Field of Dreams

11 years ago

Hello All! My husband and I are in the beginning stages of planning a move to the suburbs of Richmond, VA. We are looking for a home on 10+ private acres with a budget not to exceed $430,000, square feet in the 2500 range. I am less than excited about what I am finding as far as existing homes listed in the counties surrounding Richmond. Most will require major updates and renovations. We are beginning to think that building a home might allow us to get what we want and still remain within our budget. Our love of old homes continues to bring me to the Field of Dreams home plan. I have read a few old posts about this home and am hoping some of you could share your current experience with this home or perhaps your thoughts. Did it meet your expectations? Are you satisfied with the layout? Did you make any plan modifications? I really appreciate your thoughts! Following is a link to Field of Dreams.

http://www.healthyhomeplans.com/home_plans/home_plan_detail.php?plan_id=37

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Comments (7)

virgilcarter
11 years ago
I think this design is a very picturesque farmhouse type which is the work of a very talented and experienced architectural firm.

The house is small, but very well organized and thought out. The only thing I've never liked about it is the screened porch on the front/entry elevation. If it were mine, I'd move it to the back where there would be greater privacy.

The issue of privacy raises an issue to consider. I tend to think that the entry side of a house needs a degree of privacy for the interior, while the "back of the house" is the logical place to open the house to views, outdoor living spaces and the like.

I am also a fan of using passive solar gain with south facing glazing for warmth in winter, while using roof overhangs and pergolas to screen these windows in the summer. Said differently, the major glazed areas of a house are best oriented to the south, with the "closed" portions of the house to the north from which the winter cold and rain often come.

It would have been much simpler to site this house properly if the living room with its major glazed areas was located on the opposite side of the house from the entry.

All of this is to say, with the living room at the front of this plan, you will need to think through the orientation of the house on your site, and site's direction of views, winds/weather effects and passage of the sun, along with your feelings about having some privacy from visitors and passerbys so that they don't see into the front of the house easily (if at all).

If you can satisfactorily solve the siting issues, this will be a picturesque and livable house.

Good luck with your project.
renovator8
11 years ago
This design has been discussed many times on this forum. The problem has always been attaching the garage.

Here is a link that might be useful: house

This post was edited by Renovator8 on Sat, Feb 2, 13 at 8:07
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virgilcarter
11 years ago
Why not just keep the garage separate as shown in the web site? They have another plan, Field of Dreams 2, with an attached garage. If it was my property, I'd seperate the two structures.
lucy0214
11 years ago
Love this plan with the separate garage. I wanted to build this house but couldn't get the hubby on board.
Sara7
Original Author
11 years ago
I sincerely appreciate your thoughtful responses. You have definitely given me some important things to consider that I might not have at this stage of the game. Having not looked at home plans ever until recent weeks, I am learning how to picture the house in my mind, if you will, according to looking at the plans.

I, too, like the idea of separate structures. It just lends more to keeping the integrity of the farmhouse look in tact. If we do move forward with this house, I like the idea of a finished basement. That would give us the little bit of extra square footage that we would like without having to make major modifications to the upper levels.

Thanks again and I look forward to learning more about this process from your thoughtful posts. This could quite possibly be our forever home and I want to get it right!
msmchele
11 years ago
Hi Sarah,
We are just finishing up with this house. We paid a builder to do a super shell which is finished through rough plumbing and electrical and we are finishing the rest of the inside ourselves. Here is a link to our pictures.
The wraparound porch and front door are facing the back of the property which you can see with the waterfall. The kitchen and diningroom face the street. We reversed the plan and add some square footage to the office and upstairs guestroom. We built on a raised foundatiion without basement due to our high water table here in OR. The total square footage is 2589. Loving this house! You can email me at msmchele@gmail.com with any questions.
Michele

Here is a link that might be useful: Field of Dreams
saacke
11 years ago
Hi Sara - we built this house in 2008/9 and are ~ 2 hours from Richmond in the Shenandoah Valley. I posted a URL years ago, here it is again with pre-build, during and after shots: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30079512@N07/. We recently finished the garage and I really like it being separate from the house. Budget-wise, we ran over but on predictable items like geothermal cooling/heating. We also did not go full-scale on all the interior trimmings, kept it simple and figured we could add later.

Made a few changes noted in my original post in this thread (somewhere), happy to provide more details if interested. Also, several with interest have visited, open to that as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: FOD Photos