Suburban Contemporary #13A

There's more to this house design than meets the eye, at least on first glance. Yes, it is based on the same basic formula as all the other houses in this "series". Yes, it has a third floor, though small, and there is room to put a basement under it.

This design makes maximum use of a view. Three sides are literally covered with windows, especially the first floor rooms that face the east (the library and the dining room). Not only that, but the 3 "view" sides are surrounded by wrap-around decks that help to bring those indoors to the out-of-doors.

The Front

The image below is the "rear" of the house, but still this side makes the very most of the view in this direction. Note the stairs leading down to ground level. Were this house built on a slightly steeper slope there could be sliding glass doors into a walk-out daylight basement. Perhaps even an overhead door so you can store your small fishing boat in the basement.

The Rear

Some additional things worth talking about:

• There is a corner "pre-fab" fireplace in the living room.
• A story and a half circular library with clerestory windows up above. Also, a built-in bookcase and French doors into the breakfast nook area. An additional door opens out onto the deck, nestled under the steep roof overhang.
• One regret: originally I placed "roof holes" (like skylights, but with no glass) so the master bedroom could take in the eastern view, but alas, for some reason the program decided not to honor my request. They had to be removed.
• Modest but certainly adequate kitchen with the range in a rounded island. This island could be built for eat-in access, as well.
• Kitchen and dining have almost 100% windows on their exterior walls. There is no door to the north deck, but there are sliding glass doors in the eastern wall.
• The modest family/TV room has sliding glass doors onto the north deck, and floor to ceiling windows.
• There is a central closet and a small pantry, but storage is minimal on the first floor. The expectation is that there would be a basement under the eastern half of the house, with access via stairs under the main stairway.

On the second and third floors (below), you might want to note the following:

• The front half of this floor is all master suite. The master bath is especially unusual, with curved glass brick walls, small red tiles on the counters, and shiny black fixtures. Note the built-in shower tucked under the slope of the roof.
• Note the circular sitting area (unfortunately unlabeled) in the front. Stairs lead up to the loft above. The loft is shown on the third floor plan, below, and opens onto the master bedroom, which has a cathedral ceiling.
• All the bedrooms have ceiling fans.
• The northeast bedroom is suitable for an older child (or other live-in adult) and has a small study nook with 2 windows facing the view to the east.
• The northwest bedroom is larger, and would be ideal for 2 younger children. Likewise, this large bedroom would be quite suitable for an older child. This bedroom has windows toward the northeast view.

Of course, here is the gallery of images for this design. There are quite a few, since there is so much to see. Well, I'm excited, anyway.

Here is the front view, at night. Just imagine if you lived here.

Now we will begin a tour of this house's exterior. First, a dead-on view of the front.

From across the lake.

And from the driveway. Those are the laundry and half bath windows to the left of the garage doors.

Now, let's take a walk around the house, starting from the front walk.

We just walked past the front door, and now we're looking at the bump-out that houses the fireplace. We're going to walk on around to the library, now.

This is the door into the library, which is the circular room on the right. We are going to continue around the house.

Standing outside the library, we're looking at the sliding doors that lead into the breakfast nook, and at the stairs that go down to ground level.

Here we're on the north deck, looking toward the family room's sliding doors.

So we walk to the sliding doors and turn around.

This view is the rear view from above, only at night. Now we go inside to tour our house.

This is inside the front door looking toward the stairway and living room. That's a closet on our left.

Here we are in the hall between the family room and living room, and we're looking toward the fireplace and front door. That's the library to the left.

We walked over to the hall between the library and the living room, and we're looking toward the front door.

We have turned around, and this is what we see. Imagine this view! Imagine you were lounging in one of those big easy chairs and reading your favorite novel while your favorite tea is brewing on the stove. You can slip into the kitchen through the doors (on the left in this image) any time you want for a refill.

Now, we're standing where the Arts & Crafts lamp was in the image above, and we're looking toward the living room. Note the built-in bookcase.

We make a stop in the doorway of the family room before we head into the kitchen and dining. That door leads to the laundry room, and the outside beyond.

We turned and walked into the kitchen. This image takes in the view of the lake and the trees beyond.

We walked over and are standing in the northeast corner of the dining room. The kitchen lights are bright, but the cool green tile creates a calm, relaxing feeling.

There may be little to see, but we went upstairs and turned to look down to where we came from. The door on the left is the upstairs bath, and the door on the right leads into the master suite.

Here is the upstairs bath, complete with granite counters and copper-colored fixtures.

This is the northeast bedroom. Not too large, but comfortable enough.

Now we have entered the master suite. So we can get a good view, we're standing in the corner (yeah, we do that a lot) and we're looking toward the sitting area. Note the cathedral ceiling and the loft above. This is a very nice space.

From the sitting room, we are looking up the stairs to the loft. The double doors lead to the master bath, where we're going next.

Inside the master bath doors, we take in the twin sinks. That's a vanity on the right. Glass brick provides some privacy while not completely enclosing the space. We're all friends here, anyway!

This is what's hidden behind that curving wall of glass bricks.

We turn around and behold the large spa tub. We stole some space under the roof so we could make a very luxurious master bath.

OK, we're sitting in the tub with the faucet stuck in our back, and this is what we can see. Note the built-in shower stall on the left. The two curving glass brick walls are concentric with the walls of the sitting room and master bath (that means they have the same centers).

The last stop on our tour is the loft. This view shows the sloping ceiling over the master bedroom, and the door that leads to a small, semi-circular deck that's over top the sitting room.

Finally, we have a better view of the loft from the back wall.