Getting close, but have questions.

[phalynx]

The family and I are going to be moving to TN here in the next 6 months.  We are currently looking for land, about 10-30 acres, heavily wooded.  

We are trying to decide what floorplan to build.  There are so many options.  We have 2 girls, 4 and 8.  We are looking at the 1.5 story, the 2 story, and the 14x28 L.  Cost is clearly an issue.  I built my shop in TX all stick built and have some experience building.  The basement will be new to me... Have to learn that one.  

But, here are the questions for all of you:

Floorplans, can those of you who have built your 1.5, 2 story, and 14x28, post a picture of your finished floorplans?  I know many have made modifications and I think they would benefit everyone, including me.  I have read almost the entire forum looking at the ideas.

Closets..  What are you doing for closets?  Almost none of the plans have closets or much of one.  We are shrinking way down to enjoy a more refreshing life but, we do need some closet space.

Flooring..   What wood is everyone using for floors?  These floors in some of these pictures look great....  Plank flooring.  What kind is it?

Wood trim and beams..  What kind of wood are you using.  Some of these beams just enhance the look so much when laquered.

I have tons of other questions but I will hold off for now in case they get answered.  

Thank you so much for your responses.  Jeff in TN, I am watching your construction, and the other guy in TN with the 20x30.  Great job!!

Scott

[Amanda_931]

It might work better to keep thinking about what you need or want in the way of space, order, etc. , but not feel that the perfect piece of land has a suitable building spot, easy to find that will look perfect with that house on it.

I.e. let your final design come out of the land, and not vice versa.

Lots of people think that a year is not too long to wait.  

I do think that my four years is a little much.

[Larry]

Here is what we did with the 20x30 plan.  We went with 12 foot walls to give more ceiling height on the second floor.  The first floor will be a family room, kitchen and bath.  There is storage under the stairway.  The second floor is two bedrooms and a half bath.  I'll fit some closets in to the short sections along the outside walls.  I also have a lot of storage in the space over the deck roof.  Here are some rough drawings.


I have some pictures posted at
home.bellsouth.net/personalpages/pwp-ourcabin

Hope this helps.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Larry

[Shelley]

You hit one of my hot buttons.  My belief is that people don't need so much space to live.  They generally gravitate to one or two rooms in their house and leave the others unused.

But the stuff.  What to do with the stuff?  Xmas decorations, family mementos, grandma's sideboard,  too many clothes and toys, papers, documents, stuff.

People who live on boats and RVs generally discard something if they buy something new.  They often have storage somewhere else for their eventual life change.

Most people wind up with a house far too large just to store their stuff.

Our solution was to build a generous shop/storage/stuff place with modest living quarters.  Don't know if this is the answer, but we're giving it a shot.   If you're looking for acreage, you'll need lots of stuff just to take care of it.

 We chose to build the shop from metal since it seems to be the biggest bang for the buck....given our age.  We simply don't have the time left on our parking meter to mill our own lumber, make our own adobes, do the things that one could do to make another method cheaper than the mongo red iron building that's ALMOST FINISHED.  Yeah!

[Jimmy C.]

You hit one of my hot buttons.  My belief is that people don't need so much space to live.  They generally gravitate to one or two rooms in their house and leave the others unused.

But the stuff.  What to do with the stuff?  Xmas decorations, family mementos, grandma's sideboard,  too many clothes and toys, papers, documents, stuff.

People who live on boats and RVs generally discard something if they buy something new.  They often have storage somewhere else for their eventual life change.

Most people wind up with a house far too large just to store their stuff.

 

George Carlin on Stuff


That's all you need in life, is a little place for your stuff, ya know?

I can see it on your table, everybody's got a little place for their stuff.

This is my stuff, that's your stuff, that'll be his stuff over there.

That's all you need in life, a little place for your stuff.

That's all your house is: a place to keep your stuff.

If you didn't have so much stuff, you wouldn't need a house.

You could just walk around all the time.

A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it.
You can see that when you're taking off in an airplane.
You look down, you see everybody's got a little pile of stuff.
All the little piles of stuff.

And when you leave your house, you gotta lock it up.
Wouldn't want somebody to come by and take some of your stuff.
They always take the good stuff.
They never bother with that crap you're saving.
All they want is the shiny stuff.

That's what your house is, a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get...more stuff!

Sometimes you gotta move, gotta get a bigger house.

Why?

No room for your stuff anymore.

Did you ever notice when you go to somebody else's house, you never quite feel a hundred percent at home?

You know why?

No room for your stuff.

[Amanda_931]

Sometimes I feel MORE at home at other people's houses.

why?

[glb]because they don't have too much stuff[/glb]

[phalynx]

Well, with the hurricane that was heading directly for us last week, we stuffed everything of value into our camper and took off.  It was nice to see what we could live without....

Larry,  GREAT!!!  Exactly what I wanted to see.

Shelley,  we have all of the land equipment, we currently live on a 12 acre piece of land.  But, now we want land we will be happy on.

