Help Me Design My House!

[J Scott]

I've had conflicting thoughts about starting this topic, but figured that my real estate life is pretty much an open book anyway, so here goes...

My wife and I are in the process of designing our new house that we'll be building in Maryland, and we're looking for feedback on the design! We may not listen to all of it, but with all the smart people here on BP, we'd very much love to get some thoughts and ideas.

As background, we've already purchased the lot and are fairly constrained on what we can build, both from a setback standpoint and due to a rule in Maryland where if you disturb more than 5000 square feet of land, you have to go through a long and expensive process for approvals. So, we're essentially limited to a main living space (including garage) of 36' deep and a width of about 65'. This keeps us within the setbacks and mostly overlapping the structure we're tearing down (limiting the disturbance).

A few more thoughts on this whole thread:

- My wife put together all these drawings -- she's not an architect, engineer or drafts-person, so there may be issues with the design that aren't obvious to us...that's the type of feedback we're looking for!

- We're not looking for anyone to completely rework this. We know what's important to us in terms of basic floorplan (open, big kitchen, large master suite, flexible configuration in terms of rooms, etc). So, while I'm sure many will suggest our design is horrible, keep in mind that it's based on what we like.

- We're looking to keep the entire above-grade living area at about 2600-2700 square feet (with at least a small basement). That will give us the room we need, hopefully without exceeding our budget of about $300K.

- Resale is important to us, but secondary to having a house we love.

Other than that, we're open to any thoughts/suggestions/ideas, etc...

To download the PDF of the drawings (which can be enlarged for detail), click here:

PDF of Initial House Design

And here are images of the PDF for those who don't want to download it:

[J Scott]

Originally posted by Pat L.:

I am not familiar with your lot layout & garage storage seems large but a huge buyer preference here is a smaller rear garage door for the tractor access etc

I'll post the survey docs to clarify the lot layout, but this would probably work well. The lot is just under .5 acres and the rear of the garage would lead directly to a large fenced back and side yard.

We have a big shed on the lot that we'll likely keep, and will be big enough for a mower that I'd use, but I agree that for resale, tractor storage is huge.

[Matt Inman]

@J Scott I sent the file to your email listed in your signature, let me know if I can help out with SketchUp.

I agree with you that a faux window will look aesthetically pleasing on the porch, the you'll just have to make do with the pantry.

You may want to consider natural light coming in the great room as well, since you're not going to have much light coming in from the front you may want to add more windows in the great room to bring in more light.

[Matt Inman]

If the back of your new house has a good Southern view you may also want to look into a Solar system to offset your electrical. Here in Missouri the incentives to install a system this year are bring the price down to a 4-5 year ROI for a 2500 square foot house. I'm not sure how long you are planning on staying, or how the incentives are in Maryland but it may be worth checking into.

[Raymond B.]

@J Scott,

I was Involved in a gut job rehab.

The Electrician installed Lights in all of the closets. When you opened the door, the light came on.

Three different Woman looked at the house, and they all said the same thing:

I wish I had lights in my closets, that is so nice.

Raymond

[J Scott]

Thanks Raymond! I'll pass that suggestion on to my wife...

[Steve Babiak]

One of my neighbors has dormer windows that are non-functional / inaccessible from the inside. Over the years, dead insects, cobwebs, etc have all made them look less pleasing. Make sure that you can get to the windows to clean them even if you're not going to use them for light or ventilation.

[J Scott]

I just wanted to follow-up on this thread, as I truly appreciate all the great feedback we received...

We have a variance hearing coming up this week, and decided to hold off on sitting down with an architect and starting the construction documents until we were certain the variance would be approved. In the meantime, my wife has done about 30 revisions of the floor-plan (footprint has stayed about the same), and the current version is completely different than what we were thinking back when I started this thread.

For those who are interested (and certainly we're still open to feedback), here is a link to the design we'll likely be moving forward with -- assuming the architect and engineer don't see any major flaws:

J Scott - House Design - Rev 3

And here is a JPEG version for those who don't feel like downloading the PDF (sorry, they're probably tough to read):

[Steve Babiak]

I like that you don't have to pass through the master bath to get to the closet.

EDIT:

And I see windows in the bathrooms it seems - another good thing IMO.

I think your toilet fixture in one of the baths is too close to the tub to comply with code.

[J Scott]

Originally posted by Steve Babiak:

I think your toilet fixture in one of the baths is too close to the tub to comply with code.

We switched up the design of both bathrooms on the upper right side of the drawings (first floor and hall bath on second floor). We were trying to keep the plumbing off the exterior wall, but decided we're just fur out the exterior wall a few extra inches and move all plumbing in those bathrooms to the exterior wall. Really improves the layout and only requires a couple extra inches in framing.

[Roy N.]

@J Scott

I'll leave the aesthetics of the layout to the others ... I'm all about the efficiency and long-term operating costs :)

I'm interested in your plans for envelope construction (SIPs, off-set framing, boring old 2x6 stick-built); heating system (in-floor radiant heat, forced/central air, electric, gas, etc); domestic hot-water (solar thermal, heat-pump, etc); electrical (any thoughts to photovoltaic?).

