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kiki
Joined: 04 Feb 2007
Posts: 4
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 Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 5:22 am Post subject: Can't think outside the box! |
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Hello!
I'm posting on this forum because I am also a student (not architecture) and need a little help or offers of ideas.
Background:
In the past year, I embarked on a house build for the east coast of Wisconsin on a 40 foot bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. Blue prints were prepared for a beautiful conventional home of 3600 sq ft. Unfortunately, the bid could not come on budget and the house was just too inefficient on every level. The house build was scrapped for a round home - a Deltec home.
Context:
Deltec (round) Homes provide great quality, and great prices for what you get, very efficient on every level - almost - , and wonderful panoramic views. The home has 17 8' linear panels at 1500 sq feet per floor on slab. The first floor will be made with Superior Walls concrete forms. There are 3 floors total with a 2 car garage on the first floor, which also includes the foyer, 2 bedrooms, a shared bath, some storage space, laundry area, rec area, and stairs (not spiral) to go up to the second floor. Second floor includes an open concept kitchen with pantry, dining room, living room, perhaps another bedroom and full bath and whatever else can be added. There will be 2 french doors leading out to a deck. Third floor is the Master bedroom with some balconey area, full bath, and what ever else can be included. This room will also have a loft since every floor has 10ft ceilings and there is room for a small loft from the third floor. The key to the design is the panoramic 3 sided view of the lake. Thus, the floor plan must consider the view. Another key is that the center of the house is the core, The core built-ins must be functional beyond just accomodating the guts of the house, which include plumbing, duct work, HVAC, etc...
Problem:
Deltec home purchasers must design their own homes to a great extent. I expected that since the company designed so many round homes, the Deltec designers would have very efficient ideas and solutions to accomodate and overcome "round". Since Deltec homes are often purchased by people who have great panoramic views, I thought that the design of the floor plan would be a breeze for the designers. This is not true. They don't even have basic software - all is just sketched - and they'll just say, no that won't fit, etc... Whatever the home purchaser comes up with, the designer simply resketches it, and then has blue prints made. That's scary, but there was no way to know about the system because one needs to put a large non-refundable down-payment before you are allowed to meet or talk to a designer. It's the only aspect of Deltec that is very "unfriendly" to the home purchaser. I simply don't have time or waste money going back and forth with a designer that is not equipped to come up with ideas and solutions.
Specific Problem:
I just can't think outside the box!! I even have basic home design software and I just see my floor plans as inefficient and awkward. I can't even figure out how to add in a 12 ft staircase (I prefer no spiral stairs) off the the foyer to get to the main (2nd floor). I have to keep things contained within the circle or the costs will exceed the budget.
Request:
If there is anybody on this forum that is intrigued by a round home, or has experience, or ideas, or advice or suggestions, or even a great concept - ANYTHING that can help, please do not hesitate to e-mail me at - blocked -. I have no problem e-mailing you a draft of what I have accomplished thus far.
Thank you for any help or advice!! |
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lekizz
millennium club
Joined: 11 Jan 2006
Posts: 1111
Location: UK
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| Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 9:26 am Post subject: |
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| So you have been asked to design this house for somebody else, or are you designing a house for yourself? It is not clear to me from reading and re-reading the above. Are you a design student? If this is a 'live' project then maybe you'll get a better response to your problem in the Residential Design forum here. |
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kiki
Joined: 04 Feb 2007
Posts: 4
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| Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 11:33 am Post subject: |
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| I will be living in the house. Deltec Homes employs designers and architects. The designers don't do much except give the home-owners ideas and plans to the architect to draw up blueprints. I don't even think the designers are trained becasue they can't offer any solutions really. They don't even have software, so nothing is to scale. The homeowner is basically required to design the interior - the floor plan. In my earlier post, I've explained how many floors, how much square footage, how many 8 ft panels and what rooms should go where. The plans I'm drawing are awkward and somewhat inefficient - making a floor plan for a round house poses some challenges with angles and I am NOT a design student. I was hoping a student here would have ideas or suggestions on how to work with a round home. Hope this clarifies things. |
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lekizz
millennium club
Joined: 11 Jan 2006
Posts: 1111
Location: UK
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| Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 4:52 pm Post subject: |
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Ah, interesting, I have been looking at the Deltec website. Basically you have an open plan, circular space to fill (or not) with as many internal walls as you want. That is a very generous sized house, even taking into account the garage, so you have lots of room to play with, don't you.
