Exterior

Interior idea

Interior idea

Interior

My opinion, if it is what you like and it makes you happy - go for it. And why not make some of the beams actual support rather than just for looks?

Or a little more country

Country

I could,I just didn't want a full timber frame to save on cost.
Must have a metal stair case,maybe even a metal spiral.
I will be three floors,third will have a small loft, first floor will have 20-25 feet of vaulted ceilings.

I hope you have a very healthy budget. The stripped simplicity of most of your inspiration photos, especially the AD one, is difficult and expensive to execute. There is no room for any error or sloppiness in workmanship . :)

A 25 foot tall space will be 88 at the top and 55 at the bottom. You'll never get good temperature control. Especially if you put all of that glass into it. And don't plan any bedrooms or anything else on the upper floors if all you're going to have is a spiral staircase. You can't get furniture up a spiral stair, much less a mattress.

Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of your inspiration pics. But they will be VERY expensive to create and solve all of those issues. You can't do it on the cheap. The timber framing isn't cheap, but even eliminating that won't make any of those homes into a budget build.

Have you seen the Tulane Barn restoration project?
Your house-to-be sounds very interesting, please continue to post!

Here is a link that might be useful: Tulane Barn Project (Princeton NJ)

Didn't think about the spiral stairs,that's why I posted,i like the other style better because i can do those myself,what in your opinion is expensive and what would make this a costly build,the main shell is not complex and cut up,would it be cheaper to go more modern Sheetrock or go with the t&g or ship lap walls and celling?This is just in the planning stage and I will be asking a lot of questions,I'm in Oklahoma and the above avg new build with brick and stone homes with granite counters go for about 95-100 sf,but for me it's just normal and not what we want,thanks for all the advise.

I don't know if you are looking at the overall volumes or the details of your inspiration pictures.

The volumes may not be that expensive to achieve.

But your inspirations, except for the one labeled "Country" have minimal trim to virtually no trim in the AD example. Trim is used to cover joints, gaps, and materials changes. And slight mis-cuts and mistakes.

A minimalist, no trim interior is expensive because the work is exacting. There is little room for error because you can't cover up anything with trim.

I did a small area where the wall floated exactly 1" above the floor and there was a small recess below this. The flooring needed to be perfect because there was no base trim. The bottom of the wall needed to be "fitted" to the floor because you can visualize the difference between 1" and 1-1/8" pretty easily.

The cost of doing this floating wall was calculated by the running inch.

If you are doing it yourself and you have the capability, that's fine, but you will pay for it with a lot of extra time and extra steps.

If you plan to trim it out conventionally you won't get quite the same appearance as your inspirations, but if you are only looking at the overall space, you may achieve what you are trying to.

I understand,that's also why I had two design ideas,the ones that are a little ruff might be the way to go,I also like the open design of the floor joist white washed with exposed wire and ducting.

You might find this home of interest and/or inspiration if you haven't seen it before. It's a prefab. They offer other plans as well. Another link that might be useful:

http://www.gologic.us/

[Contemporary Exterior[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-exterior-home-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_736~s_2103) by Belfast Architect GO LOGIC

Here is a link that might be useful: [Maine home[(https://www.houzz.com/magazine/houzz-tour-see-a-maine-house-with-a-240-annual-energy-bill-stsetivw-vs~10895176?utm_source=Houzz&utm_campaign=u284&utm_medium=email&utm_content=gallery1)

This post was edited by swtceleb on Mon, May 27, 13 at 7:06

My parents built their own house and had a big spiral staircase. It worked just fine, we loved it really. I think the treads are about 3.5' wide, with a 12" thick round timber in the middle that the stairs attach to. Who knows if it would meet code today, as they built in 1975. It is a strange beast, to be sure, with spindles and support beams all over the place.

What about the double decker roof design,any body no what that's called or of any other barns or homes with that design,also Im still wandering what is going to be so expensive about this design,especially if I go with the more country design with white washed t&g siding instead of sheet rock,it's not all cut up with crazy roof peeks and about 2600 sf?Pic of 1st floor,Thanks for all the advise(remember I'm new to this so I will be asking a lot of questions)

This post was edited by qbryant on Sat, May 25, 13 at 17:48

I think it is helpful if you post the exterior of the plan and the upper floors as well as more information in order for others to tell you about costs.

This is the exterior -
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and the other two floors -
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This is a timber framed house. On the second floor there is a shed dormer which creates space for an office or study. It also has a steep pitch roof, so you can have a loft on the third floor.

Timber frame houses cost more. The great room is three stories tall and the windows are a pretty tall. All things that add to the cost.

Tongue and groove wood is much more expensive than plain drywall. Drywall is the cheapest wall covering possible.

I would like to get away from timber frame and stick build and have the timbers on the one wall like in the pic,exposed rafters painted white,if that will be quite a bit cheaper,what's more costly,the Sheetrock with no trim or the t&g.One I my biggest decisions is to go with a very modern look inside of a barn or go with the t&g walls and celling for a more modern country,I also thought about Sheetrock walls an t&g cellings.

I would like to get away from timber frame and stick build and have the timbers on the one wall like in the pic

Where is your structural support for the three story tall great room going to be? You are going to need a structural engineer to design this and it will not be an inexpensive feature.

Isn't the davis classic barn a hybrid(stick/tember) that's cheaper than one of there timber frames.

Within the past few years someone here built a lovely, spare, light filled home with a farm house vibe. I think they were in the mid west or upper mid west.

