Thanks everyone! This first round of advice has been excellent and I'll have an amended floor plan up soon after I make quite a few changes! I thought I should also post the floorplan that has been my favorite so far, there's just too many rearrangements that I need with the bedrooms to make it modifiable. http://www.architecturaldesigns.com/garage-plan-3849ja.asp annie - At the moment I just used the "auto stair", so I'm not sure why they're coming out too narrow. I'll play around with them though and probably go back to the original idea of just a standard straight stair rather than including the landing. I do like the idea of the stairs coming in by the mud room since the space in the future will be more of an in law/guest suite. I had a hard time deciding on going with a shower or tub, but I think I like the idea of stackable W/D to get the extra tub space (or just playing around more that entire arrangement in general). I can easily give the 3rd car a bit more room. The fireplace would be fake (I put it there just to get an idea of space). I wasn't aware of the small house forum, so I'll definitely check that out! The kitchen is the only thing that I think needs to remain large (although some space can be cut down. Cooking is quite important to my bf so he wants the space (I will be redoing the layout though, that was a very rough section). I'll look into some peninsula ideas though to see if they'll suit his requirements. MrsPete - I'd really like to check out your second link, but it won't come up (404 not found). The third option is okay, but I'd like to stick more to the $125 mark which is why I'm trying to get my plan under 1000 sq feet of living space. Greendesigns - I'll be double checking, but the only potential hindrance is that it needs to be connected to the house to be a rental property. The space being a future rental property in the future isn't extremely important to me. It's use as a guest suite and potential in law suite will work fine. My property already has the power and septic for a full sized house on it (there was a previously demolished house). There will still be many developmental costs, but it's still significantly lower than building a 2000+ sq ft house. My goal of this first post is to significantly reduce the size of the current layout. Some parts of the kitchen can be reduced, but since we'll be living here for probably a couple of years, having a decent sized kitchen is quite important to my cooking bf. palimpset - I thought the U shaped staircase would give me some more upstairs space, but from everyone's opinion it wont, so I'll make sure to fix that. red_lover - So far I haven't found an architectural plan that's even close to what I'm looking at. I'm still searching, but there's nothing that's close/modifiable that I've found yet. I'll be moving out soon, so it's either build the garage apartment or buy a house and delay building at all for several more years. renovator - I'll be changing back to a straight staircase, I didn't realize the headroom issues (the camera software makes it look like there wouldn't have been a problem), but the U shaped staircase wasn't something I had fallen in love with. The scales are the same, the first image is just zoomed in. We'll definitely be doing heavy insulation. virgil - The link didn't work (it goes to the site, but not the plan). I'll continue playing around with the 2 bedroom arrangement(mainly 1 bedroom and an office), but having an outside staircase is not going work. I'll be redoing it anyways to have a standard straight staircase, which should solve some problems.

I share the others' concerns about the living room size. The hearth room, too, will be cozy when you figure in that 1/3 of that room will serve as walkway from the garage. I like the kitchen, pantry, butler's pantry. Sizes look comfortably large but not overdone. The kitchen area is your greatest strength. I know you said you don't care for open floor plan, but I wonder if the dining room is going to feel "detached" and "enclosed". You have room for a large table in the kitchen area -- how often is this dining room going to be used? I'm seeing more and more one-dining area houses. If this were my house, I'd consider ditching the dining room and opening up some windows to the casual dining area. This would allow you the square footage to make the living room more comfortable. Guest room -- you're giving the guests more space than the kids? And only 1.5' less than you yourself, the home owner! That's not how I'd have allotted the space. I don't like the guest closet; it'll always be knocking against the entrance door, and IF this ever needed to be a "real bedroom", this isn't much space. I also wouldn't "split" the guest bath -- splitting costs more money and this is already a small bath; I'd rather see it in one space. If you bump Bedroom 2 forward to "match" Bedroom 3's forward wall, you could place Bedroom 2's closet against the bathroom . . . and give Bedroom 2's current closet to the guest bedroom. And you could open the tiny closet to the hall as an always-welcome linen closet, or an open bookshelf. I do like how you've split the jack-and-jill. Much more simple than people here ususally make these rooms, yet it gives you all the benefits of a jack-and-jill. I agree that the laundry is pretty minimal. I agree with the previous poster who pointed out that machine sizes vary, and 10-15 years from now when you need to replace your current machines, you don't want to be limited by a tiny laundry. I also think your master closet is vastly undersized. You're using all the square footage of a walk-in, but you're really only getting the storage of a reach-in -- in my book, the whole reason to build is to have these functional areas work comfortably. Any old living room will do, but it's the functional areas that drive you nuts. Likewise, I don't like your master bath a bit. It's on the edge of the house -- good! You can have light from two sides -- so you can do anything with its shape. Don't build an uncomfortable bowling alley. Without having sketched it out, I think I'd look at turning this bath 90 degrees . . . and splitting the closets into two, allowing that little indentation hallway to split the closets. Then as you enter the bath (which would be wider), you'd see the tub straight ahead of you and have your other items evenly divided behind the two closets. I think this concept has merit. Regardless, you need a little more space in the bathroom /closet area . . . I personally would give up a bit of the bedroom to make these items comfortable. One final concern: I see that the plumbing is strown across the whole house. Ideally bathrooms would be "backed up against one another" or located adjacent to the kitchen. Keeping your plumbing compact is one way of keeping your costs down. Also, the farther your plumbing lines run, the more likely you'll have an expensive leak in your walls at some point in the future, and if your plumbing is all "compact", it can all be closer to the hot water heater, which means faster service. I think the big thing here is allocation of square footage. This house seems to be about guests: A large place for them to sleep, a large place for them to dine . . . but it's at the expense of everyday life. If I could do only one thing here, it'd be REALLOCATE THAT SPACE. I personally would reduce the guest bathroom and eliminate the dining room . . . then I'd use that space to make a larger, comfortable living room and a comfortable master bath /closet.

