Planning our dream house

Planning the new house to go on the CharVic Lake property (I forgot to tell you that's the name of our lake) was a lot of fun for Jim. I'm not really into that sort of thing myself, so I was just as happy to let him go to town on it. 

At first, we weren't sure if we would rather have a log house or a timber frame house. Eventually we decided on timber frame, because it's just so doggone pretty inside, and the exterior walls could be made of SIPs (structural insulated panels) to help reduce the heat loss and make construction go quickly. Jim found a floor plan that we liked well enough, but it needed some tweaking to get it just the way we wanted it. There is now a view over the lake from almost every room. On the ground floor, the kitchen opens onto a sunroom area, with the living room and dining room between it and the master suite. Upstairs would be James' room over the kitchen, a loft area for my crafting space, and Jim's office. Downstairs in the walk-out basement, on the west side, is a guest apartment. A common room is in the middle for maybe a pool table or a den or something, and to the east side would be the bakery. Yes, the bakery.  :^)  My husband spoils me.

Jim loves blueprints. It's crazy, but he does. I can barely read them and they could be inside out and upside down and I wouldn't know the difference. That's why Jim input all the data of the house into an architectural rendering program complete with animated walk-throughs of every room. I won't attach the interior renders here, but I will show you what the outside of the house would look like.

Below is the way the house would look as you drive up to it. Jim added a photo of the view over the lake behind the render of the house, and yes, from the interior renders, if you look out a window, you can see the lake. The house appears to be two story from the front, but because of the gentle slope of the land, we can have a walk-out basement.

This is the way the house would look from out on the lake, looking back toward the shore. The windows on the top floor are Jim's office. The windows on the middle floor are (from left to right) the sunroom and kitchen, the dining room and living room, and the master bedroom. The basement windows are (also from left to right) the guest apartment, the game room/den area, and the bakery window with its separate entry. Check out the wrap-around balcony. Niiiiiiice.

Now we just have to get the thing built..........