So if we were to do a 1.5 story with the master on the main level, where would you put that, behind the garage then? My thought process would be to first determine priority of room placement in the most ideal location for the use of the room and then if conflicts between room placement develop then rank by how much time is spent and how time is used for each room as well as the importance of that use compared to the importance of the uses for the other rooms. If watching the sunrise from your bed pays off with more enjoyment than having the sunrise and morning sun striking your kitchen, then plan accordingly. For instance, do you plan on using your master suite as a parental get-away from the kids, using it during the day or will your non-sleeping uses be restricted to evenings only, meaning that any views from the rooms would be lost to the darkness of the night? If the views are not important, I'd bury the master suite near the garage in the above sketch. If however, views and day time use are important, then I'd move the master to the east/south/west walls, perhaps right off the entry or in the back off of the kitchen. I'm not necessarily saying to put the master off the entry or off the kitchen, though you could, I'm just using these as examples that reference the above sketch. The way I'm designing my own home is to use a very self-reflective process which tries to understand how I actually live my life rather than trying to contort my lifestyle into architectural trends which presuppose how people SHOULD live their lives. So, to continue on the questioning, why exactly do you appreciate a main-floor master? Is it so that you can avoid stairs? Is it so that you can hear the comings and goings of the kids at night as they try to leave the house, is it because you don't want the kids too near your bedroom, is it because you don't want noise transmission from the master to be easily heard by the kids, and so on? Once you can articulate to yourself why you want something then you can find the best solution for your plan, rather than adopting a cookie-cutter approach. For instance, what I found amusing in some plans was a main floor master with a child's bedroom directly over it on the 2nd. Now, to me, if the goal was to reduce noise transmission from either the child's room to the parent's room or vice versa, the separation by floor, while having intuitive appeal, would fail to achieve the mission. The example I used in an earlier comment was to have a master suite separated by a stairway corridor AND a children's hallway which together create a 7'-8' dead zone, possibly with some walls other than the master and child's bedroom walls also added in between. There are no common walls shared, there is a huge dead zone in between and the goal of reducing noise transmission is, I believe, better served than a downstairs master with an upstairs child's bedroom directly over top, sharing common ceiling/floor as well as sound transmission paths down the walls. Of course, if sound transmission has nothing to do with the appeal of a downstairs master suite, then what I've sketched out is a solution to a problem which doesn't exist, or doesn't matter. I was thinking the master/office space on one side and then the kitchen, dining, great room on the other. That makes sense to me. Would you move the great room from the center of the house below to the front where the dining study is and move the study to where the great room is? Lots of configurations can make sense, but they must make sense in relation to how you envision yourself using the space and the particulars of your lifestyle and preferences. I'd say grab some graph paper, or even blank paper, and just block out the rooms and see how they interplay with each other, note how you foresee traffic patterns within and throughout the space, imagine daily routines taking place within the space. Once you have an idea of how you live, or how you want to live in the new space, then get the graph paper and try to get a better handle on size and furniture placement, and traffic patterns and by the end of this process you should have a very good understanding of how you want the space to be configured. I did the same for my house and this has resulted in me doing away with a formal living room from the now traditional LR/FR combo pack and reallocating the space elsewhere in the home, such as combining the entry with the LR space in order to create a larger sense of space/volume, has led me to create a larger kitchen than would be warranted in relation to the size of the informal living room, has led me to other design changes that likely violate what trained architects use as benchmarks for how homes should be designed. Thank you for the garage tip also - I thought 24x24 was rather large? We will be getting an oversize door for sure. I'd say measure your cars, block out a 24 x 24 space on your lawn, use cardboard boxes or something else to fill the space of your cars, then throw in the other junk you're likely to store alongside the walls of the garage, and see how much space you actually need. Try to get out of your car and see if the door bangs the wall or the other car. A 24 x 24 garage is actually pretty good considering that many designed give a 20 x 23 or something similarly ridiculous.

Thanks to everyone who responded with their pictures and comments. Mavsfan, those ceilings are looking fantastic! I think the different designs you've used throughout your new home give it such character and charm. I really appreciate the pictures. Wonbyherwits, the molding in your room is beautiful. Our builder uses what they refer to as double crown molding because of the "wow" factor and also because he feels with the higher ceilings, a single piece of crown gets lost in the shuffle. After seeing how you added the extra four inches to your molding and the effect you get from it, his opinion is one I would echo and do the same in our home. Worthy, after hearing of your experience, I think we'll go ahead with the crown and have it installed now than adding it later and ending up incurring additional costs (we all know how easily that happens and how quickly those $$$ add up). Speaking of $$$, do you have any idea what it might cost or should cost approximately to add a coffered ceiling to a 14' x 19' dining room. It is rectangular in shape so there are not unusual cuts if that would be a factor. Thanks for any help you can give us. Luckymom, the trim work in the pic you posted is droolworthy and has given me a few more ideas--thanks!

We are doing 10' downstairs/upstairs. But upstairs we have areas where the ceiling drops near the walls in some of the rooms, and lowered on the hallway. We will have cathedral ceilings in the master bedroom and daughter's bedroom, and 2 story ceiling in the family room. We are also in the south, and for reasons I don't need to bore you with, we are not doing ceiling fans on the main rooms (where I will mostly be). So the higher ceiling height will be a nice feature for us. Our previous home had 9' ceilings down and 8' up. 9 was ok (for us), but was not excellent. 8 I think is a bit too low. It all depends on how you live, climate, health, neighborhood style, and personal taste. I think that changing the height here and there throughout the home makes it more interesting, and breaks the feeling of commercial environment.

You will probably use the same type of framing system already used for the upstairs. You will have some demo/framing, electrical, floor finishes, etc. You will usually need an Engineer or Architect to review and draw a plan. The window will have to change (shorter) and you may need to install a post in the center of that wall. If you have the original plans, that will simplify and give you an idea of what is needed. If the existing room above is a bedroom, code issues may arise since you usually cannot walk through a bedroom to get to another, and you will need to meet egress requirements. You might have to install a post at the other (interior) end or hanger off existing framing, up to Engineer. If you don't need the high ceiling, it is probably worth it to get the added space.