I do think your budget is a bit on the tight side, but it is not completely out of order. My guess would be another 10K and you would be closer. This is based on having done a project on a similar scale. I highly suggest going back to the IKEA closets. You'll gain ~4" of space in the bedroom by doing that and have much more useful space. They do count as closets. Although it will be more costly to do. You have many spaces with very tight clearances that you might want to revisit. You should aim to have a minimum of 30" clearance in all walking through spaces and that is a minimum. You have several that are 2ft. The walking space between the table and the island - easy fix. Make it a narrower island. This will be your main walk thorugh space so you'l want a good clearance, just like you do in the kitchen isles. You really want people to be able to walk through there with no problem when somebody is seated at the table. The clearance between your tub and vanities. There is only 2 ft on each side to get through if even that. Then you only have 30" of clearance to the tub - workable, but are you really willing to give up the extra space and less of a workable bathroom just to have the floating tub? I really urge you to work on other layout possibilities to really see what you're trading off. With making the larger Master you made the 2nd bedroom much smaller and tight between the closet and the bed, if you go back to IKEA closets it will be a bit better. Again in the kitchen, your clearance for the fridge is too tight. What type of Fridge will you be using? A regular on sticks out about 3ft. A counter dept can stick out with handles about 30". You want plenty of space to walk around that. In the kitchen you don't want the sink and stove right across from each other. It makes it a one person kitchen as it will be tight for two people to be working at the same time in that space. You have plenty of space so why not make the kitchen function for multiple cooks/helpers. Which walls are load bearing? Ie which direction does your rafters go? That might help you decide the best walls to move to expand some of the spaces and which might need a beam to make the areas open. Edit: You might want to post your kitchen plan on the kitchen forum. Just watch for budget blow-up and you'll be ok. This post was edited by lyfia on Mon, Apr 22, 13 at 11:42

Wow MrsPete thats a lot to think about! I was not expecting to have to request so many changes to this plan. Considering we hired a professional designer to do the plan. I will do my best to address all the issues mentioned. Again thanks for everyone who has chimed in.. Great point on the double entry doors. I did not even think about turning the lights on. It looks like the master bathroom has double entry doors too. I am not sure I want to shut two doors every time I go in the bathroom. So if we flip the washer and dryer to the kitchen wall and make it come off the mudroom. What about the door entry from the mudroom ? Looks like the washer and dryer would hang out some past the doors edge. But I think this may be ok if they are placed on down the wall verses right beside the door. With the fridge I actually like it where it is for the most part. I like that when you look back towards the kitchen from great room, you dont really see the fridge. But this is also one thing I told the wife she could make the call on the layout of the kitchen. Also as far as all the plumbing goes I will be running everything. I have done a few houses that are rental properties and have all the tools to run pex and the drains. Ok, so maybe we need to make plans to eliminate a bathroom and add on for the pool area. When you say you would build one nice bath between the two bedrooms and having into opening into the hallway for a guest bath, do you mean the bath will have 3 entry doors, 2 from bedrooms and 1 in hallway? It seems like this would also put it really close to the half bath. Also what are the thoughts on a jack and jill? On the closets this is one thing I requested. I want some space for myself!! Otherwise the wife will take it over! I thought the divider wall would actually give you a little more room to hang things also. I do like the idea of putting the shower in the corner and moving the toilet. But at the same time I like the privacy of it being on the outside wall away from everything else. With the windows in the closets I am not sure what to do on this. I do agree its not the best scenario. I also do not know if I want a large window in the toilet room. I know the designer said he had a very difficult time making the windows work on the front of the house. We do plan to make changes to the doors leading out to the porch. I am concerned about furniture placement with all those doors. Also if your looking outside from the great room who wants to see the backs of outdoor furniture? I am kinda at a loss on how that will look. You all have been a great help so far, I am sure we will get this all worked up and build pics will be coming before you know it. I will also try to attach some pics that I gave the designer for ideas on what the wife and I liked. We basically gave him some pictures and he had us fill out a 3 page questionnaire.