like the look of the house too. I see on the site that it says exterior framing is 2x4. I think that a stucco exterior would look good as well, I wouldn't know if it would save you money though. If I were building a bigger house, this would be a very tempting option.

I actually like the kitchen they picture but I would definitely run it by the kitchen forum.

Many thanks for the images, Jaymie. That is what I wanted to do. Did you use Photobucket?

Jaymie, solie, and che1sea, we will run the kitchen by the kitchen forum next. I know the experts there could make sure we end up with a great kitchen and no regrets.

This may be a silly question, but what is that black area to the left of the refrigerator? My husband jokes that it is the nuclear reactor that fuels the house.

Thanks again!

I see little doors opening so I am guessing cabinets. Maybe a pantry cabinet.

bruuunooo, NP on the pictures. I actually inlined them directly from the SL site. I just right clicked on the image and selected "Copy Image Location" and then used that address in the following html code in the post.

So, in the case of the image with your elevation {{gwi:1502607}}

I realy love the rendering! Northern European. The shed roof and rustic walls. The vertical design. Can easily see this in WI. A WINNER!

The back hall/kitchen/eating area need some work, but the elements are all there. (Fridge needs to be nearer eating area; most-visited appliance in the kitchen.) Back porch will be more useful if it's at least ten feet deep; twelve is better yet. Will you screen this? It's facing East, right?

DR is too small, given that some of it is walk-through.

There's a certain 'tightness' in the foyer, stairs, powder room (down) and laundry room (up). How important to you is the open-to-the-second-floor foyer? Would reversing the stairs help?

I'd like the laundry room to have some natural light. Could laundry and a hall bath both go on the front and stretch the bedrooms a bit?

In M-bath I'd prefer the toilet room on an outside wall with a window. I never like the walk-through bathroom (to access closet). Closets don't need windows anyway.

Is there room to put a closet or a pair of closets *between* the MBR and its bath? I'm not talking about walking through hanging clothes; there would be a hallway connecting MBR and bath. The bath could then have more wndows. What's the distance from the front of the house to the interior BR wall (W to E)?

It might save some to move the fireplace/HVAC off the outside LR wall to the interior wall. You'd have more passive heat radiating from a furnace under the house.

Lots of good suggestions from chisue, but I disagree about the WIC window. I LOVE having a small window for natural light in our WIC. Also, ours is opposite the closet door, so when you walk in, there's a beautiful view straight ahead.

Anne

Thanks for the constructive feedback and the positive comments as well. We find this plan very appealing and I think we will order the planning set so we have more specifics. We'll go over your suggestions again with the more detailed plans. Please keep your ideas coming!

We are wondering about reversing the plan in order to get the kitchen windows in the southern sun. I (Elizabeth) spend more time in the kitchen than anywhere else. One disadvantage of a reverse would be the garage blocking the southern sun and making it difficult to plant full-sun flowers in front. Do you see any other factors in this decision?

What would you think about an open (no door, Butler's type) pantry with a small window?

By the way, it looks like the second floor plan is missing. I'll use Jaymie's directions and see if I can post it at the bottom of this message. Thanks again, Jaymie.

http://images.homeplans.com/plan/WWW_F2V_GIF/22125.GIF

I'll give the second floor image another try...

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1502609}}

Het bruuunooo, Before you order, you might want to call SL and ask some questions. When I didn't that, our architectural firm sent me more detailed plans in PDF form. They were very useful for making a decision. We eventually bought the plans, but it was the additional details that sold us. Jaymie

Parts of this plan look nice to me, but I cannot get past the front foyer. The entry hall looks to be very narrow (just barely wider than the front door). On top of that, it's a 2-story foyer open to the second floor. You may be ok with that, but I would hate it.

Also, the middle of the stairway has an open area, and if you look at the second floor plan, the text says "open to basement". I certainly wouldn't build it out where there is an open shaft running from the basement all the way to the the top floor. It looks like it's purposely placed to allow an optional (future) elevator, and that's fine, but I would have flooring built at least on the ground floor so the shaft wouldn't be open to the basement. The flooring could be removed later if an elevator is needed. I might even elect to have the shaft drywalled in completely.

I love the exterior of the plan and many many things about the interior. But I do see some potential issues with building it "as is".

