Monday, November 26, 2007

Alternate floor plans...

(Brendan)

As promised in my presentation of Scheme D, I'm including some pics of alternate ground floor and upper floor plans that my brother created for discussion. Here's an alternate ground floor plan that we didn't end up going with (and my brother didn't like it either, click to enlarge):
If you compare to the preferred ground floor plan option in the previous post on Scheme D, this one is different in that the dining area is actually contained in the kitchen, the "sitting room" is placed next to the entry and would be a guest sitting area, and the school room is over by the chapel. For starters, the school room really can't be that far away from the kitchen or it will not be used as intended. The kitchen is where most things happen for Molly and the kids on any given day, and so the school room needs to have some proximity to the kitchen or it won't be used. Secondly, since we wouldn't have a formal dining area, having the only dining area directly in the kitchen isn't great for the times when we would like to have a more formal family gathering. There's some interesting seating added to the kitchen on the East side in this scheme, but in the end the arrangement previously presented just works and flows much better.

Here's another alternate ground floor plan, which is identical to the original, preferred plan presented with Scheme D except with the addition of basement space under part of the footprint of the home (click to enlarge):
This is actually what we are going to try to go with, pending on cost and an analysis on whether the basement would be prudent given the adjacent wetland. We'd really like to have the accessible storage of an unfinished basement, and that would also provide a good spot for the home's mechanical equipment to go, and a place for the family to go in severe weather. In fact, since this is a permanent choice (i.e. there's no going back after the home is built, you don't "add" a basement later) we'll really try to make sure this happens, even if it means we have to wait on finishing the outer patio areas or covered walkway.

Here are the alternate upper floor layouts that my brother put together (click to enlarge):
And here was the original layout from last post, for comparison (click to enlarge):
The differences in the alternate layouts regard the master bedroom and the guest bedroom/nursery. In the alternate layout on the left, connection between the master bedroom and the nursery is moved to the South wall of the home and is a more defined hallway, while sacrificing closet space in the master bedroom. We didn't like this since the connection to the nursery was fine in the original layout (through the bathroom) and we really wanted the closet space). In the alternate layout on the right, the closets in the master bedroom are moved to the East wall of the home, creating two separate closets and even more closet space. We also didn't like this because it eliminated windows on the East side where the sunrise would light the room in the morning.

As always, any other ideas or feedback are welcome!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I obviously love the design and can't wait until I see some interior renderings. I am concerned, however, about the bathroom situation for the kids. I foresee an annoying logjam in the morning with just one bathroom specifically for the kids (with only two sinks!). This was a problem for us growing up, and there were only four of us (and three of us were boys). With more than four kids, and at least two girls, mornings will be tough. Why not two bathrooms, one for boys and one for girls. Or at least a separate door to the shower so the sinks can be in use while someone is a taking a shower?

Brendan Koop said...

Evan:

I think I mentioned it somewhere (perhaps only in my head), but we are definitely adding a second bathroom upstairs, one with just a toilet and a shower, for the boys. The bathtub will be in the girls bathroom. From what we were told, this won't be a problem and can be added easily, donating some space occupied by the girls' room.