It’s been a long time since I drew on a board. I forgot how much I liked to do that. I’m not fast at this, but I managed to get a good start on a set of plans this weekend in between the Pistons and arguing on this site about stud layouts…lol.
Here’s a front elevation of a new house I’m designing for a lake lot that I’m planning on building. I’m forced to build a house on a very narrow footprint and I don’t have a lot of options. I’m trying to maximize the square footage (naturally) and still give a decent elevation.
First, let me admit that I’m no great desingner. You won’t see me drawing anything as fancy as I’ve seen in here from some of the more creative types…I’m a McMansion kind of guy, so be prepared to see another McMansion. Heck…I’ll even put vinyl on this one LOL!
Now that you understand that I know I’m not perfect, I’d like to invite y’all to help me out. I know that there’s some things on this elevation that I don’t like, but I just can’t put my finger on it, so please, give me some ideas. At this point, it’s just pencil and it erases easy.
The garage on the left was my biggest problem. It is a very narrow 20′-8″ wide garage that has to go two storys if I want to have a two bedroom house. I decided to set back the upper gable wall to break up the flat face of the two stories but I’m not sure I like the looks of that roof. And maybe the roof is too high.
Maybe the porch is too high. Maybe the porch roof is too steep and I should flatten it.
I know the door looks too skinny and I might add a sidelight, but I don’t have a lot of room.
Should I ditch the transoms and drop everything to a “normal” 6′-11″ height even though we have 9′ first floor ceilings?
I had a small round window drawn in at the upper left area but I erased it. LOL..erasing is a lot easier than tearing it out and patching the siding!
This is the drawing that I was attempting to do with Sketchup. I got too frustrated and borrowed Frank’s board and now I’ve decided that I’d like to draw some stuff. I feel a lot more intimate with the home as I create it.
Don’t be shy, my feelings won’t be hurt.
blue
Ps They are both the same picture but I tweaked one with Picaso.
Replies
like the transoms...
I agree something (pitch) is "unbalanced" with
the porch roof...
take the porch to the end (left) of the house, just shed no hip?...
could you tie the lower gable roof into the porch roof with one
steeper roof (vaulted second flr)?....
whadaiknow?.... regards
Instead of a hip on the porch, make it a shed roof 4/12, then mirror the lower windows upstairs.
Run the porch across the whole front of the house.
I only golf on days that end with a "Y".
Edited 5/22/2006 6:18 am ET by Stilletto
The single window over the garage along with the transom looks too vertical, To make the whole house seem wider, you should try to create horizontal features when you can. A double window over the garage may work better. Maybe a carriage house type garage door to pull the eye away from the roof line. And I agree with the full width porch.
Edited 5/22/2006 6:33 am ET by PearceServices
Blue,
Nice drawing! In CAD class they made us draw by hand before teaching us ACAD. I'm not a great "drawer of drawings", so CAD was great by me.
I'm curious though, what made you decided to draw a plan over finding one? My dad must read plan books like some people read the newspaper and for narrow lots he has quite a folder. If you want I can ask him which designer(s) tend to have better plans. Have you checked Mascord? We've found some very cool plans from them (then we modify because we stick the roof).
Will this be your spec house? Post lots of pics. I hope it goes well for you. What's the market like where you are at? It has stayed very steady here where we are and we have almost no inventory and a few customs lined up ahead of us, but DR Horton, Quadrant (weyrhauser) and Chaffey Homes are coming in and buiding about 500 in the next few years, so we'll see what happens.
We are working to define ourselves by custom features that the others don't (yet) offer.
Thanks everyone for the ideas/suggestions.
I really don't think I can extend the porch anymore than it is. I'm already bulging the footprint past the critical measurements needed to fit the house, a septic field, and a reserve septic field on a relatively small lake lot.
