Current House Design: Exterior

So, here's what I have in mind as of today.

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I'm not ready to commit to it yet. There are some things I really like about it, there are some things I'm not keen on.

I like:

  • It's different.  I don't want to be different just to be different, but I do want my house to stand out from the crowd. I haven't seen any tiny houses with a roof like this
  • The door on the side.  This is the right side of the trailer when driving, meaning if I'm hauling it and pull up to a curb to park, the entrance is on the sidewalk.
  • I like the roof ridge being not in the middle.  Tiny houses are all pretty narrow, and having the ridge in the middle just emphasizes  this (the visible sloping section of the roof is too short).  Combining an offset ridge with having the "front"  of the house on the long side gives the house some visual depth.
  • Having the ridge not in the middle gives me headroom where I want it in the loft, rather than in the center.  When I sit up at night, I want the high spot to be above my head, not my waist.  Yes, this assumes that the sleeper will sleep perpendicular to the long axis of the house.  That seems natural to me, although I know many tiny house's lofts are set up the opposite.

I don't like:

  • The roof is more complicated than necessary.  I can justify this on aesthetic grounds --even if the roof is fancy, it's still a very small roof.  Four valleys isn't that many.  A nice roof is one of the big details that can make a design pop... But I can also condemn it on aesthetic grounds --it's excessive, the added space isn't used, and if I'm going to be true to my "working class house" ideal, working class people generally don't have the time or money to add frivolous gables.
  • It looks a little squat... the roof line on the front is too close to the tops of the windows, and when I add eaves and make the roof thicker, I suspect they will emphasize this.  This may be nothing. I'm not 100% sure about the height of my floor, because I don't have my trailer yet, so in my drawings I've assumed it was a little shorter than it probably will be.  These extra couple inches would raise the roof, perhaps making it look right.
  • The current size and positions of the front windows interfere with the size of loft I want.  I would like one loft to be able to fit a queen size bed, and right now to make that work I'd have to raise the loft, which would make it less usable.  I've tried moving/lowering the windows a little, nothing seems quite right.

So that's where I stand.  I was happy with this design for a week (and the floorplan), but now I'm reconsidering.  Simpler is better, easier and cheaper.  On the other hand, I want to look cool.  What to do, what to do.