One roof - different wall heights

[Jo_Ann]

It may not be easy to see, but there IS a 4' overhang over the front door.

[447Debbie]

1 hour ago, Jo_Ann said:

It may not be easy to see, but there IS a 4' overhang over the front door.

Oh yes, I see that now.  I missed it before.

[LawB10]

Let's go back to you're 1st post,  Is that how you want the roof to look?

What is the actual ceiling height of the Garage? From the Google Earth view, it looks to be 8 or 9'

You mentioned a 2nd floor and a 2nd floor balcony, what room(s) will it cover?

 

You're terrain is incorrect, you have it at over 23k. Lets start over,  First, check automatic so that it returns it's default setting, close the dbx

and then reopen and uncheck Automatic.

 

Check Hide terrain intersection.

 

Delete all contour lines so that the terrain is flat, click the elevation tool>elevation region, make to 2 region boxes one for the rear and one for the front.

 

Move the rear region about a foot or so from the house a lower it to -104 or so, leave the front height to 0" and resize the front region until it's equal or more                                   to the width of the house.  You will have to resize both regions to get look you want.

[447Debbie]

LB10
I'm sorry, but I'm not ready to delete the terrain I have.  23K (23648" ) is 1970' above sea level and is the terrain I got off of Google Earth for my lot.  I imported the trace from Google Earth and that's how Home Designer Pro interpreted the traced data, with the absolute elevations.  The lot is 1974' at the front, 1955' at the back with the house taking up about the middle range of 1970'-1960'.  Somehow, on this small lot, I have to get that driveway to the garage from 1974 to 1970, while at the same time rising 7" at the curb, and then sloping down, only to rise back up in the last ten feet to the garage.  At some point in time if I get different numbers from the surveyor doing the topography, I can then change it.  For now, all the points are relative and if I get rid of them then I have no idea how my house will look on my lot.  I need to know how it will sit on the terrain.  To put them all back to flat wouldn't gain me anything as the terrain points in there are pretty accurate with how the lot really slopes.

As far as the ceiling height in the garage, as long as an 8' tall garage door has enough room to open, that's all I car about.  I don't want a step from the garage to the house, and I'm finding that's not easy to specify in Home Designer Pro.  So far now I've faked it out by saying the floor is 0" from the top of the stem wall.  I'll deal with the other 12" later.  I also need a slope on the garage floor, but don't see anything in Home Designer Pro for that either.  I guess I have to resort to doing something manually.  I'm going off on a tangent here.

 

All I was trying to do with my 1st post was to learn how to get the roof all in the same plane on the front so that I could easily construct a portion of the roof over the entry to install a 40" tall light fixture.  I now know how to make that roof, but everything else is so cumbersome that I'm afraid I've given up and have decided that if I do bring my existing light fixture to the new build, I will just install it over the basement stair way and forget about raising the ceiling. Though I was successful in getting the 14' ceiling in the entryway, I was not successful in getting the walls on the inside lined up.   I have stucco on the interior and drywall on an exterior wall, and I can't fix them because it's the same wall.  Where it runs inside it should be drywall, and when it goes thru the roof it should be stucco, but it's not.  I've literally spent an entire week of vacation doing nothing but trying to get that entry ceiling raised and I've just given up.

 

I appreciate your help, but I am burned out on this whole design.  I think maybe I'll start working on the basement floor plan and leave the elevations for the pros when the time comes to get the real design done officially.  It was my intent to have a real designer do it anyway, but at first I was having fun trying to get the first rendition done.  

To answer your question, I think requires more explanation.  There will be a walkout basement below the current floor that is designed.  There will be a covered patio on the current floor that is designed.  It's in the back of the house, the patio is drawn in.  I'd like for the cover of the patio to double as the "third floor walk out deck" accessible by the elevator.  There will be NOTHING else on this third floor. Basically, there really will not be a third floor except for the walk out patio that is also the roof for the deck below.

[447Debbie]

I want to thank everyone on this thread for the input and help with understanding Home Designer Pro.  I have a long way to go but I will keep pushing on.  For now, I've given up on the official roof and instead spent some time today just raising the default ceiling height on the entire first floor.  I then kept that height (12') for the entry way, and lowered every other room back to 10'.  I know the literature said not to do it that way if all you wanted to do was raise one ceiling, but for me it just turned out to be the easiest.  I'm sure I'll be back for more advice, but for now, I'm done with my attempts at creating the roof.  I think I'll leave that up to the experts when I take this to a designer.

 

Thanks to all of you, I appreciated all your time and efforts.

 

Debbie

[LawB10]

4 hours ago, 447Debbie said:

LB10
I'm sorry, but I'm not ready to delete the terrain I have.  23K (23648" ) is 1970' above sea level and is the terrain I got off of Google Earth for my lot.  I imported the trace from Google Earth and that's how Home Designer Pro interpreted the traced data, with the absolute elevations.  The lot is 1974' at the front, 1955' at the back with the house taking up about the middle range of 1970'-1960'.  Somehow, on this small lot, I have to get that driveway to the garage from 1974 to 1970, while at the same time rising 7" at the curb, and then sloping down, only to rise back up in the last ten feet to the garage.  At some point in time if I get different numbers from the surveyor doing the topography, I can then change it.  For now, all the points are relative and if I get rid of them then I have no idea how my house will look on my lot.  I need to know how it will sit on the terrain.  To put them all back to flat wouldn't gain me anything as the terrain points in there are pretty accurate with how the lot really slopes.
That's not how the software works as you can see, the house is "floating" if you were to get to ground level, the house would disappear.

