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Like all of Ms. Coleman's designs, Mountain Atrium was originally designed for a client who wanted an energy–efficient, passive solar home. You can build this house facing in whatever direction suits your needs, but if you're interested in building it as a passive solar home, please read the section below titled Passive Solar Info for specific information on orientation.

First Floor
Porches and decks nearly surround this house, making it a wonderful home for people who love to spend time outdoors. An atrium in the very center of the house provides both natural light and drama. The foyer off the front porch leads directly to the atrium area, which transitions into the living areas of the house. Upon entering this area, you and your guests will experience both the drama of the vaulted ceilings, and the beauty of the outdoors through all the windows on this side of the house.

The kitchen is separated from the dining area by an island with a breakfast bar, and the great room is (visually) separated from the sunroom by the hearth. The dining room provides access to a very large screened porch, and the sunroom provides access to an even larger deck.

The master bedroom suite is conveniently located on this floor, and the laundry room can be accessed directly from the large walk–in closet. There's a second bedroom on this level that could be used as a home office or a study, and a full bath.

Second Floor
The stairs lead up to a small loft area that looks down on the atrium space and the great room. Two additional bedrooms are located on this floor that share a full bath. The homeowners knew that family members would be visiting on a regular basis, so they had the architect create a couple of guest nooks for them. Guest nook 1 could easily be converted into a study area or walk–in closet for bedroom 4. The abundance of walk–in, semi–conditioned eave storage areas will be appreciated by everyone.

Basement
A partial basement is designed with storage, mechanical, and laundry in mind, to free up more of the first floor.

Garage
The detached garage has room for two vehicles and a large workshop, or for three vehicles if you don't need shop space. There's also plenty of room for storage in this 24' deep by 36' wide garage. Pull–down stairs lead to attic storage.

Passive Solar Info
To maximize its passive solar design, the front of the house should face northeast. The concrete floors and stone covered block walls in the south rooms provide thermal mass to minimize temperature swings in the great room, master bedroom, and especially the corner sunroom. The 35 pages of specifications that come with these plans (see Please Note below) will give your builder precise details on all the passive solar issues pertinent to the construction of this house.

Construction Info
The ceilings on the main floor that are not vaulted are 9' in height, and the ceilings on the upper floor are vaulted.

The plans for this house call for ICF (insulated concrete form) exterior walls. If you plan to change the walls to a different type of construction, we recommend that you purchase the plans in CAD format.

Foundation Info
This house was originally designed to have a partial basement and part slab foundation. However, if you prefer a crawlspace, a full slab foundation, or a full basement, these are fairly simple and inexpensive changes that your builder can often make for you. If the basement design is not displayed in the Floor Plans, it's because it is unfinished.

Modification Ideas
Add another bedroom upstairs over the great room or the dining area. Build with SIP walls, or 6" studs caulked and insulated. Make the kitchen larger by expanding into the front porch and foyer, and then turn bedroom 2 into a combination foyer/away room.

Similar Versions Available
There are seven similar versions of this plan – Adirondack Atrium, Adirondack Atrium 2, Atrium, Atrium 2, Atrium Breeze 3, Cottage Atrium, and Garden Atrium – available on this site. For easy access to these other versions, click on the Architects button on the left side of any page in our website, and scroll down until you see Ms. Coleman's name and photo. Red links to each of her plans appear below her bio, in alphabetical order.

Please Note
All of Ms. Coleman's plans include 35(!) 8.5"x11" pages of specifications to help your builder construct this house exactly as it was designed. These technical specifications are organized to follow the CSI (Construction Specifications Institute) format, and apply to the various aspects of the built home. They also include complete details on passive solar issues.