Our Architect 2

So over the course of a few months we've gone back and forth with the design of the house, how it flows, what windows go where, how it sits on the land, and general room layout.  We're just about done nailing down all the details.  Here's what I hope is the second to last version.

As you can see, there were some changes.  The garage was canted out and made front facing because of the limitations of the lot we finally settled on.  This gave us the opportunity to add another powder room off the mudroom so we don't have to trudge through the house from the garage or the back yard to go to the rotunda powder room.  The back deck/gazebo was a last minute revision.  We feel that it will bring that living space out into the back yard more, rather than tucking it against the great room.  Also, you can see that we added a door off the great room so we can access the covered porch in that area.  While it makes me a little uneasy to have all these exterior entries, security measures can be put in place to harden those points.  What isn't shown is any basement planning.  We're told that the elevator shaft, which will be constructed in ICF, will extend down to the basement with it's own footings.  The stairway part of the rotunda will continue down as well.  The basement will be unfinished, but drywalled with stubs for two bathrooms.  We'll come up with a general finishing plan, but will need to implement them after the build is complete.  We're still deciding on a walk out or daylight windows.

The other day, we met John at the build site so we could get a general idea where we wanted the house situated.  He'll contact the surveying company so they can put stakes down for the footprint of the house.  That, in combination with the house plans and exterior elevations and building materials will go to the home owners associate for approval.

Exterior building materials are a bit of a sticking point with us.  As you can see from our house inspiration

We're building a modern Victorian style house.  Well the home owners association laws for the subdivision states that the front two stories of the house must comprise of 65% stone, brick, dryvit, or stucco.  The other sides of the house must have 65% of those materials on the first floor.  The kicker is that no vinyl or aluminum siding is allowed.  For a Victorian with all that lovely shake siding, that leaves two choices, real wood siding, or concrete siding, both of which require some painting maintenance. Granted the concrete siding will only require paint every 15 years, that's quite a bit of cost.  Our team will approach the HOA with the river stone we plan on using for our below grade and first floor exterior, and a high quality vinyl cedar look siding from Certainteed.  Hopefully they'll realize that it's a superior material for longevity and realism, and that we're over 600 feet from the road in the woods.  Crossing fingers.