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Thread: Plans for our Hermann House

  1. #11
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    These are first draft designs.

    There are designs for a first floor garage in two configurations, also a plan for dormer in the front.

    None of the plans show all of the things we have decided to do.

  2. #12
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Float On View Post
    Even with windows, a pantry that big is great.
    Love the dormer addition. I have dormers on my upstairs and like them. If I could I'd add a big dormer on the backside, the view is great towards the southwest.
    I like the laundry (pass thru to garage) and small bathroom. I don't think I'd like passing through a bedroom to get to garage. Guess I'm confused as well.
    That room by planned garage is currently a bedroom, was a garage in the 1950’s. All of the rooms on this plan named in pencil are current use rooms.

  3. #13
    Moderator Float On's Avatar
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    OK. Got it. Process. It is good to see ideas on paper and these are steps to final design.
    Float On: My "Happy Place" is on my little kayak in the coves of Table Rock Lake.

  4. #14
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by catherine View Post
    Looks great, IL! So nice to have an architect to bounce ideas off of! Did he/she give you multiple options, or did you know exactly what you wanted? I love the idea of the 4-season room and the dormer.
    This is just the architect’s first go round. We havent even paid him yet. dH and I had to get a few things straight between us before we can work further with the architect.

    what I now have straight in my mind is 1) keep it simple 2) DH can decide about most all things. He has a very good background in building things, so whatever he works out will be fine. DH will probably handle the kitchen-to-bedroom renovation himself.

  5. #15
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    It's good that you are living there because that really helps figure out a floor plan that works. That is one huge problem with our current house, and why we want to sell--it has an abysmal floor plan, and I don't think I can ever get it to work right, I'd rather buy something else with a better floor plan.

    Having an entrance to the house from 2 car garage and having a first floor master with bath right there will let you age into the house and stay there-- age in place.
    I am planning all renovations going forward with universal design in mind, to allow us to age in place.

  6. #16
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    Looking again at pantry, is it large enough for a small breakfast area. I don't see a designated dining area. Seems like removing that pantry wall at least partially would let the window light into kitchen. With this house, DH removed half of the wall between kitchen and dining and it has made a huge and positive difference.

  7. #17
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by pinkytoe View Post
    Looking again at pantry, is it large enough for a small breakfast area. I don't see a designated dining area. Seems like removing that pantry wall at least partially would let the window light into kitchen. With this house, DH removed half of the wall between kitchen and dining and it has made a huge and positive difference.
    We have a very small table for two in the pantry now, but do not use it. Our dining table is in the living room.

    Removing the wall to the pantry will be necessary, partially, but full removal is not do-able because it is structural—it was once the front wall of the house.

    To Tybee’s point, I agree that living here helps in planning final renovations. Even in its strangeness, it is an easy house to live in, I guess because all of our functions are on one floor except for laundry. When we add a first floor laundry room it will be easy peasy.

  8. #18
    Senior Member iris lilies's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Tybee View Post
    It's good that you are living there because that really helps figure out a floor plan that works. That is one huge problem with our current house, and why we want to sell--it has an abysmal floor plan, and I don't think I can ever get it to work right, I'd rather buy something else with a better floor plan.

    Having an entrance to the house from 2 car garage and having a first floor master with bath right there will let you age into the house and stay there-- age in place.
    I am planning all renovations going forward with universal design in mind, to allow us to age in place.
    what are some of the things that make yours a bad floor plan?

  9. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by iris lilies View Post
    what are some of the things that make yours a bad floor plan?
    OMG, it is just horrible! The guy who remodeled it last added the front porch into the house, so you no longer have a place for guests to enter the house that makes sense. He put a horrible french door without panes kind of thing there, so it's a double door of glass that looks awful and takes away privacy. He started to turn the garage into a family room but did not finish, and we haven't either, since it would cost money and we'd rather buy a new house. So it is partially drywalled, and he added another one of those double french door things out to the garden, but you would have to pass through the side door directly into the family room--no entry ways anywhere. I like entry ways so your door does not open directly into the living space. When door open directly into the living space, you lose heat, and there is no place to put anything down and no place to hang coats, etc.

    The one bathroom is right off the dining room. Horrible feng sui,. The one bedroom on the first floor opens into the family room--again, no halls of any kind,. No transition space. No privacy.

    There is no bathroom upstairs so in the middle of the night, you have to struggle down steep steps to go to the bathroom.

    It has a big kitchen, which we like. But it is a dumb use of space, as you can't really eat in there, and they could have put another bathroom over there, between the bedroom and the kitchen, with the space that is available.

    In my SC house, kitchen was smaller, but we had a separate pantry, which I loved, as it kept the kitchen neater and sparer looking, not cluttered. All clutter lived in the pantry.

    I guess I like halls and I like privacy, so when you start opening up walls, I start to get nervous. I like to enter the house and have a place to put things down. I'd like to have a bathroom vaguely near my bedroom.

    Oh, and he took out what must have been a neat demarcation between the living room and the dining room, which china cabinets or pockets doors or something, so there is no privacy, no place to get away from each other. Everything is visible, and you have the feeling you are on display, with no place to curl up and read a book.

    And there are virtually no closets that make sense, so no storage. I want tons of built in storage, walls of it, so that everything has a place and can neatly go there.

  10. #20
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    I don't know if anyone would find this interesting, but I just found this site of "best cape cod" floor plans which might have ideas, idk.

    https://www.architecturaldesigns.com...tyles/cape-cod

    (Spoiler alert: we are looking at a cape cod house right now to buy, so this is a fascinating topic to me.)

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