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These are my observations- I'm not going to redesign it for you; I get paid for things like that!
They are in no particular order, pick and choose as you see fit.
1st Plan:
Nix the vaulted ceiling in the b'fast room- I have built a lot of vaulted octagonals and the vault lines always crack if just d/wall. If you trim it all out you'll hide the cracks, but the trim has to "match" the rest of the trim of the house.
Reconsider the door swing going to the deck- it will be hampered by table and chairs. Or...
Move the laundry upstairs
Rearrange the mudroom and pantry- pantry should have direct access from the kitchen.
The size of the kitchen is really good- the layout, not so good.
Nix the Powder Room- you already have a full bath.
Rearrange the full bath and closet- make bath accessible from hallway.
Move the coat closet under the foyer stair
Nix the trey in the Study/guest Bdrm- too much expense for very little impact.
No entertainment center/ built-ins for the Great room?
I really hate cantilevered f/pl's
2nd Plan:
Separate side entry door- great idea
Pantry directly off Kitchen- great idea (I might have mentioned that before)
Window at Kitchen sink- great idea
Other window in Kitchen- not such a great idea.
Again, the door swing consideration in the B/fast room. Why move it to the other side- Is the deck across the entire back of house? That was some assumption.
The "best" and "worst" thing I was in this revision- Powder room and Bath room sharing a common wall for plumbing- But if they're right next to each other, why not configure so you only need the full bath? I might have mentioned that before also.
I have built many a home that carried this same/similar floorplan- and there are trade offs. Depending on what's the intent of each room and one's living style. Other issues that can certainly weigh heavily on design aspects are energy efficiency, materials, construction techniques, property taxes, demographics, commute times, etc., etc.
Thanks for your input. It's always to get a builder's perspective. In fact, he's pretty involved in the design, so together, we can keep costs down/ know where the money is going. Also, energy efficiency is a top priority to me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by K'ledgeBldr
These are my observations- I'm not going to redesign it for you; I get paid for things like that!
They are in no particular order, pick and choose as you see fit.
1st Plan:
Nix the vaulted ceiling in the b'fast room- I have built a lot of vaulted octagonals and the vault lines always crack if just d/wall. If you trim it all out you'll hide the cracks, but the trim has to "match" the rest of the trim of the house. I like the vaulted ceiling, but understand the problem. The trim is a good idea.
Reconsider the door swing going to the deck- it will be hampered by table and chairs. Or...
Move the laundry upstairs. I don't know if we have space upstairs, due to wanting big bedrooms and closets.
Rearrange the mudroom and pantry- pantry should have direct access from the kitchen. Agree, I'm not sure how to do this.
The size of the kitchen is really good- the layout, not so good. Agree. We haven't thought of layout yet. Will do so with blueprint. Also, we'll put a window in the kitchen.
Nix the Powder Room- you already have a full bath. I like the PD room, as the full bath is ment for the guestroom. It'll be our primary guestroom, actually.
Rearrange the full bath and closet- make bath accessible from hallway.
Move the coat closet under the foyer stair We'll put a closet there
Nix the trey in the Study/guest Bdrm- too much expense for very little impact. Agree.
No entertainment center/ built-ins for the Great room? I don't like built-ins, but will put up a nice entertainment center.
I really hate cantilevered f/pl's
2nd Plan:
Separate side entry door- great idea I'll tell the architect! With Plan #1, we can add a back door to the mudroom, maybe, depending on the deck layout
Pantry directly off Kitchen- great idea (I might have mentioned that before)
Window at Kitchen sink- great idea Thanks. We would have that with both plans.
Other window in Kitchen- not such a great idea. Interesting. Why so?
Again, the door swing consideration in the B/fast room. Why move it to the other side- Is the deck across the entire back of house? That was some assumption. The door placement is not set yet, because of where the deck will go.
The "best" and "worst" thing I was in this revision- Powder room and Bath room sharing a common wall for plumbing- But if they're right next to each other, why not configure so you only need the full bath? I might have mentioned that before also.
