skeez

thank you very much. i have forwarded your reply to my architect. about selling the land, i don't think my dad wants to do that... but i will bring it up to him. thank you again... Susan

here is the drawing i forgot to attach to the last email... thanks for helping me Susan

here are the answers to your questions: I am not the breadwinner of my household yet. My dad is building me this house. I am staying with them at the moment. I have a boyfriend but we are not planning to get married for another 2 years or so. We might move in together later this year, into an apartment while the house is being built. I wanted an office in the house because I thought I wanted the option of being able to work from home. Also, I have a lot of technical equipment--computers, etc, which would be better placed in an office of sort. The office will be located close to the main entrance in case I have clients come in. I am a designer--graphic, web and packaging design. The land when we bought it was sloping quite dramatically- from the level of the road to the small creek--before the plantation. However, we have filled the land to the same level as the road, and a retaining wall is being built to prevent land slides. This would result in the piece of land being leveled and about 20 feet higher than the creek and the plantation. Sorry, I do not have a scanned image to send you. The land we bought is in a exclusive gated community. My parent's house--where I live now is also located in the same community but about half a mile away. I am attaching a drawing which shows the rough location of the land in relation to the neighboring houses. Hope my answers are helpful enough. Thank you, Susan

Thank you Cecil, for the advice. I am attaching a draft of the house plan--the groud floor plan so you can have a clearer picture. would it help if i had one side of the courtyard open up--not walled or glass up--so it opens up to the kitchen and dining area? please advice, i might have to do some major changes if it isn't a good thing. i was born in 1973, April 28th--if that is of any significance...

I am building a house and am thinking about putting a rectangular shaped courtyard in the center of the house. 3 sides of the courtyard will be glass walled leaving an entrance on only one side of the courtyard. The rectangular courtyard would run all the way up through the second floor. Will the courtyard at the center of the house be a bad thing or a good thing?