biglumber and beckyandwalt, My husband and I are currently building the Hollyhock plan by Don Gardner. We have made a major change in that we are not going to have a upper level but a 1/2 walkout the front. The framing should be started this week. Biglumber do you have any finished pics we could see? Thanks

Stacy, we had major changes, that is what is great about building your own. No upper level?

BigLumber, if you don't mind my asking, and if you don't mind sharing, what were some of your changes? I do love this house plan.

DH said last night, he would prefer this style over the other I was torn between, so that helps me to make my decision. We still really like the other, but feel this would look better on our property.

I was still hoping to get the square footage down, but only because I will have a full basement, so that pretty much doubles the sq ft of the first floor. But there isn't a room I would like to decrease :-P In fact, I thought about increasing the size of the utility room, making it all the way to the end of the garage if that is possible. I need a big mudroom, laundry, bath in that area. I think that will be key to keeping the rest of the house clean. I have been studying my family's habits, myself included, and we would really benefit from a "dump" station. I haven't researched the technical term yet :-)

Anyways, love the pictures.
TIA!

GP,
We redesigned the upstairs removing the bonus room over the garage. We raised the vault in the great room as high as we could go (21.5ft) to take advantage of the view we have of the front range. I redesigned the garage to a 3 car 28.5 feet and 11 foot ceiling. There was a wall in the kitchen that was meant as a load bearing wall. We removed that in lieu of open view into the kitchen. We put in a garden level with 10ft ceiling in the basement. I also moved the wall between the dining and kitchen back 24 inches so the kitchen is larger and the dining smaller. That didn't bother us at all as the dining was large enough anyway. I took out that silly coat closet on the foyer. Square foot comes in at 2460 with 1750 being the main level. As soon as the kids are gone, the upstairs will be empty. I figure finishing the basement will add another 1750 which is quite a bit in my book. A larger mudroom would be nice but I would worry about heating it in my neck of the woods. Plus you would lose a garage stall. It would be nice if you could get everyone to dump in one place but more often than not it is a matter of discipline.
Good luck with your rebuild. Feel free to ask.

Peace

Thanks for sharing. All great ideas. I too was going to increase the kitchen size, and use the dining area as an office area. Possibly make the breakfast area a little bigger, I dont know.

But I am really leaning towards this one.

It will be kind of big to heat. My other house was a bear to heat also. It wasnt anything to go through 500 gallons of propane in a month's time in the winter. 4-6 weeks. Was thinking of the ground source heat pump, maybe even the radiant heat but I have a feeling that might be too expensive.

I meet with a demolation & excavating guy tomorrow. Gonna get this ball rolling. I am anxious, excited, apprehensive, nervous, scared of messing up -- I wish it were done and I havent even started yet.

Anyways, thanks for posting. If I can get this for a decent price, I think this is the one I am going with :-)

biglumber and gopintos, my wife and I just purchased the Brentwood license to build. Do either of you have a final drawing of the layout your building? I like yoru ideas on teh larger garage, stealing some room from the dining to mak ehte kitchen bigger etc. Also, any pictures you can share in addition to the ones posted would be greatly appreciated. my wife finds it hard to visualize from a floorplan and woudl love to show her the kids bedrooms, kitchen from a distance picture and the living room. mster bed and batch would be great. Look forward to posting mine very soon!!

bump

I see that these posts are over 2 years old, but if either of you that built this home see this, please email me at jason.seward@vafb.com My wife and i are looking to build this and make a few modifications and I would love to pick your brains a bit for some ideas and possible more pictures......Thanks, Jason Seward

beckyandwalt - Did you ever build the Catalina? We would love to see one built.