Blogs

- We had discussed having a small area for shoes, or a "genkan" area with a step up from the door. Could we incorporate this concept into your existing plan by having a step-up from the entry, and by placing a bench with space for shoes on one side?

- We're having second thoughts about the water features facing the entry, as well as surrounding the breakfast area. While there are definitely things we like about incorporating water, we're more worried about the maintenance, kids stepping into water, and generally having a fixture here where our taste might change in the future. Could we plan on doing something without fixtures instead, such as placing furniture that helps break up the room and still allow for the "grand" entrance?

- Similarly, is there a way for us to think about the breakfast area without the water and "bridge" concept, but still provide some character for this space?

- The two of us are still a bit split on the design of the staircases. If it turns out that the staircases push us over the budget, we would be open to just having a single staircase to the left side, perhaps going up over where the powder and bar are currently situated. However, wonder if we would have to re-think the breakfast area, consequently.

- Remove French Doors and replace with windows

- Is there a way to re-think the bathroom sharing situation? Current issue is that there are too many doors going into the bathroom, in order to grant on-suite access from guest suite plus privacy from office/living room. Two potential options:

i) One door into Bath 4, placed adjacent to guest suite entry door. While guest suite needs to walk outside to get to bathroom, it's essentially right next to the suite, while still allowing access from the living room. Office will have to walk further to enter though, but Vince is okay with this.

ii) Create a mini hallway on the side of office entry that provides access to bath 4 AND guest suite. Entry into the Bath 4 would be through a single door. We can still put a door that gets into this mini-hallway, which can be closed off to create a private area for the guest suite & bath 4

- Move stove off island

- We would actually appreciate one single (and bigger) island with cabinets underneath, vs. breaking it out into two. Booth style seating on one side of the island.

- Screens: We are split on whether to have the moving shoji screens for the formal dining and kitchen spaces. We can see ourselves moving the panels toward the left, leaving 1-2 panels there to "block" the view of the kitchen from entry. However, we have a harder time imaging ever needing to close any of the panels on the formal dining side, and wonder if we can just skip this side. (see related comment in Dining)

- As an alternative to the screens, what about just putting a 3-ft. high divider on the south side, separating the living room and kitchen? We would like some way to not make kitchen so visible as guests walk in the front door

- We are okay NOT to have panels that open into the backyard from dining. Instead, we'd love to do bigger windows there over a sideboard. The big french doors on the west side should be sufficient.

- Bar: Instead of having an "L' shape bar area, wondering if we can "slim" this down and just do a wet bar/cabinets against the south side of that wall. We'd be okay not having an island/counter for seating, and if we'd really like to have bar seating there, we'd okay buying a tall bar table with bar stools in that area. We can be swayed, though, if there is really a lot of value to having a more formal bar area, in terms of the value of the house.

- Shoji Screen: Related to the "slimmed-down" bar, wondering if we can also "slim down" the shoji screen design here but just having screens running on the east side of the room, and SKIPPING the one panel on the south side. Given that we won't have sliding panels on the north side, also wonder if there is a way for us to slide all the panels over and "hide" them on the wall toward the north side of the dining room. Or, conversely, if this can be accomplished on the south side be sliding the panels toward the wall shared with the powder, we can also consider that.

- Like the layout overall, but would like to remove the french doors. We are still thinking less about what adult inhabitants would enjoy vs. having another "escape route" for our future teens. Instead, wonder if we can do nice big windows here and potentially fit in a piece of furniture or custom bench to create a bay window type of space for reading/relaxing.

- We're thinking about placement of furniture, and wonder if we need to tweak the dimensions of the room and placement of bath/walk-in closet accordingly. Three things we'd do with our furnishings:

1. We'll likely want to move our bed to the east side, so that we can wake up facing the Las Trampas/San Ramon Valley view featured on the west side, as well as being able to watch TV (presumable hung on the wall on the west side between the big glass corners)

2. Given likely placement of the bed, we'd like to still make sure we have a little retreat area where we can place a loveseat or two chairs to watch TV and admire the view. 

3. Accordingly, I think we can still keep the doorway into the master bath as-is, but are open to other suggestions

- Shower area: We see that it's currently more of a trapezoid shape given how we're drawing the toilet. Is there a way to make it rectangular? (see related comment on the toilet)

- Toilet: Instead of its current position, is there a way to place the toilet such that we can get a small window, so we can minimize the need to lighting during the day (plus ventilation?) Perhaps re-configure how we currently have the walk-in closet drawn to make this happen?

- Door into master bath: If we simply get rid of the door going into the master bath, would this help with the re-configuration above?

- Thinking about the area just outside the master suite, toward the northwest corner, is it possible to do a loggia here to provide a sitting area without blocking the view to the West/NW? OR:

- Are we better off thinking about placing a loggia in the space between dining and great room, now that we are not thinking doing panels?

- Agree on having no direct entry into the house, as long as we have covered access back to the house.

- Can we move the door to the southeast corner of the garage instead?