I might revisit the plot plan and see if I can cheat the drawing in some way, but it's tight. Maybe I can shrink the overall width of the house by one foot, and that might free up enough square footage to extend that porch. I don't know...I'm thinking I might be 20 square feet big now because I arbitrarily added the porch without regard to the septic area impact. I think I might already have to shrink the width half a foot to add the porch that I did.
Your suggestions have really opened up some ideas though. Thats' what I was hoping for.
I wasn't that happy with the wall over the garage and I now understand why. IAs mentioned, it is too narrow and it tends to make that area appear taller and wider than I'd like. I'm going to take that suggestion and draw in a double wide, maybe boxed.
Tim, this particular lot would not be suitable for adapting stock plans. The available space is very specific and there is only so much I can do to change it's basic shape. Most everything I do makes it smaller...too small.
I've got it drawn up as a story and a half because I'm trying to keep the left end lower to get away from that tall boxy feeling. If I can't fix this elevation, I'll re-investigate doing a full blown two story. I now think I can do this by shrinking the lower level a bit and break up the street side facade with the suggested porch.
This isn't a spec...yet. I'm probably not interested in speccing something on this particular lot because it's slightly out in the boonies and it would be a bit risky. It's risky because the selling price will be at least 100k more than anything that has sold on that lake. At this point, I'm just trying to generate a couple of floor plans and elevations to show to prospects that become interested in buying the lots.
Now I gotta figure out how to do renderings and add landscaping!
blue
I am no designer either but I agree with the consensus of running the porch roof the length....one other thing that I think would help with the window above the garage is to ditch the shutters since it is the only set of shutters on the front of the house. I would then trim all the windows on the front of the house the same with a band of approx. 3-1/2" trim around the entire window.
Good observation DoubleB.
Now I rememer my thought process: I was trying to widen the window and get some other form so I opted for the shutters and round top. Obviously there isn't room for shutters down low.
I'm going for a double wide, boxed out window, with a curved roof up top. I think that will add the variation that I was seeking while changing the feel of that garage wall.
I'm feeling like a flaky designer now....
blue
Put a sidelight on the entry.
Extend the porch to the end and add a railing.
Add a dormer.
Make all your pitches the same - at least a 6.
The transoms are nice, but are going to accentuate the narrowness of the profile.
Your right, I have to add a sidelight.
I cant extend the porch, without reshuffling the interior, which may not be possible.
I don't see a spot for a dormer. I could put a fake on one that doesn't function.
I might be able to push a reverse gable out over the picture window with a dormer up there....Yeah, that might be an idea. I'd have to tuck the door back into the house to create a porch and eliminate the porch all together.....It's worth alooksee.
I was thinking the transoms accentuate the narrowness too.
Thanks for the thoughts.
blue
Blue,
I think that one thing that is happening here is that the garage has become the focal point of the house. The fact that it is the forward-most part of the house makes it stand out. I understand that you have a tough lot to work with, so there may be no way around that.
I think another problem is the eave heights of the garage are higher than the 1 1/2 story portion of the home. To me, this makes it feel unbalanced.
Another criticism is that, other than the window over the garage, there are no second story windows on the front of the house, and the porch roof is swallowing up what little wall there was on the left.
I think you can solve that by loosing the hip on the porch (try to extend it for the length of the house) and lower the roof pitch of the porch so you show more of the second story wall on the front of the house. Then add a dormer on the left side with a gable that would help to balance out the gable over the garage. You could match the eave height of the dormer to that of the gable over the garage to help give the house some balance.
I would make the entrance wider. Add even though you may not need it per code, a porch railing may add some architectural intrest.
Hope your enjoying the drafting. It's more fun than CAD anyway IMO.
BTW, good call on carrying teh porch roof over the garage. I think that definatly helps to break up the verticlity of that box a little.
Edited 5/22/2006 5:28 pm ET by xosder11
All good suggestions xosder11.
I intentionally unbalanced the left side of the house in order to add some interest.
