Your door swings between Bedroom 3 and 4 are odd. BR on left when open partially blocks door to bathroom. You have to close the door into the sink portion of the jack and jill bath to get into the rest of the bathroom.

Is the bedroom to the far left a maid's quarters? If not, you have a lot of redundant circulation at that end of the house.

I agree about the doorswings in Bedrooms 3&4 conflicting with the bathroom doors. The vanity in that bathroom is really too small for two sinks, as well.

I think the refrigerators are in the wrong part of the kitchen because you have to walk past the range to get to them, from the dining room.

There is no coat/shoe closet near the garage entry, or near the front entry. A house of this scale will often have a coat room close to the front door. The powder room also leads guests to a relatively private part of the house since it is adjacent to the bedrooms in their hallway.

Is the gym only for the use of the master suite occupants? It's in the most private part of the house, through the MBR and MBa, not accessible to anyone else.

The doorway to the home theatre is in a prime spot for furniture, adjacent to the fireplace which is probably a large focal point. Even it this is a hidden jib door, I would put it across from the French doors opposite.

I think the general progression of rooms and the enfilade feeling of the hallway is going to feel nice, but it creates some inconveniences as I have mentioned above.

Thank you for the feedback. I absolutely agree the 3 & 4 BR is wrong. He's in the process of reconfiguring that. The Bedroom was initially a MQ but we enlarged it to give seperation for the oldest kid. The coat/shoe closets are rare here as we are in a very very hot part of the country. My wife wants a mud room but he's still trying to reconfigure that side of the house. The gym is only for the master suite. We may end up with the gym in the detached room but we would end up using the room as my private office. The wall across from the dual french doors will have the plasma mounted. The media room is actually a bit different now. There is a niche entry then doorway as well as a longer media room. There's now a media closet (entry from media room side) behind the wall across from the french doors. This allows us to house all of the electronics to keep them out of the family room.

One thing we have been debating is the additional two car detached garage. We plan on adding one down the line though the contractor says he will build it (two stalls, foundation, dual doors w/opener, tile roof) for $25k. It puts the build above budget so we're considering waiting until a later date as it is less of a requirement for us. The property has a gated entry on the driveway with plenty of parking behind the gate. It rarely rains here, its never cold, and garages are like ovens.

Great idea. We're already using a seperate zone for the media room so adding another for the garage sounds easy enough. Our summer days are routinely above 100 degrees so you can only imagine the heat that builds up in them.

I see the kitchen layout as problematic in that in order to get to/from the laundry room and the garage (two pretty popular routes) you'd have to pass between the sink and the stove. Putting the stove/ovens right in a central traffic pattern seems awkward.
I don't know what the exterior is like, but I'd want more windows/natural light in the right side of the home. Other than the single set of french doors in the MBR and the windows behind the shower wall, it seems to be lacking in windows in that part of the house.
Good luck! You've got an interesting layout and I'll look forward to seeing the finished elevations!
I can't read the dimensions, but is the garage wide enough to get in/out of the car?

The kitchen is something we've tried rearranging but everything was a compromise. The pathway through the kitchen is actually pretty wide though (the island is 10 feet wide to give you an idea of the scale) The master is now with two sets of french doors. The gym has a window on the wall not shown in this version. The garage was initially a 3 car but sized down to 23 deep x 20.5 width. The final revision is 23x23 with a single door.

It is far more convenient to access a garage in the center of the wall opposite the automatic garage door. I strongly urge you to reposition the garage door farther down that wall (like 8-10 feet) so that it's past the cabinets (or fridge, I can't tell from the diagram) and gives a better entry point into the garage, between the cars. This way if you put a long vehicle in the garage you don't have to squeeze past it to get to the other car. Plus it's odd to me to have a garage door near a bedroom. Finally, it moves people traffic away from the pulse points of the kitchen. Though there is plenty of room, it adds to the craziness of meal time to have people barrelling though the most important corridor of the kitchen to get out of the garage. Moving it would provide a better sound barrier as well. Good luck with your home!

