Beautiful, nice open plan!
I might give up the sitting area in the master bedroom in order to find an inside access to the garage bathroom. I think it would be used more that way.
Also, is there room to move the master shower to the back wall and put the toilet on the outside wall? I just don't like "sitting there" in front of a door.

It's usually easier to make suggestions if one knows a bit about the poster's family situation because a house that is perfect for empty nesters might have serious flaws for a young family and vice-versa but I'll give it a shot anyway.

Overall, I think your plan is very nice although 11'3" x 16'3" (if I'm reading the dimensions correctly ???) seems pretty small for a living area. I'm guessing you want to keep the total square footage down and don't expect to really use the dining area as a dining area very often so that the living room will generally expand into that space. Or, maybe those window seats are part of a built-in dining nook freeing up most of the rest of the space for living room furniture. That seems like it would work as long as you never have more than a couple of people over for a sit down dinner.

I particularly like your wrap-around porch which looks like it is about 8 foot deep at the front...deep enough to put some furniture on and actually enjoy! Bravo!

You don't show a "guest powder-room" so I'm assuming that you envision guests using the secondary bathroom by bedrooms 1 and 2. If you have children, you may want to consider whether that bathroom will generally be shipshape enough for company use.

I personally don't like the toilet/shower combo room you have in the master bath. Seems to me like the big reason to have a seperate "throne room" is to allow someone to use it in privacy while someone else is bathing/showering. Since my DH and I use the shower a whole lot more than the tub, enclosing the toilet along with the shower would kind of defeat the purpose. I'm also NOT a fan of pocket doors but that's just me. Some people seem to really like them.
Since you don't show a second floor, I'm assuming the stairs go down to the basement and that the water heater and HVAC will be down there. If not, where will those things be located?

You show a closet between the laundry room and kitchen (across from the MBR door) so I'm not sure why there is another big closet in the laundry room...especially if you have a basement where stuff can be stored anyway. I'd probably make the garage powder-room a little bigger and turn the rest of that closet space over to the MBR sitting room area. Alternatively, rework the space to add a shower to the garage pwdr with maybe a pass-thru to the laundry room. That way, if need be, a person could really clean up before traipsing thru the house.

The passage from garage to dining room looks like it gets REALLY narrow at one point as you go by that angled wall. To avoid buised hips, you might consider chopping the cabinet off at a 45 degree angle so that it is parallel to the angled wall. It sort of looks like you might be showing a freezer at that corner though so chopping the cabinet corner off might not be an option. In any case, you'll want to be sure that you have at least 3 feet of clearance all along that passage. More would be better considering that there is likely to be a lot of traffic past that point.

I'm not the world's neatest cook and I often have at least a few dirty dishes sitting around my sink so, while I might be willing to have my kitchen open to my living room (or hidden behind a pony wall) I definitely would not want my sink area to be visible from the front door! I also would not want someone sitting in just the right (wrong?) spot in my living room to be able to see BEHIND my refrigerator. (Have you ever looked back there? GAG. LOL!) To solve both problems, consider adding an 12" to 24" inch wide cabinet beside the refrigerator (on the living room side) and then extending the wall that runs behind the fridge so that it wraps around the added cabinet.

Finally, I would turn that little front entry closet by 90 degrees so that its door opens out into the hallway. That way the closet door and front entry door won't be be bumping into each other. The closet would be just as convenient with the door around the corner as where it is.

Hope this helps!

bevangel-- Thanks so much for the feedback. This is exactly what I was looking for. To answer some of your questions-- we are a young couple with two small children, hoping to build this house and live in it until the kids make us go somewhere else :)

You are right about the dining/living. 11 ft is on the small side, but there nothing really separating the dining and living, so I don't see it as a potential furniture placement issue. I drew out the plan with my own software and have placed much furniture in the plan.

The master bath-- my husband and I get ready at the same time in the mornings. My thought was that I would be by the sinks while he's showering and not having to fight the steam (or his singing!). Another factor was thinking this way would KEEP all the steam in a confined area for warmth while showering.

Stairs do go downstairs where HVAC/water heater will be.

Good tips about the garage bath. I could see the closet in the laundry rm being smaller. I'll have the think on that.

