I am sure the day will come when I can actually start building. Until then, I have a very active brain and time to engage it. I’m sure this is parallel to the “idle hands” our mothers always told us about.
New plan. Yeah, yeah, I hear you. Stop snickering. Just look at the plan.
FYI, north is up on the floor plan, but not on the external view (you’re looking west there). My architectural software doesn’t do curved walls, but I’m not so sure I want to do curved walls. Windows and doors fit more easily into flat walls. Notice how the smaller circle isn’t centered inside the bigger circle? That does a really cool thing on the outside. I wonder if I could fudge the pitch and the ceiling heights to have the back part of the first floor roof blend into the back of the tower roof . . . I’ll have to play and see.
You’re looking at the house from the east side. See how the roofline is longer on the back (north) side of the house?
The front door is on the east side of the house, next to the driveway. The sliding glass door to the deck goes on the west side, so we can sit out there in the afternoon and enjoy the sun and watch the sun setting over the forested land to the west. The atrium goes all the way across the front inside the floor to ceiling windows. The first floor of the tower is the kitchen, dining room, pantry (under the head of the stairs) and laundry room. The second floor is bedrooms (2) and a full bath (eventually). The remainder of the first floor is bedroom, walk in closet, master bath, den and living room.
Here’s the brilliance of this plan. I can post and beam the tower and build it, or ferrocement the tower and build it. Then I can add the skirt, working as I go adding a sections as finances and time allow. To get an occupancy permit I have to have a working kitchen and a closed in bath, so once the tower structure and infill is done I can add the bath upstairs and put in enough of a kitchen to pass the building department. The bath goes upstairs over the kitchen. To start I don’t need any extra walls. As I go I can close in the stairwell and laundry, both very small walls. The arch going out of the kitchen to the east can be built, then filled in with a exterior door until the outer skirt is closed in. All the other arches can be built, then filled in with walls with windows or doors to close up the house.
Slick. I like it.