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Comment by thatfrenchguy | Hacker News Reader

First comment from my partner was “I don’t know if this is the Parasite house of an Apple Store” :-).

But really, so many weird decisions here that make no sense: why would you put your kid’s bed next to your bedroom in a new build? Why the bathrooms next to the bedrooms for your kid? Why cement floors and no floor heating? How did you end up at 400A/96kw of service (my car charges slower than that!). Why not building a indoor pool instead of a outdoor one? Feels a lot like your architect and contractors saw you had too much tech money and not enough common sense.

That, and the fake pretending to care about the environment when you live in the middle of nowhere and have a heated outdoor pool with 96kw of service in Canada is just astounding!

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The choices don’t seem particularly shocking to me, so I don’t understand why they seem so obviously bad to you. For placement of bedrooms, I think the question is where else to put them. I guess they could have the office/4th bedroom next to the master instead but what the rooms for is obviously somewhat subject to change. For the bathing part of a bathroom being near bedrooms seems logical. There appears to be a small lavatory off the kitchen area but maybe it isn’t ideal not having a proper lavatory connected to the living space, especially if they actually do as much entertaining as they planned when designing it. I don’t know how to square your statement about architects seeing dumb money with the fact that many things you suggest they do would be more expensive and therefore increase the architects fees.

I don’t understand the comment about how fast your car charges at all. I suspect that electrical heating in the winter is the main thing that would push up power usage (especially with double-height rooms) but I’ve no idea really.

> or placement of bedrooms, I think the question is where else to put them. I guess they could have the office/4th bedroom next to the master

Do I really need to tell you why it’s better to not share a bedroom wall with your children? :). If I had a choice, I 100% wouldn’t.

Sound insulation is a possibility and when your kids are young they often need attention in the night.

When those kids get older they will probably need attention from a therapist having lived in the woods alone with their parents. I hope their schools are good.

The walls are concrete, there's probably no sound transference at all.

Also we don't know that the kids are not deaf.

Also we don't know that if they are still having sex or already are past that phase of their lives.

> The choices don’t seem particularly shocking to me

Did you see all the glass? And the snow? Those two don't go together, even with triple glazing. Then again, if you have major $$$ to spend on heating, I guess it doesn't matter.

With 15 acres they may have a good size woodlot.

That exposed wood with no rain protection will age terribly. I've seen quite a few houses for sale with this sort of design that probably looked good new too.

That's not true, if you have spacers behind the wood it should dry properly and last a long time. See https://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-001-t...

Without overhangs and gutters, you are going to have a lot more water exposure to your siding, windows and doors which will definitely affect longevity. In a snow climate, this is even worse.

The concerning part is all the exposed windows, which aren't sealed to the framing at the bottom. There's a much larger chance of water ingress.

it _looks_ like its carborised, ie slightly burnt, so it should last pretty well.

The exterior does look like shou sugi ban wood which (done properly) should indeed last for a long time.

However long it lasts, it would last longer protected by an overhanging roof.

Reasonable conclusion. Without an overhang and gutters it seems like more rain and snow would run off the side of the building than there would be otherwise, keeping the wood wet for longer. But, on the other hand, the green roof might have some characteristics or affordances that prevent that. Hard to tell. I am curious now though!

Growing up in that part of Canada I have some worries about that flat roof. "Rural BC north of Whistler" is the sort of area to expect snow, and structures need to be designed to clear said snow...

As someone else pointed out, even your roof holds up, the water is likely to pool somewhere and eventually the water gets in.

And finding that inevitable leak under a 'green roof' will be a fun challenge.

They likely put the kids bedrooms next to theirs because their children are very young, and need attention through the night.

It's the REI HQ: https://www.geekwire.com/2020/facebook-buys-reis-new-hq-367m...

I think it's a beautiful house.

Having the family bathroom near the children's bedrooms is pretty common in floorplans, at least in Australia.

They have a wardrobe between them and the kid's room which would mean an insulated wall, soft clothing that would muffle sound, and then perhaps sliding wardrobe doors. That might help. We have a similar format in our house, but a dressing room in place of the wardrobe.

I suspect that once kids are old enough to be aware, parents are typically a lot more careful with their timing...

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