Opinions please- Hemlock Springs house plan

13 years ago

I think I've finally found a good side to my current house not selling...having the time to browse the internet, which resulted in finding this little gem which just may be "IT"!

I'm curious to see your opinions- any glaring issues that I'm overlooking? I want to put one more bedroom and a full guest bath on the first floor- will probably slide them in between the master and living rooms.

Will rework the kitchen to make it more traditional- don't need or want that huge window/door or breakfast station, and will extend the island back to the sink.

The only thing I see "wrong" is the lack of a powder room by the breezeway entrance, and I think I can live with that.

Having pictures of an actual house helps! :) (Although I really dislike the overly decorated rooms.)

LOVE the retreat room upstairs! I'd love to keep all the porches, but they're a little excessive- probably will delete 50% of them.

Anything I'm missing? What do you think of this plan?

(And just in case someone is interested, there's a smaller version of this plan called the Douglas Pointe on Stephen Fuller's website.)

Here is a link that might be useful: Pictures of Hemlock Springs

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virgilcarter

13 years ago

This plan is one of the few house factory plans that has given thought to the design and appearance of each exterior face of the house. All sides have a pleasant variety of projecting and receeding planes, and avoid the boredom, massiveness of unbroken planar walls and the inherent large, bulky roof masses that go with such walls. If you "square-off" any of the elevations you will be losing what makes this plan special and appealing.

Builders will tell you that you will pay more for more corners. What they won't tell you is the price you will pay for a visually boring and uninspiring "box" house!

The revised kitchen with the enlarged island looks very large to me, causing a lot of walking and travel, since the kitchen "triangle" is so interrupted. I hope your feet, legs and back are such that excessive walking on hard surfaces with hot and cold items is not a problem.

Your revised garage is located too close to the house for access to one of the garage bays. Turning it the way you have means: 1) it will have to be placed further from the house than the original plan; 2) your garage doors will be a major visible element from the front of the house and be what guests and visitors see, since the doors will be so large and numerous as to catch and hold one's eye. Garage doors are always the single largest item on the elevation of any house. More so with triple garages! It will be better design to return to the original plan configuration and hide the garage doors from view from the front of the house.

Adding the bedroom and bath on the first floor results in a much longer corridor and "tunnel" from one end of the house to the other. Is this of concern?

Finally, the stair is highly decorative and will be a major visual feature when using the dining room. Does such a stair work for your style of living? It will be beautiful, but quite expensive.

Good luck with your project!

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Comments (11)

kelhuck
Original Author
13 years ago
Changes I'd like to make....

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gaonmymind
13 years ago
Have you watched the videos of it?
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kirkhall
13 years ago
What is your budget?
It seems a little too bumpy of a foundation/roofline, though that is just an observation since I am not really in the know about those sorts of things.

though, if you are missing the powder near the side entrance, it might "square up" the plan and foundation to tuck one in between kitchen and hallway--pushing kitchen back to even with the FR, for example.
kelhuck
Original Author
13 years ago
@ga- oh yes! :) Over and over! Like I said, I'm not overly fond of the decorative choices made in the model home, but I think the layout is great and would fit well with my country/rustic tendencies.

@kirkhall- I'd be curious to know if the bumps are excessive, as well. Though it looks like I could probably even most of them out without affecting the overall layout too much.

It's definitely a long "skinny" plan, but I like that because I'll have lots of light streaming thru the house throughout the day. And it would fit well with our land, sitting on a West-East axis and facing due south.
kelhuck
Original Author
13 years ago
@virgil- I appreciate your response! You've pointed out issues that I've been struggling with the last couple of days.

The longer corridor- yes, I'm not a fan of that, and I'm hesitant of what it will do visually to the exterior. I want it there for an elderly relative or handicapped friend to have a place to sleep. Perhaps I should look in to elevators, instead. Hubby and I are debating this.

You're completely right about the corners. I like the elevation and the little nooks the corners provide. We're going to keep them.

Regarding the stair- do you mean it will be expensive because of the structure itself (lack of wall support, I presume) or (assuming you looked at the pictures) were you referring to the cut-out spindles the architect designed? It's one of the first things I fell in love with, so I'm thinking it's going to have to stay as designed, but with different spindles.

The garage is actually supposed to be angled on my modified version, but I can't angle it with Paint. However, I'm definitely not a fan of garages-with-a-house-attached, so we'll be really weighing the pros and cons of the set up.

Thanks for your remarks!!
kelhuck
Original Author
13 years ago
Oh shoot- forgot the kitchen! (Really need an edit function for these posts!) If we end up with this plan, I'll have the kitchen forum help me figure out how to set it up. I don't like the range being on the wall away from everything, but I really want double ovens, so I'm not sure how to arrange everything. I do like the long island- we entertain a lot so I can see it being filled up with dishes and a long line of people filling up their plates, buffet-style. Goal #1 is a big kitchen with lots of natural light!!
Lisa Bear99
10 years ago
Kelhuck, I realize this is an old thread, but we're looking at building this house (or some iteration of it) and I am curious whether you did build it and how it went. I love the look of this house and have it in my mind that if we go forward with it, I'm going to go very simple with the interior, agreeing with comments re: the decor (too busy for my taste, stuffy)....
soundofsilence
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
Hi LisaBear99! We ended up bring relocated, so we didn't get the chance
to build. Every once in a while I get nostalgic and always come back
to this house and dream about what could have been! :) If you do end
up building it, I'd love to see how it turns out for you! Good luck!
(Edited to add: my username changed.....)
Lisa Bear99
10 years ago
Awww, thanks for the reply, Soundofsilence. I sure know how that goes, the moving..heck..the nostalgia, too! :>) I will share pics if we go that route. Thanks again
mrssparre
2 years ago
Hi LisaBear99! Even though i see your post is 7 years old, i thought i would reach out, because i am about to build this plan. Did you ever build it?