The house site is a south facing slope with a treed in deep ravine on the north side containing a year round creek. The satellite photo was taken in 1990, prior to our purchase of the property. The small house seen in the photo was burned to the ground just before the sale closed. The fire damaged the fruit trees around the cabin and took out the pump house. The only remaining trees are in a cluster with the giant maple southwest of the cabin. None of the remaining fruit trees are of sufficient health to be saved and will be removed.
At some point it becomes necessary to step back and review. At this point I have in excess of 12 different general shapes. Some are presented here. There are a few shapes I played with that aren’t on this list as they were so unappealing they never made it into my architectural software. If you see elements of design that are sticking through walls it’s due to the limitations of my architectural software. I can’t individually edit the element shapes.
This is the layout of the outside of the house. Regardless of the house shape the deck will be on the west and south and the drive will come in from the east and go out to the south. The gray dashed double lines are the locators for future construction.
There’s nothing quite as valuable as architectural software that lets you walk through your design. I see things that are not apparent from an overhead view of the layout, things I wouldn’t normally consider important. I don’t want someone walking up the sidewalk and seeing right into the bathroom to the toilet. I don’t want to lay in bed and see right into the master bathroom with a full view of the toilet . . . yuk). Walkthroughs show me what flows and what is cramped, what’s going to look claustrophobic and what feels comfortable. It gives me an accurate feeling for balance and layout. I’m not concerned about color and pattern at this point.
Below are links to the various footprint shapes I explored in my search for *our* house.
Container House was devised while talking to my brother about fast cheap housing. He’s still fascinated with containers. I’m looking forward to seeing what he finally does when he and his wife’s house sells to developers and he becomes a rural gentleman.
Shell House came from a vague image prompted by a really neat curved gatehouse I found on the web.
Half House is a box designed to be expanded.
Two Octagons is not a box, but is also designed to be expanded.
Three Octagons is the above house expanded.
Clover House is a noticable improvement on the layout of the above design.
Four Pod Mushed is another improvement on the above concept.
Starter Pod . . . we’re nearly there. I love this house!
Changing the Dent is the latest and best iteration yet.
And The Saga Continues is another short sojourn into design. Fun, but not serious.
12 Sides, 8′ Walls is the best so far . . . it has it all.
What Terry Likes is a short and very unserious side journey.
The compromise makes Terry happy.
Improving the design makes us both happy.
Updates to the plan smooth out some rough edges.
A simple starting point that is very workable.