The first major thing I see is that Bed 3 doesn't have a closet. Also, will you be putting a table in the great room, or will the island seating be the only eating area you have?

Overall, I like your layout - especially all the big porches. I think you can make it be great with just a few changes!

Your walk in closets are too narrow. Minimum width for a WIC is seven feet.

I think your screened porch is too small. With three doors that need to be kept clear, you will not be able to get much furniture in there. I think it will also feel like you are sitting in a jail cell.

Can you explain the symbology on your plan. I'm not sure which is an archway and which is a pocket door.

Your great room won't work. You have no wall space for furniture. It is far too small to have that many french doors. Each door requires space around it for people movement. Where are you going to put your furniture?

You need to look at that plan with properly scaled furniture and people drawn in. I think you find it unworkable.

First thing I noticed was screen porch is too small to have so many doors. No floor space for furniture. Take in more porch area that runs along side kitchen.

The little hallway area outside MBR is useless and at that angle, you'll never be able to bring in a piece of furniture through the doorway.

I would get rid of little hallway area outside MBR closets and combine closets somehow. Maybe do hanging with a large storage island in the middle with drawers and counterspace on top.

You may want to make most of the french doors in the great room non-functioning doors. The more doors that actually open/close the higher the cost but most importantly, more places that let energy escape. We have three french doors from our great room to back veranda but only one pair actually opens. Same with the front of our house. Also gives you more space for furniture.

I agree with everyone about the doors. It will certainly be expenseive if nothing else. Another thing I noticed is that if you are entertaining in the great room and someone has to use the restroom they will have to pass through the kitchen which may be abustle with prep activity or go through a bedroom. I do love the jack and jill though, we have one at our current home and it ensures guests don't have to use a messy kid's bathroom.

That is also a ton of walking between laundry room and bedrooms.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU! You guys are giving me lots of food for thought....I already have about two pages of changes to be made (my designer is going to hate me!).

Muddy and Alison: the plan is for the french doors to be fixed. I've thought about having only the middle door be usable--what do you think? Also, with the doors being fixed, do you still think the 18' width is still too narrow?

The concept of our living/dining is that there would be no furniture placement on walls, so I'm not too worried about that. But I am worried about too narrow of a space without proper walkways!

We will be adding a 1/2 bath in the hallway right off the foyer...possibly taking out some of my closet area to do this.

Screen porch is definitely too small, and I don't like it's position. I'm thinking it might look nice at the end of the foyer/galley with a large stone fireplace. When guest enter, they would look straight through our house to the fireplace. Sounds nice, but I don't know if it's workable.

Any suggestions where I can move the screen porch?

3rd bedroom closet is a major oversight on the designer's part!!

Whew....I'm exhausted. Is it normal to have so many changes?

There are a lot of good points being made. I saw a couple of other things that I did not mention earlier. There is no outside door in the garage. Almost all garages have an exterior people door.

There is no provision for a mechanical area. The mechanical area, ideally a small room, holds the HVAC equipment, water heater, water softener, etc. Depending on whether or not you have AC and the type of heat, you may also need space for ducts from the mechanical equipment up into the attic. This space is called a chase. If you have a crawl space foundation, sometimes the ducts are run down there instead of the attic. The mice like that idea and are partial to tearing them up to get the fiberglass insulation to line their nests.

The front porch doesn't run all the way across to the garage. Not having seen the front elevation, I am not sure how it is going to look, but I suspect it would have a better appearance if it ran all the way.

Overall, I think this is a very nice and open floorplan. Since somebody mentioned closets, you might want to add one in your casita. I also agree that your great room needs to be wider to accommodate furniture. I love all your porches. Having so many though creates issues with getting sunlight into the rooms. Since your great room is surrounded by porches, even though you have a lot of french doors, you might want to add skylights or may be you already have upper windows planned above the porch roofline. We lived in the SW for a few years and we had a great room with a wall of windows, but bc it lead out to a 12 foot deep porch, I always felt that the great room was dark during the day. Also, if you are worried about leaving room to walk around your french doors, you might want to consider making the doors outswing rather than inswing. Of course then, you have to worry about eating up space to walk around on your porch. Good luck!

gobruno: Yes, we have three clerestory windows (is that what they're called?) on both the front and back side of the dining/greatroom above the porch line. Do you think this would be enough natural light?

Draw the plans to scale (¼" graph paper is easy to use if each square equals 6"). Now drawn an outline of each piece of your furniture, also to scale. A couple more outlines to represent each person -- a circle is fine, make it 2' scaled unless there are some really big folks, in which case 2½' scaled is more realistic.

By putting the furniture onto the floor plan: you can be sure there is enough space around the table for someone to pass behind seated diners, that it is possible to make the bed without sidling; whether a long bureau can turn the corners into the bedroom; and whether the kitchen will actually be convenient for cooking -- do pay attention to how many times you will have to dodge the island corners when going to and from the refrig to the stove to the sink. Personally, I think the kitchen is awkward, but YMMV.