I don't know if all the windows are drawn in, but I think you need more windows in your home in general, but that's a personal preference. It looks like most of your bathrooms and your laundry and gym don't have any windows. I don't like windowless rooms, personally. In bedroom 2, you could switch the closet and bathroom to get a window on the side wall. May be an eleveation would help. Good luck in the process, and please post progress pics!

Wow, that is quite a home! Can't wait to see your home finished. Stunning for sure. Sounds like you plan is still undergoing alot of revision. But this is the time to get feedback. Only a couple comments, as most have already been addressed.

I see alot of areas where doors are in the middle of walls. I personally dislike that, prefer a pocket door, or doors that open to lie flat on the perpendicular wall. A few problems with door swing, too.

Perhaps take your kitchen plan to the kitchen forum. Great people over there that can help with he traffic flow. The one thing that would really bother me is the location of the range and clean up sink. Not only are they in a major traffic pattern, but are totally visible from your formal dining and formal living room. Your house appears quite formal, and if you're doing formal entertaining, do you want them to see your range and sink?

I agree about the location of the powder room. Because we spend alot of time outdoors, I like a powder room near the back entrance. Will you have a pool? That would be a consideration for location of a powder room as well.

Thanks for all of the suggestions. We are taking a look at options with the kitchen but we're having a difficult time finding an ability to change the layout. The bedroom near the master will actually have the bathroom accessable to the outside. It will only be used as a bedroom for about a year (off to college and a studio being built where plan shows additional slab. The room will have 16 ft ceilings and is going to be the study.

Windows have been added in the updated plan:
-Master will have two sets of french doors
-gym will have a window on the outside wall
-The formal will have two wide french doors and windows above
-The shower at BR 2 and other areas do have small windows pictured in the elevation posted below. He didnt detail them in this preliminary drawing.

I'd appreciate more feedback on doors and windows as these are easily changed with little or no additional cost.

Here's an elevation of the same home built by the GC (it was his custom but we modeled after it). The only difference are:

-front windows (not yet installed in pic) will be arched
-no stone work
-windows at top will be niches for energy efficiancy and cost except for the windows above kitched to the left of the home (those are true windows). They are all in the attic so true windows don't make much sense to us.

Another significant change is he brought room 2 forward and extended the hallway to an outside door entry. We will have a gated driveway with plenty of outside parking. We didnt like the thought of having to walk through the garage to enter. We are in a warm dry place so cars are usually left outside. However, we cant find an option of another garage entry. My wife does not like the idea of the entrance in the middle though she knows this is not ideal either. The garage was enlarged and I believe he made it 24 deep and 24 wide.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Here's the elevation for ours

Here is a link that might be useful:

Overall, it's a very nice plan.

A few more comments to add:

You show beams in the Family Rm, but none above the kitchen. Does the kitchen have a dropped ceiling? If it's vaulted like the Family Room, then I'd run beams over the kitchen also.

The wall opening at the french doors in the Family Rm that are closest to the fireplace is shown different than the other french doors. Is that a drawing error, or is there a sidelight?

Do you want sound isolation between the media room and the family room? If so, you may want to use double stud framing at that wall - meaning a thicker wall.

I agree with the door conflicts in bedrooms 3 & 4. For bedroom 3, you could move the door into the hallway (perpendicular to the bath) so that you create an alcove to the bedroom. Then move the closet door so that it's also in the alcove, which would free up wall space in the bedroom.

Could you widen the bathroom also?

The french doors in the formal living room don't appear to be centered in the space. There's more to the left than to the right. Are you doing built-ins in this room?

In the master shower, wouldn't you want the shower heads aligned below the windows? They look too close to the corners.

The kitchen and family room will have suspended cedar beams. I'm not sure why he drew the plan without it.

The wall between the french doors was just sloppily drawn. It will be a wall.

