We looked up Mountain View setbacks and realized our five-foot bumpout will totally violate the setbacks. :(

Our attempts at more floor layouts have been educational, but also really frustrating. Nothing is totally working. But, we figure, that's what hiring an architect is for.

v08 zig-zags our entertaining space. Not ideal. v09 tries a better grouping but is really unresolved. v10 embraces the zig-zag, but it doesn't embrace us back.

Some ideas we got out of these sketches:

• short walls: walls that don't don't need to wall off private spaces (e.g. bedrooms) can stop short of the ceiling to feel less heavy, and let light in. We were thinking some walls for v09 could use this technique.
• short rooms: we remembered seeing in a few Eichlers (mid-century modern California homes, often designed with lots of glass, open spaces, and vaulted ceilings throughout the entire home) owners added a bathroom or closet where they gave the space a flat ceiling that ended below the home's vaulted ceiling. In some situations, this gave a sense of being in a larger, partitioned space, rather than several small completely walled-off spaces.

Discussions with a few of the architects have us wondering if we were boxing ourselves into the 2nd-floor requirement. If we can get a five-foot bumpout in the front, we have a pretty good layout:

Basically: do some funny angled doorway business for one of the front bedrooms, put the office/guest room in the back. The dining area probably leaves something to be desired for many buyers (it's more like an eat-in area off of the kitchen), and the master bedroom definitely isn't very big...though we don't mind. And you can see that we're thinking about a curved deck in the back.

(And if you're wondering what happened to layout v06, it's like v05, but with the kitchen moved to the front of the open living/dining/kitcehn space...but since we don't think we can afford two stories, we're currently scoping 1-story layouts.)

I think we have it folks. Assuming our bumpup and opening of the 1st floor is actually structurally feasible, we are pretty pleased with v05B.

v05 first floor:

• open entertaining space
• entryway moved forward by 6 to 8 feet, same for garage
• laundry + utilities in garage
• move 1st floor bath to east side of house
• put stairs where 1st floor bath is currently
• skylights wherever we can put them
• lots and lots of windows/skylights in the stairway = bright stairway and a way to get southern sun into living room
• shorten current 1st floor master bedroom a bit by adding closet + window bench on southern wall

v05A 2nd floor:

• not enough room when we tried to keep the sides of the 2nd floor a few feet in from the main house walls
• I sort of don't care if the master bedroom is small, but we think it will hurt resale a bit too much. Also this effort was starting to feel half-assed, compromised on all the wrong points: not luxurious, but not small either.

v05B 2nd floor:

• got enough room when we added a few feet all around the bump-up
• sizable master suite w/ closet connecting bedroom and bath
• thinking about glassblock in floor in 2nd floor landing (skylight on southern end of living room) and master bath (get skylight in kitchen)

sketches:

• the husband had the idea of taking one of Sarah Susanka's ideas: closet abutting a window w/ a window seat. I was dubious, but sketched it out. it seems like it could work.
• eyeing our kitchen storage scenario
• deciding if we should go with lots of glass or not at the north end of the living room. Usually, you minimize your glazing (windows) on the north side, but it seems like it would look good, maximize the light we can get into this room.

Looking at bumping up...trying to figure out where to put the stairs. Big changes in v03 and v04:

• knocking down kitchen, laundry room, rear bedroom walls to create open entertaining space, a real dining space
• stairs in former rear bedroom
• sketches: pondering how the stairs will look, how the bar should wrap around to the fireplace

We have some first attempts at a new layout. We're trying really hard to do this within the existing footprint. We are starting to wonder if we can get what we're looking for without adding a 2nd floor.

• v01: we get an ok master bath and closet, but bedroom #3 ends up probably too small for most buyers' tastes. Totally fine as an office or nursery, though. Also we have a bedroom door opening onto a main entertaining space (something I sort of don't like. husband + realtor think it's not a big deal). I did some doodles of how this door might look in relation to the living room. I decided it's not a dealbreaker.
• v02: definitely not a luxurious master bath or closet. The attempt to keep bedroom #3's door in the hallway creates an unfortunately shaped room.

We're also using this inspection period to decide whether we can work with the existing structure and get the square footage & rooms we're looking for. Because if it's a no-go, we probably shouldn't buy this place. :)

First we need measurements, which I took while we were in the house for inspections. I started sketching too far over on the paper...so I folded it over and made a Mad-Magazine-style fold-in.