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Can your current septic system accommodate 5 bedrooms?
Heated floors would be amazing. If i could rebuild the house i am moving into (partners house) I would get rid of the 2 story great room and move the laundry room upstairs. I would add a screened porch and reduce the house size by at least 1000sf.
That's some long term thinking, if the kid's future families are being taken into account.
If you're expecting extended family to be living in the house, then having the bedrooms arranged in groups for extended family may be a good thing. A central gathering area with separate areas for the different families would be good. Then some bedrooms could be on one side of the central area and some on the other. Hmm, actually, have one side of the central area as the public entry area, then into the central gathering area and that leaves three sides for separate bedroom groupings. Those could start out as porch areas and be built on later as you need them, but they could be planned out now. Also, the younger families could be upstairs or downstairs. This could become a huge house!
Eventually, you may need more than five bedrooms. You could have some porch areas arranged so if/when they were enclosed to become bedrooms later they wouldn't close off the rooms behind them. Then, as your family grows, you'd be able to make more enclosed space.
Not sure how the building department and permits work in your area, in ours they are sensitive to how many kitchens a house has. However, if you have a big family sharing a kitchen space, then you can pretty much have lots of bedrooms. You can also have a variety of other rooms which can later be made into bedrooms when you need them later.
With that large of a family and that many people using the kitchen, you may want to look into commercial kitchens and get some tips from them. Waterproof floor, drain in the middle. Most of the shelves up off the floor so they can be mopped under. Easy to clean should be a major concern. Figure out how the food will be brought into the kitchen, where it will be stored, how it will be prepared, served, cleaned up after and the rubbish removed. If you have a clear path for all that, then the kitchen will function properly. What's on the counter tops is basically immaterial at this point. Multiple food prep areas, probably multiple sinks.
Once you get the basic areas mapped out, then you can work on details such as countertop materials, flooring options, etc. If it's going to eventually be a three family house, then IMHO, having three somewhat separate areas for each family would be good. One on either side of the common area and perhaps one over the garage or something similar.
I love our house, I just wish we didn't live in a toothless HOA. I pay yearly dues, and yet the jackbutt across the street has twelve vehicles parked all over his front yard. This is my lovely view, his broken down vehicles. Now if we were not in a HOA that forbids more than three vehicles then that would be one thing, but that's the rules and he's been disobeying them for years. I'd rather not pay my yearly dues for a place that does not enforce the rules. Better to save myself money and live on a quiet piece of land . So to do it again, no HOA.
yes, 5. Is it too small for a growing family? I mean, it would be us (hubby and I), my parents/ in-laws would visit us once every year, 2 kids (their own rooms), eventually when they get married, they will have their own families and all...dont get me wrong, I am thinking long term; i dont think I will have an opportunity to rebuild or add-on later on. Once done, its done.
I think that it's too many. Three bedrooms would suffice, and four if you want a dedicated guest room. I've had a guest room in two homes, but that was only because my husband and I didn't have a child at the time.
I love our house, I just wish we didn't live in a toothless HOA. I pay yearly dues, and yet the jackbutt across the street has twelve vehicles parked all over his front yard.
Several options come to mind.
Report him to the city code enforcer.
Get yourself on the Board along with other like minded homeowners and start enforcing the rules.
It would have a basement. I definitely agree with DoubbleT on this one. It's a great place to store stuff. When my son was in middle school, the middle half of the basement was the kid zone where all of the neighborhood kids hung out. It's also easier to do work on pipes and wires when you don't have to crawl around on your hands and knees - in a crawl space.
There would be more than one bathroom, toilet, even if I lived alone. I once had a clogged toilet for two days. The other one worked, so it wasn't a problem
The kitchen would be disproportionately large. My son did his homework at the kitchen table, and whenever we had guests or a party, everyone ended up in the kitchen.
It would have to have a fireplace with an insert or a wood stove. I've lost power at least a few times during the winter, and it's not pleasant.
There would be plenty of closet space. Small or not enough creates a storage problem, especially if you don't have a basement.
I'd want a covered entry. It could be a porch, stoop, or wide overhang, but I don't want to stand in the pouring rain fumbling with a key.
I would have paid a bit extra, and put the garage on the side of the house, instead of underneath. I had no idea gravity was so strong when trying to get a vehicle up a muddy or snowy driveway.
I tell everyone to use a house plan that is ADA accessible. 3 foot doorways and halls make moving furniture much easier. We had to slide the piano on its side to get it in the front door.
I would have a mudroom between the house and garage that has room for washer, dryer, utility sink, bathroom sink, toilet, shower, closet, and a small table to sort clothes, etc.
We are in our fifth home. This is our first attempt to design and build a home for ourselves.
We are also in a small town [235 pop.] and our house is away from the road [150 yards from the pavement].
I am glad for our radiant heated floor. The entire house has heated flooring in a single loop or zone. We have a wood stove that sits in the center of the house, it heats water that circulates to a thermal-bank in the crawl space, and then it circulates through the heated floor.
The woodstove is our primary source of heat. The idea is the capture as much of the heat as possible, store that heat in the thermal-bank, and re-distribute that heat evenly through-out our house. It is very low-tech and simple, and we love it.
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Thank you so very much for this. Can you please elaborate a bit more on the wood stoves and how you were able to achieve the indoor wood stoves to heat up the water for floors? I looked up online on radiant heated floors (just now) and while conceptually this sounds great, are there any noticeable flaws that you can think of? This may actually work best, considering this could potentially bring down the electricity bills.
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