Progress: Upstairs, and Window Drama Yet Again

Ironically, after looking at the great room stairs picture I uploaded in the previous post, it just seemed like the window (or lack thereof) was wrong.  If I compare this mock-up that our architect did for us long ago:

to the picture of the great room stairs now:

...  it's way off.  I'm all for privacy from the street in the great room, but this is a little much!  Thankfully, yesterday my builder had noticed that the ICF guys had not filled this area all the way to the top with concrete during the first pour, in anticipation of placing a window.  Sigh of relief!  We are now working on getting that edited, needless to say.

In other more progressive news, the upstairs has begun.   Once again, I feel the house is too big which would not have been my preference: 

That's the hole to the foyer below, which has a double ceiling.  Another area of contention was that the contractors were freaking out that some of the windows in the back are not the same head height.  My architect and I realized this wasn't the norm, but I've always said "business in the front, party in the back".  It was funny - as much trouble we were having with the language barrier, as soon as I said that, the contractors understood and started laughing.  Carry on!

Fireplace Wall Design - The Big Looming Decision

This decision needs to be made this week due to the 2nd story ICFs going up.  To be sure, the Main Living Area is absolutely the most important decision to make in a house.  This is no exception for mine.  Below is the main living area recap on the house, with the red box indicating the "most important wall decision in the house".  The house is going for a very open floorplan in the main living area, starting with the library (see minor library edits previous post), breakfast, living and study all centering around the openness of the kitchen: 

and how the furniture layout is anticipated to be:

Now here's a look from the breakfast vicinity looking out into the great room, with the newly-built stairs:

 

and the view standing from the study (which is really a den) into the great room and kitchen beyond: 

those red lines are up for debate and the only thing that is certain so far:  1) it will have a 2-way fireplace and 2) the TV goes here.  A local design instructor friend may come over at some point to help me map out exactly what to do with this priority wall, because I'm just uncertain (a rarity).  Up for debate:

1.  should the wall be closed on one side of fireplace?
2.  or left open on both sides of the fireplace for a total open feel?
3.  or do a "partial" as it is now, with a sliding wood panel "interior window" of sorts and maybe a drop-down from the ceiling line since the room is 20' tall? ...  ...  

Somehow, Someway:  A Cohesive Clash of Styles...

Then there is the issue of schematics and material of the actual fireplace wall.  Material choices aside, the below pictures are all appealing for different reasons:

Contemporary Living Room design by Austin Architect Cornerstone Architects

Modern Living Room design by Los Angeles Architect MAGDALENA GLEN-SCHIENEMAN, AIA

Modern Living Room design by Houston Architect C O N T E N T Architecture
 

Contemporary Living Room design by San Francisco Media And Blogs California Home + Design

...  I want to meld the above more "urban" style with the soft and clean palette of the style of my house. It needs to be unexpected but still conform to the aesthetics of the house.  So, I found a picture of a room similar to the great room in look/scale:

Mediterranean Family Room design by Phoenix Architect Carson Poetzl, Inc.

Then, I copied & pasted various features until I could get a more realistic look of what my room might look like.  These ended up being my two favorites (forgive the "stairs" - this is a very rudimentary attempt on the old school Paint program): 

I've sent it to the architect to see what she comes up with.  We shall see. 
 

Progress: Framing and Some Design Edits

The front door saga from the previous post continues, but after much thought we are just telling them to fix it.  Just one of those mistakes that unfortunately needs to be fixed on our dime.  So, waiting to hear how they expect to do that and get rid of a 6ft chunk of our concrete wall.  Good times!

The downstairs framing is now complete (2nd story ICFs to begin now) except for the fireplace wall in the great room.  This is the most important wall in the entire house from a design/impact perspective.   Normally I make decisions at lightning speed, but this particular wall has me being very thoughtful and I want to wait until everything is in (stairs, framing) before depicting its use.  I'm actually having a friend from a local design college consult on it for me when it's time, just so that all options can be explored.  I'm not sure if I want it as a "standard" built-in shelf/TV wall, or a more modern/edgy version, or just an open non-wall altogether.  Right now we have a cool "interior window with sliding wood panel" there but I want to explore other options too.

As the above picture indicates, I've also shrunk the stairs to as narrow as codes will allow, and to my delight the layout allowed for us to eliminate the bottom landing step as well as the support post in front of the cooktop in the kitchen, which will make it seem even more open and unobstructed. 

Here's a view from that non-existing fireplace wall into the kitchen.   The great room picture window is to the left and the kitchen sink window to the right:

Thank You, Author Sarah Susanka 

As noted below, I'm debating making that one big pantry, or at least moving the wall a little bit as seen below.  Another thing that surprised me was that I moved the wet bar.   On paper, even though I wasn't happy where the wet bar was, it seemed ridiculous to move it into the "hallway" opening.  See:

the red "X" indicates the old wet bar.  Originally the architect disliked the wet bar in the green area because of symmetry concerns, and I didn't disagree.  After walking in the actual space though, now it makes perfect sense:  it's across from the dining room so that makes sense, it opens up to the kitchen and that makes sense, and it's twice as big to allow for more amenities.  Since this "pocket" of hallway is a waste-of-space due to the angle of the house, I'm also adding some architectural interest to make all the rooms cohesive by adding a push-through niche of the wet bar countertop.  This idea comes courtesy of the zillion Sarah Susanka "The Not So Big House" books that I read before the construction process began...

the view from the kitchen side - note the counter top opening just barely peeking through the wall: 

 

and what it would look like from the hall entry side: 

The wet bar shift also now allows for those double french pocket doors in the library to be larger and moved over more, which I like because it opens it up to the kitchen even more, and also we are hoping to add upper cabinets at the wet bar, yet still allow for an interior transom in there for more natural lighting.

Minor changes, but overall a surprisingly nice flow. 

And one more - there was yet another pocket of wasted space that always bothered me in the downstairs guest bedroom, but the architect felt strongly about it for the same reason - symmetry.   I've made the edits after seeing it though.   Some symmetry will still remain, but now I'm doing a half-wall to the right of the tub, and then a decorative niche of some sort (for artwork/whatever) on the facing wall of the linen closet as you enter.  This greatly opens up the room and makes it feel bigger, and I'm fine with it: