For anyone who might be vaguely interested, here are the links to the threads that got us to this point.

Please Critique Our House Plan-4/16/15

Almost Final Plans-5/2/15

Which of These Looks More Craftsman-5/27/15

Redone Plans Because of Zoning Board-6/15/15

Moving the W/D Out of the Foyer-6/21/15

These Are My Plans Finally-8/14/15

Trying to Rework My Master Suite-9/17/15

Rethinking My Upstairs-10/14/15

If anyone is interested, tomorrow I can post one of the very first plans that our draftsman gave us.

Thank you for posting and collecting up the prior links. It is great to learn from other experiences and to see the process unfold. Every house plan is a personalized set of requirements and choices.

I had a few questions just to learn. I know you thought through this in great detail, so you have your reasons.

- You have an elevator, but there are steps in from the garage and from the porch. The master bed room hallway and the cut in from the garage door also seems tight for a wheelchair or walker. Is the elevator there jut to make it a bit easier (I imagine that adding/maintaining a home elevator is a significant expense).

- It seems like a long haul down the hall to the master closet then back to the master bath. The shape (long narrow) that you are fitting the "master wing" into may be the culprit as there might have been no other better design choice.

- I am guessing you are not planning much traffic to/from the garage much with the small hall / competing doors (door to garage, door to closet). It would seem that not too many people could get through at once (or would not have a usual need to access the closet at the same time.

- You have full windows in the master bath and show (and these are on the front of the house. Are you thinking of using some sort of glass covering as to avoid needing to have blinds/curtains (gain the light without the challenge of something inside of the bathroom).

Thank you for any insights you can share!

Congrats, looks like you put a ton of work into this! Very nice exterior balance.

Is your community demographic mainly baby boomers/retirees?

Thank you adkbml. Great questions!

- You have an elevator, but there are steps in from the garage and from the porch.

I'm in SW FL in a 100 year flood zone so every foot that is elevated lowers our homeowners and flood insurance cost. We have a friend who is in a wheelchair now and discussed it with her. For now we'll get a removable ramp from the front side steps, but if one of us ever needs a ramp, we'll add it to the side front steps.

The master bed room hallway and the cut in from the garage door also seems tight for a wheelchair or walker.

All interior doors are 32" wide which is ADA compliant and all exterior doors are 36" wide. Oh and all hallways are a minimum of 42" wide and some are wider.

Is the elevator there jut to make it a bit easier (I imagine that adding/maintaining a home elevator is a significant expense).

The elevator is there for possible future problems getting upstairs but the main reason is the average age of the people in our neighborhood is retired. Because of the demographics here and the fact I had to build up because of zoning, we decided to add the elevator also in case we ever wanted to sell. Originally we were just going to block it in, but when we did the math adding it now makes more sense.

- It seems like a long haul down the hall to the master closet then back to the master bath.

The master closet is my closet only. DH's is right across from the bath. I tend to dress in the closet now and don't go back and forth.

- I am guessing you are not planning much traffic to/from the garage much with the small hall / competing doors (door to garage, door to closet). It would seem that not too many people could get through at once (or would not have a usual need to access the closet at the same time.

It is just DH, our dog and myself the majority of the time. We don't have a huge need for coats being in FL. Most of the time the one or two coats will be hung on hooks on the side of the closet there along with DD's leash.

- You have full windows in the master bath and show (and these are on the front of the house. Are you thinking of using some sort of glass covering as to avoid needing to have blinds/curtains (gain the light without the challenge of something inside of the bathroom).

Absolutely! The small square windows in the master bedroom and the closet will actually be stained glass windows. I'm still debating whether the bottom half of the full window in the bathroom should be stained glass or will just be the old fashioned "bubble" glass. I'll most likely put a shade on too.

Thanks whaas_5a.

Congrats, looks like you put a ton of work into this! Very nice exterior balance.

Is your community demographic mainly baby boomers/retirees?

Absolutely. In fact where we are building, the builder is putting 19 homes in one of the last remaining open plots downtown. (And one of the most desirable areas too!) I had asked his sales rep about who's buying the lots and who's been looking. Mainly singles and couples from their early 50's-late 60's/early 70's.

LOL jannicone.

I just like the fact that the large closet is called HERS, and I can't find a HIS. LOL

His is the closet opposite the bathroom. His dresser will be in our bedroom. Hey I think I was quite generous. I gave him 6' of hanging space

Cpartist, I'd love to see the first draft side by side compared to the final draft. For comparison's sake!

Another comment - I love the sense of scale for the front. I will be "fun" for someone to walk into your house thinking they "know" what it is, how large it is, etc and have the house expand out in front of them. I love the relation to the pool area and how the house wraps around itself. Congrats.

Another comment - I love the sense of scale for the front. I will be "fun" for someone to walk into your house thinking they "know" what it is, how large it is, etc and have the house expand out in front of them. I love the relation to the pool area and how the house wraps around itself. Congrats.

