Oh, and yes, I am that much of a neat freak. I guarantee the first floor at least would always be picked up and tidy...that's just how I am.

You might be that much of a neat freak, but I guarantee that most of the people house shopping when you have to sell won't be, and they'll HATE this layout.

Since a couple of those who post here are so brutally honest with their own personal opinions, would you mind posting your home layouts? I would love to see what the absolute perfect layout is, in your opinion, since you clearly know all.

On a side note, I did not realize how incredibly nasty this forum is and that it is flooded with so many self righteous people.

My point is that right now you can do anything, it's all only on paper, so why choose to build something awkward when you don't have to?

I'm not upset. I'm just confused. This is your house and you can certainly build this if it's what you want. I would love to understand what you like about it.

I don't think it's coming across this way, but I am trying to be helpful.

I appreciate the help but I have noticed that the delivery is very off putting on this forum. Will stick to the advice of family, friends and our three architects.

Does anyone know if there are ways to filter this forum or any other forum by region? I am beginning to see that what is popular and common in our area of the country is not so in other areas of the country and feel like this is part of the problem.

I think you have a really nice house plan. I agree that some people on this forum can seem a little harsh, but I think most are really trying to be helpful and it just comes across wrong. Others, though, seem to be a bit jaded by this site. I think some of them forget that some people on here don't have an unlimited budget and although their floor plan may not be what they would want, there are many different floor plans out there because people have different needs and wants.
I am having a hard time reading your measurements and cannot tell what the lenght of your main garage is. It looks like 22 and if it is, I would urge you to make it longer. Our garage is 24.6 and my husbands extended cab truck fits with just enough room to walk around either the front or the back, not both. I have a smaller suv and it fits fine, but I would consider making it longer if possible.
I agree with others that your foyer/master/living space is different, and I am having a hard time picturing it in my head. I think the 1/2 bath taking up that space is giving the most trouble. If you have been in houses with a similar layout or are good at envisioning those sort of things, don't mind me. ;-)
Good luck! And if you haven't asked the kitchen forum to make sure your kitchen layout flows well I would recommend it.

Thanks, eyegirlie! We will have a full size SUV in that garage and it is only 22 feet...you are correct. I asked the designer to make it 24 feet or more but he said that wouldn't give enough room to turn around to enter the garage. He ended up making the one car garage 26 feet long in case i want to park in there but i asked a friend who has the same car as me and she said that her garage is 22 feet and she doesn't have any problems.

I do appreciate constructive feedback and ideas but some people on here clearly have poor social skills, a juvenile mindset or are just plain low class. Anyone who states that everyone who looks at buying our house whenever we sell will "HATE this layout" needs to grow up and learn to converse like an adult as you and a few others are clearly able to do.

I am studying our plan and really thinking of pros and cons and ways to make it work for our flow and lifestyle. A lot of the tips on here have been useful but some are just quite obviously written out of inexperience and lack of exposure to a variety of homes and styles.

No one kicked your dog and called your firstborn ugly. If you didn't want comments given with critical thinking engaged, then you shouldn't have asked for comments on your plans. Your friends may not tell you the truth for fear of hurting your feelings ( a very real possibility given your reaction to the comments) but strangers on the internet don't have anything vested in a personal relationship with you to risk. Therefore you get completely honest opinions. That is a very good thing for someone to hear who is about to spend hundreds of thousands on a risky venture that may or may not appraise or appreciate well due to certain quirks that aren't popular with many people.

It's not quite like you designed a home with a hot tub at the center of it but it could very well be seen as something that just that offputting. Now you may host an adults only au naturale party that uses that hot tub as part of the entertainment, so that may be critical to your happiness with your home, but it would be a very very very long time before the right buyer for something like that came along if your job was suddenly downsized and you had to sell the property. So, if someone were to suggest that maybe the hot tub would be better located in an enclosed porch that opened off of the living space with french doors as that would be better perceived among your average home buying public, that would be a spot on comment. Even if you personally want that hot tub in the middle of the family room, it would be best if you DID think about what other people felt about the issue and the possibility of eventual resale. You may choose to disregard others opinions about hot tubs in family rooms and do what you want, and risk your hundreds of thousands of dollars on the chance that you'll never ever have to sell the house, but at least you do that full well knowing that it's a big risk.

Thank you for making my point. Critique and suggestions are fine and absolutely welcome...crass statements and negative input for the sake of being a jerk is a different story. You know nothing whatsoever about me and I have learned from this forum in a very short time who makes valid points that make me reconsider choices and who is on some sort of strange ego trip. That being said, I like your analogy but, according to friends, relatives and architects this floor plan is not uncommon in the deep South where we are. That doesn't mean I am not giving suggestions and comments consideration, I appreciate positive, helpful, constructive feedback.

Though I hope you took my critique as genuine and not off-putting, the others have a valid point. And, though it may not be uncommon in your area, it is a little weird to walk into the back wall of the powder room. You might consider if you could improve your layout regardless of what is common in your area. For example, taking your powder room and making it long instead of square could do much for sightlines and the general feeling of the foyer space.

