This is what we are currently working with. I think it would work if I put the laundry in the basement or maybe in the master closet? I kinda hate the idea of it being in the master closet though. If I reduced the master closet by half do you think i would have room to have it in its own room off the mudroom area?

why don't you like it in the mud room?

http://www.thehousedesigners.com/plan/cherry-creek-4531/

We just bought this plan. It's a little bit bigger than you described but checks off everything else.

This post was edited by brooksms on Sat, Feb 9, 13 at 19:24

I agree - I HATE having my laundry in the mudroom. Mudrooms are dirty by nature, clean clothes fall on the floor, etc. I think you could certainly rework if you're willing to give up some closet space.

Do you think you'd use that tub in the master bath? If not, you can rework that space to help with the closet and laundry

I agree with andry - I can't figure out why anybody would want the laundry in the mudroom. Makes no sense. Why would you want it far away from the bedrooms/bathrooms and in a very public area that everybody walks through every day with dirty shoes?

I really do think i'd use the tub often. I had one in my last house that was used quite often. I miss having one. The reason I don't like it in the mud rooms is because mud rooms are dirty and need swept often. I know I dont do laundry frequently and it would pile up in front of the washer and I'd be stepping over it coming in from the garage. I don't like keeping laundry in the bedrooms either. The kids wouldn't have much room to keep laundry in their closets.

brooksms I saw that floor plan on another post. It is just a little too large for us.

I like this one too but its 500 too big. We could get some sq feet off easily by taking off the study.

http://www.birkeyhomes.com/bradford-shores-121/

I saw this house in person and really liked it but we can't afford to build a 2500 sq ft house with the finishes we would like. More affordable if we keep it around 2000

Here is a link that might be useful: 2500 sq ft floor plan

What about the 2646 here? It's a craftsman style. All one level.

Here is a link that might be useful: House plan

This post was edited by neroselover on Sat, Feb 9, 13 at 21:04

neroselover I really liked that but couldn't figure out what was missing. I then realized there wasn't a garage or mudroom. I loved how the kitchen was with the big pantry! Its a little too big of a floorplan for us though. We wanted to stay closer to 2000. The smaller version of that would work. I'd have to figure out how to enter by a garage with a little mudroom.

We don't usually have mechanical rooms on the first floor around here. They are usually in the basement.

Thank you for posting that layout though. I really liked the kitchen size

Sorry, I should have posted this one instead. It's the one with the garage.

Here is a link that might be useful: Craftsman with garage

This post was edited by neroselover on Sat, Feb 9, 13 at 21:49

Gingerjenny, aside from the laundry issue, it looks like your dining room is a little small to handle twelve people. What are its dimensions? To seat twelve, you need a minimum of 14' on one axis, if you're using a rectangular table -- 16' would be more comfortable.

And back to the laundry: If you slide the powder room over to where the laundry machines are, you would only lose the space of the vanity in your master closet. Then you would have more closet/cubby space in the mudroom, Is there enough width in the room that you could close off the laundry with folding doors?

Why does it have to be a "ranch" ?

that's funny, i can't live without a mudroom laundry, as we use it contstantly when we come in from the barn. it's an easy matter to drop the dirty stuff right into the machine as i pass though into the main house.
boots and shoes aren't allowed past there either! and of course we have a clothesline right outside as we rarely use the dryer.
and to be honest i also have a washer and dryer in my walk in closet, so clothes come right out of the dryer and onto hangers or into the drawers. no laundry baskets to carry around and easy easy easy.

I don't have a problem with the mud room and laundry room sharing space and I like it near the kitchen/FR so we can conveniently tend the laundry while it's going. If you're building your own home, you can make it large enough so there's space to do both activities...

We like the ranch style home though with 1 floor living...it is most convenient.

Renovator when I say ranch I mean I want everything on one floor. We are planning on staying in this house a long time and I don't want to be going upstairs daily to go to bed. I dont want kids up above me running around either and hearing the footstep. I had enough of that in apartments.

chibimimi - I know I can't currently seat 12 in my dining room and thats ok. Gives me an excuse to have a kids table in the morning room. lol We all currently eat in the same living room/dining room but i have to bring out card tables and folding chairs. We dont have to all eat in the same room but i would like seating for that many at gatherings.

A "Ranch" is an architectural style with its own history and identifiable elements. There are other architectural styles that work on one level some more traditional and some more modern.

With the information you have posted I wouldn't know where to start with suggestions. It is always best to show us a specific site and photos of what you like or the neighborhood. I don't think you even told us in what part of the country the project is located.

These is a process to good design and you are starting at the wrong end of it. This isn't meant to be a criticism; it is only natural to start with the parts you see everyday and try to arrange them into a workable design. Go find a site and designs you like so we can help you start the design process.

This post was edited by Renovator8 on Sun, Feb 10, 13 at 12:06

I am in Indiana. Around here we call all one story houses "ranches" It doesn't matter if it is craftsman or more modern. If its one story its a ranch. I guess that is just my area.

