Which house plan to choose (pics included)? (price, floor, space)

[blazerj]

My wife and I have recieved the 1st floor plan below from a custom home builder. This is after giving him a sketch and describing what we wanted and going through a couple of rounds of edits.






However, an architect relative saw this and made the following changes.



Keep in mind that the "footprint" is basically the same. Also, that there will be 4 bedrooms upstairs and an unfinished walk-out basement (that in theory will be finished eventually).

My question to CD is what plan do you prefer and why? We can combine elements of both too. I like the larger mudroom as we have 1 (and will likely have more) kid, like that the pantry is near the garage entrance (to drop off groceries easier), and like the hallway theme of the 2nd design.

Thanks for any and all input!

[beachmouse]

The first one is also probably going to be a little cheaper to build due to the less complex roof line. In a house that size, I'd also hate to end up with a laundry closet instead of a proper laundry room. I sort laundry into piles near the washer/dryer and would not want to be tripping over them when going to and from the garage. Would prefer to keep a powder room near a door to the outside so if you need to come inside to pee while in the middle of doing messy yardwork, you don't track dirt through the house to do so. (I think I'd actually flip the powder room and pantry in design 1 for that reason)

Neither design seems to have a good work triangle in the kitchen- too much space between major elements. I'd think of moving the oven & cooktop to the island to improve efficiency.

[ylisa7]

Of your two choices I would pick #2.

I like the open feeling better.

I like that the bathroom isn't next to the kitchen or the eating areas. Gross.

The kitchen is bigger although the layout could be better

I like that you made the study from house #1 into a bedroom with a separate bathroom. This would be great for overnight guests and could also be used if someone in your family got hurt, broken leg, or something and needed to be on the first floor.



Good ideas from beachmouse also. I have never had a bathroom close to any of my entrance doors. It sure would beat stripping outside and having to hose off, lol.

[gentlearts]

The thing that jumps out at me is the laundry in both versions. They are too small.
With a growing family, you will want a larger space with room for an ironing board, shelves for laundry baskets and folding space....trust me, it's important.
If you really want to go radical. I would rather see the laundry room on the second floor near the bedrooms. Why carry it down, then carry it up?

[harry chickpea]

The architect's plan is far superior, but I'm ambivalent about it. There are a lot of errors on both.

When you stub out plumbing, you want ALL of your drains as close to each other as possible. It cuts costs, but more importantly it cuts problems. Plumbing doesn't like to be on outside walls in cold climates. (Freezing issues, especially if you are away from the house during winter.) Drains that are used constantly work better. A long line to a laundry means a clog every few years or more often.

However, a powder room on the other side of the wall to a bathroom??? WTF? If you had a motel, then yeah. In a home, use one, enlarge the room so you don't bang yer elbow getting toilet paper.

It always surprises me when people can't "walk" through various plans as if they were living in the space.

The dining room / living room staircase in the middle is so cliche it makes me ill.

[yellowbelle]

I prefer the first.

The second one seems to have weird/pointless walls near the stairs.

I don't like the laundry in either but I really don't like it in the second one. Just for noise and being able to hide your laundry, I'd want proper doors. But that's me.

I prefer kitchen sinks to be below a window (which is the case in #2)

I do like that the kitchen is bigger in the second, but our family would make better use of a mudroom and place to store shoes and boots and umbrellas and gloves and bookbags and... gosh, so much junk...

I don't like the plain jane closet in the bedroom/study in the second drawing. Those type of closets (not flush with the wall) just seem cheap and added on like an afterthought. You can still call the study a bedroom in either case... The room seems bigger and with a bigger closet in plan 1.

When it comes down to it, though, both homes look absolutely GORGEOUS! It's a nice problem to have, trying to decide! Congrats! And thank for sharing - I adore looking at house plans.

[karen_in_nh_2012]

I like the first one better partly for the mudroom. I just bought a house that doesn't have one and I will be converting a front porch (off the garage) into a small mud room at some point in the future -- I think they are really useful. But in the first plan, I don't know why you would need a door from the mud room to the laundry room? Why not just make it one larger room?

Also RE: the first plan: as someone else pointed out, the kitchen isn't laid out well. One problem is that that huge island makes for a non-clear path from, say, the sink to the refrigerator. I know the original kitchen work triangle isn't always used these days, and in some newer kitchens there are 2 prep areas and not just one, but the kitchen as currently laid out just doesn't look very workable.

With the second plan, I can't figure out what all the space below the breakfast room would be used for. I'm assuming it's "counted" as part of the kitchen space? Since any furniture in that space would have to be floated (not along a wall because there aren't any!), it seems like a dining table would be the logical choice -- but it's not, because you have a breakfast room above and a dining room below. So that looks to me like it would be wasted space. (It's also part of a path from the entryway to the back rooms including the breakfast room, which again makes it kind of unusable.)

I do love the 3-car garage! My new house has one too and I can't wait to build a workshop out there!

[K'ledgeBldr]

Originally Posted by beachmouse

The first one is also probably going to be a little cheaper to build due to the less complex roof line...

How do you come to that conclusion when we haven't seen the second floor or the front elevation?

[thecoalman]

I lived in house with almost exact same layout for about 6 months, it was rental we had after a fire. The "living room" to me was wasted space. The only one that used it was the dog. LOL

As far as the dining room goes that didn't get used either because there was no table but there was a large table off the side of the kitchen pretty much in the middle of that large space you have in the second drawing. Even if there had been a table in the dining room it would not have been used. Of course you have that breakfast area which is probably the biggest difference between your drawing and the house I was in.

If it were me probably the biggest change I would make is to get rid of the "living room". Make it a bedroom and leave the other area as much larger family room, den or whatever.

[blazerj]

Thanks for all of the replies! They are really helpful. Our architect is really old school, and the builder is trying to keep the price down (he quotes us a # on another plan, and wants to keep this price the same).

Having a larger mudroom/ laundry area is nice because we have 1 child and will likely have another. Keep in mind, the laundry in Plan #1 is ~6' x 7', so it's a nice sized space. We could even stack the W/D to have more floor space. I don't iron much anymore, but when I do, I like to be in front of the TV, so I would just bring the board into the great room.

I think a laundry is better on the 2nd floor as well, but we only do laundry once a week or so (I do it 99% of the time), so it's not a big deal to cary a hamper up and down.

The rooflines would almost be identical (and they are kind of complex, because my wife want's a more "interesting" house).

I didn't think of the peeing when doing yard work issue. That's actually a great point. Thanks for making it beachmouse. My issue is washing my hands, like after changing my oil or doing yardwork, so I could use the laundry room sink to so so.

With plan #1, we would rearrange the oven, fridge... and make a window over the sink, to get more light in. I'll look up triangle work area, but the space that's marked is just a suggestion.

The main difference, IMO is the random wall in the dining room. I don't know if I like it. I think having a defined hallway is nice, but the random wall takes away from our open concept (which is absolutely what we want).

Karen, you make an excellent point. That extra kitchen space in plan #2 screams for a table. However, that leaves no point for the bumpout. I would rather use the excess kitchen space in a mudroom/ laundry room.

We would use the Livingroom as a play room for our son. It'll be a nice place to put his toys and have him play near us. Eventually, it can be a true study, and we'll keep the 1st floor bedrooms as an actual bedroom. The dining room would really be for holidays/ parties where we need overflow table space (we don't have sitdown meals, mostly grazing and informal dining).

Harry, the powder room next to the bedroom's bathroom is weird for me as well. My wife wants a dedicated, more formal powder room, so that's why it's there, however the placement is strange.