Posted the Conceptual Plans under "Pages" - Let me know what you think?
Here are some of the things I was trying to do while taking inspiration from your plan:
- Feng Shui - A front door should never lead directly from front to back since the Chi (energy) will leave the house by entering the front door and leaving out the windows of the rear yard
- Feng Shui - An Eastern Entrance is very strong
- Rooms are on the various levels you have except I moved both offices downstairs so they will be used more
- I added a 3 car garage instead of 2 cars since it will improve the property value significantly but we can change the 2 car garage to a single (so you have 2 singles) if that is what you want (but recommend keeping as is).
- You need to have an impressive entrance so I created an Impluvium (courtyard with a water feature) - and this will also create an impressive view to look down from the master suite (including looking at the view to the North East.
Again if you can post your comments on the website it is easier to keep track of them instead of via e-mail.
Thanks,
Tim
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Replies
Hi, Tim:
The floor plan you provided on May 29 reflect our initial proposed room layout. The features you added such as such as the indented side garage entry, elimination of the den, addition of the library, the use of collumns at the gate and upper balcony etc, are very creative and we like them.
When we try to visual like the plan, we realize the initial layout we provide you might have too many rooms and the sizes of the main suite, kitchen and family room are a little bit too small.
After two weeks of back and forth, we created a revised room layout based on the floor plan of May 29. The new layout enhance the following features:
1. Spacious kitchen, family room (great room) and master suite. The 1st floor bedroom is relocated to the right side of the courtyard (in place of the original living room and office). The nook is relocated to between great room and Kitchen to make the dining room a little bit longer. The locations of the Master bedroom and the junior rooms are switched to allow a bigger master suite.
2. The staircase is relocated to the left side of the entry since it is hard for Jasmine to visualize a staircase by dining area. To avoid the feeling of staircase being to close to the front entry, the entry and 2 car garage was made two feet longer (approx. 22') and the wine cellar is relocated to between kitchen and dining room.
3. The bedrooms on the right side are located to the back half of the building to create a one-story on the right side of the court yard so that the right neighbor do not feel too overwhelmed by our house.
4.We tried explore other features such as bay windows with arch on the upper level and a round elevation for the front junior bedroom with window seat.
4. The biggest change is we decide not to have 2 story family room to keep the size around 3600sf. over the family room are master bath and closet plus a small library/study/dean to create a connection between the 2 level and the backyard. We are not sure if 10feet is high enough for the family room to have a high ceiling feel.
I will find time to email you the proposed layout. Again, our focus is just the room sizes and layout and not architectural features. If any of proposed changes do not make sense or you have better options, please feel free to revise them and the effort will be appreciated.
Jerry
I changed the plans based on your latest ideas - however..... the house started getting too big and I wanted to keep it around 3,600 s.f. to stay on budget. I can increase if you want - but I didn't see value in the Den upstairs and instead added a Library - that works really good outside the Office / Master (but again we can increase the size of the house if you want - and change the Library into a Den) - Let me know?
HI, Tim:
The preview of the 1st floor looks good and we like it. Jasmine just has some difficulty to visualize the staircase. We can talk about it when we meet.
Here I would like to propose one additional change to the 2nd floor plan I emailed you before you finalize it. We would like to move the laundry from the west side to the east side and locate it between the two junior bedrooms. This way, the office on the 2nd floor will be directly connected to the master bedroom and can be used as an office for the family or an attached office to the MB. I will email you the 2nd floor draft for your reference. Please note, on the revised draft, it shows the staircase faces to front entry. I was trying to figure out a better way to access the balcony (if there is one) over the front door so I made some changes to the staircase.
Thank you,
Jerry
Hi, Tim:
A couple of additional notes:
1) I wonder if a window seat can be included in each of the two junior rooms. I know a window seat could be either part of interior design or exterior design (the wall recessed outward). I am not sure which one is a better choice. I will email you a couple of pictures.
2)I wonder if a balcony over the front entry overlooking the courtyard is a good idea. The balcony can be accessed from the den on the second floor.
We like the Impluvium (Courtyard) layout a lot. It is creative.
The current plan is 60’ wide. In order to leave enough room for access to the future rear lot, the plan width needs to be reduced to 50 feet.
The current entrance/stair case is on the right side. A central entrance is preferred (symmetry and balance). The living room, office and master bedroom can be moved to the right side to accommodate this.
A window is preferred for each bathroom and the laundry room.
A tandem living room / dining room layout is preferred.
The current two car garage is on the front right side. After the house width is reduced to 50 feet, the front entry one car garage and the side entry two car garage look a little bit too dominant. Since the setback on the east side is 20 feet at a minimum, the two car side entry garage can be moved to the back of the single car garage.
Based on the above comments, I proposed some changes to the floor plans. The proposed plans will be emailed. A horseshoe driveway is included in the proposed plan.