I have built many a home that carried this same/similar floorplan- and there are trade offs. Depending on what's the intent of each room and one's living style. Other issues that can certainly weigh heavily on design aspects are energy efficiency, materials, construction techniques, property taxes, demographics, commute times, etc., etc.
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).
I'll explain the setup at the house we were at. Where you have the breakfast nook was 2 sets of French Doors which opened onto a deck. Off to the right was the "study" that had two pocket doors to enter it from family room. That was being used as a play room. That also had a set of french doors that opened onto the deck too. Just an idea but If you made that the play room/study/living room you'd be able to keep an eye on the kids easier, other than going up the stairs you'll never be going near those other tow rooms most of the time. You could make it a computer room in the future.
As far as the dining room goes I would agree especially since you have that breakfast nook.
Will you actually use the dining room to dine in? If so, make it bigger. You cannot get a table and 8-10 chairs with a sideboard or two into a 15 x 15 dining room. Unless you are only going to have 4 chairs and no other furniture in there, it just will not fit. Rectangular dining rooms work better becasue dining tables are rectangular, however you can keep it square and use the extra space for sideboards. Overall if you are going to have a dining room, make it much bigger and useful. If it is just a token dining room that you are not going to use, nix it and make better use of the space.
Personally If you are going to have a dining room to dine in, I would have it adjoin the kitchen so you can easily bring food in and get supplies.
You only get one chance to custom degisn and build a home (usually). Map out at typical day. Then map out anticipated typical days as your family grows. Where will you lounge, gather for a trip or outing, store the tons of stuff that come with kids, where can your kids get away fomr you or from each other when necessary, etcetera. Take a lot of time. You will still make mistakes and wish something was different, but if you rush or follow trendy or marketing designs (deisgned for short term flash appeal rather than practical use), you will regret it.
Unless you actually entertain formally on a regular basis, a livining room and family room is another waste of space (since we prefer older homes, we clal them front and back parlor, but the concepts are the same). Traditionally you have one room kept spotlessly clean with nice furniture and use it to receive and entertain guests. The other room is for the family to hang out in and make a mess (this is where you put your TV and take off your socks). Only close personal friends are invited into the messy informal room. If you do not live like that, I cannot see why you would want the two rooms. Replace one with a work out room or a theater or something.
If you do entertain, then I would place the formal room near the dining room which is in turn near the kitchen. Then place the informal room off to a side where guests will not see or hear it from the formal rooms.
Big fancy foyers can be striking for a few seconds. Unless you are going to furnish them and have people sit out there, they are a monumental waste of space. Use the space to enlarge other rooms. If you make a smaller foyer, you can spend more money on making it really striking and still have the same effect when people walk in. With a small phenominally finished foyer, everyone will be impressed. With a huge tackily finished foyer, you will impress some people, but others will wonder why the waste of space and quesiton your taste/class. Only very rarely and only were people are very very wealthy are large foyers finsihed with impeccible taste. It can be extremely expensive. I am always mor eimpressed with a small perfectly finsihed and furnished foyer than a huge wase of space foyer. I usually assume that it is trying to make up for other inadequacies in the house.
Mud Room - How will you use it? In our mudroom we have a closet for coats, a shelf/locker for each of the seven members of our family and a large storage shelf for cleaning supplies and the like. There is room for a bench to put on or take off shoes and boots. We wish we had more storage space for balls and bats, guns, bows and crossbows, frisbee and other outdoor things that we do not want to keep in the garage. I also wish I had included a charging station for cell phones and other devices (we have on in the bedroom, but the mudroom would have been better), and a place to keep a set of inside tools.
