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A built in vanity with side filler strips and a wall to wall top would be sleek and easy to clean. Vanities with legs and gaps make it much harder to keep walls and floors free of dust and drips around them. A medicine cabinet adds lots of storage.
I've been visualizing the living room focal point to be a square coffee table we will use for puzzling with the grandkids. In preparation for my son's visit, I bought jigsaw puzzles for his two kids. On the first day I learned they had never put together puzzles before and was told they probably wouldn't be interested. Well, turns out they are puzzle fiends! I had all four of my grandkids putting together multiple puzzles and racing to the finish together. My grandson was putting pieces in place based on shape while the rest of us were going by color. Eventually he will find that skill very useful. I was so happy for the look of joy on his face when he fit a piece and looked at me as we shared the accomplishment.
Then I had to laugh as my husband marveled at how innovative it was to entertain the grandkids by having puzzles on the cork floors upstairs being renovated... no furniture. He previously was concerned, thinking the floor would be too hard. But my 7-year-old grandson first sat down on it and spread his hands on it and said, "Oooooo" at how comfortable it was. After a couple days, my 10-year-old local granddaughter declared that bedroom should always be for puzzling on the floor.
So I am pleased to continue to envision the living room and dining room together as a puzzles/games/reading room/library.
I would just remove the crown ….
I’d order different uppers for each side of the hood - more money but more storage and cleaner lines (cleans up the cab trim transition to the glass cab which i would def want), then reuse the current ones in a laundry, basement , garage etc,,
I've not used AI to generate images very much. It's difficult because when you ask for one change, it does something crazy to the image that you've provided.
Anyway - here are a couple examples to help with your organic modern exterior:
It didn't do exactly what I asked in the image below - however, it did change the roof line like I wanted and sort of repeated the overhang on the first level like I asked.
I wanted to see it with a glass door that works with the windows and isn't arched. Also, I wanted to see how an expanded wood element would look that is set back a bit from the brick/window portion on the right side of the first floor. I also wanted to see what it would look like if there was a glass railing instead of just the metal one.
However, it messed up the roof line for some odd reason. It also changed the windows back to a previous version of your house. Additionally, it changed the element on the left side of the house back to brick + removed the overhang that I added over the lower window (I wanted it to go across over the front door to provide a bit of protection over the front door). Instead, it removed the overhang and added a recessed light element (which would look interesting at night - but doesn't help with adding any texture to the house for during the day).
I tried to have it fix everything that I wanted - and it kept generating visuals that changed other things on the home that i didn't ask it to do. The last image it generated was this:
😳
I was so frustrated that I had to stop!
It is a sad day on Houzz when someone runs out of their intelligence.
I’m 69 and able-bodied. If my adult children came to my house and said Mom, you need to move, I would ignore them. I make my own decisions, thank you.
So, make the updates. Drawers in the kitchen. More outlets everywhere. Where does she do deskwork, including finances, opening the mail, doing the NYT puzzles, go online? Make those areas work, with good lighting and outlets she doesn’t have to bend down for. Sez I as I sit at the kitchen table, going through insurance docs, with tablet and phone charging, a lamp because I prefer it to the overhead pendant, and my coffee-warmer. The outlet here is thankfully not near the floor.
Block the bathrooms for future handrails, and think hard about where those will be.
more, but you get where I’m coming from. Respect your mother’s wishes and abilities. She knows when it is time.
Colette:
Designing your own kitchen can be fun, but I strongly urge you to run the final iteration past a CKD. You can unknowingly design in catastrophies that don't appear until the cabinet handles are installed and the dishwasher door won't open or scorching a backsplash that doesn't appear until the first time you cook dinner. There are lots and lots of unbreakable rules; too many to list and you must know every one.
Why this counter since IMO it has been done to death . The only way to get cabinet color to work with that is to get a recent sample , take it home and see it in your lighting then get paint samples to work with the counter.. My advice go look at real stone thta has life in it instaed of fake plastic.
You've been fed bull about the content like listening to a used car sales wog. 96% by weight. 63% by volume. 37% resin that scorches. Over a third is plastic.
Now that that's straightened, Take sample into Sherwin Williams and ask for a custom paint match. Ask for complimentary colors. Buy a small can and paint a poster board sample or whatever. Look at it in your space and light.
Masonry (stone and brick) usually does not turn out well when it is treated like paint. They are structural materials that are heavy and should be treated that way. Fake stone and fake brick can be used in ways that real stone and brick can not. It is common for uneducated designers to misuse masonry in their house designs that it has become the norm. All the houses above are of the Pseudo-Tudor style and many were created using the Mr. Potato Head methodology of taking features from other styles and applying them to one house. Then AI can bastardize it even further.
I hear you. I drive my 2017 ( purchased in 2016) Subaru. When DH mentions new cars, I panic. I just want to be able to drive it, turn the radio on, and know how to adjust the airconditioning.
The thought of having to learn all the new fangled stuff seriously bothers me.
When I was sheduling some maintenance at the dealer, I asked how long an appointment would be as I don't mind waiting ( They have a very comfortable lounge and I usually read my kindle and drink their coffee). They said, "you know you could get a loaner".... I tried to explain that a loaner would be more stressful. Thanks, no thanks, I'm good in the lounge.
ker9, I now have a BMW330xi which I'm very happy with.