If you want my piece of advice, I would say get a big pad of tracing/drafting paper and draw your circular floors to scale, then you can start to plan how you want your house to be. I don't think you need to come up with original ideas, just start to explore what you can (and can't) fit into your available space.
Architects and home designers are worth the expense because they already know all of the issues that need to be considered when planning and detailling a house. It sounds like you will need to speak to a few to find out if there is a local designer that can help.
If you manage to come up with some ideas, maybe post them here in electronic form and get everyone's opinion. Have fun! |
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JMaserati
Joined: 15 Feb 2007
Posts: 1
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| Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 2:19 am Post subject: |
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Kiki,
I too have been looking at the Deltecs - for several years now.
Have you tried to use Google's "Sketchup"? It's free and very easy to use!
http://sketchup.google.com/
Go to the Deltec floorplan page, save the images there and then import them into Sketchup. Use Sketchup to conceptualize your floorplan. |
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kiki
Joined: 04 Feb 2007
Posts: 4
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| Posted: Thu Feb 15, 2007 5:38 am Post subject: Deltec Homes |
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"Have you tried to use Google's "Sketchup"? It's free and very easy to use!
http://sketchup.google.com/
Go to the Deltec floorplan page, save the images there and then import them into Sketchup. Use Sketchup to conceptualize your floorplan."
Thanks for the tip! I do have the google sketchup software, but have not used it yet because it's not as easy to use as my other software. I'll try it again. More than anything, I need scale because everything looks fine until it is scaled. There are lots of acute angles and tons of wasted space. Conventional features such as closets, cabinets, showers simply don't fit properly. In fact, I had to increase the floor design to 1700 sq ft in order to get the stairs inside the circle. What I'm finding is that the costs are dramatically increasing in order to accomodate certain important features. That's not very beneficial if one of the reasons for purchasing the Deltec is supposed to be the great cost and value for what you get.
That is why I posted here - I need help thinking outside the box. There must be a way to make the round home more space efficient... |
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tabbott
Joined: 05 Mar 2007
Posts: 1
Location: North Carolina
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| Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 9:10 pm Post subject: Deltec home plans |
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| Let me know how your design with the Deltec goes, KIki. I'd love to know how you have gone about your size, design, and land selections. I am also seriously interested in building a Deltec home for my family in the future. I've visited their model home in Asheville, purchased their home info catalog with the "grid" planner kit. But I will try out the Google program as well and see how far I get. Thanks for all those posting here! It has really helped me build up the nerve to tackle such a large project. Tom - blocked - |
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piccasso
Joined: 14 Feb 2007
Posts: 5
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| Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 10:38 pm Post subject: |
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get some ideas and inspiration that could probably fit some parts of your round home - mosaics -
look at http://www.eilonmosaics.com
good luck with your home! |
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nancy
Joined: 18 Oct 2007
Posts: 1
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| Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2007 7:14 pm Post subject: I am getting starting with designing my Deltec. |
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I came across your post. I have not worked with the architects yet - just assumed they had software to use for designing. Have you come up with solutions that you could pass on as advice to me?
Thanks! |
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rahman22
Joined: 11 Aug 2008
Posts: 2
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| Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2008 2:23 am Post subject: |
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At first stage nobody is master in any subject,until they learn or acquire it.You will become master minded in a subject ,if at all you give 100% interest on that subject.Thousand steps begin with single step.
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Rahman
WideCircles |
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