New Home Construction

[bmac]

Here we are from the rear of the house. On the main floor, the right side is the master bedroom and the family room is in the center section. Just to the left of the family room is a bump out for the breakfast room. Another interesting architectural screw-up involves this area. Seems as though the lovely MIA architect forgot to include any mention of a roof over this bump-out. You will see in another photograph shortly what the builder is going to have to deal with in this section.

 

[bmac]

Its hard to get any meaningful interior pictures as my point and shoot camera doesn't have much of a wide angle lens. But this picture of the family room will give you an idea of the bracing that the builder is using to keep the walls plumb.

 

[bmac]

Here, I'm standing in the kitchen and aiming at the family room. In front of the stairway you can see two of the three sections along that wall that will contain a fireplace in the center section. The fireplace will be flanked on either side by built-in bookcases. Beyond the stairway is the master bedroom. Due to some issues with the second floor, we had to raise the wall height on the main floor by 1 ft. This change affected the stairway, which is why we now have a landing at the bottom that you can see on the right. We will add 1 step from the family room to this landing. Also, you can see more of the internal bracing. Every room is braced in a similar manner.

 

[bmac]

Now, I'm on the second floor, standing in what will be my son's bedroom and aiming toward my daughter's bedrrom on the rear of the house. You can see all interior walls have been laid out so they will be ready to build walls on Monday.

Another thing some of you may notice is that the basement and the exterior walls of the main floor are framed with 2x6 lumber. The plan called for 2x6's for all three floors. In our pre-planning with the builder, we decided to use 2x4's on the main and top floors. I did hear the buiilder tell the framing chief of this change but the framer apparently did not hear this. So, they framed the main floor with 2x6's as specified on the plans. They made the change to 2x4's on the second floor. The change was purely for budgetary reasons. According to my builder, in our area the benefit of 2x6's on the exterior walls is not that impressive from an insulation standpoint. And, as we are out in the woods, I really don't need the inhanced soundproofing you get from 2x6 construction. So, I decided to save a few hundred bucks on lumber costs by going back to 2x4's on the second floor.

 

[bmac]

Now, I'm standing in what will be my daughter's bedroom and aiming toward the front. You can see the center hallway in the foreground.

 

[bmac]

Just a couple more. Here's a shot down the hallway toward the cursed guestroom. We'll see how the framers can compensate for the errors in the plan regarding this change.

 

[bmac]

This is toward the garage end and shows what will be the unfinished space we will use for our attic beyond the framed wall.

 

[bmac]

And this is the bump-out that will need to be modified in order to place a roof over it. I'm not real clear on how he going to fix this, but I'm sure it will end up OK.

 

[bmac]

Well, I guess that's all for now. The framing you've seen to this point has taken the crew 10 work days over 3 weeks. Some days have been shortened by afternoon showers and they had work to do on another project for a couple of days. I expect them to fiish framing the second floor this week and hopefully begin framing the roof. I'm thinking the framers will be done by the end of the next week (i.e., 2 more weeks of work) so we can begin the electrical and plumbing rough-ins soon. If I only had Eddie Walker and his girlfriend on this crew.... the framing would have been completed by now.

Thanks for following along.

 

[OkeeDon]

<font color="blue"> The garage door openings are 10' x 9' (or that's what they are supposed to be. Haven't measured them yet). </font>

Have you had a chance to measure them yet? I remembered earlier in the thread where you said the height under the steel trusses was about 8-1/2', and the doors you show are slightly lower than that, plus they will lose a fraction more with trim casing. I did a rough measurement from your picture and, if the doors are truly 10' wide, then they're slightly less than 8-1/2' high.

Probably won't hurt anything, but could be yet another disappointment. You're raising the hair on my neck -- Our architect has had my plans about 4 months with no progress. I will be going over every dimension with a fine-tooth comb. I'm pretty **** also, and my contractor would hate me, if I was going to have one...maybe I'll end up hatiing myself.

 

[bmac]

Don,

The 8 1/2 ft height is in the area below the garage. The steel trusses are supporting the slab of the garage floor and hang down into the space below. Nevertheless, I will take a measurement when I go out there next time.

The effect of the trusses on the workshop below is going to affect the garage door down there. I wanted an 8 ft high garage door in the workshop in order to allow safe clearance for the ROPS on my tractor. Now, I am limited to a 7 1/2 ft door which may mean I have to fold the ROPS each time I enter the shop. This will be a disappointment.

Thanks for taking the time to analyze the photo. Now you have me wondering. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[rox]

Have been enjoying immensly your new home building. One suggestion since you eliminated the front hall closets. Suggestion is to find slim line, meaning they don't stick out to much, non obtrusive coat hooks. Paint them the same color as the walls. You won't belive how handy coat hooks on a wall are. It will be hard to drill into your nice new walls to put in the coat hooks but believe me you will love them. My family won't hang but they will hook. I jsut picked up a dozen more coat hooks last week that I need to put around in various rooms. I have found to make them the color of the walls and they are not obtrusive estetically. So you are a bit **** are you? Well you can have fun measuring how wide a average coat is for plaing the hooks. The of course there is designing vertical spacing, gotta have two rows. FWIW... No biggie on the closet loss, hooks will serve you better anyway. If you go for the clean look, jsut don't use them until you have company, they will blend right in.

 

[bmac]

rox,

Thanks for the suggestion. My wife is planning to have a hall tree in the foyer for guests to hang their coats. We will have a closet in the mudroom for our family coats. However, I do like the idea of low-profile hooks. I'll pass this on to my wife. Afterall, she is making most of the decisions on interior details.

