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A big part of our regular visits to the hill country was looking at houses.  We talked to many realtors and builders at open houses which gave us lots of ideas about what we liked and didn’t like.  Many hours were spent on websites like monsterhouseplans.com, thehousedesigners.com, houseplans.net, familyhomeplans.com, architecturaldesigns.com and others.  These sites let you choose different house styles and sizes.  This presented almost too many options.  We’ve owned four different houses and rented a couple more, so we have a good idea of what we want in a new house.   U.W. likes sewing and other crafts. My hobbies include cars and woodworking.  We haven’t figured out how to become any younger, so the design needs to be accommodating as our abilities change.  We want it to be energy efficient, at least when those details pay for themselves in a reasonable time.  Low maintenance is a high priority.  We are interested in technology but want to be cautious about the quick obsolescence of some gadgets. So, the short version of the wish list looks like this:

• A large garage or garage and detached shop – needs to accommodate 4 cars and a boat and have a workspace.
• One story – everything on one level
• 3 bedrooms – hopefully the grandkids will visit occasionally
• Study / office – a place for Bible study, occasional consulting, writing, and other computer work
• Craft room – sewing, quilting and related crafts with room for machines, layout table, and storage
• Separate dining room – these are becoming less common, but we’ve found it very useful when hosting family and friends
• Breakfast area or large island with seating near the kitchen – basically the place where we will eat most meals
• Open concept kitchen / living area – had this in our last house and it was great for both everyday living and entertaining.
• Laundry/utility adjacent to the master bedroom – why trapse across the house to wash clothes?  Seems really convenient to have the utility room near the master closet.
• Walk in attic – one of the best features of the last house we owned.  Attic storage is nice, but not having to climb a rickety fold down ladder is fabulous.
• A large garage or garage and detached shop – did I mention this yet?  Need space to work on stuff.  U.W. is the designated helper but wants (needs) me to have a space where I can tinker away from her.

We created a much more detailed list that evolved during the design and while doing more research.  It includes details about HVAC, bath fixtures, plumbing, kitchen design, bathroom features, wiring, etc.  Eventually this became the complete design specification.

I’ve dreamed of designing my own house since I was a kid and had many outlandish (and some not so bad) floor plans.  After buying the lot at Canyon Lake I began doing some floor plan sketches.  Early in 2020 I purchased Live Home 3D Pro software for my MacBook Pro laptop.  Live Home 3D is relatively inexpensive and has everything you need to draw home floor plans.  Once the floor plan is created you can view it in 3D and do walk throughs of your design.  You can add furniture and fixtures, include details about materials and colors, and even download SketchUp files from the Trimble 3D Warehouse.  Live Home 3D Pro has much more capability than I’ve used. 

We wanted to get a builder involved early on to make sure our dream was buildable. As mentioned, we had talked to several builders and in 2020 we began interviewing some of them.  We decided that Turnkey Builders was the best fit for us.  Many factors went into this decision including the builder’s overall experience and experience in this location, build features and quality, good feedback from other clients and real estate professionals, and overall fit with the personality of our project.  Most important in our case is the feeling that they can deal with all the questions and ideas of a client that is an engineer.  U.W. says this is a daunting feat.

Turnkey showed us some of their projects in various states of construction which also added to our ideas.  They recommended talking to some of the designers/architects they have encountered.  We interviewed some of them.  We found a list of questions from houzz helpful, but we added several of our own questions, particularly about designing and building in this area.  Like the builder, the designer’s personality, style, and experience are big factors in the decision.  We chose to work with KM Designs.  KM’s offices are just a few miles from our lot and they have designed many homes for this area.

I suppose I could have done my own floor plans and details.  However, I wanted to make sure it was done right, that the house was buildable and very livable, and I wanted professional quality plans for the builder to use.   Working with KM Designs has been great.  I showed them my Live Home 3D plans and we discussed areas we thought could be improved.  We gave them the detailed wish list and they began.  We went through a few early drafts and ended up with a plan that was not far from my original.  The new plan fixed some problem areas, and they adjusted the plans so that the resulting elevations will look great.

The final plan has a 1866 sqft garage (approx. 46’ 6” deep x 38’ 6” wide with a few other niches that add space) along with a 558 sqft shop (approx. 24’ 10” x 22’ 6”).  There are two 9’ h x 10’ w garage doors and one 9’ h x 12’ w garage door.  The garage is sized such that we can park a pickup and boat inside without unhooking.  The garage can easily accommodate 5 cars and a boat.

The idea is to add a car lift.  To facilitate the lift, the garage incorporates dormers above two of the bays such that the walls are 15’ high with a ceiling at 18’. The ceiling of the other bay is at 12’.  The workshop has a 10’ ceiling. 

Attached to the garage / shop is 3410 sqft of living space with 3 bedrooms, 2 ½ baths, dining, study, and a sunroom that will be U.W.’s sewing and craft space. The final plan is for a single story with a “courtyard” style garage entrance.  One of the HOA requirements is a side or back entry garage.  The courtyard style puts the garage at the front of the house with the doors opening into the “courtyard”.   This design gives the maximum turning ability making it easier to park trailers in the garage.

Hence the name GarageDominium.  While there is more living space than workspace, the predominate feature of this project is the garage / shop.

The exterior of the house is stone and stucco with a metal roof.  There is a covered front porch and a large, covered patio.  The patio has a fireplace along with a built-in grilling area. KM completed the initial design on April 13, 2021.  The design process with KM started on December 4, 2020, so it took almost 19 weeks.  During this time there were several drafts and meetings to discuss details.  Starting the project just prior to the holidays added time.  Though we had discussed the design ideas, KM did not start design work until January.  Additionally, Covid affected them.  Another factor was my work schedule so we could only meet in person on weekends.  We were not in a huge hurry, so all of this worked out fine. We’ll get into more details in the next post.