Thursday, January 21, 2016

Setbacks...... the Design Process That Will Never End

I don't think I've ever had this much trouble finalizing a house design.  We are now on Design Option #14 for the second floor.  And after a meeting with the city this week, we discovered we have property setback issues that will potentially create timeline setbacks.  Geezzzz.....

We have a no-dormer design.  We have a small dormer design.  A large dormer design.  And a double dormer design (requires a modified variance).  All of them give less than desirable ceiling height around the perimeter of the room (worst case is 5' 9").  But to bump up requires a major variance, that could take months to work through (and could look a bit wonky as well).

So I'm looking forward to lots of input from folks at Sunday's 'Before' Open House.  What do people in the area want?   One large master suite upstairs (for a total of 3 bedrooms in the house).  Or 3 bedrooms (for a total of 5) for a family with young children?  And of course my investment numbers are looking a bit crazy at the moment.  We can't get too carried away.

Are you local?  If so, I'd love to hear your thoughts on Sunday.  Hope to see you at 180 Preble Street,  1-3 pm in SoPo! (PS - you can't park in front of the house, but it's convenient to park on the cross street)


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4 comments:

  1. Well, I don't have any kids, so I'm a bit biased to a full MS upstairs.

    Disadvantage to a MS upstairs (besides having less bedrooms): If you have young children, they would be downstairs. Some people don't like that, I think.

    Disadvantage to 5 total bedrooms: You still have split bedrooms, though younger kids could likely be on the floor with parents. However, there is less 'living' space for a larger potential family. (Of course, one could use a bedroom as an office area, etc).

    I'm currently in a 3-bedroom house with no kids, so we have an office and a guestroom. The MS plan would work great for that! However, there's nowhere to expand after that (I presume), so really most people with more than one or two kids wouldn't like that plan as much. So I guess more bedrooms would increase potential markets to larger families or people who might have a larger family as well?

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  2. IF the Pats weren't on I'd love to drive up! Best of luck with these decisions.
    Denise

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  3. We're retired with no kids. Our house has five bedrooms, one of which is our master (we do have our own bathroom; the other two bedrooms on that floor share a bath and function as guest rooms). The final two bedrooms are in the basement, off the TV-and-sectional-sofa space. Those two are our respective private rooms: mine for quilting, his for classical guitar practice and office work. The only thing we lose from a more spacious master suite is the closet space, so one of the guest rooms is effectively my dressing room. :-)

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  4. I would stick to just one or two bedrooms upstairs with a bath. I think just one bedroom would create the most usable space with the least expense (just one dormer needed), and I think 3 bedrooms is fine for a small home like this. A cluster of large dormers would look rather odd and destroy the modest character of this home. If you want to go larger, then go through the process of getting approval to tear off the roof like you have done on some of your other homes. Personally, I think it is better to keep a modest home with personality modest than to try to make it into something else.

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