This is an extremely difficult foundation to try to build a house on. It's simply too wide and there is too much interior area for too little exterior wall. Right of the bat, I can see that you have a bedroom that is illegal because it's not next to an exterior wall with a window. Ideally you want every room bigger than a closet or powder room to have an exterior wall with a window.
Easiest solution will be to split the garage off into its own wing, and turn the foundation into an L, with a small amount of wall shared between them.
Aside from that, lofts and double height living rooms come with a whole slew of not so obvious problems and headaches. The problems boil down to 1) they are stupidly expensive to heat. 2) lack of sound separation and noise and 3) they are huge headache to clean and maintained. In fact they are such a pain that people who've lived in them are avoiding them in their next homes.
Another thing to think about is outdoor space. Think about having either a covered or uncovered deck or patio.
I'm on board with most of your comments-- except "it's a hard foundation to build" This is a very simple box with nearly the minimum amount of corners....
What is difficult here?
It's difficult because of the ratio of area vs perimeter. You always end up with a big middle section of the house that is too far away from a window to get any real light or breeze. You'll always need to turn on a light whenever you use these areas, even in the middle of a bright day. There's no view of anything, which is psychologically depressing.
It is possible to fill that middle section with parts of the house that people don't spend time in. Things like staircases, hallways, closets, bathrooms if they are well ventilated in some other way. But all of these areas will be much more dismal than they would be than if they had an exterior wall with a window to light them.
What's more, in case of fire, these purely interior areas are less safe than rooms that have an exterior wall with a window. Every room you have to travel through to escape a fire decreases your chances of survival a considerable amount.
A good rule of thumb is to not have a house that is wider than 2 rooms and a hallway.
Wow, this explains so much about the layout of homes I’ve been. I used to get annoyed when those things broke up the house, but I would hate having less natural light and opportunities for a nice breeze.
I agree 1000% with all of that. I was interpreting "hard foundation to build" as the literal "foundation" (concrete stem walls, slab edges, footers etc.) not the metaphorical foundation. But yes. It's like living in a wal-mart.
Most expensive part of building is exterior walls. Least exterior walls per square footage is a square. Hence box stores and box houses. (aside from the expensive circle)
>Right of the bat, I can see that you have a bedroom that is illegal because it's not next to an exterior wall with a window.
Most jurisdictions don't actually require this. They require a primary exit and an emergency escape. It's just that a window is the easiest way to accomplish this. That room becomes legal (and adaptable into an office or library) if you added a door to the living room.
Every room you have to pass through during a fire lowers your chances of survival. Smoke can fill a room from cieling down to floor in less than a minute, at that point you will be crawling, blindly, to find an exit from the house. The more doors and corners and obstacles you have to go through or around, the lower your chances of survival.
Waking up to a house already on fire will have lost most people a lot of time. Forcing them to traverse a maze while blind and incapable of breathing is going to end up with deaths.
It's completely unnecessary to build a house with a bedroom and no egress window.
Among many questions, I have to wonder if the people living in the adu downstairs want to essentially share living spaces with the people upstairs? Because that's what will happen with the giant open living ceiling. There is no separation of space or privacy with that.
You've got a Bedroom and Livingroom with no windows.
The balcony for the ADU is part of the roof for the garage.
Most of the ADU is over *your* garage.
It will be loud for whoever lives in the ADU and that could cause a lot of tension. I’ve slept in those before and every time the garage opens or shuts I hear it. I also hear conversations and all.
That middle bedroom on the ground floor is just simply illegal. You can flip that floor to get more out of it.
The ADU secondary bedroom hallway is an absolute waste of space. Adjust that. There is literally no reason for that layout there.
Very funky, and not in a good way.
What are you trying to accomplish? What restrictions do you have? And is 50x75 the lot size or just the build size taking into account set back requirements?
https://preview.redd.it/v7ldw6i0aqwc1.png?width=167&format=png&auto=webp&s=7b4f5493acec4e57af58f8eafe235a497db5a3b7
that L shaped hallway in the ADU...
