I’d seen all the side elevation views, but it was only about 3 weeks ago – after I’d picked out my windows – that I saw my first 3D images…and that’s when I panicked. Back when we were first working on the design, I had limited access to quality 3D views (I had no room in the budget for an architect with fancy 3D software, and given that I had basically created the entire floor plan already, one of the builders – who also does a bit of design work on the side – put together the construction plans based on my drawings using some simple software that doesn’t do 3D renderings very well). But the drawing above was created only recently in Google Sketchup. This gave the house a slightly modern, more interesting look and I was quite pleased. (Ignore the weird diagonal lines on the roof surface!) Nevertheless, I couldn’t deny that I found steep gables more attractive – consider these examples: I was conscious that shallow roof pitches have a reputation for being ugly, but I figured this was a snob-factor issue stemming from the fact that manufactured homes tend to have shallow rooflines. So I tried to keep the roof pitch as shallow as possible. If we used a steep roof pitch, that would result in a very tall roof. And because adding corners to exterior walls increases the cost of framing and pouring the foundation, we had lots of long walls. Having a one-story home was very important to us, so using that extra roof space for an upper floor was not a desirable option. Gabled roofs get more expensive as the pitch of the gable increases (due to bigger trusses and more roofing material). Gabled rooflines are pretty simple, but you need to decide on the pitch – or steepness – of the roof, and that’s where I ran into trouble. Most of the Houzz* photos I’d collected in my Ideabooks showed gable-style roofs, which indicated that I would be happier going with that look rather than the more contemporary look of shed and flat roofs. For one thing, I had originally thought I might go with a shed-style roof, but I soon learned that my budget had no room for the fancy beams and trusses needed, which require an engineer for design and certification, so shed-style or flat roofs were ruled out almost right away. When it came time to turn my 2D plans into a 3D structure, I soon learned that these decisions are much more complex than I’d anticipated. I’d spent so many years working on a 2-dimensional floor plan that I hadn’t given much thought to roofing design. I was unhappy with the overall look of the house and I blamed it on the roofline. When I got my first glimpse at the new drawings, which showed the house from an angle view rather than 2D elevation views, my heart just sank – but it wasn’t because of the windows. I figured once I got a look at them in situ I would be able to refine my choices before placing my order. I did my best to pick them out based on my floor plan and room dimensions, then I sent the list to the designer so he could put them in our plans. With new construction you aren’t limited in this regard, and the possibilities are almost endless. My roofline crisis started when I went to pick out my windows: I realized that I had no idea how tall they should be, how high off the floor, or how wide. Plus, the roof and windows are major architectural features – the whole look of your house can change based on these elements alone. Unlike interior finishings, roofing and windows are very expensive to replace or alter, and such tasks are not something you can DIY over a long weekend. As our construction start date draws nearer, I’m having to make some final choices regarding various exterior aspects of the new house, and I’m finding this process to be much more daunting than I’d expected. The problem is the finality of the decisions.
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