Destination Points

As with any home, Ravenwood is a collection of various rooms that are designed to address the needs of the owners. A lot of care and thought went into what types of rooms were needed, their sizes, and their relationship to one another.

One of the initial designs of the house, broke it up into three distinctive sections. On either side of the central core of the house are the East Wing and West Wing. This allows the house to spread out, and present a wonderful southern exposure which allows virtually all rooms in the house to enjoy some period of the day bathed in sunlight.

Formal, Casual, and Private areas

The West Wing obviously extends to the west of the central section of the house. This is the more casual part of the house, and contains the Kitchen, with a Butler Pantry providing easy access to the dining room in the center wing. What might be called the Kitchen Dining Room is on the other side of the kitchen, and leads to the Garage. And directly above the Garage, is the Cocktail Lounge.

The Center Wing is the formal section of the house. The houses Main Entrance is on one end of the Center Wing, with the Guest Bedrooms, and the attached Conservatory on the other end. The body of this wing of the house contains the Great Hall which serves dual duty as both the Formal Dining Room, and the Formal Living Room, and spanning the eastern side is the Gallery Hallway which connects all the rooms of this wing.

The East Wing Is essentially the private wing of the house. It is connected to the rest of the house by the Tower Stairway, which provides access to the upper level Master Suite, and also extends underground to the Wine Cellar. On the first floor, is the Library, Exercise Room, and the two Offices.

The Formal Spaces

The Main Entry to the house is on the north end of the center wing. It will have a slightly eliptical shape to it, with access on one side to the west wing of the house, and the east wing to the stair tower. There is both a small powder room, and coat closet directly attached to the entry, and within the coat closet, is a stairway that leads upstairs to the studio space that takes up all of the available second story of this section.

The Great Hall is the largest room in the house. It is situated in the direct center and is approximately 21 feet wide and 37 feet long. We chose to create such a large room so that it could serve a wide variety of purposes. Through the proper placement and arragement of the furniture in the room, it can either appear to be two distinctly separate rooms, this is how it will probably normally be set up. One end of the room will be a dining room, with a fine dining table set up to comfortably sit 6 to 8 people. On the other end will be some low tables and comfortable seating situated around the large fireplace to provide a nice little conversation area for freinds to gather and chat in. However, when the need arises, the dining area can easily extend to fill the entire room, this would be necessary for large dinner gatherings when we entertain heads of state, or dictators of small island nations.

The Covered Patio will be accessible just across the hall from the Dining Room portion of the Great Hall. It will be attached to the back side of the Stair Tower, thus giving it a roughly circular shape that opens out to the formal garden area. This will be an excellent place to host outdoor garden parties during the summer, and its covered area will provide protection from the constant rains.

The Gallery Hallway Extends almost the full length of the central wing, and provides a straight procession from the Stair Tower, down to the Conservatory. Several doors lead off of the hallway into the Great Hall. It is 40 feet long, and with a 5 foot width, is wider then what a traditional hallway might be. This is to allow it to have artwork hung along its length, providing an excellent display for the guests as they move from one end of the wing to the other. One of the ideas we are entertaining, is to actually do an occasional art show, or perhaps even a gallery opening style of event.

The Conservatory really has turned into being a very impressive part of the house. It started out as simply a room with glass ceilings that was inbetween the Great Hall and the guest rooms, but then its design started pulling it out into a specific feature all on its own. It is approximately 24 feet deep, and 18 feet wide, with glass walls and roof designed and installed by a local firm that specializes in sunrooms and conservatories.

The Tea Room will be located halfway down the Gallery Hallway, and will be a halfcircle room with glass walls looking out over the formal garden. Its 10 foot diameter will make it perfect for a small tea with some freinds, or during former dinners and gallery showings it would be just the right size for a small string quartet to sit out of the way and entertain the guests.

Two Guest Rooms are located on the far end of the center wing. Each are approximately 13x7, and from a size and layout standpoint are mirror images of one another, but I'm sure the interior decorations will be another story entirely. Each has a small walkin closet, and a private deck looking over the kitchen garden. By putting them clear off at the end, our guests will feel like they have a fair amount of privacy and separate space to relax in.

The Casual Spaces

The Kitchen is probably one of the most important rooms in the house. At 20 feet wide in both directions it is easily has four times the square footage as the kitchen in our current house. There is a central cooking island with a large updraft vent. There will be an attached pantry, that is large enough to store not only a backstock of canned goods and other dry staples, but also storage for the wealth of kitchen equiptment and gadgets that we all tend to gather. The layout of the kitchen has been optimized for multiple cooks working together, as well as allowing it to function as a classroom for cooking classes might go on at some time in the future. The cabinetry layout and design in this room is turning out to be quite interesting, there will be several different styles occupying this space to add to the feeling that it had been built-up over several generations of use.