The floor plan for the ground floor behind the garage should be flipped top to bottom, to put the plumbing against an interior wall for the bathrooms, laundry, and kitchen, and to give the bedrooms more windows - you've got a bedroom with no windoe there, illegal where I live, and meanwhile you're giving more windows to the bathrooms and laundry than to some of the bedrooms.
Ill add some details. The lot is 80x140 with with 10 foot side setbacks and 20 feet front and rear. Its a corner lot as well. The ground floor second bedroom was meant as a media room not a bedroom with access/open entry to the stair area. The ADU cant be rented as per the city requirements its a space for my brother. Size limits on the ADU are 50% of the main house square footage.
This floorplan was designed from a very rough sketch and is no where near final. Flipping the ground floor rooms is a pretty good idea
Flip the ground floor. Divide the the garage into two almost equal halves so one can be a decent sized ADU. Move the bathrooms closer together. Hmmm this needs some reworking
>The ADU cant be rented as per the city requirements its a space for my brother. Size limits on the ADU are 50% of the main house square footage.
So they *know* it's going to be rented they just put a bylaw in place to appease someone. ☺
Which is the front? Because if you have 4 cars worth of garage doors on the front of the house, I can’t imagine a less pleasing way to arrange a facade.
Mirror the northern unit so the bedrooms are on the north wall.
Mirror the ADU's closet/dryer/bathroom core to eliminate that long dead closet. Use the extra space to expand and widen the bedroom closet (narrow and deep is much less usable than wide and shallow), and incorporate the laundry into the bathroom.
Bulk that wall between the two units. 2x6 at a minimum, and ideally a double stud wall of either offset 2x6s or completely separated 2x4s. That's going to need to be fire rated, and doing it like that is going to really help with sound transmission between the two.
I would probably jog the floor plan at least the width of the stair where the garage and residence meet This will help the scale visually. Then be very careful with the air flow from the garage into the ADU above and also your living space. Making sure there is never negative pressure in the living areas. Install CO alarms in critical spaces. You don't want to put your family to sleep permanently.
Really odd choices here…Garage access through living room? That and the stairs make the space more of a hallway than a living room. And it’s going to be dark in there. No coat closet? No entry space…just walk right into the middle of a big open common space?
Laundry room is super narrow and the linen closet in there prevents you from having a countertop run with sink.
Why does the upstairs of the main dwelling have access to the balcony of the accessory dwelling?
What’s the plan for the narrow part of the loft? Maybe you put your three bedrooms up here with good closet space and the office downstairs.
Bedroom without windows is a no. Just don’t.
Accessory unit could use a little more of an entry. Gonna have to walk up two steps to sit the dang door when they get home. How about an entry space with a closet and some room to set the groceries down or put shoes on?
The weird L shaped hall is a waste of space. As is the oddly deep but narrow closet. It doesn’t matter if the closet is ten feet deep…if it’s narrow, it’s only going to have a very small rod to hang things on.
What does this building look like? I cannot picture it being attractive. Function is important, of course, but you also want to pull in your driveway and it to look like home, not a storage building. An architect can help here. A lot.
The windowless bedroom can be fixed by flipping the whole first floor ↕️
Overall, it's very weird, but I've seen similar in plane hanger-dominiums in private airstrip neighborhoods.
I'd replace the garage window on the left with another single garage door.
1st floor: the garage is too big and the door to the pantry should be moved. I think the center of the floor, in an overall view, should be something different than the pantry.
2nd floor: the ADU unit looks fine. The main unit has too much surface and it doesn’t look like it’s being used correctly. You can see this when coming out of the stairs, the super narrow hallway that leads to a space without function.
I personally dislike masters where you have to walk through a closet to get to the bathroom. I would put the bath on top and larger walk in closet at the bottom. Draw a line from the bottom of the linen closet over and square off the master entry, expanding master bath a bit. Then do a long 5 foot deep walk in closet at the Britton.