RE closets -- remember that hangers stick out -- those cute little drawn lines for the rod make it easy to overlook that clothing will be on each side of the rod-line by 9 or 10", which is why a 6' wide walk-in actually only gives you about 2' between the two rods (meaning your body will barely have room enough to pull out the hangar). As drawn, I find the MB closets unrealistic -- even properly planned storage isn't going to be comfortable in those spaces. And yes, BR3 really needs a closet.

I'd just extend the porch's east wall over to the casita's corner. That would give you enough space to have friends visit while moving the doors away from each other while not blocking the utily room's door.

Our great room is 23 1/2 x 19. Center door is operable to back veranda, but yours set up is different. For the front porch, I would make the door closest to the Foyer operable since that area will have to be a walkway. The other two, you could put something in front of, if you wanted.

Center door operable to back porch from great room, that way you can have a cozy seating area at FP that won't get interrupted.

Don't know about moving the screen porch to MBR/Foyer area. Do you really want your view from most of the great room to be through screens? We're on a lake, so we didn't. Ours is off to one end/off MBR. imo, taking it past the kitchen area is better.

Are you building on slab or crawl space? You really need to decide where tables will be in great room so that you can plan ahead for floor outlets for lamps. We have a sofa table with two lamps - two plugs are hidden under sofa but not under rug. We are able to wait until electrical was being wired (lower level). We brought some boxes into the room and taped off a few pieces of furniture to decide and the outlets are perfect.

My head is spinning....in a good way. Thanks again. You guys are priceless, and my designer is going to want to know how I became so knowledgeable!

Just thought I'd share a few more photos of what the dining/living will look like. Still struggling with where to place the screen porch. What about if we forego the casita, and use that area for the Screen Porch?

Here's the dining area:
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and the living/dining: (this plan calls for a width of 19'2.
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everyone's advice is right on the money! just off first glance: I think doors usually swing inwards on bathroom and you might want the MB toilet room door to go in instead of hanging out open into the room.

love the computer area for the kids!

MBR access is very awkward. There are two large closets for this room, with wasted space used for hallway to second closet. This could be rearranged for more suitable space for each, if having two closets for MBR is a priority, or one large closet to serve husband and wife. As mentioned, there is no closet at all for BR 3. That whole wing should be redrawn to allow better access for furniture movement in and out, and adequate closet space for both rooms.

Also agree with those who say that it IS a long walk from laundry room to BR wing, where 95% of laundry originates. At least you'll get your exercise! A copy of the elevations would be helpful.

You could put the screen porch next to the MBR as you suggested, but I would extend the length to 17' so it was full length of the MBR wall and widen it so that it extended to the right in front of corner wall by fireplace. Have only the center door in GR operatable, with full length fixed windows at locations that now show doors.

Do you need the casita? If not, use the money elsewhere and screen in that end of the porch.

Meant to ask you which SL plan you are basing this on?

It looks like "Cedar Creek" built in Bryan, TX.

Yes, it's a combination of Cedar Creek (Bryan, TX) and Harrod's Creek (Austin, TX).

Right now I'm frustrated because I can't figure out a way to attach the screen porch in a functional way. AAAAARgh!

I have a comment regarding the kids computer work areas in the hallway. I think it is a mistake for a couple of reasons. First, a study or work area should be private, with no interruptions. That won't be the case, with the other person passing very close by one who is working, essentially invading their space. Second, you have the computer screen in front of a window, which will make it hard to see, since their eyes will inevitably wander to the window. Their eyes will have a hard time adjusting between the screen and the much brighter light from outdoors. Ideally, both windows and computer screens should be arranged so that sunshine never hits the screen, and the user never sees the window without completely turning away from his work.

If you sell in the future, you may take a big hit because of this part of the design.

I'm not sure the great room is a good size if it houses both dining/living. I think it might be a bit tight. Take a table standard width of 42" then min 4' on each side of that to move around (and that is tight when people sit). So add two more feet Then you have 28.5-13.5 ft left for a living area. I had a 15 ft x 18 ft in my old house for the living part of my great room and that 15' makes it really narrow and very limited for furniture arrangement. I'd do as others suggested play with graphpaper and furniture sizes to see that you have plenty of room. Since your Great room will be used as a walk through area to get between kitchen and bedrooms make sure you have 3-4' of walking space on both sides. One from the master side and one from the front door/other bedroom side with nothing interferring and still allowing you to have the pieces of furniture you want.

Remember the FP as drawn will be sticking out into the room as well. I'd maybe consider putting it where one of the French doors are and have it stick out on the porch. This way you have more space and a wall where a TV could go and still be able to arrange furniture so the FP is also a focal point. Our current great room is set-up that way and I really like it. The FP provides warmth and coziness closer to where we sit flanked by french doors (one set stationary and one where both open) and the TV and book cases are on the other wall.

My old house had an open great room with dining and living where the FP was placed in between the two. It was great for using the FP as it heated both areas and it was not in the way of furniture placement, however I didn't like that it was sort of not a focal point from one area to the other.

Since you have the bonus room maybe you could set that up so you can have guests there. Otherwise you could just make that half of the porch screened in all the way to where you have it now. Not all will have a view, but you'll have a little private area in front of the casita too. You only need a little extra screen since there will be walls covering the other areas so the cost wouldn't be much more.