The Cocktail Lounge isn't just a little wet bar in the corner of the media room, or at the back of a bonus room. The cocktail lounge is situated above the garage, and while this means the floorspace is 28 x 44, since this isn't a full second story, the slopes of the roof remove some of the effective headroom in the corners, so the actual size is probably closer to 13 x 40. The 19 foot bar itself will be front and center as you enter the room, with a big screen tv at one end of the room (probably a retractable screen to prevent it from intruding), and a fireplace at the other. This room will most likely perform like the "casual" counterpart of the Great Hall. By keeping the room as open in design as possible, the functionality of the room can easily be dictated by the type and placement of the furniture in it.

The Garage is nothing too fancy, it's 36 x 26 size is suitable for three fullsized cars, with room left over for storing the various things that find their way into garages across the nation. The doors to the garage are twisted around to make them face as far away from the normal approach as possible. There will also be a low wall extending out from the house to hide the driveway and garage openings from people that are approaching the house.

The Dog Run is attached to the far end of the garage, and will be enclosed in some sort of fencing. There will be a door to this area from the garage to provide easy access for both the pets, as well as for cleaning. At 9 x 26, it should be large enough to allow the pets to have enough room to feel comfortable and secure.

The Kitchen Dining Room is an extension of the kitchen itself. Its 22 x 15 size makes it large enough to serve multiple duties, as either a casual dining area, or an area to expand out into if there is a lot of cooking going on. There is a good sized breakfast bar that connects it to the kitchen and allows the two spaces to feel more like one. There will be a large rustic looking fireplace on the far wall, and will be easily visible to somebody cooking in the kitchen. A set of large double doors leads outside to the kitchen garden, with a small patio allowing for a comfortable setting in the warmer weather.

The Laundry Room is located off of the Kitchen Dining Room, and while its 8 x 8 size is a little on the small size, it will be plenty large enough for not only a washer and dryer, but for a standup freezer and enough counter space for clothes seperating, folding and ironing. We debated for some time where to put the laundry room. We had been noticing a lot of newer homes were putting it up near the master bedroom, but we felt that while this would be very handy for getting our clothes in and out, it would make it more out of the way for getting to the laundry room from whereever we might be in the house to move the clothes from washer to dryer. So by putting the laundry room next to the kitchen, we feel it puts it into closer proximity to where we might be at times when we are in a "clothes washing" mood, and thus help streamline the process. However, just to cover our bases, we are also installing a compact over/under washer/dryer in the Master Closet as well.

The Pantry is a twin of the Laundry Room, with the same 8 x 8 size, as well as being placed in a similar location off of the Kitchen. The layout of the pantry is optimized to be a walk-in storage area for kitchen staples, as well as equiptment and utensils.

The Private Spaces

The Library is something we always wanted in our dream home. While at 21 x 12 it isn't going to put the local public library out of business, but it should provide adaquate room for us to store our growing collection of books. Picture a two story library, with tall dark wood bookcases covering virtually all of the wallspace, a spiral staircase leading up to the upper overlook, a fireplace in one corner, and several tall/narrow windows looking out to the front of the house. Now picture yourself sitting in a red leather highback chair, reading a favorite book in front of the fireplace, with a snifter of brandy, with a little soft music flowing into the room from some indeterminate location.

The Library Hall Is the short hallway outside of the library. It is 8 feet wide, which allows it to almost be a room of its own. It is directly off of the Tower Stair, and we see it as not only being what provides access to the rooms of this area of the house, but also to be an extension of the Gallery Hallway, and able to be used to display some artwork that perhaps needs a little larger room to stand back far enough to take it in.

The Exercise Room will provide a nice sized area for exercising in, and at about 21 x 24 (which includes the space used for the attached bathroom and a mechanical room) it should be large enough for comfortably holding a few pieces of exercise equiptment, as well as room for standard arobic exercising. There will be large french doors that lead to the outside garden area, as well as to the hot tub that we will be putting outthere someplace.
      The attached bathroom will be accessible from either the exercise room, or from the hallway outside of the offices in this wing. And the sink area will be separated from the toilet and shower.

Two Home Offices will be in this wing of the house. Both will be 16 x 14, and similar in form, but with windows and doors in slightly different locations. They will both have doors that lead to the outside, not only to give a closer attachment to the outside garden area, but also to provide a private entrance if this becomes usefull in the future to allow for one, or both, of these to be "official" home offices for tax purposes.

The Master Suite

The entire upstairs of the east wing is dedicated to the Master Suite. This includes the second story overlook of the library, and it is from this overlook that the main doors of the Master Suite sit.

The Master Bedroom (20x19)

The Master Bathroom(12x21)

The Master Closet(27x9)

The Deck(21x9)