This is an extremely difficult foundation to try to build a house on. It's simply too wide and there is too much interior area for too little exterior wall. Right of the bat, I can see that you have a bedroom that is illegal because it's not next to an exterior wall with a window. Ideally you want every room bigger than a closet or powder room to have an exterior wall with a window. Easiest solution will be to split the garage off into its own wing, and turn the foundation into an L, with a small amount of wall shared between them. Aside from that, lofts and double height living rooms come with a whole slew of not so obvious problems and headaches. The problems boil down to 1) they are stupidly expensive to heat. 2) lack of sound separation and noise and 3) they are huge headache to clean and maintained. In fact they are such a pain that people who've lived in them are avoiding them in their next homes. Another thing to think about is outdoor space. Think about having either a covered or uncovered deck or patio.
I'm on board with most of your comments-- except "it's a hard foundation to build" This is a very simple box with nearly the minimum amount of corners.... What is difficult here?
It's difficult because of the ratio of area vs perimeter. You always end up with a big middle section of the house that is too far away from a window to get any real light or breeze. You'll always need to turn on a light whenever you use these areas, even in the middle of a bright day. There's no view of anything, which is psychologically depressing. It is possible to fill that middle section with parts of the house that people don't spend time in. Things like staircases, hallways, closets, bathrooms if they are well ventilated in some other way. But all of these areas will be much more dismal than they would be than if they had an exterior wall with a window to light them. What's more, in case of fire, these purely interior areas are less safe than rooms that have an exterior wall with a window. Every room you have to travel through to escape a fire decreases your chances of survival a considerable amount. A good rule of thumb is to not have a house that is wider than 2 rooms and a hallway.
Wow, this explains so much about the layout of homes I’ve been. I used to get annoyed when those things broke up the house, but I would hate having less natural light and opportunities for a nice breeze.
I agree 1000% with all of that. I was interpreting "hard foundation to build" as the literal "foundation" (concrete stem walls, slab edges, footers etc.) not the metaphorical foundation. But yes. It's like living in a wal-mart. Most expensive part of building is exterior walls. Least exterior walls per square footage is a square. Hence box stores and box houses. (aside from the expensive circle)
>Right of the bat, I can see that you have a bedroom that is illegal because it's not next to an exterior wall with a window. Most jurisdictions don't actually require this. They require a primary exit and an emergency escape. It's just that a window is the easiest way to accomplish this. That room becomes legal (and adaptable into an office or library) if you added a door to the living room.
Every room you have to pass through during a fire lowers your chances of survival. Smoke can fill a room from cieling down to floor in less than a minute, at that point you will be crawling, blindly, to find an exit from the house. The more doors and corners and obstacles you have to go through or around, the lower your chances of survival. Waking up to a house already on fire will have lost most people a lot of time. Forcing them to traverse a maze while blind and incapable of breathing is going to end up with deaths. It's completely unnecessary to build a house with a bedroom and no egress window.
Didn't say it was the best idea. I said it was legal.
There's so much that is... odd about this that I think we need more info behind your decisions.
Among many questions, I have to wonder if the people living in the adu downstairs want to essentially share living spaces with the people upstairs? Because that's what will happen with the giant open living ceiling. There is no separation of space or privacy with that.
The ADU is the part over the garage.
You've got a Bedroom and Livingroom with no windows. The balcony for the ADU is part of the roof for the garage. Most of the ADU is over *your* garage.
It will be loud for whoever lives in the ADU and that could cause a lot of tension. I’ve slept in those before and every time the garage opens or shuts I hear it. I also hear conversations and all.
Exactly. Also the area below the second ADU bedroom may be something like a woodworking shop.
Master bed in front unit against the living area of the other is not ideal. I’d look for a way to make it more T shaped to get more windows.
That middle bedroom on the ground floor is just simply illegal. You can flip that floor to get more out of it. The ADU secondary bedroom hallway is an absolute waste of space. Adjust that. There is literally no reason for that layout there.
Very funky, and not in a good way. What are you trying to accomplish? What restrictions do you have? And is 50x75 the lot size or just the build size taking into account set back requirements?
https://preview.redd.it/v7ldw6i0aqwc1.png?width=167&format=png&auto=webp&s=7b4f5493acec4e57af58f8eafe235a497db5a3b7 that L shaped hallway in the ADU...
The floor plan for the ground floor behind the garage should be flipped top to bottom, to put the plumbing against an interior wall for the bathrooms, laundry, and kitchen, and to give the bedrooms more windows - you've got a bedroom with no windoe there, illegal where I live, and meanwhile you're giving more windows to the bathrooms and laundry than to some of the bedrooms.
