Evolution of ideas and plans

Here are some examples of the drawings for our house that we made over a two year period. We had a fairly good idea of what we wanted from the beginning, but had to come up with a design that was practical and affordable. Affordable meant that many of the fancy features such as a bump out in the bedroom and a balcony disappeared before the end. Practicality meant that we had to shape dimensions and spaces to meet standard block and timber sizes.
These are for the south elevation:
The first shows some of the very first free-hand sketches I made as Linda and I discussed layouts. Even in these first drawings the south orientation, the kitchen and living areas appear pretty much as they would be in the final.
The next drawing is from the the dream stage when any fantasy could still be indulged in. The bump-out on the right would have allowed us to lie in bed and view the world. The balcony and central window would have been nice. The tall tower would have been neat.
In next drawing, reality and the advice of Aaron have intruded. The fancy parts are gone and the roof line is lower in order to save timber. The tower remains an tower, but also lower.
The last drawing is the as-built. We went back to an eight-foot second floor to simplify the timbering. but kept the total building height the same. As a result, the tower sits lower on the roof.
More drawings of the floor plans later.