Without knowing anything abut the hoaue or the third dimension of the facade, I think its helpful to eliminate the extraneous gables, then make them earn their place on the facade.

IMO none can.

Here are some interesting houses of what was once called the "Picturesque English Style" which are notable for their strong forms and restraint. Note the close rakes, open eaves, absence of nested gables and other pretentiousness.

Ragdale, home of Howard Van Doren Shaw

I love #1 and #2 of those examples because it looks as though those homes would be light and bright inside. More gables would cut substantially into window space.

Some additional photos of Ragdale built in 1897 in Lake Forest, Illinois

Its a matter of making a stronger visual statement with fewer elements — an architectural principle all but lost today.

@res2architect Thank you for the feedback! The front elevation is just so boxy. I think we need to rework it completely. I’ve included some of our inspirational houses on this comment. I added the floor plan to my original post. I didn’t know my post would get so much feedback, so I didn’t include it initially. I’m open to your feedback.

We’re in TX, so no basement.

Thank you to everyone who has given constructive feedback. I appreciate it!

Two great examples of not knowing when to stop adding gables.

Even the gable happy Cotswold Cottage builders knew when to stop.

The next step should be a simple 3D computer model.

@res2architect That’s the style in our area & what we like. Ours wouldn’t have the extra garage on the side, so we’d have fewer gables. I never knew so many people were so against gables. 🤣

I'm pretty sure "gables" is the new dirty word on this forum. I think the 3d image is WAY too busy. Definitely just taking out of a few of the those gables, would make it easier on the eyes and would actually add interest. In this case, less is definitely more.

The best houses orient the public rooms towards the south for the best passive solar heating and cooling

The best houses are L, U, T, H, or I shaped.

The best houses are only one to two rooms deep. And covered lanai, porches, garages, etc count as rooms in this case.

The best houses make sure kitchens have natural light, meaning windows so one doesn't have to have lighting 24/7 to use the kitchen. (And no, dining areas with windows 10' or more from the kitchen will not allow for natural light.)

The best houses make sure all public rooms and bedrooms have windows on at least two walls.

The best houses do not if possible put mechanical rooms, pantries or closets on outside walls

The best houses keep public and private spaces separate.

The best houses do not have you walk through the work zone of the kitchen to bring laundry to the laundry room.

The best houses do not have the mudroom go through any of the work zones of the kitchen.

The best houses do not put toilets or toilet rooms up against bedroom walls or dining areas.

The best houses do not have walk in closets too small to stand inside.

The best houses have an organizing “spine” so it’s easy to determine how to get from room to room in the house and what makes sense.

So how many of these best practices does your house have?

No one here is against gables; too much of something dilutes its value. My favorite Texas architect is Bobby McAlpine.

I wish you well with your house design.

Your inspirational photos are overdone. Simplify. Sorry to sound harsh but what you're trying to create is a McMansion. Create a home.

The idea of a facade is to create it so one immediately focuses on the most important element and that is leading the eye to the entryway. Start with that.

@cpartist We aren’t trying to create a McMansion. We live in TX, so its affordable to have more space. What we have here is what we need. We run a small side business from home & have a family, so the size is perfect for us. As for the inspirational photos, that’s the style we like. It may not be for everyone. I was initially looking for feedback on the floating gable to see if there are any examples on an existing house like that, and I’ve gotten some good edits to the front elevation that I shared.

There was a good edit above that I’m going to use as inspiration to focus more on the front door.

I went through your list, and we have quite a few of those. Our lot is deep, so we can’t have a wide house to accommodate some of those points (ie. Only 1-2 rooms deep).

Before you make a final decision, read more about the term McMansion to see if that is what you want because, in all candor, all those angles in the exterior walls and all those roof gables seem headed that direction.

What direction does the front of your house face -- will the front be the dark north side or the sunny south side and in which rooms do you want the most natural sunlight actually entering the room ... or in which rooms might you want to mitigate the heat of the mid day ... perhaps with a front porch.