Rooms should be designed around the furniture that goes in them. The same goes for garages, but the furniture is cars AND TRUCKS. Almost everybody drives a pick-up truck or truck-based SUV now. If you don't drive one of these monstrosities, when it's time to sell a lot of potential buyers of your home will.
A Silverado or Suburban is 81" wide, not counting mirrors. They can be 20 feet long. You'd want three feet at each end and close to four feet between them and between them and the side wall of the garage. You need to add space for whatever you have stacked against the side and rear walls, tool. Allow roughly four feet (48") between the cars/trucks to open the car/truck doors.
Forget about double garage doors. Each bay should have its own door, preferably nine or ten feet wide, and eight feet tall (to prevent SUV tailgates from whacking the open garage door (above). That means the ceiling should be ten feet high.
You need table area in a garage. Craftsman work benches (72 inches x 24 inches) work well and aren't too deep.
Few architects and spec' builders get the garage door spacing right, so here are some diagrams:
For a three-car, 36 feet is the magic number for width, with 21 inches between the 9-foot-wide doors and 33 inches from the doors to the interior of the side walls (or foundation if it's high enough to be hit by car doors).
For a two-car, 25 feet is the magic number for width, with 20 inches between the nine-foot-wide doors and 32 inches from the doors to the interior of the side walls (or foundation if it's high enough to be hit by car doors).
The garage is really the main entrance to the house. Keeping it uncluttered has aesthetic value. So, separate tool rooms for the normal garage clutter can transform the garage. One tool room should open to the backyard (for yard stuff) and one open to the inside of the garage (for car stuff).
IMO no off white but 2 dresser type night tables would be great you will need to careful of height for any night tables so I would do the matching night stands it is a very elegant bed do not make it look cheap,
Update: Well, I had the design consultation with the place that wanted me to come into the showroom. She walked me through the design-build process and two rough sketches she came up with and we talked about some options like door, lighting, vanity counter, etc (I did finally get some inspo pics to her).
But frankly I felt like I wasted an hour of my time. Why? Because to work with this firm will cost me double my budget. If we would have had the budget conversation during the first part of the appointment, I could have just been up front about it and called it a day. She didn't ask about my budget until near the end of the consultation -- actually, she didn't ask at all, I finally brought it up (she said she was going to ask after I said let's talk about the budget...)
The guy from the other company is coming out to the house next week to get a lay of the land and gauge general scope of the work. I talked to this guy about the budget over the phone already, but of course will have to see where he ballparks cost once he comes out and we discuss some general ideas. He seemed confident I can accomplish what I want to accomplish within my budget, but I guess we'll see...
If #2 guy ballparks double my budget after he actually visually assesses the space, well then I guess this will be a ridiculously expensive undertaking and I will probably not do it until the tub falls into the basement and I have no choice. IMO $100K bathroom remodel on a $600K house is out of proportion. This is a small master bath, we're not talking palace of Versailles dimensions here.
I have done many bathroon renovations for a lot less than 100K but we have no idea about your space or budget . So why post the not floor plan here and some clue as to budget and see what can be done . I agree 100K for a bathroom in a 600K house is ridiculous but we have no info from you at all . My advice often with clients with tight budgets is maybe do the demolition DIY, or maybe a good time to learn a lot of DIY things you can do. We need a lot of info from you if you want some free advice here. Start with a to scale plan, use graph paper to make it easy, show every window, door way where those lead and every measurement clearly marked. Post that here in a comment in jpeg format. Make a list of must haves and another of wants Post that here too
Replace the small porch roof with a very thin flat canopy (2–3" thick appearance) projecting about 3½–4 feet.
Oh! You’re BUILDING a house? Well that makes it simpler.
The house you posted already has a porch. Just have the builder screen it in. If the screens are black (both the frame and the actual screening material), they will be hardly noticeable.
"while some on this forum have had issues with white quartzites staining."
You're being too polite, as there are over 25 (twenty-five, no typo) quartzite horror threads here on Houzz. Anyone who purchases quartzite without perusing them and personally testing their slabs, deserves their fate. Your designer, your fabricator, your GC, and your stone supplier are all not going to help you. Those of us issuing warnings are the only friends you have.
That is unacceptable. Period.
Variation is one thing. That is not variation, that is two completely different piece of wood fastened together. Yes wood can have both heartwood and sapwood, but it's never that perfectly straight. Send it back.
How about an Etsy enclosure for the mini split and a hidden art light?
Today's Blessing:
May nobody here visit someone else's home and be sitting in their powder room outside arm's reach of the door and have the family pet or toddler open the door.
I’ve got the setup @dan1888 referenced. My Miele CSO is the smaller model, paired with a regular/convection oven. I also have a 36” rangetop. Much prefer this setup for ergonomic reasons…not having to bend to use the ovens. Also, wall ovens heat up much, much quicker than range ovens, and also cool down faster.
And, I used to hate standing in front of a hot oven while using the cooking surface. Better for me, to have the two cooking functions separated.
Last but not least, I love the pots and pans drawers under the rangetop!
The wall returns at the shower provide space for towel hooks just outside the shower and space for the shower curtain to tuck in front of inside the shower. No need for a place for a squeegey. If the shower curtain gets dirty wash it or replace it.
I am atrained chef I design my kitchen to function for how I cook. I care not if anyone else likes it . You love it, be happy it is a fact you cannot please everyone all of the time only please yourself. I will be honest your kitchen is a bit overdone but it is your kitchen period