Architect’s floor plans

UPDATE: I’ve flipped my plans so that the plans are facing the same ‘direction’ as the architect’s plans, so that you don’t get a headache when comparing.  The rooms on the left side of the plans will get the sun throughout the majority of the day (this time of year: from 09:00-ish to 19:00-ish).  The rooms at the top of the plans will get the evening sun (from about 19:00-ish).  The rooms at the right-hand side of the plans get the morning sun (this time of year:  from 06:00-ish to 09:00-ish; at high summer: from 04:00 to 09:00-ish).

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I meant to post these two weeks ago, but — again — I haven’t been spending a lot of time on the computer.  I’d like to know what you think about them.  Which plans do you like better: the ones I drew up or the architects?  Which house would you prefer to live in?  Do you like aspects of both, and, if so, which?  I can’t make up my mind.  I like some aspects of the architect’s, but I really like the upstairs open space and the living room in mine.

Note 1: the square footage/meterage is pretty much the same as in my floorplans.

Note 2: in the architect’s plans, the wall between the dining room and the ‘sunspace’ will either be removed all together, or will be replaced with an accordion glass door, or will be removed altogether.

Note 3: in the architect’s plans on the top floor, the voids are there to bring light to the centre of downstairs.  I don’t like voids.  In fact, I can say that I hate voids.  They’ll just bring noise from the ground floor to the top floor.  Why would I want that?  So, we’ll either have glass sections in the floor (but probably not, because of the expense), or light tubes that bring natural light down to the bottom floor.

Note 4:  the wall between the hallway upstairs and the room that says ‘balcony’ will be pulled back to give more space in the end room.

Note 5: both Graeme and I want the void in the upstairs end room to be straight across the whole floor and not as deep.  Strangely, we have to fight for this because the architect is adamant that we don’t want this because it won’t be aesthetically pleasing.  We’re of the mind that that a narrow strip of floor 60cm wide is useless and we’d prefer useable floorspace.  (Of course, I’d prefer not to have a void, but hubby wants one and marriage is a compromise, as you know.)

Ground Floor

Top floor

And so that you don’t have to click to the other pages, my plans are below.

Crystal's Plans

 

Update

I think it’s time to give you an update on the house.  I mean, that’s what it says on the box, right?  “A sometimes blog…about building our own house.”

Of course, we haven’t begun building the house.

And…um…I kinda hafta admit that even if we wanted to build the house tomorrow, we couldn’t because…well…that would mean having blueprints and planning permission and that sort of thing.

And we don’t.

Oh.

And it would also mean that we would have to have free space to put the house…and we don’t have that, either.  Yet.   Um…because there is still a house where we need to put our house.

But we’re getting there.  Slowly.  Slowly.  S – L – O – W – L – Y   we are getting there.

In fact, we met up with Nicole, our architect, a week ago, and talked over the first draft of drawings for the house.  They weren’t at all what I thought they were going to be, and my first reaction was: what?! Which was quickly followed by: I do not like that; no, sir, I do not.

And then I thought to myself: wait.  Don’t react.  Mull the layout over for a day or five.  Picture yourself there.  Picture yourself in the space.

And you know what?  It’s never what I would have designed, myself,  in a million, squillion, kazillion years, but I like it.  I really, truly like it.  It is going to be a really nice living space.  One with restful areas, and one where we can also have 20 of our friends over, if we wanted to, and if they all showed up at the same time, which would be a miracle because they live in five different countries and all have kids and stuff, and their kids are all on different routines, and they probably don’t have any money ‘coz they have kids, and the ones that do have money will come over, but there’s no way that would amount to 20 people.

Where was I?

Right.  A space where outside and inside aren’t that far apart, and one where we can grow as a family.  (Umm…Note to Mom: don’t get excited, Mom.  Still nothing happening on that front.  This is a future family.  Possibly a fantasy family, the way things are going.  Maybe by family I mean cats.  Lots and lots of cats.  Wearing sweaters.) And that’s why we hired an architect, rather than a draftsman.

As for the removal of the old house…Well, I’m kinda sorta getting somewhere, in that I only have 1/4 of the floorboards upstairs to remove, and then I can begin removing all the drywall downstairs, bringing everything back to the stone walls.   To remind yourself what the upstairs used to look like, go here.  Now things look a bit like this:

And then the aftermath:

Oh, and here is a recent picture of the girls and C.D, having their morning water.  (That’s right:  Christmas Dinner.  Isn’t he handsome?)

