This is all part of the Garrison Colonial home building design plans that you can see from other drawing aspects in —

	Concept DrawinGS, Home Plan Design — First Additions
	CONCEPT DRAWINGS, Home Plan Design — Second Additions

and in BUILDER DRAWINGS —

	Cross-Sections, Foundations For Residential Building Construction, Footing & Pier
	Detail Drawings, Carpentry Plans,  Knee Brace.

Featured throughout this website, the owners skipped Model Drawings so far, except for this look at the front face where there are a lot of changes.  Later on, we might do something else on the backside, once we're settled on more specifics about the build out. . . that's a ways off right now.  If you looked quickly at these colonial house plans, you might mistake this work for small home building plans — the footprint to start with is about 480 square feet (which you can double for interior area given the two-story structure).  But that footprint won't look like small house plans in-the-making once we add a foyer for 30 sq. ft., the outcome of the room addition building plans to the backside for another 640 sq. ft., and, quite likely in the longer term, another 800 square feet of footprint alone for a prospective garage building plan covering two-stories — half of which could be inhabitable space.

You can see the front-face changes in the following series of pictures of "before" and "after" in 2D and 3d home designs.  These Model Drawings are as far as the homeowners needed to go in order to be satisfied with the work planned.  The effective purpose of these draftings has been to get a perspective on the impact of different alterations to the front face — foyer, new windows, new front decking, window boxes, etc.  While we have drawn a lot of variations — window size and type, deck configuration, etc. — here we'll show you last or latest shots, and allude to how and why we got there.

Also, you will not see some elements of the house at all, either before or after, in early-on drawings.  For example, the existing, chased chimney is omitted.  As is the new one.  So is any drawing of the left exterior elevation, visible as a blank wall in the perspectives.  

For the record, changes shown include the following:

	A two-story entrance foyer extension with a large, single-swing door and sidelights, plus a gable-end roof line.
	Larger windows on the upper floor to match with the lower floor's to the left side of the entry.
	Window boxes.
	Larger and fancier shutters.
	A large window (bay, bow, or picture) to the right of the entry (probably shuttered, too, once the owners study this drawing, making the point of a Model Drawing's efficacy; namely, that in this instance, the big window initially chosen for this drawing was just a little too wide to accommodate the shutter width shown on the rest of the front face; and, if anything, this bigger window's shutters must be no narrower than the rest on the front face .  . . so, in went a slightly narrower window of size.
	Larger, squarer deck and broad stairs.

First, a 2D home design elevation of the front-face and a left front perspective in 3d home design from a "before" vantage.  In the 2D home design version, the squiggly line to the lower right is a rough approximation of the grade.  (Autocad Granddad has yet to be satisfied with more picturesque modelings of terra firma.)  As well, you can still make out a few of the Concept Drawing's rear build out posts.  Finally, you can see that progress on the backside build out is still early on (though in just a bit you'll see it's more advanced than drawn here).

You can see some challenges with exterior design from either of these drawings.   Overall, the physically advanced upper floor, for lack of alternative attractions to the eye, almost inspires a fight-or-flee sensibility.  The steep, high grade to the right and its resultant cover-up of lower-floor architectural opportunity on the right sets the house front out of balance.  Add to that offset the off-center front entry and deck, and the house looks tipsy, imbalanced, left-heavy.  (Including the undrawn chimney chase on the east end of the existing house compensates some, but doesn't fully rebalance the front face.) 

"Before" Front, 2D      

 "Before" Front, 3d    

Lastly, a 2D and 3d home design view of the after version — this time in color.  (Definitely, shutter the bay window.)                                                               

"After" Front, 2D    

"After" Front,  3d   

(Billable time to consult and draft these drawings to this point — about 20 hours (the deck, alone, a third of that time).

· · · · · · ·

As to further develop our perspective on this build out, the Autocad Granddad adds the chimney chase.  Without it, it appears too tough for us to visualize how well the front face balances out.  Right now, the face looks left-heavy — bigger windows, bigger shutters, bigger deck entry, bigger stairs to the entry.  All left (except the big window).  And, though the foyer is right-of-center, it's not enough to balance out the visual weightiness leftward.  We reckon that the chase will pick up some of that slack, and so will the window to the right of the foyer.  We also reckon that the rightmost window could just as well be a picture window.  The depth of a  bow or bay is lost viewing straight-on and obscured from the left approach by the foyer.  In fact, there is no right-side approach to this real property.  Cost control and relative ease of installation favor the picture window, too.  (This design viewpoint in neutrality as between picture, bay, and bow vanished once the Autocad Granddad drafted in the bay window's build out at the foot and crown.  Big deal.  Then, the bay ruled.)

First, the chase (and shuttered picture window).

The chase is not enough.  We'll have to plant that right side to add still more visual weight.  Perhaps, clad on the exposed foundation below the big window will help, too.  Maybe even enlarge that little window to the right of the decking.

Even including the niches either side of the chase, it's still could be light on the right.  And the niches themselves pose close attention.  What we're after is to visually widen the interior width of the room one wall of which contains the big window on the right facing.  And give the room some added character.  Provisionally, we've chosen to build niches on either side of the fireplace, or the fireplace chase — depending on your perspective. 

Drawing these niches can be a real pain.  The AG already lost the first set of detailed measurements and drawings from scratch.  Screwing it up again is not in the AG's book of work rules.  So, he went back to the owners with this little message in a bottle . . .