First the stairwell. On the first floor level, notice that both ends of the staircase say "up". Based on the staircase shown on the basement level drawing, I THINK the "up" nearest the kitchen is supposed to say "down" to the basement. However, if you look where the staircase ends in the basement, you'll see that there is no room for a lower landing. You would basically step off the bottom step smack dab into a wall that is about 12 inches away. That is going to have to be fixed.

I'm also not totally into the idea of an open "well" running from basement to second floor... especially in Wisconsin. Much of your heat will sink into your basement making it harder to keep the bedrooms reasonably comfortable. I do think however that keeping the space available for a future elevator is a great idea. You never know when someone in your family might become wheel-chair bound. Without an elevator, 2/3 of your home - and all of the bedrooms and tubs/showers - would instantly become inaccessible. Plus, with a U shaped staircase, it would probably cost you more to put in a chair lift alongside the staircase than an elevator. And, an elevator would both look nicer AND be more useful.

Perhaps as chapnc says, you could close the "well" between the basement and first floor and tuck a desk or something in there for now. Know however that if you ever do build an elevator, it will block much of the light from those front windows from reaching the rest of the house.

Next, the kitchen. I love the idea of all the windows but wonder if you've considered whether you will have enough "above the waist" storage space. I don't see ANY upper cabinets nor any spot to hang some open shelves...unless that dotted line along one edge of the island indicated upper cabinets? (It isn't clear whether that means upper cabinets or a raised bar section). Really think about whether you would want to have to bend down and pull drinking glasses and cups and spices and cereal boxes and cookies and all the other stuff that typically gets stored in upper cabinets out of you lower cabinets instead.

I love the idea of a built-in booth breakfast nook. (I'm actually putting one in my own house b/c DH and I always choose a booth when we eat out so I figured we might as well have one at home!) But I'm not sure if the one on your plan is wide enough so that you won't be stepping on the toes of the person sitting across from you. Based on a comparison with the stairs - which have to be at least 3' wide - the booth is only 5 foot wide at most. I picture fights breaking out among the kids over who stepped on who's toe or which one kicked the other. :-(

I also agree that you need some countertop beside the refrigerator as a staging area - even if it is only 16 inches wide. When you need to pull a gallon of milk out to reach behind it for something else, it is nice to have someplace handy to set the milk jug down temporarily while you get whatever else you needed out.

Next, I don't think there is nearly enough closet space for the master bedroom. For resale value in a house this size, I would expect his and hers closets or at least a 7x10 closet so that each partner would have 10 ft of wall space in their closet.

I agree that opening the secondary bath to the hallway is a good idea. J&J baths can be a pain in the neck with kids locking one another out.

My last thought is that, building in Wisconsin, a plan that had a lot more windows on the south side would let you take better advantage of the sun. But I can understand wanting to orient toward your best views on the east. Still, it is something to think about.

I do think most of the issues I see with this plan could be resolved without changing the exterior... at least not much. Will try to post some drawings later but have to go fix lunch for DH now!

Thanks for more to think about. We really appreciate this larger perspective.

Chapnc, it never occurred to us that the open space in the stairwell could be used for an elevator. Great point. I assumed it was open to bounce more light up/down the stairs from those windows. We'd also like the walk-out basement to feel like part of the main living area, but didn't think about heat loss in the stairwell, bevangel.

The storage issues in the kitchen and size of the master closet are also good points. Thank you for taking the time to write out your thoughts, bevangel. Your ideas are always very helpful. We look forward to more from you and everyone else with building insights.

check out the house plans of Don Gardner; I love his house plans and my husband is a residential architect (we designed our previous house); this 104 acre property we bought 3 years ago is one of his house plans (with some owner modifications; removing some dining room walls) and totally love the design

Bevangel--thanks so much for your time and ideas. We were looking forward to your post.

You've made the kitchen feel larger and made the pantry more convenient. We also like the way you created more useful space by changing the stairs. A reading alcove upstairs is wonderful. The foyer, stairs, and west windows are still hard for me (Liz) to visualize so we will mock up the plan on BH&G and check out the original plan and your changes.

The idea of a Christmas tree near the stairs is so appealing...my favorite holiday. Every Christmas, I wish for a home with a nice Christmas tree area that can be seen from outside. Better than flinging lights on a bush outside when it is 20 below!

A laundry room with a window and exterior venting is also an improvement. We like the way you moved the kids' bath so we can create more master closet and more privacy.

