This is the 'original' plan.

The top plan is nice and straightforward and will have a simple roof. From that standpoint, I like it. What I do not like is the sightline from the front door - you would look directly into the kitchen. I would like it better if the entry and den were flip-flopped.

I like the new plan a lot more. Wonder if you can re-work the bedroom end a bit. Put the master closets as a buffer to the great room, moving the MBR to the corner which gives you windows on 2 sides. Then shift around the other bath and corner bedroom - if you can rework the bathrooms to share a wall the plumbing will be easier.

Hi, thanks for your thoughts.

dekeoboe- I hear what you are saying; I think I could live with that fact, possibly tweaking the plan a little bit. But I just don't want to go back to a 12' useless hallway for a front entry... I could extend the kitchen more to swap the entry into it, sacrificing the standalone wall w/cabinets.

dlm2000- Is this something like you were thinkin? I know the closet all along that wall looks odd, (I don't have enough clothes to fill it), but I could justify it by using it for other storage as well. The long narrow part of the closest is at least 4' wide, which I think could work. I thought about just bifold closests accessible from within the room, but I didn't want to lose a whole wall to this. This way, I still have 3, long usable walls for furniture rearranging. I also did not want a 20' by 12' bedroom. I don't need alot of space for extras, just a bed and maybe a reading chair.

is there an elevation that goes with this plan? i'm having trouble visualizing what that might look like! i think the angular plan could be very charming on the exterior.

i like that it's different, and definitely appreciate the simplicity and streamlining of the new one v. the old one. i agree with another poster about the bedroom area and bathroom area benefitting from some tweaks. it's nice to have a little more elbow room in the bedrooms as you do in the new plan.

also i wonder about the half bath off your mud/laundry area. does that meet a a very specific need you have? i wouldn't like having to walk through the laundry room to get to the bathroom. even if it's only for the man in your life who likes to get muddy for fun, i'd still probably feel better about putting the laundry on the front wall and pulling the half bath closer to the garage entrance if it's for that purpose. (similar to the old plan)

finally, i feel like an awful lot of footprint is going to the entry space - it's bigger than both the bedrooms!

maggiepie- There is no elevation with this new plan :( I do agree that the exterior was very nice to look at; before I changed it. I too am struggling to envision what the elevations will look like. What might work well on the inside could look really unbalanced on the exterior.

There was no extra special reason for the half bath- I would have liked to only have the two full bathrooms, but they are too far away from the garage, so I bow to necessity. I will give some thought on how I can rearrange this... As for the large entry, I hope that it can keep the chaos organized before it escapes further into the home. I am living with a postage stamp for an entry and all the extras end up spilling into the kitchen, dining and living room.

As I have only had this plan for a day, I am sure I will be rejigging things more than once until I run out of options.

Thanks.

A closed-in front entry leading directly to the kitchen is totally weird but I appreciate you are going through a process.

I also can see what you're trying to do with the entries, but I don't like the formal entry leading directly into the kitchen, either. Two points:

I think you've got WAY too much space dedicated to the formal entry (I would have about 1/3 or less of the closets you have drawn in, in it) and

I think you've got WAY too little space dedicated to the laundry/family entry.

I never like a laundry room combined with the garage entry, though a lot of plans draw it that way. If you borrow some space from the formal entry, maybe you could rework it to separate the laundry from the day-to-day coming and going.

Isn't your family going to come into the house 99% of the time through the garage, rather than the front door? Mine does. That's where you need LOTS of space and storage.

Forgot to say -

After you redrew your plans, the fireplace was left in the middle of a hallway from the kitchen/dining to the bedrooms. It will be impossible to gather chairs around it in a cozy fashion, because it's in the midst of your main traffic flow.

Hi all,

Thanks for your comments, here is what I have revised based on them.

that entry allocation of space makes much more sense to me with all your storage by the family entrance and less clutter at the public entrance. the half bath right at the garage entrance makes a lot of sense too!

now i'm wondering about the fireplace placement, the crazy shape walk-in closet in your bedroom, and window placement in your bedroom. you've only got one possible place for the bed and it's not the wall i would have chosen based on where you enter the room.

why are you choosing that wall for the fireplace? how do you envision arranging furniture in the great room? also, the roofline just got more complex by moving the den out to accomodate the fireplace there. it's not symmetrical on that wall because of the door to the den, and even though you created walking space it doesn't seem like a logical place for it to be in a walkway.

not sure what type of fireplace you're doing, but have you thought about putting it on the master bedroom wall and having a fireplace in the bedroom as well so they can share a flue? you'd sacrifice the wacky length of the closet but if you're putting a reading chair in the bedroom, it'd be nice right by a fireplace. :)

and if you're at all concerned about resale value, 12.5' width seems a little small for the master bedroom as that would be a tight squeeze to fit a king size bed and two 30" nightstands. that may not be important to you but just wanted to point it out.

i'll also point out the proportions of your bathroom seem off to me now. the master shower seems awfully large, and it's forcing you into an extra long second bathroom.

Perhaps you can put the second bathroom where the wonky end of the master closet is; make the closet a reach-in the length of the wall; move the master bath into the space vacated by the second bath. The bathrooms aren't back-to-back, but still closer than the original. You might even be able to eliminate that expensive bump-out. Since you have no second floor, a Sun Tunnel in the bathroom would provide natural light.

-maggiepie, we will not have a fireplace, but a wood stove. I like the idea of the stove on that wall as it frees up the other walls in the great room for furniture placement. IâÂÂm thinking that itâÂÂs going to be a more of a feature wall, with not a lot of chairs gathered around it. As for furniture placement in the great room, I think due to the size, there might be different areas⦠Still trying to visualize what those might be.
With this recent revision, IâÂÂve changed the bathroom/master arrangement along the lines of annkhâÂÂs suggestion; though I do not know if it follows the same idea annkh had?

A wood stove? I've been there and done that, and you'll regret that current placement big-time, IMO. How far will you have to carry the wood through the house to get to the stove? And where will it be stacked - right next to the stove? And what about the ashes? Ugh.

If you are set on a wood stove, I'd recommend it be placed on an exterior wall, very close to an exterior door.

Never never again for me, that's for sure. Not worth it. At all.

Hi b_valency, did you build your home?