It may not matter to you in the long run, as I mentioned, I think your side door will get a lot of use. Maybe be sure you put a doorbell there as well as your front door.

(That is also a genuine critique of this plan. I hope I am not on your blacklist.)

BTW, my suggestion would be to register whatever PDF reader you are using so that you can remove the watermark and make the plans readable. You might get more useful feedback then. All anyone can see is the vague outlines of the space without any clarity as to actual size.

And I live in the South, and no, plans that have a circuitous route to the entertaining spaces are NOT common at all. Hospitality and entertaining are a priority in the South, and making it easy for your guests to find their way into the home and to the area where you are going to receive them is pretty standard in most homes. That isn't found in your plan from what I can see. It would be fine for a family that never had guests coming in the front door but it doesn't lend itself to hosting a Super Bowl party or a Bar-b-q or a formal sit down dinner. I would find it creepy to be entertained in my hostesses bedroom, not fun. That is what a formal living room is for, not a bedroom. Or, if you wish, a front parlor. That is what the ladies retire to while the gentlemen smoke nasty cigars and drink brandy in the dining room or library. And that is why I agree with the previous suggestions to flip the layout to make a more direct route to the more public locations and to make more private the private locations. As is, the lack of boundaries between the two will give visitors an uncomfortable and unwelcome feeling.

Again, if you knew me, which you don't, you would know that no visitors in our home feel uncomfortable and, actually, our home is always 'the place to be' which is one reason i like the current layout. All of our friends are back door kind of people and this layout lends toward putting them where the action is when they come in the door.

Thanks kirkhall...an elongated powder room and back doorbell are excellent suggestions!

I couldn't understand the plan very well since the drawings contain so many extraneous lines but in general it seems amateurish in that so many opportunities for a more natural and comfortable layout have been ignored.

I recommend that you post a cleaner plan and be more tolerant of advice or get a professional designer to help you.

OK, so I got out a ruler, pen and paper and tried to draft something to scale. I don't know what this will do to the second floor but does this flow work better for the first floor? What about the laundry room being so far from the kitchen and great room (two areas where I spend most of my time)?

This layout also makes the back entrance further from the great room/kitchen and we will be coming in from the garage most of the time. Thoughts?

I forgot to add the one car garage.

I do like the overall feel and flow when you enter the front of the house much better with your sketch. Picture when you first enter the front door of a house, what do you want to see? I think this layout your hosue will feel larger, more open, and more inviting with this layout. You will also get more natural light coming into the entrance.
Be sure to keep in mind what views you may have out the back in case there is a certain side of the house that the view will be more pleasing.
Another thing to think of - any kids or anyone else entering the house through the garage at night will be coming by your bedroom. If you go this route you may want to see about some extra soundproofing measures with that wall and door. Just a thought.

Eyegirlie, I do agree, I like the flow and openness of my sketch more than the designer's, however, I have showed it to family members and friends and they think the designer's plans are better! They have all said it is not a good idea to have the master bedroom near the garage.

I don't know what to do know, I don't know if we will ever find the perfect layout or will just have to make do with what works for us in as many ways as possible.

Anyone have any other input on the master near garage thing? This seems so strange to me.

Do the garages have to be on the right side? Because i think flipping them also would help. This is super quick cut and paste, but it may give you some further ideas. It keeps the master private, consolidates the expensive split garages, and makes the foyer be the obvious entrance straight to the heart of the home.

Flipping the garage is a good thought but I think I remember the designer saying that because of the slope of the land we need to have the garage on the right side of the house. The other thing to think about is driving up to the house...the way it is now when you drive up you see the house first. If we flip the garage then when you drive down our street you would see garage first. A good thought, though...will have to think about that!

The problem with the slope of the land can easily be solved by doing a mirror image of lwo's plan. Perhaps driving down the street you would see the garage first but lwo's plan sets the front of the garage in line with the front of the house rather than in front of the house as in your original plan.

It's a collection of spaces without any organizing concept.
Why are you trying to design the house yourself?

I'm going to have to look at lwo's idea more closely. The width has to be 41 feet to fit on the lot.

Renovator8, we haven't been designing it ourselves. We have gone back and forth with our designer and came up with the original floor plan i posted. We made many, many changes to that plan and once I posted it on here and had feedback from this forum I am trying to check out suggestions before going back to the designer. We don't have endless funds and we have already invested so much in the design so far that I want to be pretty sure of what we like before the meter starts running again.

live_wire_oak, what program did you use to rearrange the floor plan?

I think your sketch is better than the original design. I'm also in the deep South, and -- in my experience -- ALL houses, luxury or not, have a front door/entry that opens into the living room/greatroom and/or living room. Passing the kitchen to reach the main living area, as in the original design, is awkward. I think you'd definitely come to regret such an arrangement.

You're not clear on the placement of this Kegerator in the "makeshift butler pantry". Not all that many people actually want a permanant keg in their home at all times, so be sure it's in a place where it'd be easy for a future buyer to remove it (Since I detest the smell of beer, this would prevent me from buying the house). The only person I personally know who has a keg keeps it on an enclosed back porch. A pantry or a laundry room would also work. On the other hand, if it's built into the kitchen or visible from the dining room, I think it'd be a deterent to re-sale.

