Unboxing the Box

We don't want to simply make the rest of the house a plain rectangular shape. This would make the house nothing more than two boxes stuck to each other, and wouldn't be terribly ... interesting. So, to make the design a bit more visually "exciting", we want to create the effect of different masses. Just to illustrate some of what I mean, I'm going to show the three alternative designs (each having a different stairway layout) and what they might look like with a little more finishing. This way you will see what I mean before we spend a lot of time working with walls.

In each of the designs, I have included examples of common exterior features (such as gable roofs, bay windows, and covered porches). Nothing I did was complicated, though you might have to learn how to align walls accurately. Don't worry, we will discuss techniques for doing all these things. Roofs in these designs, in particular, are all generated automatically, so you don't even have to worry about that. However, if you have the Pro version, you have probably done your own roofs (I always do), and we can even cover some more advanced techniques for making roofs (such as making custom roofs over circular rooms).

But, before we get on to technique, let's see some house designs.

The "Straight stair"

There are two main "features" to the house front: the two-story entrance foyer and the bumped-out living room/master bedroom (on the left side of the image below). I decided to put brick around the entrance area, for some variety, and you can see that the bedroom over the garage has a dormer.

This design also features gables over the foyer and the master bedroom. You could choose to make either (or both) into standard hip roofs. Otherwise, the house is light gray stucco with a gray shingle roof. There's a large arched window in the front of the living room, but otherwise this design is fairly "plain".

I put this first floor plan together in a hurry, only making measurements in a few key places. With 1130+ square feet, there's plenty of room, especially in the living room. That's not bad, at all, and we could think about adding a fireplace. Considering the master bedroom's east wall is probably directly over the living room's east wall, if we put a fireplace on that wall (in the living room) we could put one in the master bedroom, as well. Just a thought. The western exterior wall is also a good candidate for a fireplace, as well.

The "L-Shaped Stairs"

In this design, I bumped the entrance foyer forward from the front of the garage, to help separate the mass of the house proper from the smaller mass of the garage. The bricked wall between the front porch and the bay window in the living room (which extends up to the master bedroom above) aligns with the front of the garage. The living room wall is set back about 3 feet to help reduce the visual mass of the house. I placed bay windows in both the living room and master bedroom.

Similar to the first design, above, the bedroom over the garage has a dormer that faces the front. Instead of a lonely front stoop, this house has a nice covered porch. The house itself is white wood/vinyl siding and a conventional shingle roof. The windows are double hung with aluminum frames and painted wood or vinyl-clad casings.

This floor plan was also assembled very fast, so if I forgot some features you'll have to forgive me. Basically, the dining room has a bay window just like the living room. The kitchen is very large, and features large built-in full height cabinets for pantry storage (lower right hand corner of the kitchen area). The bath I have here may be a tad too small, but of course, walls can be adjusted as necessary to make enough space. There may also be a better flow pattern between the garage, the laundry/mudroom and back door, and kitchen. As I said, I hurried, somewhat.

The "U-Shaped Stairs"

This design features aluminum siding and stone over the living room facade and around the large front window of the master bedroom. The master bedroom wall is set back to create some interest. The roof is a green metal, but we could choose something else if we wanted. Mainly I just wanted to show some variation.

The windows are sans casings, as are the doors. Overall, not a bad look, but we may play with some of the materials to get a better composition. Of the three designs, I liked the brick/white siding combination the best.

This floor plan has the smallest kitchen, but the kitchen does have ample pantry storage space. I decided to make the kitchen G-shaped (that's what they call this arrangement), but this would not be a kitchen for a family with a gourmet cook. Of course we could rearrange things to make more kitchen space, since the living room is quite ample. There are many variations we could try. I have three similar but different exterior facades, and three similar but different first floor plans.

So, let's decide which design (or combinations of designs) we like best, and sketch in some exterior walls. We won't worry too much about the interior walls, just yet, though you can see where I've gone with all three layouts in these preliminary plans.

So, let's finally get around to finishing the exterior walls.

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