[Shelley]

I was gonna mention George Carlin, Jimmy.  His routine on "stuff" is too funny.

 But, as much as I try to downsize, there's stuff that's just stuff, that I can't seem to rid myself of.

[phalynx]

Well,  my plans are on the way!  Thanks John....

I decided on the 1.5 story 20x30 and I really like Larry's plan....

I am excited.  Since I can't build the real one until 2006, I will probably build a balsa model just so I can work out any kinks in my mind..  Plus it will give me something to do...

[Larry]

I would also recommend going back and reading John's article on "Thought Experiments".  We do most of our work on the weekends so I spend the time during the week thinking about how I am going to do something.  I'll think about a couple of different ways to do something and then when I get to the work site I have some ideas about how to proceed.  
I have been surprised several times by how fast or how slow something goes.  We have done almost all the work ourselves so often I am working out how I am going to lift something into place or manage some of the heavier pieces.
I try to work a lot of these things out in my head in advance.  Of course many people would refer to this as day dreaming.  Maybe their right, or maybe it's a little of both.

[phalynx]

Well, the plans arrived at exactly the same time I bought some balsa.  Ok, well, they arrived, wife called, and I went and bought balsa.  But, I like my version better.

So I started building.  I have it about 70% done, but, it's not bad.  I extended the wall height to 12' instead of 10' to get and extra width of 8' high upstairs.

Here is a pic
http://www.tncountry.com/model1.jpg

[Amanda_931]

Looks nice.

stairs?

when I worked for a framing subcontractor, I heard about some blueprints getting out to another (possibly stuff of urban legend) without stairs to the second story!

[phalynx]

Right now, it is extremely modular.  I can put the stairs almost anywhere.  interior walls, exterior walls can all be replaced, etc.

[JRR]

I really like the idea of building a to-scale balsa model.  

I also like that particular house plan.  I wonder how difficult it would be to get the roof trusses and the wall studs on the same spacing ... either both 16"oc or 24"oc?   ... and then change to "balloon framing"?  In my mind (game?), that would make erection much quicker and hopefully more safe.

[phalynx]

I don't believe it would be difficult to convert the trusses to 16" oc but I don't know if it would be needed.  This model is balloon framed.  I didn't actually build the 2nd floor joists as I got lazy.  I did build the subfloor with modeled 4x8 sheets of plywood,,, hence the lazyness now.

[phalynx]

Here are pics of the current floorplan for those interested.





(I fixed a bad link on the 1st image and made them a postable image - JR)

[trish2]

Your 3-D looks great.  Now place your livingroom/diningroom furniture.
  
Check your traffic patterns from front door to other rooms in the house.  How does it feel?  Pay attention to the traffic flow between kitchen, livingroom and bedrooms.

 If you have to walk in front of the TV to get travel between those areas, then I classifiy this as a 'busy' floorplan.  Right about the time you're watching the big game and the girls run through your line of sight for the 3rd time, you're likely to become a little miffed if you miss the big play.

[bil2054]

Storage space... have you considered armoires?  They can be attractive pieces of furniture, and I think are less likely to "collect" extra junk. (Remember, it's "Fibber McGee's Closet")  
I think it makes for a more spacious feel to a room, as well.... closets reduce floor space, while wardrobes or armoires are another item in a bigger room.

[glenn-k]

A real estate lady told me that a bedroom is not a bedroom without a closet.  Is it one with an armoire?

[phalynx]

I wonder what they called them before they had closets?  I know several old houses without closets.  Maybe they were just called "rooms"  

[Amanda_931]

Seems like I read once that closets as furniture were big someplace in Europe (Switzerland?, where they're called Schrank?) that if you put in a closet it was considered a separate room and taxed accordingly.

They do take up less room than walls.

[phalynx]

and...  you can move your "closet" around...

[glenn-k]

The lady that mentioned the info about the closet in the bedroom was a rental manager also and said that it wasn't 3 bedrooms for rental purposes if the closet wasn't there.  

[quil]

Nice floor plan it doesn't look like you have much wasted space. I have been told by a house appraisor and real estate agents that a bedroom has to have a closet and a window large enough to leave out of it.
We are also designing our house right now. I will be downsizing from 2500 sq ft to about 1000 sq ft for the house .  And half to 1/3 the size for the garage. I have not fiqured out yet if I even have room for the garage. So a lot of STUFF will have to go. We have been touring a lot of small homes right now to get the feel of what is too small. I'm getting a lot of good storage ideas from the 'Not So Big House Books' from Sarah Susanka. Lots of nice built-ins for storage. I am also making note on how we live in our house now. Which rooms we use and how we use the rooms.

[phalynx]

The "not so big house" books are great.  all kinds of new ideas to save space.  I just discovered how to create the stairs at a 45 degree angle in my 3d package so i am re-ding the stairs to get a little more room.  

Also, after a little spat this weekend between the 4 and the 8 year old, we have decided that seperate bedrooms could a be a real winner.  That is soooooo tough with closets...