• PMLET

''Lighting - Part II''

We have discussed how to pick out the proper house site and road location for your new lot. So let's discuss the actual siting of your new house.

The first step is having a clear idea of what spaces need to be incorporated into your new house. Make a list of the rooms required and their approximate sizes, and take the list to the site. You can then begin to put together the layout of your house.

Place the more public spaces like the dinning room, living room and entry on the southern and western sides of the site. The lived-in spaces will be much more comfortable with good natural light and heat gain during the cold winter months. Place the more private spaces like bedrooms and bathrooms on the quiet side (away form roads and driveway) of the site, and preferably with eastern orientation so you will wake up to the sun.

Garages should be on the least attractive part of the site and if possible, bermed in on the north side. Closets, utility rooms and other accessory spaces should never be located on exterior walls; they should be ingeniously incorporated internally.

Now that we've determined the rooms needed, their sizes, and their approximate locations, let's look at other factors that affect the siting. One of the most important is balancing cut and fill in the excavation work for your house. This is achieved by a very basic principal: Set a height for your finish floor that matches a contour (a certain ground elevation) that runs approximately through the middle of the house. Where the finish floor is below the line of natural grade, the soil will be removed and placed in the areas where the finish floor is above the natural grade. You'll save money by eliminating the need either to import or export soil to the site during construction.

With a finish floor level set, you can now look at how the rooms will work together on the site. Maybe stepping down into the living room will add a gracious feel to the room. But make sure that no more than two or three steps are needed. Never add steps just to have steps in a house, unless they are needed for existing grades.

Do not make the garage the first thing you see when you drive up to your house. Tuck it back in the corner of the house, letting the living spaces be the first visible elements you see as you drive up to the house. Living spaces are much more attractive than a 16- ot 18-foot garage door.

Outdoor spaces are also important. When doing your house siting, keep in mind that six to eight months out of the year we have wonderful weather here in Santa Fe. Make sure you provide areas for developing outdoor spaces either now or later. If you plan to have yard walls, follow existing contours and let the walls match the form of the terrain. If they don't, they'll look out of place.

Also think about where a vegetable garden might go, where the dog run might be, where you will park your boat or RV, where you will stack your firewood. These may seem like trivial considerations, but the time to look at them is while you’re siting your house.