MicheleTX, Will you please let me know if you ended up building the Wilkerson by Don Gardner? Email: queeni1951@aol.com Thank you. We are thinking about building this and would love some input.

Dining rooms really do require some thought when there's symmetry involved as in your plan. The lighting fixture is usually centered over the table, so you must know where it will go early on. It is also usually centered on the window when the window is located where yours is, and also on the Foyer doorway when it looks like yours. Will you have a buffet and/or china cabinet? If either is on the long wall opposite the wide Foyer doorway, the window might be shifted to the left, and you would have to consider how this would affect the space left for seating around the table, as well as the front elevation. If neither is on this wall, you'd want to have a focal point from the Foyer doorway--a group of pictures, a large painting, etc. on the long wall. If either is on the wall to the left of the Butler's Pantry, you would also have to consider how much space would be left for seating, and possible take some space from the Pantry and B. Pantry. If you did the latter, I'd get rid of the B. Pantry by turning the cabinet to face the hall, and make it a "To Go" setup--keys, charging station, mail sorting, travel stuff, etc. Or extend the Mudroom. It also might change how wide you want the opening to the Foyer on the "north" end. The Pantry can be any depth down to a finished 9" inside, and could be quite wide with 2 or 3 doors to make everything easily accessible. I saw one like this in a model home, and liked it so much that I tried unsuccessfully to work it into my plan. To have a place for some larger items, I think a pantry with about a 15" finished interior would be sufficient, but it depends on what YOU plan to put in there besides cans & normal sized grocery items. I hope others can add to this from their DR experiences. Anne

OP - I'm no architect, but we did once build a house on a sloping block with views. It was not a simple process because of the slope, I can tell you! It can be complicated putting a two-dimensional floor plan on a three-dimensional slope. So just bear that in mind. We in fact used an architect because there was no way a standardized plan would have worked in our specific location (it really was a very steep slope). Things that had to be taken into account included that doggone slope, and the views of course, but also orientation. The house was planned so that the windows and main rooms - dining, living, kitchen, more or less lined up with the trajectory of the sun, and were bright and well lit throughout the day. The kitchen which faced east, got the morning sun, the rest of the living areas got sun a bit later. Our back deck faced west, which meant blazing late afternoon sun - fortunately, the deck got reasonable shade from the forest behind us, or we'd have fried. The house also took advantage of the sea breezes coming up the slope in the afternoon, so great cross breezes which meant less (actually in our case no) A/C. Just things for you to bear in mind. You want to benefit as much as you can from all aspects of your location, not just the view.

Have you considered instead working with a person of design talent (architect) to get exactly what you want? So you don't have spaces like in the Bartlett that are too small or a kitchen with absolutely no natural light?