We really like the look of craftsman style houses. The street we are looking to build on is a one street subdivision. Again, I don't know if this counts as a subdivision but it has its own name. Anyway, there are probably 25 houses on this street and all but 2 are craftsman style.

The lot is long and narrow. It is 129 x 265.

I don't think that is wide enough for a side loading garage.

I like the current layout we have I just feel like it needs some tweaking. I am not that happy with the laundry area

I feel like we could put it in the basement til we are older than maybe bring it back up to the current location once the kids are gone and we have less laundry. If i kept my closet its current size its big enough to store laundry but not the kids.

I just don't know if moving the laundry to the basement would be a total pain. I've never had a house with a basement. Or if this plan is one where i should just start over.

What square footage are you up to with the plan you posted as is?

I have an idea that might work, but I would need the overall dimensions for the total space that encompasses the powder room + the mudroom (just the dimensions that the big rectangle of those 2 rooms combined) as drawn on your plan.

thanks dream home. As of now I think it is at 1995 sq feet.
Here is a copy of the floor plan. I had to figure out how to turn a pdf into a jpeg.

I don't know the exact dimensions...I should. I think its 10 feet long.

here is a modified version from another builder. It gets the laundry out of the way a little but then anyone that uses the powder room would see my dirty laundry

gingerjenny,

Have you seen this one? It is only 1960 sq.ft. but does take advantage of the narrow-ish lot and not to mention the other things you need!

Here is a link that might be useful: craftsman plan

If anyone cares about architectural history:

American Craftsman Style homes originated in California in the early 1900's and were 1 1/2 stories and rarely 2 stories with steep roofs and highly stylized front porches, roof eaves and dormers.

Ranch Style homes originated in California too but 30 years later as the Craftsman style waned and they were always one story with low sloped roofs and instead of front porches they had rear sliding glass doors to patios.

These styles are from different eras, generations and world wars; they express entirely different philosophies and lifestyles. There is, in fact, no common feature shared by these architectural styles so no one should mistake one for the other.

Thank you, reno8 :o)

Renovator8 I know what you are saying. I'm just saying around here people call one stories ranches even if they are not that true 'ranch' style.

Here is a link that might be useful: ranch

gingerjenny-that's very similar to what I was thinking. If you take what that other builder has drawn, slide the door into the hallway all the way down to the left and place the cubbies along that wall so they sit between the powder room and the door. (You'll walk into the mudroom from the garage and the cubbies will be right in front of you.) Then create a small laundry room along the garage wall. You may need to bump into the garage a bit. If you could get your whole laundry area bumped into the garage, that would definitely work. Do you plan on parking 2 cars in the garage or just one and have space for storage? If you're planning to actually park 2 cars in there, can you make your garage a little deeper to accommodate bumping the laundry into it?

Alternatively, you can take what the builder has drawn and enclose the washer/cubbie area. It makes the entry a hallway, but it would hide the laundry. Cubbies can get messy too, so it may not be a bad thing.

Hope this helps!

Ours is 2100 on the first floor (we have a bonus room upstairs). It is also split with the master on one side.

The way our lot works, we will have a big backyard and a small front yard. So I figure in the summer, all the kids will play outside and in the kitchen/living space.

Our laundry is in the mudroom.

It may not work at all, but it is another idea. I will add the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Floor Plan

LOL Renovator 8, in my neck of the woods which is Louisiana, a ranch is considered a one story house as well. Only those in architecture and those with the love for the arts know the difference. ;)

gingerjenny, not all houses can be characterized as belonging to a historic architectural style and real estate sales people often make up categories like "Craftsman Style Ranch" for their own reasons.

The ones you referenced have none of the characteristics of the Ranch Style of the mid 20th century tradition and only have superficial trim details of the older Craftsman Style but they do have the rough unselfconscious look of ranch and farm buildings sort of like modern barns built with randomly selected materials from older buildings that were torn down.

The mislabeling of house styles make no difference until you need to discuss house design with others and suddenly find there is no way to do it. So, it is wise to drop the labels and post photos in order to avoid labels like neo-craftsman country ranch or minimal traditional eclectic which say very little about the designs.

I just noticed that the examples gingerjenny posted are "Split Style Ranch" houses which were originally called "Raised Ranch" or "Split-Level Ranch" houses. Such houses do not have the characteristic low-to-the-ground, all-under-one-roof appearance of the original Ranch Style and with the addition of steep roofs they don't fit into any historic style.

I am surprised to see ads for new split-level houses because I though the popularity of 3 level living died with the 70's.

This post was edited by Renovator8 on Mon, Feb 11, 13 at 8:02

If your lot is really 129 feet wide, you probably do have room for a side entry garage. Usually the setback requirements for the sides of a lot are 15 to 20 feet even in developments where all the lots are several acres. And most places allow driveways and parking pads to be within the setback zone. Thus, with a 129 ft wide lot, you could have a 79 ft wide house set 20 feet from one sideline and 30 feet from the other side with the driveway and parking pad going right up to the edge of the lot. A 30 foot deep parking pad gives you plenty of room to make the turn into a garage. My parking pad is 32' x 35' and I can turn my Toyota Tacoma pickup completely around ON the parking pad.