For the media room I didn't opt for double stud because it would narrow the room too much. The entry has changed also. There will be a niche with a small counter to the right (holding popcorn popper in cabinet). To the left will be a media closet with access from the inside of the theater room. The room will be staggered stud with double 5/8 drywall and green glue. Ceilings will be tray ceilings also with double drywall. The door will be solid core with appropriate sealing. The room will be on zoned AC with a return.

The jack n jill is being reconfigured to entry from the hall only. It eliminates the extra doors and will allow for more space. There will be just one sink. Also the door will be flush with the hallway as he should have done from the beginning.

The doors in the formal are going to be very different. The prints will show the actual design so he just threw these in for now.

The master shower heads are not as shown. There will be one rain head above, two heads with detachable heads, and body sprayers.

There are so many changes that I think it might be more helpful for you to show the current plan rather than the outdated one. Seems that people are taking time to give many suggestions but it's already been addressed in a revised plan.

I'd urge you to reconsider the kitchen layout. I can't imagine a more awkward way of getting to the laundry room (picture arms loaded with basket etc) and the garage ( imagine wheeling out luggage for a trip, backpacks for school etc) than to be threading between the sink and range.

In effect you are asking the most important area of your kitchen to also function as a hallway .... And it's no wider (or perhaps narrower) than all other halls in the house.

It's an interesting design with some nice features that show a lot of thought but the kitchen misses the mark.

Thanks everyone for the excellent suggestions. We met with the architect today and revised the plan, which we feel much more comfortable with.

-The bedrooms were moved forward to allow for an exterior door with hallway leading to kitchen (where BR 2 previously met garage). He added an entry to the hallway with the rooms. This door and path will be used by us only (not guests, they enter from front) and keep traffic out of the kitchen. The reconfiguration allowed for an increased pantry (now 12.5 x 6.5).

-He added additional windows in various locations (closets, baths, gym etc) and extra set of french doors in the master

-The theater room has a gear closet and an additional niche area for small candy cabinet and popcorn popper (with door to keep hidden)

-The Jack n Jill is now a hall entry with single sink, door, then toilet and shower.

-The powder room is unchanged as there is no where else to put it and there is outside access to the bathroom attached to BR 4/Den

-Garage is now 24 x 24 and there is adjacent space to add detached 2 or 3 car garage (labor here is cheap so we'll do this down the line).

Hi Bave - so excited to see you plan - I had asked about it in another thread. I would love to know more about your family (# of kids, ages, aging parents that might move in, entertaining habits, etc). The one thing I think is crucial is a mud room. Unless the plan has changed a great deal with the additional entry, it looks like there is no good place for the kids (and adults) to dump their stuff - bags, coats, gear, etc. I am assuming your kids are older since there is no playroom type space. Your family room and living room are both very open/public spaces and the theater room has no windows to do double duty. Will you have a true theater set up in there with fixed chairs and such? If not, I would do windows and look into the room darkening solutions with companies that install home theater equipment. I was in a show room last week looking at a hide-a-hose central vac and their theater room had 4 windows and was pitch black. I was very impressed. The other thing that was critical to us was 4' hallways and 3' doors for handicap accessibility - and it makes it easier for me to not scrap the walls and door casings when toting laundry baskets in and out. I am excited to follow your progress since we have a very similar project that we are hoping to break ground with by the end of the summer.

Hello. We have four kids and only one is younger at 4. The oldest is almost college age. Our last house had the extra playroom but these kids wouldnt use it any more. We have very little family here and we do entertain once a month or so.

The media room will be an actual theater room (last house did as well). It will have a riser with two rows of seats, front projection w/ 12' wide screen, sound isolation (double drywall, staggered studs, etc) four tray ceiling.

All hallways are 4' or wider with 3' doors entering rooms. We changed the layout quite a bit and I'll repost it once I scan it. The new side entry will allow for a bit of shallow storage for coats, shoes, etc.

BTW, our last theater room had a large window but was 100% light controlled (very easy fix). However, sound leakage at high volumes was problematic. This will definitely be a true dedicated theater room.