Suburban Contemporary #4

This was the first house design in the series. Actually, it was done before I even knew there was a "series" to be had. When it was finished, I liked it so much I decide to make others like it. In fact, several others.

The Front

The Rear

Some things worth noting:

• The living room is sunken 12" below the rest of the first floor. This gives it a slightly higher ceiling, making the room seem a tad larger. There is a door off the front patio/court into the living room, as well.
• This plan has an island kitchen (with counters on both sides of the island). The cook top is on the island, and the ventilation hood's exhaust duct runs straight up through the roof.
• The master bedroom on the second floor overlooks the kitchen, and the exhaust duct is visible just outside the railing.
• Originally I had no basement, and the space now occupied by the stairs going down was a large pantry/storage area. I am ambivalent about having a basement in this plan, except for the lack of storage space, in general. The basement stair space could be converted to storage space as a variation.
• Out back is an attached deck complete with built-in hot tub, and note also that there is a triangular deck outside the dining room, below the overhanging second story bedroom.

On the second floor:

• The second floor of the front cylindrical tower is a dressing room/closet for the master bedroom. The windows are high, permitting shelves below. Sometimes I wish walk-in closets could have windows, so they don't seem so enclosed.
• The master bath and master bedroom have cathedral ceilings. You can see this in some of the images, below.
• And, as mentioned before, the master bedroom overlooks the kitchen below. I suppose this means the kids can't sneak snacks late at night without waking someone. This probably means neither can mom or dad, for that matter. I'm not totally sure how practical this "feature" is, but it does open up the master bedroom space.
• There are two additional bedrooms, and the back bedroom overhangs the first floor, as previously mentioned.
• The second bath also has a cathedral ceiling and skylight.

This is the same front view as above, but at night. I darkened the night sky to better show off the accent lighting. I wanted this (and the other designs) to be impressive when all lit up after dark. You be the judge.

Here's the view "from the road". I use all the large evergreen trees as a backdrop for these houses, which does lend a quasi Pacific Northwest flavor to these designs.

This is from the same road vantage point, but at night. See, I told you the nighttime view was impressive.

Out behind the house is a deck (actually there are 2 decks) and a hot tub. This is the perfect place for those summertime Saturday night parties, don't you think?

This looks toward the front doors and the circular "music room" next to the living room. The entry area is open to the second floor above (see the final image for a better view of this).

If you were sitting in the living room looking at the fireplace, this is what you would see. Oh, and notice the piece of art on the left? That is an actual original art print that's hanging in my own private "art gallery" at home. I photographed the piece carefully, cropped the photo, and used one of the blank frame objects to hold it. It is "virtually" identical to the one I have in my house. (The artist is a good friend who lives in Atlanta.)

This looks back toward the music room and the front doors. It's also another chance to show off my graphic handiwork.

Standing in the doorway to the living room, this is the view you would see. I think the floor lamp and the windows in the corner create an interesting effect. (But the next design is even more spectacular!)

This looks from the central hallway into the kitchen and toward the breakfast nook in the rear circular tower. I like the effect of the tile wainscoting. It's a secret how I got it to wrap around the curved wall of the breakfast nook.

If you were standing inside the back door, this is what you'd see. Note the exhaust duct, and the railing at the back of the master bedroom, above.

This is the master bedroom, looking out toward the kitchen, below. Note the skylights in the roof above the cathedral ceiling. This should be quite a nice, open space.

From the other side looking toward the high windows on the wall above the master bedroom. I think most of us could accept living in a house like this.

This is the master bath, which also has a cathedral ceiling and high windows. You can see both these windows and the windows in the previous image on the rear view image at the top of this page.

This is the view of the upstairs hallway, stairs, and the upper part of the entryway.