After all the suggestions, I realized that the steep roof on the porch is the worst thing about this elevation and I was going to make a simple change of the pitch, when I started thinking about some of the other ideas I've gleaned from the generous suggestions.
This caused me to take a hard look at the footprint to see if I can extend the porch. Low and behold, I think I can, if I chop enough footage off the left end of the house. But, I would have to extend the garage further forward to make room for a poweder room and stairs.
All this changes the basic floorplan and at this juncture I'm reworking the floor plan. I think I'm going to go to a 2 story house and ditch the story and a half idea. I'll do a quick tweak on this elevation, just to clean up the design and offer it as an option, but I think a two story will deliver the volume of square feet and now I'm comfortable that I can make the elevations work without overwhelming the lot.
YOu are right, it is fun working on the board. Slower, but funner. Maybe it's the newness, I don't know.
Stay tuned.
I tweaked your plan just a bit. How do you like it?
That looks much better, but he's gonna have to drive through his neighbors house to get in his garage
That's perfect TX Thanks!
I'm gonna have to knock down three houses on that lake and bend the new house too to fit the lake!
blue
i did you one better (i built a model of it during my lunch hour)'course it's now 6 condoslive in 1, rent out the other 5mounted on piers above parkingyou can fish off your second floor deckand any flooding . . . fugedduboutit.shoot, it's a 3-day weekend, with blue's design he'd be done building it by Sunday night.
Yeehaw...I'm gonna be rich!
I saw a special on some dutch homes. They were built in Holland on the water. They have a hydrolic concrete "hull" and float up in a flood. All utilities ties are flex and move with the structure.
what happens if it moves and no longer meets setback requirements after the waters recede? ; )
variance
They do not move (except up and down). It seems to me it is a system like a floating dock that slides up and down on vertical structural members anchored into the ground.
Sorry, I caught the tale end of the show.
Yea, I have heard about these little houses / condos that can be built during lunch. It seems the people that live in them are so small they have trouble earning a living.
The government provides assistance for the little people and their housing, so they do not pay rent or a mortgage
I think they call them "Stay Free Mini Pads"
LMAO
(whenever i'm reminded of feminine hygiene products now, i'll think of you) ;)
Edited 5/31/2006 9:36 am ET by draftguy
I like your comments and the model you built. Ohio? Fishing and flooding? Where are the condos located? Have you any pics?
draftguy? model? What do you do for a living?
Allow me to unveil a portion of my own history.
I am a custom builder / home designer. I have used Softpan CAD since 1997 for my plans. We build 3-4 large custom homes a year. We also have a division of our company that does small projects and backyard improvemets. I usually do the design work, although I am trying to train two of the lead men who handle the small projects / backyard improvements division. Softplan is like a 12 story building, and despite my tenure since 1997, I have only been to the 3rd floor.
I think xosder11 is also involved in home design.
I wanted to be an architect, but youthful non-sense prevented much sucess in college. I became a frame carpenter in 1971, and grown from there. Carpentry was a great background for design work. As I have gotten older (51) I am more excited about the designer aspects of the business that the actual building, but I still like to get out on the company tractor and skid loader and fool around both on project sites and on my property.
I bought a 100 acres and have started the development process. The land planner has completed rough draft of a 94 page development booklet, and will be doing the actual drawings this summer. Fun, fun, fun. Life is good.
The condos are a schematic proposal for a tight site near downtown Columbus, Ohio. A developer and local area group wanted to know if they could fit some elevated condos over parking in a gentrified art district (parking is at a premium there). The site looks down a steep ravine to a local highway, so the design was for a concrete platform on piers (similar to a parking garage), with the units built above and semi-exposed parking underneath.
The clients really liked it and it was fun, but it'll probably never get built. We're a non-profit group that does design work in the urban/downtown parts of Columbus. All concept/idea stage. We don't stamp drawings, so any projects that proceed beyond us need to go to a licensed architectural firm. There's lots of variety, though. Also lots of neighborhood commissions, groups, city organizations, etc. to work around. Our website is http://www.neighborhooddesign.org (more examples there).