Glad you are enjoying the thread. I'll have some new photos later in the week.

 

[bmac]

<font color="blue"> I did a rough measurement from your picture and, if the doors are truly 10' wide, then they're slightly less than 8-1/2' high </font>

Don,

You are an eagle-eye. The width of the garage doors is a little over 10' and the height is 8' 7". That will be plenty of height, I'm sure. The Unimog is only in my dreams. Don't think I'll really ever be in a position to garage one of those bad boys.

 

[bmac]

One week of construction has passed since my last photos. In that discussion, I told y'all about the problem with the ceiling height in the guest bedroom / bathroom on the second floor and that the framer's solution was to add a knee wall to raise the roof. I honestly don't think there was another reasonable alternative to solve the problem so we proceded with this "fix" to the poor design.

Well, I can't say that I'm happy with the result. It certainly accomplished our goal as far as the interior space is concerned. We now have living space in the guest room with ample ceiling height. The problem is the effect this has had on the exterior elevation of the front of the house.

This first attachment is a diagram of the front elevation, as the home was supposed to look. We told the architect that we were looking for a "farm house" appearance (whatever that might mean) and I think she achieved the general look we seeking. Sadly, the design could not accomodate the floor plan she included.

 

[bmac]

This photo shows the front as it stands today. The red arrow on the left shows where the peak of the roof on the right and left wings wre supposed to be. The yellow arrow shows where the level of the eaves were supposed to be.

We think that the character of the house has changed. To me its looking more like a colonial style (I'm not very knowledgable about various architectural styles so forgive me if my interpretation is off here) rather than a farm house. Now, that may be an insignificant issue to many (if not most) of you, but it is somewhat disappointing to us.

The real issue now, however, is not that the style seems different to us, but something just looks goofy. I think it is because the distance from the top of the windows on the main floor to the new level of the eaves is too great (depicted by the green arrow). Keep in mind that the house will be clad in Hardiplank siding. This just looks like too much bare siding with no visual interest. Maybe I'm being too picky, but it just doesn't look right to me.

I've discussed this with the builder. He will talk to the framer as soon as weather permits a return to work (don't yet know what effect the hurricane will have on our weather yet - it is looking better for us). If they can't come up with something to break up this expanse of siding, I guess the next step is to hire another architect to get some creative ideas.

It probably seems like I've done more complaining than anything in this thread. It is not my intent. Early on, it was suggested that I post the problems, mistakes etc. so that others may learn from them. I guess I'm just doin' a whole lotta teachin'.

We are very happy with our builder and the interior spaces (given the limitations of the design). It is ultimately going to be a very nice home (better than we deserve). I just hope the corrections of the architectural snafu's don't break the budget (more than it has already been broken).

If anyone has any suggestions for the front facade, I'm all ears. The things I've come up with thus far include additional windows, maybe some dormer-like bump-out things (like in the center section). But, these may just add to the goofiness or be impractical. I really have no clue. I will appreciate any input on this.

Note: the problems and arrows are depicted on the garage end due to the angle of the photo. The need for the addition of the knee wall came from problems on the opposite end of the house where the guest room is.

 

[bmac]

Here's my obligatory view from the garage end. As we really didn't need any more living space, this will be our unfinished attic (I think I mentioned that before). Now, I think one should recognize blessings whenever they occur. So, here is a positive consequence from the elevated roof (in addition to the fully functional guest room). A HUGE storage space in the attic. The framer had planned to add partition walls in this space to support the roof. I asked what it would take to leave the space open, to which he replied "big beams". I got the price for the beams from him yesterday and told him to "beam me up". So all of this space will be open for tons of storage and easily accessible from the second floor (just walk through a door - no pull-down steps or ladder to climb).

I think I mentioned earlier that I had hoped to put the air handler of the second floor in this space. The builder nixed this idea as it would reduce the efficiency of the unit being off to one end of the house like this. He says it need to be more centrally located. So, up in the attic (the real attic above the bedrooms on the second floor) it goes. Being totally ignorant about home building gives me freedom to ask rediculous questions. Every once and awhile, my requests are doable and it makes a positive change in the plan.

 

[bmac]

Not to belabor the point, but I've done a crude "artist's rendition" (and I use the term "artist" very loosely) on the front elevation to (a) see if my concerns are warranted and (b) maybe better illustrate to you folks what I've been blabbering about.

This attachment is a rough approximation of what i think we will end up with without any additional changes. I don't know, maybe it lends a lack of sophistication of design that would be found in a true farm house.

Any comments?

 

[OkeeDon]

My taste is all in my mouth, so you can take this with the proverbial grain of salt, but I think the "new" version you drew looks more like a Southern farmhouse than the architect's orginal plans. The blank areas make it appear to have very high ceilings on the first floor, which is kind of neat because behind that blank is actually the flooring for the second floor -- which is disguised because it doesn't look as if there is a second floor at that point. Kinda neat, actually. And, it looks as if you ever finished that "storage" area, you could hold square dances up there...

 

[Cowboyjg]

Okeedon's got a pretty good eye. I might suggest that you consider carrying the porch across the front of the house further to each side. Either to the last window or between the middle of the two windows. This will help break up the height issue with the porch roof and give it more of a farm house feel. The other thing to look at might be the design of the columns. Your drawing suggests somwhat large stately square columns which is consistant with the colonial style. Narrower columns with a railing will soften up the front and give it a somewhat more country feel indicative of the farmhouse style.

This is a sample for illustrative purposes. In your case I would stop the porch as I had mentioned above.

Here is another sample.
The joys of construction.... /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

Good luck with your project.