House Design Opinions

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Any thoughts about this style of house to sit on a wooded, lakefront lot?

Welcome to StoneBridge Nightly Rentals, Branson Missouri

[ArtsieAng Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close ArtsieAng]

The design, and styling of the home seems very appropriate for the location. It's a nice look and will blend in nicely as well as not date itself, over time.

I don't know if you are talking about this exact home, or just the look of this home.......I took a look at the 4 bdrm floor plan, and my thoughts are that there are too many bedrooms for the amount of dining/great room space, in this plan. There is a screened porch, which is nice. However, I would want a little more living space, for a 4 bdrm. JMHO

[camachinist Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close camachinist]

Classic design; too many BR's/BA's for the total floor space. Lose a ground floor BR/BA (perhaps retain a powder room) and make a double sided fireplace and more open floor plan for a retreat/study/FR etc. I see something wrong with a floorplan when a bedroom is nearly as large as a great room and 4 bedrooms have to feed that same communal space.

I'd do a master suite on the ground floor and retain 2BR's with their own baths on the second floor. This would help with rentals of the upstairs rooms but still give the home a more "owner" feel and still provide less of a burden for the elderly/handicapped. I'd do an accessible master bath on the main floor, just for that eventuality, and make the ingress/egress to/from the main floor similar.

JMO as an engineer...

Pat

[jericap Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close jericap]

Classic design; too many BR's/BA's for the total floor space. Lose a ground floor BR/BA (perhaps retain a powder room) and make a double sided fireplace and more open floor plan for a retreat/study/FR etc. ..
I'd do a master suite on the ground floor and retain 2BR's with their own baths on the second floor. This would help with rentals of the upstairs rooms but still give the home a more "owner" feel and still provide less of a burden for the elderly/handicapped. I'd do an accessible master bath on the main floor, just for that eventuality, and make the ingress/egress to/from the main floor similar.

I agree with the above except, I personally have a tendency to use my bedroom as a retreat, so based on how I would build it for my preferences, I would have a bigger master bedroom, like one of the upper bedrooms.

But even built the way it is...it is a beautiful house! I love all the windows!!

[camachinist Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close camachinist]

As a caregiver who cared for my elderly mother for a number of years, I learned a lot about limitations of the elderly and handicapped. Designing for that eventuality (we'll all get old) is now much more important to me. I agree that the downstairs bedroom, if made into a master suite, should be larger and, given the appearance of the home structure and subsystems, that would be easy to accomplish. Making it accessible would almost necessitate enlargement, given parameters pursuant to wheelchair access. I would also make the powder room (currently a downstairs BR bath) accessible by eliminating the shower and utilizing current floor space.

The preceding is based on the assumption that the OP would be using the property for income production; appealing to the broadest audience helps to ensure financial success. If strictly a personal residence, they should of course design to their own needs, but IMO should still have an eye on such issues as access when older/less able-bodied.

Another option, for someone who enjoys the view from a multi-story structure, would be to engineer the space for the future installation of a residential elevator, which have become a bit more affordable in recent decades. I've been in a few private homes which have them and find them quite convenient when guests are relegated to the second or third floors of the home, especially for handling luggage and heavy/bulky personal items.

Lots of ideas

Pat

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

This house plan is being used by a couple of developers as investment condos in the Branson area, thus the four master suites each with a jetted tub in the bathroom. Incidentally, RCI will be doing the nightly rentals for them.

One of the developers has redone the interior floor plan for us, and we took a look at it yesterday. A few more changes are being made. We don't have four master suite with four jetted tubs. In the house part of the house were actually only going to have two bedrooms and three bathrooms, with an office and a loft bedroom.

We have a bonus room/guest sweet above the garage (FROG--Finished Room Over Garage), and two 1-bedroom guest suites in the basement. That stuff is all future development.

The exterior is stone and cedar facing the road and cedar-look, low-maintenance hardy plank on the sides and facing the lake.

All of this depends on the $$$$ and we have not heard that yet.

This week I cut down the rest of the cedar trees on our lot and we may skin them and use them as posts on the front porch gable.

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

Jim,

How often would all those bedrooms be used? Where would you and Jenny have your master and majority of use space?

Pat makes some wonderful observations and suggestions.

Even though I am not "old" per se, there have been many times when I was grateful for our 1/2 flights of steps and the ability of being able to exist solely on the main/entry level of my home when necessary. I have spent a few times in my life where steps are nearly impossible.

I like the first floor layout a LOT if that were the whole house. It is balanced. I agree with the 2 large upper bedrooms, depending on how often they are in use that the common area of the house is too small. Plus the heating bills on those cathedral ceiling areas is very high.

just my 2 cents.

[riverdees05 Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close riverdees05]

How are the woodpeckers down there? In southeast Missouri they really love cedar siding. A few ideas: 1. If you have a Master Bedroom upstairs, then consider adding a space for a stackable washer & dryer. 2. Have electrical outlets in the hallways. 3. Add plenty of electrical outlets in the garage and outside 4. Prewire for HDTV, Sound, Intercom, Security System, Telephone, etc. 5. Prewire for Generator 6. Consider Tankless Hot Water Heater

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Working backwards:

We have many woodpeckers. Every variety. That is the reason we have moved away from our original, log-home concept. This is more tradition construction with limited cedar trim, only on the front. Lower maintenance, too.
- - - - - -
The main floor is our house. They have redone the design as follows:

There is no bedroom suite on the left. In it's place we have moved the kitchen to the back left corner. It will be open on the right side to the additional LR/GR/DR area that opened up in the center, where the kitchen was. That area could be cathedral ceiling like the LR, with a just a catwalk on the second floor going to the bedroom on the right. But we are leaving the drop ceiling in that area to give us a large loft area on the second floor.

So, when you go in the front, that room carries through to the back, with glass on the back wall, without the obstruction of the kitchen. That's what we wanted, and we were able to tuck the kitchen into the back, our of sight, but still open to the main room.

The fireplace is moved to the back righthand corner of that new GR area, so that there can also be a FP in the basement and the loft area, if we want.

Also on the left on the main floor is a hallway to the garage/workshop (20 x 36), a pantry (if we want it, but there is beaucoup cabinet and counter space in the kitchen), the laundry room, and a 3/4 bath with a corner shower.

Our master suite is on the right, with walkin closet, jetted corner tub, shower, double-basin vanity, walkout to lakefront deck.
- - - - - -
On the upper level, the bedroom on the right has become a smaller bedroom on the back and a Jenny's room on the front where the window dormer is. The bedroom on the left has become the upstairs bath with tub/shower, Jim's office and hallway to the bonus room over the garage. The loft area in the center is 18 x 21, and the back wall will be glass to reflect the front entry way gable.
- - - - - -
The basement will be two walkout 1 bedroom suites, the mechanical room, and a common room.

The two basement suites and the FROG can be private, with entry from outside and locked off to the rest of the house. They are there for future B & B, or large/multi-family lake house use.

Initially it will be two-bedroom/ 3-bath, but it could be 6-bedroom/5-bath/1 office.