Here is how I feel today Just like Super Woman HaHa I didnt accomplish anything too heroic, but I finally won the battle with my black granite composite sink. Update and Refresh Your Surfaces by a Certified Technician Uh Oh Did you all of a sudden notice a crack or chip in your countertop and now need a countertop repair The Home Depot was founded in 1979 by Bernard Marcus, Arthur Blank, Ron Brill, and Pat Farrah in Atlanta, Georgia. They had the goal to build homeimprovement. Blue Heron Eco. Haus Our journey of Urbanites becoming Ruralites and our experience with Net Zero super insulated eco house building and sustainable living on the Prairies. Ive had a few questions over the last number of months about our floor plan. How we decided on things and why. Coat Of Arms Generator Free Download here. Way back before we started construction Id wrote extensively about the design and planning of the house. It wasnt easy We thought we knew exactly what we wanted initially. But it really wasnt until we had 1. If youre curious about that process, please read the links as I go into a lot of detail about the process, decisions, considerations and some of the struggles that went with that. Despite all of that prep work, its really difficult to fully imagine what the house will be like, how it will flow, and if you will have any regrets even if you have a 3. D walk through, until youve actually lived in it. Why Did My Corian Countertop Crack' title='Why Did My Corian Countertop Crack' />We spent 1. Im glad we took that much time to do it Im grateful for the patience of our house designer and friend, Crystal at Bldg Studio. We maybe could have even spent longer, but Im not sure that wed have changed anything. Nearly all of the things Id, lets say tweak if I could, I dont think Id have realized until wed actually lived here awhile. The funny thing is, and Id been told this before, after you build your first house youd know exactly how youd want to build your second house. Maintain-a-Corian-Countertop-Step-1-Version-2.jpg/aid1626629-v4-728px-Maintain-a-Corian-Countertop-Step-1-Version-2.jpg' alt='Why Did My Corian Countertop Crack' title='Why Did My Corian Countertop Crack' />Dont get me wrong though I love our house and Im so happy with so many of the decisions we made early on, but I think Id know how to make our next house even better or maybe by the third or fourthAnyways, my plan here is to show you our floor plan and then walk through some of the things Id change if I were to do it again. The first and most important thing was to not build too large. We wanted a quaint, modern farmhouse. Wed lived in a large house 6 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms and it was just too much too much space, too much stuff, too much cleaning. Between that house and the new one, we lived in a very small 6. The cabin was too small, but we realized that we didnt need as much space as we thought we might. After 1. 3 house designs, we finally settled on the following, a bungalow with a full height basement with a main floor square footage of 1. The interior basement space is the same size, so that gives us an overall heated interior floor space of 2. The ceilings are 9 in both the main floor and basement. Ok so onto the floor plan. For references sake to the proceeding floor plan, the house is square to the four directions top is North, bottom is South, left is west and right is east. On our land the best view, facing the river, is south and east. We have a shelter belt of trees spruce, pine, and amur cherry blocking the prevailing winds from the North and West. Our yurt and chicken coop are about 5. The edge of the river is 1. We wanted to have the house feel very open and connected to the beautiful surrounding landscape so its really difficult to fully understand the layout of the house without seeing where we liveThis is our front yard So when designing the house, our priorities were 1 to maximize the connection to the land and views, 2 to optimize our energy efficiency, and 3 to be cost effective. Main Floor The main door is on the north east corner. We have a driveway that comes to the back of the house north side and in the next year or so we will build a detached garage on the north side of the house. One thing that bugs me in some homes is a main entrance that opens into the heart of the house, like right into the living room. I dont like that. It seems like such an invasion of privacy to me. Not that we get many strangers coming to our house, but even still I find it very nice to be able to greet people at the door, give them lots of room to take their jacket and shoes off and then allow the house to be introduced or revealed to them as theyre welcomed into the main living space. The one thing I would change in the entrance way now is I would have made the window smaller. It faces east and is a beautiful view and brings in some awesome light, but it doesnt need to be as big as it is 4. Being east facing its an energy loser for us. Oh well. As you come into the house from the main entrance, the space really opens up to the great room which is essentially, a large wall of windows. The south facing windows are all 1. They let in a tonne of natural light and frame the river and river bank. They also function for passive solar heating in the winter. The windows are like a massive, constantly moving and changing landscape portrait we dont need any landscape portraits in our house. I will say that we purposely put the small half bathroom near the main entrance for two reasons. The first was that we did not want a door coming off the main space to a bathroom. Thats gross. Second, we spend a lot of time outside, we get dirty, and we did not want to be tracking mud and dirt into the house to use the washroom. We placed a large storage closet in the hallway leading to the great room, which stores our recycling, vacuum, dog food and a bunch of other miscellaneous stuff. Dont underestimate the amount of storage you need Its the difference between a cluttered or a clean house. The great room includes our kitchen, living room and dining room. This is where we spend 9. I love this space. Wed actually debated about about not doing an open kitchen, but Im so glad we did it this way. The kitchen really is the heart of the home. We have friends and family over almost every weekend and I cook a lot. Theres nothing worse then being stuck in the kitchen while all your friends are visiting in the other room. This way, I can be preparing food while still visiting with everyone and often now people are willing to pitch in and help with food prep and cleanup. Success. The kitchen island is 8x. We have a floor to ceiling pantry, and cupboard with a built in fridge, microwave and oven behind the island. I highly recommend extending the cupboards to the ceiling. Ive never understood why some people stopped their cupboards at 7 and then have an awkward space between there and the ceiling which simply collects dust. We use a small step ladder to reach the top cupboards which stores those occasionallyrarely used kitchen appliances we all have. In the northeast corner of the kitchen is open shelves which holds glasses, coffee cups and some pretty things. Wed been hesitant about open shelves, but I think in the right amount they look great and are very practical. The kitchen sink faces an east window overlooking the river. Having a window with a view in front of the sink makes doing the dishes so much more enjoyable. We extended the east counters and lower cupboards nearly all the way to the corner window to maximize our storage space. All of our lower cupboards are drawers and they are great. The window seat also has drawers underneath for more storage. We do not have any upper cupboards or shelves on the east wall. It is very clean, tiled from counter to ceiling. Our total counter space is around 1. In the book The Pattern Language which we relied on heavily for the design, Christopher Alexander recommends a minimum of 1. Id thought that was excessive initially, but Id say hes bang on. I can be baking bread, fermenting sauerkraut and kombucha, have a sink full of dishes and ones drying beside it, and still have plenty of room to prepare dinner.