Anyway, if I remember correctly, the builder was fairly budget conscious but managed to obtain a modern look. Hopefully some other posters will remember the house and will chime in.

Skip doing all of that expensive to create and maintain triple height space. Stick with an actual small barn for the footprint, and then modify that to living space. Fake stuff is almost as expensive as real stuff. If you like the exposed beams then a timber frame would probably be your best plan. Then drywall much of the interior, and use rough sawn planks as the base and crown moldings. That will hide the imperfections and allow you to both cover the walls cheaply and hide some of the less than stellar work.

Or, skip the idea of the exposed timbers and focus on creating an interesting interior space by different changes in plane and standard stick building. Use interior soffits to enclose your ductwork. It will create changes of plane that light and shadow will play off of and also be MUCH more energy efficient. Do some (well insulated) vaulted ceilings in the main living space, again with the soffits or other changes of plane to make it more interesting. It doesn't raise the cost of a stick built home by that much to do 2x6 (or higher) construction, or depending on location, do double wall 2x4 and then you'll have more interesting deeper set windows to add to the play of light and shadow. Maybe a dormered light well or skylights or an interior light shaft/courtyard space. Pick one or two things that give you the biggest bang for the buck on your particular home site.

It's possible to build a simple interesting modern/rustic structure, but you have to spend more money on the structure itself (including the design phase with an architect) than the trimmings, which is the reverse of how most homes today are planned and built. Modern homes seem to start with the idea of an enormous kitchen island and start adding on ungainly traditional bits and pieces around that to end up with giant ugly mushrooms with every architectural detail in the book thrown at them in a sad attempt to make them unugly. It's those "bones" of orientation, volume, proportion and restraint that are THE most important element to a modern living space. Not the 10x12 granite island counters and maple cabinets and 10K light fixtures. It's all about the architecture.

It doesn't hurt to have a lot of DIY ability and a good design sense either. If you lack either, money can compensate. If you lack money, you'd better greatly develop the former.

Beautiful inspiration pictures. I'm going for a similar look. I agree, tongue and grove is more expensive than drywall. I'm pretty much forced to go with drywall given my budget.

Are you working with an architect? If you want that minimalist look you'll need to work with an architect and a builder with experience with modern homes, unless you've got that experience yourself.

Any pics of your project Sochi
Any idea of the one deee spoke off?

I found some 1x6x16 t&g for 7.20 a peice from a discount lumber etc store,is this a good price or is better places to buy this,also is there an easy way to calculate what I need for walls and celling,I'm just price shopping, thanks.

No pics yet of our project, we are waiting for the first set of full architectural drawings.

Dude, not meaning to be rudely obvious here, but I'm going to. If you can't calculate square footage and how much material (and what that will cost) you will need to cover a wall, your project is in serious jeopardy of ever getting off the ground. A 4'x8' sheet of drywall here is around $8. You can do 32 square feet of wall coverage for $8, or you can do it with the wood cladding for that same $8 of drywall (fire code requirement) plus $345 worth of wood. Figure out the square footage of your wall space and divide that by the square footage of the material, plus a cut factor. The larger the material is, the larger the cut factor you will need.

2500 square feet only tells you about the amount of flooring that you will need. There's not enough information at all about the wall square footage. That will vary widely. It will depend on if you have 8' or 10' ceilings in the bedroom or 12' or 14' ceilings in a family room. Open plan vs a more closed off space? How open? How closed? Stairwells open or closed? It's like asking how long is a driveway for a 5 acre build site. There is too much missing information to even guess. There simply is no way of saying that you will need 10,000 or 15,000 square feet of wall cladding material without concrete plans for the home in question. As well as knowing which walls you intend to cover with what material. The only thing anyone can tell you is that you are choosing a pretty expensive material to put on your walls. Even rough sawn straight from a sawmill will be well above any drywall quote.

You're bogged down in the decorative details when you should be focusing on the bones like the HVAC, insulation, wall thickness, windows, etc. Are you buying the rims, or the car?

Hollysprings thanks for the advise,that's funny you ask about rims,I have built a few old hot rods and it all starts with the rims and stance and cool stuff,I know it has to have all the drivetrain and wiring but it's about getting the look your after,(within reason)for me this house is the same,I am putting all the visual goodies out there for advise because that's what's important,I it wasn't we would all live in a green box that is very efficient like a Toyota Prius,nothing wrong with that but I we have been waiting 15 years to build our dream home,I am not looking for a mansion but I'm not looking for a plan brick spec house ether,hvac,windows etc is very important too but I'm just looking at the overall visual design right now.

This post was edited by qbryant on Fri, Jun 7, 13 at 9:50

I was reading an article about a particular local architect and ran across this modern barn-style home. I remembered this post and thought you might find it interesting.

Here is a link that might be useful: Barn style house

Thanks for that link,I am waiting on a few opinions from some builders on a rough est and on a gentleman that drafted our last plan to see if he can draw the double roof with clear story windows.

I looking at the home in pic two with the clearstory windows,thats the design we want but would like a small two car garage,I think it would take away from the house with an attached garage so I'm looking at a detached garage about 20 foot away.
Also is the outside design of this home like the roof or windows going to be outrageous to build or draft,it's going to be stick built not timber framed.
Just pre planning were still 1.5-2 years out.
I haven't sent it to the draftsman that did our last set of plans because we just made up our mind.
Thanks