Laundry. If space is a problem, you may be abel to put it in the garage which is only a step or two further. Upstairs is the current in thing for convenience, you are already close ot the rooms where you use laundry so it is easy to put away. What is your lifestyle? Do you sort and fold laundry in the laundry room, or haul it into the family room and do it while watching TV? Or do you just dump each persons clothing on their bed and let htem sort and fold it? We sort and fold in the laundry room. We also store seasonal clothing in there. OUr laundry room is four times the size of your plan (at least) and it is still cramped. We have three folding tables, storage shelves, W/D slop sink, two rollign bins for dirty clothes and a half dozen laundry baskets for clean. If you move the laundry upstairs or into the basement, be sure to put a slop sink in the garage.
Since you have an island in the kitchen, do you need a breakfast nook? How many people can sit in the nook? Most people we know with a small nook never use it. We have both a nook and a large island. Kids sit on bar stools at the island for breakfast or snacks. The nook gets used for homework once in a while, or it is the place where we dump stuff that no one knows what to do with.
Lots of floor plans and models seem like a really nice idea until you think through your daily life and how it will actually be used. It seems like almost everyone ends up with an exercise machine in the nook, dining room or formal room. You may want to just plan a room for excercise machines to begin with and eliminate a room that you wll never use.
Here is what we found with our house:
Sun Room: Dog room, otherwise almost never used.
Kitchen nook: Homework or storage
Dining room: Used a lot. We sit down for dinner once a week usually and entertain somewhat frequently. Kids usually do their homework in here. Ours is central to our house so you have to go through it to the kitchen and back door.
Front Parlor: Used to entertain guests and practice music. Unfortnuately guests have to walk through the back parlor to get to the dining room.
Back Parlor: Used constantly. Also serves as an extra guest bedroom in a pinch. Generally loud and messy. The Big TV is in here along with one of the game systems (other is in the basement/theater room).
Library: Used frequently. Desktop computers and printers are in here and always on. Even with laptops, people still tend to use the desktops a lot.
Mudroom: Used constantly. Needs more storage space. OUr mudroom and guest bathroom are 15x 21. The bathroom is pretty small but is 3/4 (has a shower).
Guest Bathroom. The shower is almost never used. It was probably a dumb idea.
Upstairs we have four bedrooms and two baths. The main bath never gets used (excpet to raise baby chicks in the bathtub), because the master bath is much much nicer. Everyone wants to shower in the master because the shower in there is really awesome.
No walk in closets and we do not miss them. Prefer the space.
Master bedroom: Here is where you may want to use all available extra space rather than the walk in closets. Our whole family spends a lot of time in the Master BR. Sometimes talking while someone is getting ready, wathcing a movie or TV, reading together, once in a while we all sit on the bed an eat pizza, sometimes we had "sleepovers" and all seven family members sleep in our room. In addition to a huge bed, we have a TV, computer and desk/make up or dressing table, two dressers, and a small couch. It is difficult to make the master BR too big for our lifestyle. Yours may be different, but it is worth considering.
We have bedrooms for each kid, but they often prefer to share. That allows us to keep a guest bedroom available at times when they share. It comes and goes and they frequently trade bedrooms. Not sure why, I think they just like the change.
Basement:
You can do a lot with a basement. We have two bedrooms, a bathroom a theater/game room, laundry and a utilty/storage room. I built it out myself over time and it did not cost as much as above ground space would have. It is really useful. When your kids get to be teens, they will appreciate a basement room where they can entertain friends and be somewhat away form the rest of the family activities. You can peek in as needed, but teens like privacy. If you want your house to be the hang out house when your kids are teens, you need a semi private room.
Kitchen. Big big bigger. As nice and carefully planned as possible. Half the time when you have a party or dinner, everyone ends up in the kitchen for part of the time unless you hire people to cook and serve. We eat breackfast in the kitchen, we gather there for church or other family outings. Kids do homework in there sometimes to be near mom.
We wired our kitchen for cable TV and internet and have never used either one in there once. Complete waste of money. In fact all the internet wiring was a waste because wireless works so well now. Same for phones. We only need one phone jack. The rest are wireless. It makes them more flexible as to locations.