You certainly do want some gables and vents in them but, unless a McMansion is your objective, you might consider mixing in other roof and porch/balcony features.

https://www.familyhomeplans.com/plan_details.cfm?PlanNumber=72249&OrderCode=GOEXP&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIrPvemtzT7wIVAfSzCh0fDQtuEAQYAyABEgJZVfD_BwE

@suezbell It’ll be facing the south on a heavily treed lot at the top of a hill.

When I hear “McMansion” I assume it means creating the biggest house possible, which is definitely not what we’re trying to do. 😝 I appreciate you telling me it’s an actual term. I’ll look it up & read more about it. (Sorry if that reads as sarcasm. I don’t mean it to be.)

Really like lots of shade trees in the yard, especially where the area is usable as a gather space for indoor/outdoor living, especially if you're not planning any porches.

One thought:. If you can set your house just in front of or just in back of or beside any hill, you could end up with a lot more usable yard and that might be preferable to having it on the highest point on the lot unless you are in a flood zone and need the height.

The driveway and a parking space or two as well as underground utilities might require some trees to be removed. If any need to be cut, consider which trees you want to cut and which trees you definitely want to save and plan your driveway and utility access accordingly.

Let us know your progress.

What suezbell said. "McMansion" connotes a house that cribs some of the architectural elements from various unrelated styles and then proceeds to mash them together with no thought to how or even if they ought to work together. Go check out the McMansion Hell website for some visuals.

Rather than mashing some of these elements onto a facade in the quest for "interest", and ending up with a EuroTexan Suburbatopia Pastiche, decide what you want your house to be. Try looking not at other modern suburban houses for inspiration, but at historic architecture.

Not because your are going to ask your architect to design you a New England Saltbox, or whatever. But so that you can work to a cohesive style, and end with something that works together, inside and out.

Patrick Ahearn, Gil Schaefer, and Russell Versacci are some architects whose work you should look at. Now, they may be operating at a much higher level of formality, size, and sheer expense than you or I are looking to build. But the ideas do translate downward. I'll also include a link to a Southern house that used the same concepts.

A house of this sort will always be pleasant and attractive. Whereas, something built hastily, with the defense of "it's popular here" will forever date itself to the era in which it was built. Much the way a trilevel screams 1970s, or a bi-level with diagonal siding and long, narrow windows says "I'm from the 80's."

https://patrickahearn.com/

https://gpschafer.com/

http://www.russellversaci.com/

https://www.southernliving.com/home-garden/decorating/new-old-house-vintage#wood-walls

@cpartist We aren’t trying to create a McMansion. We live in TX, so its affordable to have more space.

A McMansion has NOTHING to do with size and everything to do with pasting on extra gables and making a house that doesn't gel. Yours doesn't. I'm sorry. You can have a mansion that is well designed and lives beautifully or you can have a McMansion that doesn't. Your choice.

As for the inspirational photos, that’s the style we like. It may not be for everyone. I was initially looking for feedback on the floating gable to see if there are any examples on an existing house like that, and I’ve gotten some good edits to the front elevation that I shared

What happens on the inside instructs what happens on the outside.

I went through your list, and we have quite a few of those. Our lot is deep, so we can’t have a wide house to accommodate some of those points (ie. Only 1-2 rooms deep)

No but you could have a house that is L shaped for example which would help but it's obvious from your comments, you're already married to your house and design. Too bad because that interior will be dark with little natural light. That is why a house 1-2 rooms deep is so important. For natural light.

Here's the best site to read up on what McMansions are. https://mcmansionhell.com

@cpartist We aren’t married to it at all. That’s why I posted here. Our lot is on a hill, so we have to keep the lot dimensions in mind. We can’t go too wide. Our living room back wall is all windows & the three walls of our dining room are windows. Natural light is a big thing for us & our architect knows that.

I‘m taking several of the comments from this thread to our architect next week. I’m definitely not married to the plan. It’s a living document.

