NateP-2A

The design I chose to create was the 2 story design. 2 story designs tend to be cheaper than other designs, but assuming by the size of my house, this will be a fairly costly house. My house is 3500 square feet, with 2 stories and a cellar and a large deck. This house may be difficult for maintenance because of the fact that it's two stories and so large. Since my house is about 22' tall (see 'Height' image), any maintenance needed on the top half exterior of the house will be quite costly. Another disadvantage to my house is since it has two sets of curved stairs to reach the 1st floor and 2nd floor, it is not very handicap accessible. Though the house is big enough that an elevator could be added to assist the handicapped, but it would be costly. Heating and cooling has a great advantage with this house though. There are many windows (see 'Front View' and 'Back View' images) so natural heat from the summer can come through and keep the house at a comfortably warm temperature all day. In the winter (see 'Heating Advantages') having the "open below" area is a great way to heat sections of the upstairs, since heat will rise. Many windows also help with cooling in the summer, as opening windows will help cool off the house, and many windows offer many places for Air Conditioning.
 * __Home Design Project__**



Kitchen Design Project (all of the following paragraph until line of pictures below refers to the image "Plan View")

My kitchen design has many advantages. The size of the kitchen for one gives the availability for a lot of counter space, storage space, and traffic space. As you can see, another big advantage is that my doors are big and they are just doorways, so no door will get in the way of anything. This takes care of the first two standards. My work triangle, which is the green triangle connecting fridge, stove, and sink (standard 3) is a perfect size, not too big, and not too small, while a minor traffic pattern crosses through it, not violating standard 5. No full scale obstacles block work centers or traffic patterns (standard 4) and all my traffic patterns and work spaces have more than the recommended space allowed (standards 6, 7, and 8). This way, many people can manuver through the kitchen without interference from other people, doors, or any other obstacles. My sink matches standard 10's requirements perfectly, since it is practically equidistant from the fridge and stove. Standard's 11 and 12 recommend having an 18" prep area on one side od the sink and a 24" prep area on the other side, and having a 3' by 2' countertop next to the sink, respectively. I went beyond that and put plenty of countertop space on either side of the sink. My dishwasher is right next to my sink, leaving no issues with transporting dishes from sink to dishwasher such as risk of breaking dishes. There are also two trashes in the kitchen, one for trash and the other for recycables, because green is good! My refrigerator is also placed in a perfect spot, since it meets one of the 4 parts of standard 16, having more than 15" of landing space on handle side of fridge. The same goes for the stove, leaving more than 1 foot and 2 feet on sides of it. The importance of this space is to leave plenty of room for cooking and preparing meals. And as you can see, there are no windows even close to my stove, so there is no fire hazard there. The size of my kitchen has also allowed me to clear the recommended countertop space in standard 25 with flying colors. They recommend I have 158", while I meet that with the dimmension showed for the very top countertop only! I also don't think it is necessary to show dimmensions for any of the storage requirements, because it should be pretty obvious that there is more than enough cubboard and shelf storage in the kitchen, both overall and near the sink (standards 27 and 28). The National Kitchen Standards also recommend that I have one lazy susan, but because Susan is so lazy, I made four just for her. Each of my four corner cabinets are lazy susans. Also, each of my outlet's are GFCI protected (you can see it written in red next to each outlet "GFCI"), so there is less of a risk of electrocution. And, all those spline lines connecting the lights show which light switch does what, and you can tell with the amount of lights and windows in the kitchen that there is plenty of light to illuminate all of the work spaces. Seating knee space is very important for peole eating at countertops. Plenty of space helps prevent knees from cramping and allows people to sit comfortably. Standard 9 requires a certain amount of knee space, and since there is no cabinets or other obstructions, as you can see in "View 1", my kitchen meets this standard. Microwaves are a great appliance for reheating leftover food, thawing frozen food, and cooking some foods. It is important to have the microwave at a height easily accessible. Standard 21 requires a microwave be placed at a height easily accesible depending on a persons height, so I placed it on a countertop, as shown in "View 2". Also, standard 22 recommends 15" of space on the handle side of the microwave, which there is plenty of space there, more than 15". The oven can be hazardous if not placed properly. As you can see in "View 3", there is no windows above the stove, and no combustible or non-combustible surfaces even close to being at a fire risk.


 * __Elements of Design__**

I used 2 types of lines in my design. Diagonal lines were used on the roof so that in the winter, snow will slide off the roof easier. I also used horizontal lines, in my living room. The horizontal layout of the floorboards make the room look wider.

There were 3 types of shapes/forms I used in my design. The shape of my house is rectangular, my pool is rectangular, and all of my rooms (except for two, the living room and kitchen) are rectangular.

I used a dark brown color for my house. I used this because it gives the house an antique feel.

I made a sense of space in my house by making a huge area with open below floor and a staircase going up it. This is important because it makes this section of house feel huge. This room is also the point of emphasis on my house. It is the entry room from the front door, it is where you return to when returning from the basement, and it is the only place with a staircase to get to the upstairs. The big chandelier also marks it as the point of emphasis.

My kitchen has some implied textures. The tile floor looks like it'd be really rough to the touch, but it's actually smooth. I used them because the kitchen in my house has tile floors, and I like the look of them in the kitchen. This picture also shows value, as the lighter cabinets are placed against a dark wall color. I chose to do that this way because I feel it gives the room a nice flow rather than a concentration of dark colors. This description also fits for contrast, as the light cabinets are in contrast with the darker wall color behind them. This picture also shows balance. You can see that all cabinets (except for 1, next to stove) are the same size. I made it balance by just using the default sized cabinets everywhere.

I haven't used much pattern and repitition. I am trying to make all my rooms unique, and I haven't gotten around to designing the bedrooms yet. I assume the bedrooms will be fairly similar, so there will probably be some repition there. Also, once I design the other two bathrooms, there will probably be some repitition between the bathrooms.