Hallway from garage to kitchen is at minimum 3'3". That cabinet is housing the oven, so I don't see a 45 degree angle as an option. Maybe I can cut that closet down and move the angled wall out? Will have to play with that.

The refrigerator "sits" in a cabinet that will be butted up against the wall, so nobody will be able to see behind it. Again, these are the things I've been trying to get family to point out to me and all I get is "it looks great".

I think I'll take your suggestion on the entry closet. Thanks!

That helped bunches!!!! Thank you!!

I've lived with small kids in a house that had a combo living-dining room with a central fireplace -- same length although it was 13'7" in width.

A) determine your furniture arrangement and then measure. We can just walk between someone sitting on the sofa and the fireplace -- I wouldn't want that to be 2 feet narrower. Here's where I strongly recommend making a to-scale model in 3-d; including the furniture and moveable models of each person living there. Imagine the kids on the floor with a board game, somebody watching TV, somebody is cooking and doing laundry -- and unexpected company arrives.

Otherwise, I learned:

B) You MUST clear off the table after each meal or rapidly descend into food-borne chaos. Company dinners can be awkward serving and clearing afterwards, especially if there is a football game on.

C) Snacks and drinks get taken into the LR section because there is no delineation in area uses; those snacks will also get spilled onto the sofa and chairs, especially if they contain grapejuice, tomatoes, or imitation cheese. However, if you don't mind food stains on the furniture and carpeting, that's not a biggie -- otherwise you must train everyone to clean up immediately after spilling [not easy to do].

D) we had an eat-in kitchen, handy for keeping homework/studying children separate from the TV. Your small kids will grow: think now about where they will study, play, entertain friends -- and don't expect them to stay in their rooms.

E) check the distance between sink and oven. Less than 5' apart will guarantee someone gets bumped just as they are removing a casserole!

And, please don't put a door between the toilet and the sink. Think about it.

Get ready. I'm going to start rearranging your house. LOL

Move the laundry room to the back outside wall, using the 'reading nook' space. Add a window.

Move the powder room inside the house. Bring the entry area forward (right on your drawing), eliminating the angle in the kitchen hall. This is going to be the 'busiest' area in your house as the family comes and goes. Leave the garage recessed. This would only add a few feet to your floorplan and get the powder room where you can all use it -- yet it is still right beside the garage.

The window seat(?) on the far right corner of the DR will cost extra, and it creates a 'dead spot' outside between window and chimney.

Master bath: If you can't have a separate toilet room, I'd put the tub and toilet together. If you don't USE a tub, eliminate it; you have another one in the 2nd bathroom.

(Since your master setup is in a rectangle like ours, this might work for you. Our BR is separated from the bath by a short hall with walk-in closets opening off each side of the hall (pocket doors). In the bath, our sinks flank the hall door, backing to the closets, and the toilet room, tub and shower are on the opposite side of the room.)

The combination LR/DR is going to be tight, especially as there is no other place for children to play. Are they old enough -- or is that young enough? -- to be unsupervised in the basement?

(Here's something that helped when DH and DS wanted to watch TV while eating in our family room. I had a pair of dining height tables and chairs *behind* a sofa. Sofa and chairs faced the TV. House rule was no one sat on the sofa with food.)

Add a window to each of the children's BRs.

Bring the entry area out alongside BR #2 to create a larger entry that doesn't eat up LR space.

OK, you can have your house back now.

And that reminds me, who's going to produce the most laundry, the MB occupants beside the present laundry, or the kids on the other side of the house? As is, you'll have to haul sheets, towels, and dirty clothes from the kid's area through the LR and K to get them to the laundry. And then back again. I've been there, done that, and hope you don't have to do it!

Chisue, can you put a W/D in a more convenient location, maybe in that MB closet?

meldy -- She could give up her pantry; have access from both children's BR hall and master closet. Looks like there will be plenty of upper cabinets in the kitchen, which I prefer to a pantry anyway. (I like one big 'back hall' closet that holds bulk goods, buckets, central vac hose, you-name-it.)

Give up my pantry??? Are you crazy!!! LOL.

I don't have a problem with guests having to use the same bathroom as my children. (As they get older, they're bedrooms will be downstairs, hopefully.) The garage bathroom is just that-- garage, dirt, aka- not for guests (unless they're dirty!) More of a clean up area with a toilet. We're on 8 acres so I see us being outside alot.