 

 

As far as the ceiling height in the garage, as long as an 8' tall garage door has enough room to open, that's all I car about.  I don't want a step from the garage to the house, and I'm finding that's not easy to specify in Home Designer Pro.  So far now I've faked it out by saying the floor is 0" from the top of the stem wall.  I'll deal with the other 12" later.  I also need a slope on the garage floor, but don't see anything in Home Designer Pro for that either.  I guess I have to resort to doing something manually.  I'm going off on a tangent here.

You didn't fake anything that's how do it, you raise the floor.

4 hours ago, 447Debbie said:

 

All I was trying to do with my 1st post was to learn how to get the roof all in the same plane on the front so that I could easily construct a portion of the roof over the entry to install a 40" tall light fixture.  I now know how to make that roof, but everything else is so cumbersome that I'm afraid I've given up and have decided that if I do bring my existing light fixture to the new build, I will just install it over the basement stair way and forget about raising the ceiling. Though I was successful in getting the 14' ceiling in the entryway, I was not successful in getting the walls on the inside lined up.   I have stucco on the interior and drywall on an exterior wall, and I can't fix them because it's the same wall.  Where it runs inside it should be drywall, and when it goes thru the roof it should be stucco, but it's not.  I've literally spent an entire week of vacation doing nothing but trying to get that entry ceiling raised and I've just given up.

 

It would have been easier if you would have shown the house as it is. Take pictures of the front, rear and sides

 

I appreciate your help, but I am burned out on this whole design.  I think maybe I'll start working on the basement floor plan and leave the elevations for the pros when the time comes to get the real design done officially.  It was my intent to have a real designer do it anyway, but at first I was having fun trying to get the first rendition done.  
 

Your welcome!

 

To answer your question, I think requires more explanation.  There will be a walkout basement below the current floor that is designed.  There will be a covered patio on the current floor that is designed.  It's in the back of the house, the patio is drawn in.  I'd like for the cover of the patio to double as the "third floor walk out deck" accessible by the elevator.  There will be NOTHING else on this third floor. Basically, there really will not be a third floor except for the walk out patio that is also the roof for the deck below.

The first pic is what the terrain looks like at 23K

The second and third is what it should look like...choose files... Click to choose files

Untitled_2(1).zip

[447Debbie]

11 hours ago, LawB10 said:

 

The first pic is what the terrain looks like at 23K

The second and third is what it should look like...choose files... Click to choose files  

Untitled_2(1).zip

That's not how the software works as you can see, the house is "floating" if you were to get to ground level, the house would disappear.

 

I must be missing something because of my inexperience with this software.  The first picture is exactly what I have.  If I were to do nothing with that lot, and try to build a house on it, the rear would be on stilts and the front would be below ground, even with a walk out basement. I have a lot with a large uneven slope that will require extensive site preparation that will included cutting the front down and filling the back in.  Part of my reasoning for drawing it as it actually is was to try to determine where that midpoint between cut and fill would be.  The restricting factor is the 30' height restriction. Until the retaining walls are drawn in Home Designer Pro, making the front of the lot level will delete the real terrain that I have to deal with.  I think the way to fix this, is with retaining walls since in reality, that's what will be required.  I envision my driveway being something like this in the attached, though I do have a few more feet to work with in front of the garage doors.

If there is a way for me to tell Home Designer Pro to adjust every one of my elevation points with 23,648" being the new ground level point, I do not know how to do that.

[solver]

Drove to the valley and back yesterday, passing Fountain Hills on Hwy 87. Thought about your lot and wished I had time to stop for a look.

 

I imagine you want the house sitting as high as possible to maximize your view. The common way of achieving this is to minimize the roof structure. The contractor then positions the house at an elevation that does not exceed the restrictions. 

 

Dirt is pushed around and retaining walls are constructed as needed in response to the location of the house. 

 

Unless you are also trying to minimize site work -- a real challenge, or need to leave parts of the lot undisturbed, I wonder how much you need to worry about the topography.

[447Debbie]

On 12/14/2016 at 8:31 PM, solver said:

Drove to the valley and back yesterday, passing Fountain Hills on Hwy 87. Thought about your lot and wished I had time to stop for a look.

 

I imagine you want the house sitting as high as possible to maximize your view. The common way of achieving this is to minimize the roof structure. The contractor then positions the house at an elevation that does not exceed the restrictions. 

 

Dirt is pushed around and retaining walls are constructed as needed in response to the location of the house. 

 

Unless you are also trying to minimize site work -- a real challenge, or need to leave parts of the lot undisturbed, I wonder how much you need to worry about the topography.

:-)  Next time you're in the area and have some time, go take a look.

I believe I have an "exemption" against disturbance since the lot is so small.   Some lots do have that requirement.   The limits for cutting and filling are cut 10' fill 10'.  I'm not trying to minimize site work because I realized that would be needed when I bought the lot.  The views are the important part.

I understand completely about being as high as possible.  It's quite a challenge to get high, yet stay below the 30' requirement since we also want to be able to walk out on top the main floor deck roofing, kind of a third floor deck, if you will.  I'm not sure we'll actually need that to get the views though, so when push comes to shove, that third floor deck will probably the first thing that will be eliminated.  There are a couple of lots that I included in that pdf file I uploaded somewhere in this thread, that might have houses built on them that could potentially block some of our view, but given the challenges they face with how they'll have to position their houses, we might luck out. Regardless, a large portion of our view will remain unobstructed.  It's really hard to explain without actually seeing it.  I've attached the picture, but I can't tell how clear this will be on the forum.