Thank you. It's funny but when we originally had the front of the house on the same street as the garage, it missed that idea of expanding and opening out. So the zoning board giving me a hard time about that turned it into a positive.

I knew from the start I wanted the house to create a more private courtyard area which is why we picked the corner property.

cpartist, Thanks for posting this here. Looks like a great plan, and I love the elevations. How long would you say the process was for you to get your plan fine-tuned to its final form? It looks like a lot of thought went into it. I look forward to looking at the other links provided here to get an idea of the process. Wish I had time to do so right now!

Also, I have always loved a U-shaped main floor, but never fully pulled it off with any of our ideas. Yours is wonderful.

Very nice!

Cpartist, I'd love to see the first draft side by side compared to the final draft. For comparison's sake!

When I sat down with the builder and the draftsman the first time, I didn't bring my sketched out ideas because I wanted to see what he came up with. At that time I was under the illusion he was a "designer" and knew what he was doing. I explained I wanted all rooms to open to the courtyard but the rooms that were most important to open to the back were the master bedroom, DH's study and the living room. I said I want a large living room as we hope to entertain.

I said I absolutely do not want to waste space on a laundry room or pantry. (I cook only a couple of times a week and since we're walking distance to town, I'd rather walk into town and buy food fresh)

That's not what I got back. The living room was towards the front of the house (and the size of a den) where my foyer is now, and the draftsman put the dining room dead center in the house with the best view out the back. And he made the dining room huge. And he added a laundry room and pantry.

So I gave him this rough rendering of my idea. (At that time we thought we had to have the entrance to the house on D street. Later on we found out we could move it to B street but then later on we found out the setback for the garage made it not work on B street so after several months of designing it to be on B street, we revised and went back to it being on D Street.)

I mentioned to the "designer" (really just a draftsman) that I was not wedded to this layout but was only showing it to give an idea of how the house might lay out in terms of wrapping around the outdoors. So I got back this:

Very nice cpartist! This is a well designed home.

I recall you posting a rendering you did of craftsman colonnades that will divide the kitchen and living area. Would you be willing to post that again? I remember thinking it was lovely.

Also, what are the elevator dimensions?

Here was the first elevation sent to me from our draftsman. I had told him I wanted a craftsman style house and this is what he came up with. This is what is now my left elevation.

This elevation below is what is now my front, but was at the time the side elevation. Either way, it was just bad.

Thank you sail_away.

cpartist, Thanks for posting this here. Looks like a great plan, and I love the elevations. How long would you say the process was for you to get your plan fine-tuned to its final form?

We gave a deposit the beginning of March 2015, I believe. We received our first floor plan 3/20/15 and the second one about 5 days later. We were still fine tuning this past December when I finally was able to say with confidence that it was fine.

It took longer than usual because I'd send the draftsman my changes drawn out and he'd come back with something of his own doing. For example, once I enclosed the loft area and turned it into my guest bedroom, I drew three windows for the front guest bedroom.

The draftsman drew two windows twice as long as what I had drawn. When I questioned the builder, he said the draftsman said that because I had turned the area into a bedroom it needed an egress window. Well the draftsman had the closet going across the whole back wall in the guest bedroom.

I took one look and said, why not cut the dang closet in half and put the egress on the side there? And I said put my front windows back the way I had drawn them. And that's what they did! However every single change was like that.

Also, I have always loved a U-shaped main floor, but never fully pulled it off with any of our ideas. Yours is wonderful.

Thank you.

Thank you ILoveRed.

Thank you wifemothergoddess. BTW: Love your name.

Very nice cpartist! This is a well designed home.

I recall you posting a rendering you did of craftsman colonnades that will divide the kitchen and living area. Would you be willing to post that again? I remember thinking it was lovely.

Here it is. The posts will actually repeat the look of the columns on the front porch.

Interior dimensions of the elevator are 4'3"w x 5'd

Thank you for replying cpartist. This feature will be beautiful. I'm looking forward to following your build!

Thank you. Still working out some other interior details such as the paneling going up the stairs and finalizing my fireplace wall and my bedroom wall.

Looking good!

Thanks hendricksfamily. We're getting there. Honestly, I can't believe we started almost a year ago. When we first started talking to the builder, we all figured we'd be starting to build the end of September 2015 at the latest.

So is your house done or are you still building ?

No we are currently in permitting and we may be making another small change. I'll know hopefully tomorrow. However we have all our pricing.

Notice we built this house for the two of us (well the two of us and the dog). This house will be built for how the two of us live and it was designed for how the two of us live.

Posting this link just because I want to make sure there is one thread with all links for future reference.

[More changes to the house because of a bigger lot 3/5/16[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/the-continuing-saga-of-cpartists-house-dsvw-vd~3735050)