Anyway, I found this 2008 sq ft plan on eplans.com that I think could meet all the requirements you listed with some minor modifications that would NOT entail changing the footprint. It's 78 ft wide and has a side load garage but if you really can't use a side load, you could move move the garage doors to the front quite easily.

Here is the floorplan (as shown on eplans) and I've linked to the plan below:

1) Divide off the 'sitting area' portion of the master bedroom and make that area the laundry room. I don't know of anybody who ever actually spends time sitting in their master bedroom. When I go off to my bedroom for some peace and quiet, even though I have a very nice chair in the room, I always wind up crawling up in the bed and getting comfy with pillows and bolsters. The chair is just for looks and typically gets used just as a place to lay out clothing when I'm trying to decide on an outfit. LOL! Put the washer and dryer up against the dining room wall so noise isn't transmitted into the master bedroom.

2) Divide the 'flex room space vertically to create a 3' x 6'8' powder room on the left (next to the dining room) and a 3'4' wide hallway on the right so you have a way to get to the laundry room. Use a pocket door on the powder room. You might want to make the laundry room a little bit smaller than the sitting area was so that the powder room can be a little longer but 6'8' will work fine if you'd rather keep the laundry larger. Note that with the laundry against the back wall of the house and a powder room next to it, you might want to put an exterior door in the laundry room to accommodate kids needing to use the bathroom when playing outdoors.

3) Move the door to the master bedroom around the corner so it is in the short hallway just created. This gives your masterbedroom a little bit of privacy because folks no longer have to walk right past it on their way into the house from the family entry.

4) Now, drop a wall down from the corner of the bedroom to where the original laundry room door was.

5) Turn the space that used to be the laundry room and half-bath into a walk-in pantry and a mudroom.

6) Move the door from garage into mudroom space to get rid of the door conflict between entry door and staircase door.

7) Pull the staircase toward the left so that you can use the space under the staircase to enlarge one of the master bedroom closets for HER clothes. He can have the smaller closet. (Note that a 6'4' wide closet is NOT really wide enough to hang clothing on both sides. You can however hang clothing on one side and at the end and have room for 12 to 15 inch deep shelves on the other wall for storing shoes, sweaters, etc.

With modifications suggested above, here is what the floorplan would look like. The exterior would not be changed at all.

If you wanted your kitchen open to the great room, that could be done do too by putting cabinets under the front window, moving the range closer to the front of the house, replacing the peninsula with an island and then opening up the wall between kitchen and great room...maybe use columns like those beside the foyer at the point where the great room roof peaks. The folks over on the kitchen's forum could give you advice.

And, if you don't want/need the bonus space above the garage, you could save quite a bit of money by getting rid of the fake dormers, removing the front porch entirely, and cutting the pitch of the roof to 6/12. The front porch is too shallow to be useful anyway. Such changes, along with maybe putting a sliding patio door in the great room leading to the back covered porch would turn this design into a much more authentic 'ranch style' home. You could still have vaulted ceilings in the great room and master bedroom. They just wouldn't vault quite so high!

Plus, without the stairs to the bonus room, you could move the family entry back to where it was and have room enough in the mud room for two sets of cubbies facing each other AND a small closet where the bottom of the staircase originally was. (While a door conflict between a closet door and the family entry is not ideal, it does not pose quite the issues that having a door conflict with a door at the bottom of a staircase does.

Finally, one thing I don't like about this plan is that the secondary bedrooms are both rather small. At about 11x11, they're "okay" for kid's rooms but certainly not spacious. It wouldn't cost that much to pull the left hand wall out by 2 ft to enlarge those rooms to about 11x13 which is a reasonably nice sized child's room. You would only be adding about 60 sq ft and since you wouldn't be making the roof or foundation any more complex so it would be pretty cheap additional sq footage.

Anyway, your original post asked if anyone could suggest a stock floor plan and instead you've gotten a lot of comments about what is/is not a ranch. So, I thought I'd throw this one out there...

Here is a link that might be useful: farmhouse

This post was edited by bevangel on Mon, Feb 11, 13 at 16:55

I like the plan bevangle posted except that the living room looks like it would be kind of hard to arrange furniture in because of all the doorways. Might work okay if you left out the fireplace or maybe enlarged the living room by pushing the back wall back a bit. Otherwise I'd keep looking.

Here's a plan to consider. You could have your local draftsman or architect make the changes you want to see...I would build this plan in a minute if I were in the market for a new home.

Oh my gosh! I've never seen a vanity with 3 sinks (this plan has 2!)! hahaha! (sorry, that was just funny. It must be an error. right?)

I would never want my washer/dryer in my master closet. Due to dust,moisture,potential leaks. I think the plan you posted has a nice flow. The dining room size will be fine for 10 or 12 as you can swing your table around and use part of the entry on those special occasions.