You missed nothing by not going into architecture. Am now wishing I'd done things a little differently and combined construction and architecture, and gone into design/build. But 40 is an awkward age for transitions. ;)
I'm not familiar with Softplan. Have worked on Archicad and Microstation programs at past firms though. Our outfit now uses Autocad, but I've been too busy to learn it so I draft everything by hand or have one of our interns cad-draft it if necessary. Then there's the models. Love building those.
You had an architecture student who was going to do a thesis/project for you awhile back (developing church property into residential?). Is that still on? It sounded really interesting. I'm gad everything is going well. :)
Edited 5/31/2006 12:27 pm ET by draftguy
Non-profit? Interesting. What funds the company?
You missed nothing by not going into architecture. Am now wishing I'd done things a little differently and combined construction and architecture, and gone into design/build. But 40 is an awkward age for transitions.
Thanks for the encouragement. I really have no regrets and love what I do. It is interesting that I have become a home designer after all.
I'm not familiar with Softplan.
Redsidential and light commercial only, it also has site plan mode and will produce nice renderings. Recommeded by the NAHB. There are lots of former AutoCad users on the SP forum (exclusive to SP users) who will never go back. Free trial version http://www.softplan.com.
Have worked on Archicad and Microstation programs at past firms though. Our outfit now uses Autocad, but I've been too busy to learn it so I draft everything by hand or have one of our interns cad-draft it if necessary.
It may be good for you to take advantage of opportunity and learn a CAD program. You may want or need it in the future. The expereince you are gathering could result in a late life occupation, or extra retirement money.
Then there's the models. Love building those.
Sounds like you would have been a good design / build pro.
You had an architecture student who was going to do a thesis/project for you awhile back (developing church property into residential?). Is that still on? It sounded really interesting.
Yes, it is on. Thanks for remembering. She has done a wonderful job to date, way beyond my expectations. I look forward to the actual site plan due later this summer. The 100 acre property is mine. It is scheduled for a Church Community. The Church also owns 67 acres which will be developed in the future. The University of Wisconsin Master of Architecture student has completed a rough draft of the Development Book. It sounds as if you may be well qualified to critique the project. I may send it out for assitance and suggestions as we near the completion of the plan.
We're funded mostly from federal community block grants. Then an additional sum provided by Ohio State University for hiring architecture students. And project fees make up the rest.Most large cities have an organization similar to ours, but there's no organizing body. Each one does it's own thing. Some are more planning-based, others simply manage projects and connect them to architects/builders interested in pro bono work. Some also actually build projects, and others subsist solely on large endowments from private groups. Ours focuses on building design (new and facade renovations), but we also do graphics/signage, interiors, landscaping and planning.Autocad is something I keep meaning to pick up, but just haven't had the opportunity yet. I know two other two CAD programs well (or at least used to), but the learning curve is always painful. We just got 2 copies of Sketchup too, which I need to jump into soon. Just not enough hours in the day. And if you want another pair of eyes to take a look at your development plans, shoot 'em on over. Always love to criticize . . . ;). Actually, we deal with those same issues a lot. And I gave some information to your architect student that may appeal to you, maybe not. The Enterprise Foundation has something called the Rose Fellowship that pays for individuals to work for non-profits building in communities that need help. If your student wants to continue after graduation she could send a proposal to the Enterprise Foundation documenting her concept and intentions. Past winners have built stray-bale houses in Native American communities, a multi-use building in a Los Angeles Hispanic neighborhood, etc.. They get a stipend to work for 2-3 years, with the intention of something actually being constructed. They get 30-40 proposals a year, and pick 4-6 recipients annually. Last I heard they were focusing on historic renovation and sustainable/green construction. Just some food for thought, google The Enterprise Foundation if you need any additional information. And I can be reached at our website (Patrick Stuart, Director of Design).Good luck with everything!