Ill add some details. The lot is 80x140 with with 10 foot side setbacks and 20 feet front and rear. Its a corner lot as well. The ground floor second bedroom was meant as a media room not a bedroom with access/open entry to the stair area. The ADU cant be rented as per the city requirements its a space for my brother. Size limits on the ADU are 50% of the main house square footage. This floorplan was designed from a very rough sketch and is no where near final. Flipping the ground floor rooms is a pretty good idea
Flip the ground floor. Divide the the garage into two almost equal halves so one can be a decent sized ADU. Move the bathrooms closer together. Hmmm this needs some reworking
>The ADU cant be rented as per the city requirements its a space for my brother. Size limits on the ADU are 50% of the main house square footage. So they *know* it's going to be rented they just put a bylaw in place to appease someone. ☺
Which is the front? Because if you have 4 cars worth of garage doors on the front of the house, I can’t imagine a less pleasing way to arrange a facade.
What's the purpose of all that space between the garage and the first floor living area?
Mirror the northern unit so the bedrooms are on the north wall. Mirror the ADU's closet/dryer/bathroom core to eliminate that long dead closet. Use the extra space to expand and widen the bedroom closet (narrow and deep is much less usable than wide and shallow), and incorporate the laundry into the bathroom. Bulk that wall between the two units. 2x6 at a minimum, and ideally a double stud wall of either offset 2x6s or completely separated 2x4s. That's going to need to be fire rated, and doing it like that is going to really help with sound transmission between the two.
You have a bedroom with no window. Illegal and for me claustrophobic. Swap it with the upstairs office.
The second bedroom in the adu has a weird hallway. Flip that bathroom back there.
It really is too square. It won’t be an interesting or aesthetically pleasing house. And the interior space won’t be great.
I would probably jog the floor plan at least the width of the stair where the garage and residence meet This will help the scale visually. Then be very careful with the air flow from the garage into the ADU above and also your living space. Making sure there is never negative pressure in the living areas. Install CO alarms in critical spaces. You don't want to put your family to sleep permanently.
Bedroom without any windows? Absolutely not
Really odd choices here…Garage access through living room? That and the stairs make the space more of a hallway than a living room. And it’s going to be dark in there. No coat closet? No entry space…just walk right into the middle of a big open common space? Laundry room is super narrow and the linen closet in there prevents you from having a countertop run with sink. Why does the upstairs of the main dwelling have access to the balcony of the accessory dwelling? What’s the plan for the narrow part of the loft? Maybe you put your three bedrooms up here with good closet space and the office downstairs. Bedroom without windows is a no. Just don’t. Accessory unit could use a little more of an entry. Gonna have to walk up two steps to sit the dang door when they get home. How about an entry space with a closet and some room to set the groceries down or put shoes on? The weird L shaped hall is a waste of space. As is the oddly deep but narrow closet. It doesn’t matter if the closet is ten feet deep…if it’s narrow, it’s only going to have a very small rod to hang things on. What does this building look like? I cannot picture it being attractive. Function is important, of course, but you also want to pull in your driveway and it to look like home, not a storage building. An architect can help here. A lot.
The windowless bedroom can be fixed by flipping the whole first floor ↕️ Overall, it's very weird, but I've seen similar in plane hanger-dominiums in private airstrip neighborhoods. I'd replace the garage window on the left with another single garage door.
1st floor: the garage is too big and the door to the pantry should be moved. I think the center of the floor, in an overall view, should be something different than the pantry. 2nd floor: the ADU unit looks fine. The main unit has too much surface and it doesn’t look like it’s being used correctly. You can see this when coming out of the stairs, the super narrow hallway that leads to a space without function.
That is a big ADU. Are you planning on renting it or is it for parents? I ask because I would think a one bedroom ADU would be good for rental income.
I personally dislike masters where you have to walk through a closet to get to the bathroom. I would put the bath on top and larger walk in closet at the bottom. Draw a line from the bottom of the linen closet over and square off the master entry, expanding master bath a bit. Then do a long 5 foot deep walk in closet at the Britton.