Thanks for bringing the "dead spot" between the window seat and the chimney up-- the perfect place for the log bench my father made. Hadn't thought about it, but that'll fit great!

I tried to design this house thinking about how we live and function as a family, and how we will change (kids get older, move out, us in older age). My main area of concern is the living, dining and kitchen. And as some have pointed out, the angled wall. I'm working on that.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I'll ask a larger question, if you are building on 8 acres, why scrimp on room size, and have such an odd layout? I know that the general rule of thumb is more space = more cost = more maintenance, heating, etc, but that's also a function of how "fussy" your layout is.

All of the odd angles, jutted out spaces, and odd roof joints in the current plan will add more cost and problems than a larger but simpler design.

If you are willing to consider a simple "L" design, or even a simpler rectangular design, it will cost less to build, heat and maintain, and you can still have lots of window space.

Yeah, the current design might look "cooler" from the outside, but you spend most of your time inside, where more space and a simpler layout will pay off.

Just my .02!

DON'T lose your pantry and I agree about the bathroom. I really don't get this idea now that guests can't use an otherwise used bathroom. But, threedoghouse has a good point about jogs and angles...They do add cost that could translate more usefully into square footage. I haven't studied your plan enough to know if you've already considered this, but it's also most efficient, material cost and use wise, to plan your exterior measurements in 4 or 8 ft increments. Some even get down to window placement, but I didn't take it that far. We did try to keep the house as square as possible, and made many of our interior walls run in straight lines for simpler framing. You can create window seats and other more interesting shapes in the house with walls and cabinetry. Where we plan a window seat, the wall is straight, but there'll be taller cabinets at each end to cozy it in.

Looking at your plan, I would definitely close off the end of the laundry, not just leave it open to through-traffic coming from the garage. The laundry is something it's nice to close a door on...because of noise and its less-than-gorgeous view.

Our last house had a kitchen oriented similarly to the front door, and viewable from the living room. I have to honestly say, I hated it. People would drop by unexpectedly while the kids' mac n' cheese bowls were still on the bfast bar and while a baking project was underway in the kitchen. Not a very gracious impression. Also, we definitely had the problems of food and dishes too easily traveling to the living room, and TV too easily a part of meals and slowing down the dish-doing process. While I'm eating, I don't like to look at kitchen mess, and want to be able to linger as long as I like with family or friends without having the cleanup job staring us in the face. But I know that's the big issue of open kitchen vs closed. I could handle a kitchen open to a more private family space, but would never choose it for the guest area. Just my opinion, though.

There were too many responses for me to read but I would put the stair to the basement between the garage and the M BR and create a hall in its place to connect all of the bedrooms and allow some family privacy. Forcing normal house traffic through the LR & DNG areas, or a kitchen, is something I always try very hard to avoid, open plan or not.

My mother said I wasn't allowed in her living room because it had to be perfect in case the minister dropped by. I didn't realize she was putting me on until I was an adult.

"Living room had to be perfect in case the minister dropped by..." Amazing what kids hear and translate into 'the facts'. My grandmother said the family moved away from the country (with their pre-adolescent daughter) "because the bulls were getting over the fences". I bet I was 30 before I figured out what that really meant.

Maybe that's why various religions want to "get 'em while they're young' -- too young to question. Thinking of my mother as a child, singing the old hymn "Gladly, My Cross-Eyed Bear". LOL

"Living room had to be perfect in case the minister dropped by..." I love that! But I bet young MightyAnvil had a *large* family kitchen and/or a basement to play in when it was rainy. On second thought, maybe not! I was raised in a house with a great-room/open kitchen and you're right, we learned early to keep it pristine "just in case." But we kids did have a huge porch and the barn as well as acres to play in. That old homestead may be why I didn't fully realize the aggravation of small kids in an "open" floorplan until I actually lived with it. In fact, even without the kids, it's an aggravation. Sometimes I think I can't wait to get out of that incovenient arrangement and into my dream house!

The family room was a former single-car garage where the TV was allowed to hide. No visitors ever saw it. We were encouraged to do our "living" outside.