No Front Door

Only one person has commented on the fact that we don't have a front door.  The front door is actually on the side of the house.

Here's what our 'side' front entrance will look like.  If you look at any of the photos, you'll notice that the 'front' door is just a flat slab of birch.  This is called a dunnage door.  It will be replaced with the real front door, as drawn here, once construction is nearly complete.  I wouldn't want the real thing to be needlessly damaged during construction.

In New England there are strange (to me) traditions of people with fancy front entrances which are hardly ever used.  The big two-story entrance with the palladian window and the grand staircase largely goes unused and instead most guests use the mud room, the back deck, or even the garage as the primary entrance.  And, in new houses, they usually get the palladian thing wrong too.

Here's another house in Centerville without a front door.

The driveway continues beyond the house and the 'side' front entry just makes sense.

This is our Site Plan, which illustrates why the side door makes sense here too.

The raised septic system occupies most of the front yard and the driveway is to the far right.  It's straight shot from the driveway to the 'front' door and this arrangement also allows for direct access to the deck from the front porch.