Wow, very impressed with you man. You have built yourself a dream life to say the least. Very inspiring.

Yep. Spent the past close to 20 years living where we felt it would be good for our kids. Even selling a home (for a loss) after we got redistricted before building where we live now. Life is changing. But it is good!The backside is almost all glass. The areas you see with small windows on front are a master clos (far right) and laundry, and a pantry and a 'micro office'. (desk area off kitchen).Didnt do any 2nd floor balconies. We have lived in 2 very large homes and a lot of the stuff you build for 'cool' never gets used. We want this home to fit us, and I dont want to put a bunch of stuff in for 'wow' that does not bring us daily use. This home will be about 1/2 the heated footage of our current home. Not sure yet we are even going to move, but for me to give up what I have, I want to picture what we would do if given the chance to build again. This is kind of how I make decisions...Having a great wife is a huge part of that. She has indulged and supported all the crazy things I have done over the years, and always been there to support me along the way. For this (possible) new house, we have been designing it together. In the end, we can both decide if it is something we want. Very hard to give up where we currently live. But if it proves to be something we want, maybe it will be worth it. Part of my 'deal' with my wife is, if we sell this home, I will buy us an beach home also. That is something she has always dreamed of and it would make me happier than anything to give that to her.

Mirin, nice to see a non-incel thread every once and a while


What software are you using for the architectural rendering?

I use Twinmotion. It uses the Unreal engine. I used to use a different program called Lumion but TM has really stepped up the game.

I design in a different software. The only thing I am using Twinmotion for is it's raytracing. I import my models w/ textures. I do my own normal maps and bring them in for TM to use.

My design software has real time ray trace capabilities, but I find using a stand alone, I can get better results more quickly. I only spent about 10 min setting that up to be rendered. Rendering is not important to me so long as you can convey the design. From time to time I fall down the rabbit hole of rendering, but in truth, it is not a big part of what I do.