TX was the state with the deep freeze and extensive power outages this winter? Under-capacity grids? Astronomical prices for home heating and electricity? If you can even get it?

As far as roofline, form should be following function. That means energy solutions for climate change in TX.

Presumably, you'll incorporate solar or other alternative power technology into the design, since that's current best practice is in residences/offices? Whatever roof pitches you have will need to accommodate those. If those gables cast shadows and prevent solar reception, that would be a huge consideration. And the proportionally very high roof area to home square footage, will be highly energy-inefficient. Function first, then form.

And if for some reason, alternative energy (e.g. solar) isn't in your first construction round, the roofs will need to be alternative-energy-friendly either for your family in the future or the next.

Climate change mitigation is upon us already in the current generation of houses. It would be a pity to plan a home that won't be energy-ready in 10 years.

*******

I 100% agree with the ^^^^ recommendation to spend time on mcmansionhell.com. IMO it's very relevant.

There are no windows for the kitchen and the only great room windows open onto a covered patio? I can't imagine that.

The gables are preventing you from having enough window space. IMO The windows seem scrunched up and too few for the rooms in the plan, because the exterior spaces are carved up by roofs.

Was this really an architect who drew this? It looks like it was designed by someone who works in 2D not 3D.

Our living room back wall is all windows & the three walls of our dining room are windows. Natural light is a big thing for us & our architect knows that.

Sorry to burst your bubble further but your living room will still be dark because as I mentioned in my best practices, your covered patio acts like an enclosed room. And because your living room faces north, that creates another problem. Meaning the light will not get to the middle of the living room. You'll be lucky if it gets to where the windows are.

I highly recommend you also read up on passive solar heating/cooling.

These side elevations will not look good no matter how many gables are slapped on them.

@cpartist What do you recommend? Remove the covered patio, add sky lights,...? The covered patio helps keep the heat out during the summer, but it does block some of the light, which is also important.

Why not just post the floor plan?

@Mrs. S I did. It’s on the post.

Oh, sorry! I was confused. Nvrmind!

Accepting the original design concept as presented, I recommend not adding the "floating gable" you originally asked about; pulling the entire wall out to the face of the stair bump-out; lowering the stair window and the bottom of the bump-out; and extending the roof eave over the top of it (first sketch).

I also recommend extending the rake on the right side of the central gable for greater compositional balance and connection to the garage (second sketch).

"Our architect just added a new gable". I might be wrong but It doesn't appear that the owners or designers at the Plan Factory are architects. If that is the case, calling themselves architects is misleading and illegal.

Will the final design be brick and stone with roof eave flares like the photo below?

Answering your original question, I think RES2 gave you some good suggestions with how to handle the elevation. I agree with getting rid of that gable.

Since the front of your house faces south, you do not need a covered patio in the back to block heat, as those windows won't get direct sunlight ever, and your patio will likely be in the shade - in the shadow of your house - so won't need a cover anyway unless you want it for looks. But as @cpartist mentioned, you're probably not going to get loads of natural light in your house.

Houses more than 1-2 rooms deep aren’t inherently nor always dark. Mine isn’t by any means.

However, having your living spaces with all the windows facing north on a wooded lot will likely cause your house to be darker than you realize. My house faces slightly west of north so the back of my house faces south/southeast and has tremendous direct and indirect natural light flooding in for the majority of the day. We also have open fields behind our house so reflective light plays a part in that just as cp’s amazing pool plays a part in the reflective light her interior receives :)

The key is to find a designer/architect who understands those things and utilizes that info to design a house best suited for the lot.

Wow, @res2architect you found the exact house!

I had no idea there was such a thing as a Plan Factory. And then I read this in their marketing front page, VERBATIM, which didn't give me a whole lotta confidence: "The Plan Factory is the starting point on the bath to moving into your dream home."

And @Mark Bischak, Architect regarding those "side elevations" with no windows.... now I know how to phrase my point on "too few, too small, windows" in architecture-ese. I had no idea what an "elevation" was. Thx!

