Evolution of Our House Design

Well, here we are 2 days left of 2016, almost 7 months since we first started seriously looking for a new home, 4 months since we signed our contracts, 8 weeks since permits have been submitted and our land still remains untouched.  Normally, it takes only 4-6 weeks to get them approved.  However, there were minor hiccups that the contractor and architect needed to redo thus causing a delay in approval from all departments.  We are told that everything should be finally approved by the end of this week and we can  get started as soon as they are completed.  

We did get a final rendering of what our home will look like that I wanted to share.  First, a little history on the process and how we ended up with the design we did. :) 

Where do you even start?  We have always loved the timeless charm of a Hamptons style home (which is one of the reasons we were attracted to the home we put the offer on), so we knew that we would begin there.  We searched through many, many, MANY floor plans looking for the right fit for us.  While we found a few homes as inspirations we couldn't make any of them work.  In July we spoke with our contractor who put us in touch with his favorite architect, Tom.

He was able to design it completely from scratch.  He has just been wonderful to work with and has been very patient as we tweaked and re-tweaked and we now have a perfect layout for our family.

I am saving the floor plan for a future to post so I can give a more in-depth explanation.  For now I wanted to show the process of the exterior (which is more fun since its changes are more dramatic then the floor plan anyway ;) ).  I'll just be doing the highlights.  There were actually many more adjustments and emails back and forth, but the following 4 show the progression best.    

Version 1  

Before we had met our architect we had given our contractor a list of what we were thinking along with a couple of inspiration pictures.  This was what he brought back to us:   

Okay, we're on to something, but it it still not there.  

Version 2

Some shingles added, entryway peak adjusted, and we lost a window and a porthole. 

  

 At this point our contractor was still being a "middle man" between us and the architect.  David felt that we would probably make better progress if he met with him face to face. 

Version 3

 Much better!  After meeting with Tom he was able to get a clearer idea of what we were wanting.
  Lowered the roof line, fancied the entryway arch more and brought back my porthole window.  

Version 4

We decided that in order for the Hamptons look to truly work we needed the entire siding to be shingles.  We also lowered the roof line a little more and narrowed the second level of the entry to and extended the eaves.  We also extended the roof on the left wing of the house to give more interest.    

Now we wait to see what how close our final look will compare in 7 months!