Think about your daily life and how you want daily life at various ages. How do you want things to flow? Basement access through the kitchen so you will see when they come and go as teens? Where will your pets reside? We have a lot of pets (2 giant dogs, cat, spider, gecko, 2 cockatoos, some fish, a cockatiel, 10 finches, frog, 15 chickens), so we need to consider space cerfully. Some of them do not mix well and we need them to be seperated, but still have some space. If you have a door that opens out to a dog run, you will be much happier (you can let the dog(s) out without going outside). If your basement is walk out, what to you want down there? I would not put teen bedrooms in a walk out basement. If you will have a theater, you want it in a part of the basement with no windows.
For natural light where windows are not practical, I highly recommend Solartubes. They are fantastic.
For basements, those traditioanl windows are stupid IMO. Put in some decent sized windows in wells. It is more expensive, but it gives you far better options to use the basement and a basement can be cheap expansion space.
Remember, your kids are probably part of the "boomerang generation" Where are they going to live in your house when they are 30?
By the way, the only person who ever uses our front door and sees the foyer, is the pizza delivery guy and rarely guests to a formal dinner or party, even then, most come to the back door.
Last edited by Coldjensens; 05-10-2012 at 12:05 PM..
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!
I agree with that; lose the door thats from the mud to laundry room. Just make that a large room, as trust me you'll want that cuz I have that design in my own home. A door from garage into smallish mud room/hallway that leads into two doors (one is the office and 2nd door leads into laundry room) I HATE it!!!!!! We're gonna finish our basement so we can move the office downstairs in basement and convert the office into a large mud room/laundry room cuz that room is right besides our two car garage which we can make a door in the wall frame.
@ CJ. Wow. Thank you for taking the time to write that. What you say is very true and even more overwhelming. We are only custom building because we can't find a resale house. I know that sounds crazy, but for work and school district reasons, we need to be in a very specific area, and the 3-4 houses for sale are not for us. What makes this more difficult is that we have both not lived in a house since our parents' homes before college.
Anyway, you raise great points. Likely, our infant son would use the dining room as his play room, we would use the living room as the dining room (and then switch as he's older). We do cook, but not a ton, and most of the cooking is "assembling" meals, rather than slaving over a stove for hours.
We would put an exercise machine/ equipment in the walk-out basement (finished or unfinished). I think that's a nice place to get away and focus on working out (we'll put a TV there to).
We'd also dump the door in the mud room. I feel like nowadays washing machines are so beautiful, that they don't need to be hidden, and the no door = flexibility. I almost always fold in front of the TV or in a bedroom. I don't fold in the laundry room. Also, I iron in front of the TV too.
I agree, most people won't come through the front door, and we'll look into cutting down the foyer and making the rooms a bit bigger.
@ CJ. Wow. Thank you for taking the time to write that. .
I type super fast, and badly, and I do not sleep well. Sometimes I will just write something to pass time while trying to sleep and then post it later.
Oh and do not forget to put a place to store a vacuum cleaner. (We forgot). Ideally you want one on each floor so you do not have to lug it up and down.
Move the laundry upstairs.
I don't know if we have space upstairs, due to wanting big bedrooms and closets.
Anything is possible- just keep "wants" and "needs" in perspective. And remember, if the majority of clothing is stored on the second floor there's no reason to NOT have the laundry on the second floor.
Nix the Powder Room- you already have a full bath.
I like the PD room, as the full bath is ment for the guestroom. It'll be our primary guestroom, actually.
You stated "energy efficiency is a top priority"; then make "EFFICIENCY" a top priority also. Guests are guests; not temporary residents. That bath will see little if any use annually. By making the bath "the bath" for the main level you are using space efficiently and using resources efficiently also. The bath can be designed in such a way it can have the appearance of a Powder room with the tub area separated by a door. As far as entry for the guest room- it can be directly to the Powder room area or through the tub area.
Other window in Kitchen- not such a great idea.
Interesting. Why so?
Wall cabinet space! No matter how well a kitchen is layed-out, there never seems to be enough cabinetry.
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