Julia exteriors, etc.
The hardscape here is akin to an idea I have been wanting of using lots of stone up against and all around the house--not as wide as this except in the courtyard--and then having lots of flowers and grass and planting beds beyond or next to the stone. It kind of features or emphasizes the house and does a maintenance-minimization thing I like.
Though this is so different from our style, its spacious feel, openness, proximity of eating and informal living areas, eclectic furnishings, and lived-in look compared to so many of these Houzz images make it feel "like us" although it's much more modern than our more traditional taste. I like these floors although maybe for all the wood floors other than the maple in the master bedroom and formal living area.
This siding and roof look are what we are imagining. Our porch needs railings. Colin doesn't like the light and matchy roof, so greyer siding and darker (gun metal-ish) roof.
This house and its porches are not the look we're going for, but they're nice porches, and we would be happy with this smooth type of vertical siding.
We would love to have some of these built-in drawers. We could do that later, but it makes sense to build as if that would be done in some selected places around stairs. The white and wood railing would be OK if simpler and lighter wood. I will email a picture we have.
Colin likes the windowseats: these and in other photos he's remarked upon. I can't think of anywhere in the house where we could give him/us one except the windowed side of the library hall to the master bedroom. Suggestions invited.
Do we have any kind of overhang at the front/courtyard door? the siding on the upper level here is like what we're thinking of for the house and barn/garage.
Per Colin: "Looks a little like some of the things we're trying to do."
I just like the openness and large size or sense of this. I want both the formal and informal living areas to have a similar sense of open space.
"There's our barn," Colin said. The window is too small; we would substitute multiple four-pane windows.
"That stone's not bad," Colin said, although inside and outside do look different.
"Those door are very nice, but how do they open?" Colin commented.
This vertical siding and these doors would be nice with some windows in or above them that go with the theme/rest of the building(s).
We would like windows in the garage doors, but we don't want to have to spend a lot of money on garage doors.
Double four-pane windows? We like them. Here we discussed having skylights or Solatubes in the garage instead of the high triangular or trapezoidal windows or expanses of glass shown in Paul's drawings that I worry are expensive and not really in keeping with a barn or garage. We could not have those windows in the garage as not in keeping with the barn look/idea.
Only things about this house that are like what we're thinking are: the up-to-the-house stone (ours would be loose) rather than plantings and beds and possibly the exterior stone on the house that might work inside for a fireplace.
Use of rocks different from but a bit like what I've been thinking.
Barn windows are nice. Gravel driveway is nice.
The way the hardscape goes up to the house and garage is like how I would like pea gravel to go up to the house and then have islands of plantings in various places in the pea gravel courtyard and completely around the exterior of the house.
This is very different, but we could like it.
Q