Can someone help me draw what I’m thinking?? Make the left gable & third gable shed roofs & make the part with the tall vertical window for the stairs a gable like the third gable. Please be nice. 😜 I don’t know if this will look good, but it will at least add different types of roof and remove a gable.

similar to this:

The whole floor plan would need to be changed to get a look like the pic you posted. Plan Factory ain't gonna cut it. You need an independent architect to accomplish what you're seeking.

BTW, I really like the pic you posted :) Gorgeous house!

Its a bit tight making the new gable align with the stair and other interior elements but setting the upper floor back puts the big gable in relief (ie proud of the main structure).

It also helps to flip the garage.

The proportions need adjustment.

@res2architect Thank you for the drawing! I'm curious what others think, but I think that looks a little less boxy than the original.

No, it won't look like that house. It'll be white brick and won't have those flared out eaves.

The Plan Factory designed most of the 20+ houses that our builder has built in our community, and they've designed my family's custom homes, just like they're doing for ours. They have a team of architects and designers that work on their custom projects. This is our first custom home, so we used them since they're well known in the area, were recommended by multiple builders we consulted with, and have done work for our family in the past. What kind of an architect are you all suggesting?

I would say a registered architect but that's redundant since all architects must be registered and licensed by the state in which they practice. "Architect" is not a job description; its a legally restricted professional title like doctor or lawyer.

The Plan factory doesn't use the word "architect" or "architectural" on their web site. In my experience, any design firm that doesn't name their designers and their qualifications, especially state licenses, has no architects on board. Most architectural firms use architect(s) in their firm name. But perhaps the Plan Factory is unusually modest. I've known a few architects from Texas and they were not unusually modest.

@res2architect I just saw your three sketches from this morning. I missed that earlier. Thank you for providing those! I think that's a good option. For the stair bump out, I assume that would be stucco or wood siding and the rest of the house would be brick.

I never give a thought to the exterior materials of a building during the early design stage unless a client feels strongly about it. I begin with the big decisions and leave the small ones for later.

I'm trying to remember using more than one exterior material on a house and haven't thought of one yet.

Looking at it again, if the house is brick the stair bump-out could be paneled wood in keeping with the English country house/Tudor/postmedieval tradition, maybe even half timber.

(Res, just a small correction or two. Ragdale, no “s”. And I think it was Howard van Doren Shaw. It is indeed beautiful. Now it is an artists’ retreat.)

Thanks, I'll correct my comments.

Not saying anything about these guys, good or bad, but they are not architects nor do they purport to be. You will notice that they do not use the term on their site from what I see. In fact there email address is even designers@. The owners LinkedIn page shows no accreditation and even states he a designer.

@res2architect I love those houses you drew. Classic and interesting.

I suspect there is a difficult roof configuration problem at the green circle in the drawing below. I recommend getting a schematic 3D computer model of the house before going forward. It might be solved by extending the right side rake of the center gable but even that needs to be drawn in 3D.

Also the projections at the front facade are so shallow they may be lost in perspective view. Remember, you will not be able to see your actual house the way it looks in the design elevations. Things in the distance (roof ridges) will be shorter and things in the foreground will be taller (gables, roof eaves).

If you want the shallow projections to compete with the garage they should be larger.

Not saying anything about these guys, good or bad, but they are not architects nor do they purport to be. You will notice that they do not use the term on their site from what I see. In fact there email address is even designers@. The owners LinkedIn page shows no accreditation and even states he a designer.

And it shows in the plans and the elevation. No architect worth his salt would have designed this overblown, dark interior house.

@res2architect To add to your point about roof-clashes, I'll bump something I said ^^^^. Those gables are like water chutes aimed directly at windows. There's a ground-level window with two chutes coming right at it. The water will be zooming off those steep roof pitches.

While you are fussing with the front elevation, your side elevations are looking like this:

You can always add some gables and windows; what I would like to see is the roof plan.

@res2architect I already asked for it yesterday. 👍🏼