Downstairs Options

"Fixing" the Living Room

Here is a variation for the front facade that involves both the living room and the master bedroom. I experimented with this variation on the Unboxing the Box page, and I think I like this option almost as much as what I presented on the previous page.

This rendering shows bay windows in the front of both the living room and master bedroom. Of course the "eyebrow" gables over the other windows don't make as much sense, anymore, since there's no "theme" to carry forward. I thought (briefly) about adding a bay window in the nursery, but I think that might be overkill. As in the other example, the dining room also has a bay window, but of course you can't see it in this view. Overall, this look isn't bad, at all.

Here is the floor plan with the bay windows added. I have also labeled most of the downstairs rooms, so we can see where everything is.

OK. We might go with this design, we might not. You can go with whatever floats your boat. Now, let's move on to other main floor areas, and "fix" them.

Why haven't I shown you how to make roofs, yet? Especially since I have been using them to visualize the final appearance of the house.

No reason, other than the fact that "roof theory and how-to" deserves a page in its own right, and to place that page early, when we haven't even finished making the house, seems a bit premature.

Whenever you make roofs before you have finished dinking with the exterior walls, you will definitely be deleting them and recreating them. Over and over, most probably. That's OK, as long as you are prepared for it. In truth, automatic roof generation can make things much easier, though you sacrifice a lot of flexibility.

Fixing the Laundry Room and Bath

To the right of the kitchen is the laundry room, which is also where the back door is located. I am reminded of my grandmother's "mudroom" of old. One never tracked muddy boots into her farmhouse. Not even grandpa. Anyway, let's look at what we have and see where we can take it.

We need about 6' of wall space for the washer and dryer, and we need a passage way that's at least 3'6" wide, probably a bit more. If you have looked over the design of Tract House #2S, you know how I "solved" that problem. We could do something similar, or we could sit back, scratch our ... heads ... and envision something good. Something better, maybe?

Here are some ideas I will throw out to see if any of them stick:

What if the back door opened toward the garage (that is, on the eastern wall of the laundry room)? With a couple of steps down we could also have a door from the garage out onto a patio (or deck, depending on the elevation of the ground). Cool, n'est pas?
If we did that (put the back door facing the east), we would probably put our washer and dryer along the back wall.
We could even move our half bath into the back right corner (so it can have a window), and put the laundry south of it. That would change the hallway and possibly the kitchen, as well, but it might be a distinct improvement. There may not be room for the back door in the east wall, but we could place it to the left bath, in the back wall.
What if we pushed the eastern laundry room wall out so it extends the same 2' beyond the second floor bedroom, above? This would make a bit more space for the laundry, and it would make for an interesting roof line. Of course, I will show you what I mean.

Back Door Facing the Garage

Here is an arrangement where I have placed the back door in the eastern wall, facing the garage. I decided that the bathroom door should open into the hall, making an easier access from the public areas of the house, but I could see the door just as easily opening into the laundry room. Overall, not too bad, and I do like the idea of having a patio with access to both the house and the garage.

Bath in the Back Corner

Here is a layout with the bath moved to the back corner. The back door is just to the left, which made the kitchen a bit narrower. That also made an area in front of the back door. I could have left that part of the kitchen, but instead I made a doorway to visually separate this hall-like area from the kitchen. What I don't especially like is the number of doors into/out of the laundry. I could three. I suppose the hall door could be a doorway, but it makes the laundry a not very large space. Perhaps if the eastern bath wall was pushed out to make more space, we might be able to do something with the laundry to make it "better".

Extending the Back Corner

This final option combines the back door facing the garage with moving the wall out. This does keep the kitchen wider, while still providing ample room for both the laundry and bath. I also like the straight shot between the garage and the kitchen. That's a plus when you are lugging bags of groceries from your car. Trust me. Of course, I made the patio in the corner. Below is a rendering (excuse the lack of a foundation) showing what this looks like.

Don't worry about the fact that the house seems to be floating above a hole. I had to lower the ground to accommodate the fact that now there's a door into the garage (which has a floor 18" below the first floor level). Of course, there need to be stairs up to the first floor. What I want to emphasize is the roof that wraps around to meet the garage roof.

The "Plain Vanilla" Laundry Room and Bath

We could create nearly any combination of the above ideas, or we could go with the "plain vanilla" look. This more closely matches the design I did before. I present this layout, below, for your perusal.

These are all the variations I intend to explore. Other than making decisions about the exact sizes of rooms and the exact locations of doors, windows, etc., all the more relevant decisions have been made. We do need to put a dormer (or two) in the bedroom over the garage, so I will show this, next. Then we'll finish out all the remaining doors, windows, etc. All that's left after that (as if it won't take any time) is to put in the foundation, build the roof, make final adjustments, put in lights, electrical, wall coverings/colors, moldings, etc., and then ... (whew!) decorate with plants and furniture. And then we're done.

But first, let's choose the "winner".

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