Country Home #4

Quite recently this design was languishing as "Tract House #5" (and was a long-time member of the Works In Progress page). I always liked this floor plan, though, so I kept persevering. Mainly, I just kept messing with the roofline until I found an arrangement that satisfied me.

I like this layout, though there are a couple others I might show, just to give an idea of how much you can change the look of a house by doing nothing but redoing the facade.

The Front

The Rear

OK, I have bragged about the floor plan of this house, so here goes:

• The entry is delineated by tile on the floor. Check out the images below to see what I mean. Turn right and you can go directly upstairs.
• Through the door into the kitchen, dining and breakfast nook. The dining and nook have these arched 92" tall windows on three sides. Good view. Not a huge space, but nicely integrated with the kitchen.
• The kitchen, itself, is small, but large enough. It's a kind of modified U shape, with a rather small work triangle. I might consider placing the sink in the island, and the range along the south (lower) wall. That would work well, too.
• The master suite has a small library/ante-room that separates it from the main living area. Then, through double doors into a spacious master bedroom, with a cathedral ceiling down the center. The west wall is bumped out just slightly, but still there's room in this niche for a king size bed.
• The master bath and walk-in closet aren't that large, but the master bath features a raised 6" platform in the shower/toilet area. I think it's a very nice feature.

On the second floor (below), you might want to note the following:

• U-shaped stairs lead up from the living room/entry below. The hall runs most of the width.
• The front west bedroom is rather small, probably suitable for a young child. The back west bedroom is the largest--you'd put your teenager there, and they have access to the back deck, that is over top the dining room. I have considered this deck can be covered, which might be a nice addition to the living space in this house.
• Oh, and you get a bonus room over the garage. This could easily be another bedroom, and a large one, at that.

For this night view, I set up 4 lights to cast shadows. 15 minutes later, this was the result. I think it turned out fairly well.

Here we show the west side of the house--mainly the master suite "wing". Note the gable over the center windows of the master bedroom.

We walk around toward the rear of the house. Note the deck over the dining room (where the tall arched windows are). I decided not to put stairs leading down from the deck, though that wouldn't be that much of a stretch.

Here we are inside. In this view we are standing in the doorway to the kitchen, looking toward the front door. Note the tile in the entrance, and the hardwood in the small "office" area that's tucked under the stairs on our left. Seemed a really good use for that space, all in all.

Now we are standing in the front doorway, looking toward the library.

From the sofa in the living room, we look toward the stairs, the office area, and of course, the kitchen.

From in front of the stairs, this is another angle into the living room.

Standing in the kitchen doorway, we are looking at the dining room (as if you couldn't tell). That door mid-right leads into the mudroom/laundry, which has a door to the outdoors, and the back patio.

This shows the remainder of the dining area, and the breakfast nook.

I wanted to show a little more of the kitchen, so here it is.

And we have room for one more angle of the kitchen. That blank wall bothers me, but several of the things I placed there didn't please me. So, we have a wall phone instead.

Here is the master bedroom, from the vantage of the double doors. Note the cathedral ceiling down the center.

This is the master bedroom, and looks back toward the double doors (to the library).

Here we are in the master bath. Note the platform that surrounds the shower and the toilet and bidet. I also like the varied height of the ceiling. The tile details were quite time-consuming to place, but I do like how it came out.

If we stood in front of the white towels (in the image immediately above) and looked back toward the sinks, this is what we'd see.

Let's go upstairs. This is, of course, the stairs.

This is the upstairs bath. Not much to see, it's just a bathroom.

And finally we have the back west bedroom. Note the door out onto the deck.