Mith said:
Bob, looks real nice. I like the fancy materials you used.
The only thing I see, why couldnt you put the sink so you can look out of the window while you wash up? Looks like its right infront of the pillar.
The house was designed in 1912, when we layed out the kitchen it was simply not conducive to the work flow to have the sink moved off to either side because it made for too long of reaches to opitimize the space. We contemplated adding a middle window, but that was not original the house design and we didn't want to alter that part either.
But in our whole house there are really no good views to the outside. We have no traditional picture window to look out at the land, despite the fact that we have great views. Our house is perched about 3/4 of the way up a ridgeline, the views to our west are great because of elevation of the house above the lower land (everything to our west for about 1000 miles is at a lower elevation). There are 28 windows facing the west. In the living room there are 15 total windows, 10 face west. But there is no 'view' of the western landscape unless you walk up to one of the windows and look out. All of the windows in the house (except in our dining room) are like you see in the kitchen, that being that they are spaced apart from each other by roughly 24 to 30" of wall space. It provides for a lot of light, it provides for a wonderful feeling that the house is part of the woods and the land, but it does not provide for the thought that you 'overlook' the land. Many people who come to the house fall in love with the rooms and the tranquility they provide. It is a very restful home that seems to instill a feeling of serenity into those who gather there. Its not as big as many, its not fancy by most people's standards of "fancy." What it is is a design that fits very nicely with the nature around it. Our priest, an obviously spiritual man, loves to sit in the living room. I admit it is also my favorite room. From the living room you can see up into the open foyer that climbs about 22' above the floor of the living room, you can see down to the lower level of the foyer that drops a half flight below the living room floor. From every direction you can see sky and trees. Some of the walls are painted with bamboo and dogwood murals to mimic the dogwoods and other plants that surround the house, and "silk" trees that climb from the lower level up through the center of the foyer. There are trees planted to cast shadows through a few windows to project their leaf patterns onto adjacent walls.
So from the standpoint of viewing outside, it is a VERY UNTRADITIONAL home. But then again, most 'prairie' style homes are similar in how they use walls, light, and spaces to work in harmony with the surrounding area rather than to impose themselves upon it.
The original home design sighted it in a very similar setting, part way up a ridge so it did not dominate the site, overlooking a creek and small valley. While the home was never built by the architect, we took his plans long after his death and tried to hold reasonably true to his designs. From some angles of approach you see very little of the house, often only the upper level or the rooflines. The 'prairie' school of architecture was one that tended to site homes so they were not perched on top of things, but rather were designed to work within the layout of the surroundings.