The House That Built Itself - What I've Done Right (So Far)

If you scroll to the first post, you'll see the house shape is a fairly unusual one.  At first glance, it may seem like a strange choice of plan - I agree!  But I encourage you to do more than just pick a plan and plop it on the ground...    before you corner yourself into a "this is the house I've always wanted" mentality, MAKE SURE it will complement the land around it.   I myself prefer symmetry in a home, and we could have easily picked out my "dream" house plan and built it based on appearance and layout alone by what I've always liked.  Let's take a step back, however, and ask some extremely important questions: 

1.  Where will you spend most of your time?  Dedicate the priority aesthetics here, FIRST.  This may mean simply reversing rooms on a pre-drawn plan so that the location is better.  Or it could mean that windows are adjusted, ceilings are heightened.  In our case, it meant designing from scratch to take advantage of our lot views and our preference for privacy.  Whatever the case, really treat your main living area as the starting canvas of your home, letting all the other pieces fall into place around it. After all, this is where you will spend your time;  make it count.

2.  Why are those windows there?  What do they show?  What do they leave out?    Window placement is essential in creating the perfect environment.   If there is a scene you like on your lot - a beautiful tree or view, for instance - think about how your windows can be placed to accommodate this.  Conversely, if there is something you would rather NOT have sight of - an electric pole or power unit for instance - is there a way to position your window placement so that it eliminates that?   What about privacy?   Again, think about where you want your windows, and where you do not.  Additionally, a mistake I see often is locating windows without any thought given to furniture placement - be sure to take that into consideration.  One other big mistake I see is that many times the best view ends up being from the front of the house, yet people tend to locate their main living and entertaining spaces in the back.  What would it be like had the kitchen been placed in this focal area instead?  How could it have changed the dynamics of the home?   These are all important things to think about.  

So, that being said, I willingly walked away from the "perfect image" in my head of my "dream home" and instead

The house practically built itself once we listened to the land.

This wasn't without a few compromises (mine being that my kitchen is further away from my garage than I'd envisioned).   And, I'll confess to being a tad squeamish when the walls started coming up, because it really is a intuitive leap of faith designing with the land in mind...   will it look right?  is it weird?   oh my gosh is this going to really work?!   but when the walls and windows came up - wow!

Slam dunk.

 

Now, let's see what would have happened if I had simply plopped my "dream home" on the lot based on appearance alone: 

What a waste of a beautiful yard that would have been, had we just gone that route.  Not to mention views of our neighbors,etc from many angles of the house.

Now, we have this lovely view (house shape) that eliminates the ugly culvert views (clever window placement) as well as any neighbors (house shape AND clever window placement) that creates a charming piece of private, yet vast property in the back that no pre-formed "dream plan" of mine would have accommodated, ever.  And that glorious sunset?  We'll get to see it every night, in a bevy of large windows in the main living area of the house where 90% of our time is spent.