Is your mechanical room to be in the garage or basement?

I just found the mechanical room on the latest sets of drawings.

I also see you are putting the master over the garage. Are you planning to use closed cell spray foam to insulate and vapour seal all surfaces in the garage? And what are the plans for plumbing access to the master en-suite?

[J Scott]

Originally posted by Roy N.:

I'm interested in your plans for envelope construction (SIPs, off-set framing, boring old 2x6 stick-built); heating system (in-floor radiant heat, forced/central air, electric, gas, etc); domestic hot-water (solar thermal, heat-pump, etc); electrical (any thoughts to photovoltaic?).

Is your mechanical room to be in the garage or basement?

I just found the mechanical room on the latest sets of drawings.

I also see you are putting the master over the garage. Are you planning to use closed cell spray foam to insulate and vapour seal all surfaces in the garage? And what are the plans for plumbing access to the master en-suite?

Roy -

We'll likely use 2x6 for the framing, unless our engineer finds some reason to use something else -- we'd rather keep the construction costs down, even if it means longer-term costs, as we may not be in this house long-term.

We likely won't have gas (the gas company runs lines to the adjacent street and we'd have to pay a decent amount to get it run to this house)...which means we expect to go with a forced-air system and a heat-pump and an electric (probably tankless) water heater.

There is nothing being built over the garage. The master sits over the main footprint of the house. While it would be nice to utilize the space above the garage, the house would end up being too large for the neighborhood, and we're trying hard not to stick out or annoy our new neighbors.

[Roy N.]

@J Scott

Just a moment while I scrape the egg from my face [there, much better]. I have no explanation why I thought the master was situated over the garage ... a glance of the front profile should have cleared that misconception.

If you are not planning to be in this house long term, would you still be open to incorporating some energy efficiency measures into your design and build? ... or does the regional market not place a {sufficient} value on home efficiency that you could demand a premium on resale?

[J Scott]

Originally posted by Roy N.:

If you are not planning to be in this house long term, would you still be open to incorporating some energy efficiency measures into your design and build? ... or does the regional market not place a {sufficient} value on home efficiency that you could demand a premium on resale?

It's a great question, and one we haven't yet explored. This is a new location for us (in real estate terms), and I'm not sure what premium (if any) is placed on improved efficiency. But, we're meeting with our architect in person for the first time later this week, and this will certainly be something we'll discuss to get his opinion...

[J Scott]

We've made some progress since I last updated this thread...here you go:

http://beta.biggerpockets.com/forums/517-real-esta...

[Roy N.]

@J Scott 

You know Bryan Baeumler turned a similar brick bungalow to überhaus transformation into a full season (21-episode) television series ... which probably paid for the new house build ;-)

[J Scott]

Originally posted by @Roy N.:

@J Scott 

You know Bryan Baeumler turned a similar brick bungalow to überhaus transformation into a full season (21-episode) television series ... which probably paid for the new house build ;-)

 Sadly, we plan far enough in advance to save much money via the site, but we'll try to get some benefits...

Btw, this is a COMPLETE tear-down, not a renovation.  Moving the foundation/basement to a new location.

[Roy N.]

Originally posted by @J Scott:

Originally posted by @Roy N.:

@J Scott 

You know Bryan Baeumler turned a similar brick bungalow to überhaus transformation into a full season (21-episode) television series ... which probably paid for the new house build ;-)

 Sadly, we plan far enough in advance to save much money via the site, but we'll try to get some benefits...

Btw, this is a COMPLETE tear-down, not a renovation.  Moving the foundation/basement to a new location.

So was his ... have a boo at the HGTV's House of Bryan (Season 1) ... my wife watched it and decided that is how we should "renovate" our 1950s bungalow ;-)

The show is full of product placement shots ... which means much material was likely 'donated' for PR purposes.

[J Scott]

Originally posted by @Roy N.:

So was his ... have a boo at the HGTV's House of Bryan (Season 1) ... my wife watched it and decided that is how we should "renovate" our 1950s bungalow ;-)

The show is full of product placement shots ... which means much material was likely 'donated' for PR purposes.

 I'll check it out, thanks!

We already have many of our bids, but we'll definitely use the site to try to get better pricing on the remainder of our bids, since the site will be great marketing for our contractors (hopefully).  And my wife is the marketing genius in the family, so hopefully she'll figure out how to leverage the site for other benefits...  :)

[Karen Margrave]

Geez @J Scott  Somehow I missed this thread. I really want to watch your progress, so please @mention me if you start a new thread for that. If you're keeping it all here, I am monitoring this thread now. I love that floor plan that you did. Very usable. 

[J Scott]

Originally posted by @Karen Margrave:

Geez @J Scott  Somehow I missed this thread. I really want to watch your progress, so please @mention me if you start a new thread for that. If you're keeping it all here, I am monitoring this thread now. I love that floor plan that you did. Very usable. 

This thread is "dead"...check out this one which you'll find MUCH more interesting:

https://beta.biggerpockets.com/forums/517/topics/1...