Victorian Home Plan - Gothic Farmhouse Style

• Time was when Before The Architect reckoned a Victorian house plan for a farmhouse was Victorian Queen Anne style. 
• Shame on us. 
• Our clients had quite different notions, and dialogued with us considerably to make their points of what they knew they wanted and where they itched and could not scratch. 
  • Weeks. 
  • All we got from our clients were pics of sort-of Victorian Gothic style houses incorrectly designed –
    • Incorrect roof pitch step-downs
    • Incorrect eave returns
    • Incorrect shutter sizing
    • Incorrect dormer proportions
    • Incorrect, incorrect, incorrect

Comment:  And that's almost all you get for today's home plan styling of any Period - bonehead design.

Comment:  The clients didn't know about the dreadfully banal and botched styling.  They knew that there was something about it they wanted for their own house.

• It was almost all Goth, Goth, Goth more than anything else.
• Well, time passed and so did our ignorance and uncertainty. 
• Our plans of L1 and L2 plus four elevations are with them for their own self-styled hiatus. 
• There's plenty else for further consideration - wiring, L0, foundation, roof plan, piles of details and specifications, etc.  But we couldn't help ourselves not to bring up this work here and now and still formative.  So much fun, this one.
• Before The Architect reckons the home design style on which there's all-around satisfaction as Victorian Gothic Farmhouse Style.

• Victorian vestiges meet farmhouse-relaxed
  • Roof pitches below those which are commonly associated with Vics
  • A humongo wrap-around porch to two sides of habitable (about 100 linear feet on the centerline) plus an open, deepish deck in the Back Of House running about 50 linear feet on the centerline
  • Victorian frou-frou generally simplified and played down from the more recognizable Carpenter Gothic but not played out (which we've found very tough to source in other than wood and other than ho-hum)
  • Clad - we're about to explore how we can if not replicate then at least respectfully reflect Vic brick structure - ours is currently planned to be 4 sides brick, there are several key ways to so reflect those good ol' days, and design - especially working beyond the monochromatic

The stunning Victorian Brick and Terra-Cotta Architecture: In Full Color, Edited by Pierre Chabat, Dover Publications, Inc., 1989 and

In dramatic black and white, Decorative and Ornamental Brickwork: 162 Photographic Illustrations by James Stokoe, Dover Publications, Inc., 1982.

• Two brawny wall dormers reminiscent of Victorian Gothic Revival 

THE VICTORIAN GOTHIC FARMHOUSE IN PERSPECTIVE

• Let's first look at a wireframe in isometric, viewing through the design bones of wall, window, door, and roof elements

Left Front Of House, Isometric in Wireframe 

• A wonderfully raised main entry roof in simple, Classical presentation
• Of particular interest –
  • There's the long, long covered porch on two sides, closest to us
  • The garage and living space over it are to right rear
  • The Front Of House has two wall dormers of three sides each symmetrically articulated up both stories. So Goth.
  • Roof pitches are low for Victorians.  So relaxed.
  • Lots of windows.  Lots.

• There's the welcoming, easily discerned main entry
• The big, deep porch beam level had to be high enough to clear a straight-out view from L1
• Note the delicious regulating lines (ou tracés regulateurs) of the L1 to L2 fenestration in the attached garage and over-space.
• The big, deep porch roof had to overhang the porch perimeter on its way at ½ the primary roof pitch and intersect with L2 low enough to get big windows on the face of L2 with sills low enough for visual comfort and functional convenience.
• See the formal Gathering area at the right side of the covered porch
• The symmetry herewith is rigorous in both the main structure and the attached garage and L2 above it
• Of particular note is that, while relaxed in appearance – the huge porch being the major contributor – Before The Architect had to infuse the classical in Victorian home style.  That infusion comes in the correctly designed, front-facing gables atop the wall dormers in the main house and the roof dormers on the over-garage L2.
• The attached L1 fenestration is unadorned so as to promote focality on the main house generally and the front entrance specifically.
• Nonrectilinear windows on L1 and L2 and frou-frou are for the whimsy of ‘em.

• The essence of the floor plan of L1 creates a formal front end and a family-specific, informal backside with the wrapping porch to convenience traffic within and between these areas.
• Lines of sight, traffic patterns and circulation, diverse functionality all worked well in this design, to everyone's satisfaction.
  • The two-sides porch is uniformly 8+ linear feet wide, opening to a formal Gathering area at one end off the Living with circulation via the main entry and
  • An informal Gathering area at the other end off the Breakfast with circulation via the center-backside Family.
  • Formal spaces: front-facing porch area, including the right-side Gathering, Foyer, Dining to the left, and Living to the right.
  • Informal space: everything else.
  • Dining opens to Foyer and Kitchen with Pantry, Kitchen to Center Hall and Breakfast, Breakfast to informal Gathering, Center Hall, and Family
  • The three major spaces on the L1's backside – Breakfast, Family, and Music are intentionally openable to each other, since professional music performance – writing, playing, and producing – is a major facet of family life.
  • The big back deck is open and abuts a lower courtyard area directly seen from Music.
  • The Garage opens to L0, Utility and the Back Hall with ½ bath, and a small, second covered porch to a multipurpose space – principally an office/library work area that can double as a guest bed and accessible full bath.

• L2 is just as tight, family-functional, and interesting as L1
  • The L1's central hallways continues on L2
  • Left of landing is the Master suite of rooms with bonus space from the wall dormers, making both bed and bath spacious and open. 
  • Laundry is itself centrally sited between Masters and Kids Bed, the latter in back either side of a Jack & Jill Bath.  Note that each Kids Bed has its own walk-in-closet.
  • The Guest suite spaces separate a Kids Bed from a large open space over the garage, which space will initially be for music recording and production.  Across from the Guest spaces is a photographic darkroom.
  • Associated with the entirety of L2's Guest space, Dark Room, and Studio is another plan to refunction these spaces for family member live-in down the road. 
    • Hence the Dark Room is plumbed and wired for subsequent kitchenette installation.
    • In such instance, Dark Room and Studio move to L0 – a full basement left roughed for the time-being.

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