Edited 6/1/2006 11:05 am ET by draftguy
Thanks for the advise. We will check out The Enterprise Foundation.
I guess we have taken over blue's thread.
I will also check out your website and be in touch thru email for your review of our community design.
Don't worry about me Tx, I got plenty of advice already and this thread was heading down the tubes till I post my update.
Carry on.
blue
When will you be in Austin? August?
If I was not such a busy builder, I would organize a welcoming party. Maybe I'll have time in August. We could start a thread...Attention all Texans
Edited 6/2/2006 12:30 pm ET by txlandlord
Tx, I don't know. I gotta sell some stuff here first before I'm heading anywhere. That's not an easy proposition with so much stuff on the market.
blue
I didn't design it, but I built it, and the attachments show the house. Made to sit on a narrow but deep lakefront site, it shows its three gables to the street, and its big hipped viewside rear to the lake. The plans, highly detailed and actually buildable, as many for-sale plansets aren't, are available from various on-line sources.
It has a lot of drama to the inside. The architect Dale Mulfinger did the design, and he is with the Stillwater, MN firm of SALA. Some of his articles and houses have appeared in Fine Homebuilding.
With all the great stuff available in "plans by architects" for sale, I would never trust myself to do a design from scratch.
Blue, here are first and upper floor plans of the house I spoke of in my earlier post.
These are drawings I did, and I used the purchased planset as the basis. I found and corrected the few dimension errors in the original set. If you have Adobe Reader, you can use the zoom feature to see details up close.
The total footprint is 39/6 in width, by 79/6 in length. It is a great lake house, with something like 2700 sf of living area on first and upper floors.
BTW, the original in MN was done with an all-wood exterior, painted. Shingles, claps, trim, even windows, all wood. I did it in NE Indiana using clad windows and an exterior of 100% Wolverine vinyl, a light slate blue with white trim.
Edited 5/23/2006 2:42 pm ET by Gene_Davis
Edited 5/23/2006 2:44 pm ET by Gene_Davis
Interesting plans Gene. My heart starts palapating when I look a set of plans with so much details and writings....I'd have to white out a lot of the non-germane stuff to frame it LOL! I'm actually not kidding about that. Even on regular plans, I often take a bottle of white out to get rid of the background noise. I don't usually need to see half of what they have written.
One interesting detail about that house: the kitchen was more modest than any I've built in my entire career and I've framed some very small footage houses.
Nice elevations though. The sloping skyline would work on the lot I'm on, but I'm building a much more modest house. I don't have the luxury of a 79' footprint.
blue
You are right about the kitchen being modest by today's standards. The attached pic is of one elevation of the kitchen in the prototype house built in MN. Ours was identical, except that all you see in the pic done in natural wood was painted white in our version.
The framing crew, a bunch of guys with beards and straw hats, wearing no buttons or belts, but sporting every power tool known to man, never said a word about the plans to me.
Here's my revision based on the suggestions. I only did a quick revision because I'm scrapping the story and a half floor plans and going with a 2 story version. I'll have two nice options on the two story: either a high ceiling in the great room, or an extra bonus room above the great room. The elevation will shrink in width but the left side of the house will get taller and line up with the garage.
So, since I'm probably going to be pushing the two story, I did a quick revision on the original. I didn't move (I should have centered the door better) the door, but only added a sidelight. I extended the porch slightly to center better on the windows. I lowered the porch ridge and the ridge on the garage. I left the window on the garage because I was too lazy to do more. It's very close to the look I want.
I re-learned that I needed some harder leads because the drawing got a bit messy when I tried to clean it up with the eraser bag. This "sketch" will be good for pesenting ideas and options, so I don't feel like I wasted too much time.
Thanks for your help. I'll post the 2 story when I get it done, hopefully on Monday.
blue
OOps, heres the attachement
I can't see your attachments.EDIT: Doh! There they are
Edited 5/25/2006 3:28 pm ET by xosder11