 

 

 

Blueprints. (sort of)

Graeme and I received the first drawings of the house from our architect on Tuesday.  There are some aspects we are very pleased with, others we’re not so keen on, a few where we are reserving judgement for a few days, and a couple aspects we can’t see ourselves living with.

It’s all very exciting.

Next step is to make an appointment with Nicole to talk everything over.  Yay!

 

Pocket Doors

Graeme and I drove to Forres today for a face-to-face meeting with our architect, Nicole. We were, both of us, a teensy bit leery about the visit, as it had been so long since we had communicated with her by something other than email, and Graeme and I haven’t been all that great at getting back to her right away with answers to her queries, and, because we still don’t know her that well, who knows what the tone in her emails really is? Had we been so lax that she decided she didn’t want to work with us? Was she still the right architect for us? How confident were we, really, that she’d be able to sort out our vague ideas and half-articulated thoughts and realise them? (Okay. That’s what was going through my head. I know hubby was riding a much less neurotic train of thought.)

As with most of my worries, these ones were completely unfounded. In fact, I rank them right up there with, “all the skin is going to peel away from my hands, because I accidentally spilled some bleach on them this afternoon and that’s what the picture on the bottle says will happen, Mom, and that’s why it’s two o’clock in the morning and I’m in the kitchen washing my hands with lemon juice, because even though this happened hours ago, and I washed my hands with lots of water and then lemon juice when it happened, I’m sure my skin is beginning to peel off. See?” *points to slightly dry skin between fingers* (True story.)

Nicole put us completely at our ease and is definitely the right architect for us. The proof? Pocket doors.

One of my secret wishes for this house is that it will have a set of beautiful, wooden pocket doors. Hubby has the Walsh-house on Duff Road to blame for this. My child’s eye remembers beautiful, wooden pocket doors between the living- and rec-room, with texture and character. Even now, I can feel and hear the rumble as I open them in an expansive gesture and they slide into the walls. Nicole? She always tries to sneak pocket doors into her house designs. Always. Oh, don’t get me wrong; there are more practical reasons for her being the perfect architect…but it’s the pocket doors that have sealed it.

 

Treading Water

I just read my inital post. I had no idea how much of an optimist I sometimes am. It’s almost the middle of July and Graeme and I are still living with Bob and we’re probably three weeks away from moving into the trailer home. Still, this leaves me with time to repaint. Yay! Good-bye Magnolia. Hello Sage!

On a wee bit of a side-track…EVERY newly sold house and EVERY rented apartment have ‘Magnolia’ on the walls (Graeme will tell you differently, but he’s wrong). It’s enough to drive you insane. Remember that short story — what was it called? The Yellow Room? — Nope just looked it up on Google and that’s not it, although it sounds like a good read and I’m going to have a go at it. The story I am thinking about is The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gillman. (God knows how I know about this story. I think I must have read it when I was in the latter stages of TPS or the earlier stages of CASS. It can’t be as early as TTCPS.) But, now that I’ve re-read it, the only similarities are: a) Magnolia is also a hideous colour and b) I wouldn’t want to be locked in a room with it. Especially since it’s usually painted over ‘woodchip’ wallpaper — wallpaper that is textured with tiny woodchips so that the old, uneven plaster underneath is not noticable. This wallpaper is vile. Truly. I have proof. Just read the first paragraph of this. But even more vile is this. Can you believe that someone went to the trouble of making fake woodchip paper? Neither can I.

Okay. Rant mode off and returning to where I should be:

Graeme and I are not even close to moving in. We’ve just come back from a wonderful two week holiday in Germany visiting old haunts and old friends and we find that the house-pixies did not lift a finger while we were gone: the septic tank still needs to be hooked up (and even though we just had it drained it is now full to the brim with H2O!?!), the old gas boiler is still on the wall and the new one has yet to be installed [note to all my North American friends and family: the gas boiler supplies instant hot water to the taps and also provides the hot water for the radiators], and the large gas tank which is to supply the gas boiler with — well — gas has yet to be delivered and hooked-up. Oh, there’s more, but those are the major jobs. Still, I consider the snags we’re encountering with the trailer home to be good practice for when we actually start building the house. Good-bye rose-tinted glasses.

And the last bit of news for today: the architect we are planning to work with, Nicole Edmonds, has just received two awards for her work. You can find the articles here and here.

And one more thing: check out Michelle Mclaughlin’s artwork and crafts at CottonPetal. She’s imaginative and talented and it shows (and I have such envy!).