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The house will be facing south - sorry for leaving out this detail.
For the elevation with full porch - the roof that we will be selecting is straight at the top corner edges - not bent like it is shown in the picture. We can't get the roof of the other elevation in the first one. I believe that this is the reason why elevation with full porch is couple of thousand dollars *cheaper* than the partial flat porch elevation.
We do get ~10-20sq feet extra in small porch elevation - as the foyer area is extended out by 1-1.5 feet in that one (the picture might be too small to show this detail).
Regarding the neighborhood - 30% of the houses have *no* porch (not even partial as in our elev 2). Don't know the reason why - may be cost because building any kind of porch adds ~5K to the price. The rest of the houses are different models... and a couple have full porches. This is a small community of ~40-50 SFHs.
In part it depends on what you are building the house for. Is it an investment where crub appeal is paramont? It is a mean to impress your neighbors in you community? Is you primary goal a place to live.
The porch house is much more practical if you would use the porch. If it is just a decoration, then go withthe fake porch or none. Porches are expensive. If you woudl use the porch, the first house is the better choice. The porch on the second house is just a decoration. Personally I think the first looks better. I do not care for fake archtectural elements of any kind. Looks tacky IMO. Could you extend the porch on the second house our a bit amd make it serve a purpose? It might look better too. What would the second house look like with no fake porch thingy? Maybe it would look better?
Anyway the purpose for uilding the house will be paramount. It is clear the second house has more curb appeal to typical modern/trendy people just from the comments you got here (I am atypical).
Our porch covers most of the front of the house and wraps around for 30' down one side. We use our porch a lot. We eat many meals out there and wave at and great neighbors as they walk, bike run or drive past, our kids sit with friends and beaus out there, we have parties out there, we sit and relax. One of my favorite things to do in the world is to sit on our porch on a warm day with a steady rain and just chill, or sit and watch the swans on the river in the early morning when everything is so quiet.
So, is the attic finished or do you ever plan on it? To me, I like the porch elevation anyway, but it looks like you get more 3rd floor space with the gable ends as well as the front gable that is much much larger on the porch elevation than the Georgian one.
I also think, just my opinion of course, that the Georgian with the small porch looks more typical and standard while the one with the full width porch has a but more detail, especially with the brackets and the porch to break up the expanse of the brick front.
>So, is the attic finished or do you ever plan on it?
We are not taking the 3rd floor attic - it will be a small space just for storage in both elevations.
Regardless of intended use, the attic space is significantly larger in the first full-porch option.
I love having a full attic for storage. There are so many items that can't be stored in the basement because humidity causes a musty smell. My husband was helping his siblings clean out the basement of the family home and even the cardboard boxes of board games smelled gross. Never have that problem in an attic. We keep all of our off season clothes up there, along with antique furniture and such. Things seem to last forever in an attic.
By all indications the full porch is nothing more than an elongated covered stoop. It's only like 4' deep- That ain't a porch!
From a purely aesthetic standpoint the full brick front with the widow's walk front porch is much more appealing. If this is the way you're going to go- make sure the roof material is metal and the railing/balusters are PVC (one of the reasons why they cost so much). I have replaced a few of those over the years because the materials used were inferior for the purpose and H/O's are not exactly the best property maintenance managers.
And the roof detail you were trying to describe- the gable ends; they are called "dutch hips".
if this is a typical builder, and they have pre done elevations (another words, I want the "Cambridge floorplan, elevation C") ...
Changes (like adding an additional 4' of depth to a porch) means redoing the blueprints.
That ain't cheap.
that's why they have the elevations predone - they're already designed and engineered and signed off on ... and you can have anything you want - that they've already thought of.
Now if this is true custom - then that doesn't apply. Of course true custom is a LOT more expensive normally than a large builder with ready to go floorplans.
I think the Georgian (small porch) looks nice. I think the full porch is more country looking, but still nice.
I just wouldn't pay for that particular feature if I wasn't already a "porch sitting" kind of person.
Like when you put in a hot tub and think "once we get a hot tub we'll use it all the time" -- but you were never hot tub people, and so you just paid $5K for an expensive bathtub that never gets used.
A lot of people THINK that they'll use something, but never do.
And -- a porch is very different in different parts of country depending on friendliness of neighborhood, climate, etc..
(i.e. if I were in the South - yes I would have a house with a sleeping porch, and I would use it. But I'm not, so I don't.)
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