Volks modification

[NorthwestDenise]

Hello All -- I've been lurking for many years, also posted occasionally (I was Denise-in-Alaska before I headed south), and am now beginning to get serious about building.  I have property in Washington, Whatcom County, and am starting the process of wading through the miles of red tape involved in the permit process here.  I bought the plans for the 20x30 1 and a half story a while back, but I'm now leaning towards one story, and due to complications at my building site I need the house to be wider than it is deep.  So.... I'm playing around with John's Volks plan, and would like some feedback on what I've come up with.  I've downsized it a bit (budget constraints.....) but kept the parts I liked, which were room for a side-by-side washer/dryer, bathroom next to the bedroom, and small bedroom that I can use for an office.  Please ignore my slightly innacurate wall lengths, window sizes etc. -- I'm learning how to use BH & G Home Designer 8.0, and I have more yet to learn.  But I'd really like feedback re the general layout, any glaring omissions or problems.  I've seen how much this forum has helped so many others, and am looking forward to benefiting from the large pool of accumulated wisdom here.

Let me know if this floorplan doesn't post, or if there's a better way to post it.

Many thanks,
Denise



ED: fixed image link. too many img tags.  - MD

[glenn kangiser]

Looks great to me, Denise.  The open kitchen /living area make things seem more spacious.  It is what we have in our studio apt. area of the underground complex...

[NorthwestDenise]

Thanks, Glenn!  I'm not sure if you can see the dimensions (I sure can't -- bifocal issue.....), but I reduced the big section to 24x24, and reduced the addition to 14x14, which should save me a bit in materials without losing any of the essentials.  Has anyone on the forum built the Volks?  I really liked John's pictures of the Grandfather Cottage, but I redid the kitchen/dining/living area partly to make it more open and spacious (like you said), and partly to get the kitchen away from the back of the house, where on my building site it would get very little daylight.

And thanks MD for editing my photo posting -- it was my first try....

[glenn kangiser]

I can see them - the living/kitchen area is just a little smaller than our studio area 16x28 - and we find it to be our favorite area.

Firefox will enlarge the pictures and type- etc by pushing [control +] and reduce by [control -]

A quick way to make things easier to see.

[NorthwestDenise]

So, my daughter looked at my plans and said that since she was planning on visiting me frequently, I might think about making the attic space usable for guests.  I'm thinking that if I made the roof 10/12, there'd be enough headroom upstairs, but I'm having a heck of a time figuring out where to put code-compliant stairs.  I looked at the Victoria's Cottage plans hoping for inspiration, and saw that John said in the plan-ordering info that "a full sized code stair that goes up to the loft ... could also be used to go on down to a basement from a kitchen access door,"  but in looking at the Victoria's plan I can't see where he'd put that "access door".  Has anyone done the Victoria with code-compliant (non-spiral) stairs, and/or can anyone suggest where I might put a stairway in my Volks modification plan?