I'm still not sure if we should reverse the plan. Reversing would bring more light into the kitchen (where we spend lots of time). It seems like it would also bring some morning light into part of the living room from the east windows. I've been driving by the land and I notice that the sun moves over the property at the southern edge, east to west. The sun is very low in the sky this time of year and it will sink further until January. Sigh.

Thank you so much for your help. You have definitely improved our future build.

Watching the way the sun moves across your land is smart! However, if you're talking about left-right reversing the plan, I'd strongly recommend against doing that.

As I understood it, the front of your house will face west with the garage and kitchen on the north side and the living room and master bedroom on the south. Left-right reversing the house would leave the front facing west but would move the garage and kitchen to the south side and the living room to the north side.

With a reversed orientation, instead of getting afternoon sunlight (which comes from the WSW) on your porch and front windows, the afternoon sun would basically hit the corner of the garage (on the garage door side) so that the garage itself would cast a huge shadow over the front porch and the banks of front windows. This would reduce the amount of afternoon sunlight you would. The shadow would be worst in the winter when you would want the most sunlight to reach the porch and windows.

Further, in the winter time having the garage on the north side will serve to block cold north winds from blowing across your front porch. Also, if you build with a light colored stone, the afternoon sunlight that hits the garage should be reflected toward the porch. All good things in Wisconsin.

If I were building this house in central Texas, I'd definitely reorient it. But I think you've already got it turned the right way for Wisconsin.

Bevangel--you have the orientation right and you make some very good points about the front porch and front windows. Why blow a chunk of the budget on those windows and then block the light with the garage?

You are also right about the cold north wind. In my opinion, the wind is cold every month except July and August. I wonder about reversing just the garage doors to create a courtyard drive. The garage would need to project out more (but that might create some garage storage for bikes etc). We would have a more sheltered, sunny area for the kids to ride bikes and use chalk on the driveway.

Of course kids grow up, stop riding bikes near the house, and fill the driveway with old beater cars. Another blow to aesthetics, I suppose.

Aesthetically, I think flipping the garage doors and creating a courtyard drive would change the "feel" of the plan although it would help to keep cold wind from blowing into your garage every time the garage doors were opened.

I don't know. I think it's a judgment call. I wouldn't make the switch JUST to provide the kids a more sheltered area for riding bikes and chalking the driveway tho. Past the tricycle stage, they're gonna want to ride a bit further than your driveway anyway. LOL!

Me? I'd probably leave the garage doors where they are and finish out the bonus room enough so that the little ones could ride trikes and play up there on cold or rainy days. Plywood flooring, sheet-rocked walls (wouldn't even need to be taped and floated), a couple of overhead lights, and a couple of dormer windows on the south side to bring in more daylight and - voila - you've got a huge indoor playroom where the kids can ride tricycles, build forts, even fingerpaint the walls and draw on the floors if they want. Puts me in mind of playing in my grampa's barn when I was a kid. And you don't even have to call them in at dusk! Then, when the children get a little older and the budget allows, put down nicer flooring, tape, float, and paint the walls and the playroom grows up with them.

I do think pulling the garage forward about 4 to 6 ft to enlarge the mudroom entry area would be a great idea! It would be very cheap space to add and would allow you to create a storage area plus, if you wanted, you could stick in a side door opening to the front porch.

And, speaking of porches, pulling the garage forward would also allow you to go ahead and make your front porch a little bit deeper as suggested by another poster. I could be wrong but I think the 8' depth shown on the plan includes the steps up - which means the flat portion is really only about 6' deep. Adding 2 or 3 more feet would make it deep enough to be a real "outdoor living area" as opposed to being just a place guests walk thru on their way to the front door. Just don't widen the porch so much that the porch roof winds up totally shading your front windows.

As you all know, I haven't seen the back hall that was TOO BIG. LOL

I'd leave the depth of the front porch alone, but do add a door from it into the back hall. I like the 'spare' look of the shed dormer and the windows there. It's the BACK porch I'd make deeper. We live on our east-facing porch all summer. (Actually it is SE, but there's a huge sycamore on the south side -- a messy tree, but huge leaves and deep shade.)

I'm torn about reversing the garage doors. If you do, you'll definitely want to create more distance between them and the house. I don't know if it would look odd here, but our garage and back hall are at a 120-degree angle from the main part of the house. It is convenient to access everything IN the garage from the front of the house. It would probably also save you some paving. We have 'driveway' in a 'T' from the street right up to the garage and front garden beds and stoop. There's no additional 'front walk'. (Consider need for a back-out and reverse.)