I'd reconsider the layout of the kitchen cabinets. You're separating the sink and the stove with an island. Yes, you have a little prep sink, but that's not the same thing. This is a big kitchen, and I'm sure the space can be used more efficiently.

As for entertaining in the master bedroom, I know of people who do this, and it's one of those "you get or or you don't" things. Personally, I don't get it, and I think I'm in the majority. However, since you have a bonus room upstairs, you have a secondary entertaining space, so this isn't a real issue.

If you're going to have a four-car garage, this is the way to do it. It looks less obtrusive and is functional. The downside, of course, is that it's blocking LOTS of wallspace that could otherwise be filled with windows that'd bring in the lovely natural light that most of us want. An option: Keep the garage that's on the side of the house, but make the second garage detached and "set it back" from the house. You still have four car bays serviced by one driveway, and your two garages are still in an L-shape . . . but you open up much more natural light to the front of your house.

Some things to consider in the master bath/closet area: Your vanity isn't really big enough to support two sinks comfortably. The upshot is going to be that you'll have no drawer storage, so you'll always have clutter on top of the vanity. I'd rather go with one sink (who ever uses the sinks at the same time anyway?) and have ample drawers.

Is that an island in the master closet? I don't think you have space to move around it comfortably. You've said that you don't have unlimited funds for this house; a master closet with an island is the kind of thing you only find in houses that really do have unlimited budgets. Think this through: 24" hanging space for the clothes x 2 sides. A minimum of 36" walking space on each side of the island. And an island is usually 24" deep (you could go more narrow, but it'd look skimpy). Your closet would need to be 12' wide MIMINUM to support an island. And that's minimum, not a grand, spacious dressing room. On the other hand, if you do away with the island, you'd have a very generous closet.

What's the thing in the master bath that looks like a second small shower? Sauna? I can't tell.

Finally, if you'll take a step back, you'll see that people have given you constructive feedback about the house. It's not been a personal attack. I'm in your area, and I agree that your house plan has many of the features that people want in a Southern luxury-level house; however, the criticisms of the plan have been spot-on. I agree that you'd be wise to consider those criticisms while they're still just drawings on a piece of paper 'cause it's 100% better to see those problems clearly before they're make of brick and stone.

I just used Paint to cut and paste. You open the image in two windows and then start re-arranging. It's crude but simple.

I like your drawing much better than the one the architect did. It has a nice flow & seems much more open which will give it a spacious feel

As far as the master location, I can tell you from experience that I was deadset against the master behind the garage as well, but in the end, it's where we needed to place it in our plan. I have actually found it to have some great perks--its near the laundry room, if I forget something before starting my day (usually my rings) its a quick trek to retrieve it vs traipsing across the entire house, I can hear when the kitchen or garage is accessed (i.e. kids sneaking downstairs for ice cream, etc). Now I will point out that with our bedroom door closed, I can't hear anything going on in the other rooms, but with it open, I can.

An easy alternative to having the master behind the garage is to put it on the other side of the family room and simply slide the kitchen and family room over in the current plan. The kitchen is now located behind the garage, the family room should be about centered to the front entry so your first view is a beautiful open family room beyond the foyer. Make a little alcove off the left side of the family room by the stairs and make a 90 degree turn to enter the master which will afford it privacy from the family room. Doing this would also allow the family room to be larger, the stairs would be better incorporated into the family room as well as the foyer

One of the perks of designing and building a new house is the opportunity to make things more efficient for the way you live or would want to live. When it comes to laundry, this is a big thing. Many people fold their laundry in the family room because "that's where all the action is". I would say, the action may play into it, but really, most laundry rooms are not big enough to accommodate all that goes on in them + what should go on in them. You should be able to have your washer & dryer, a place to sort and a place to fold/hang clothes so that they never make it to the family room where unexpected guests might catch a glimpse of them. Being a self proclaimed "neat freak" the laundry location should be appealing to you :-)

Since you're a back-door kind of neighbor, will guests be entering the actual back door off the family room or the side door off the laundry? If off the laundry, I'd definitely consider adding a "man-door" to the side of the garage for their entry and have them come in the mudroom hall so they don't see any in-progress laundry happenings.

You mentioned you didn't know what the changes would do to the 2nd floor--don't worry about that yet. Truly, you can't do the second floor until the first floor is done as one effects the other.

As far as the previous comments go, don't take any offense. As others have pointed out, this is a board full of strangers to you right now who can look at your plan with a critical eye. Many of us are very experienced at this and can pick up on potential problems either for day to day living or resale. Read the advice with an open mind, sit back and seriously mull it over before rejecting it outright. It is never easy to put hours and hours of time & love into a houseplan and have someone else say they don't like something about it--it hurts when this happens. I don't think anyone was trying to be hurtful, they were just being critical--something some architects/designers and friends/family won't do because they don't want to hurt your feelings. But don't let hurt feelings get in the way of sound advice. The last thing you want is for the house to get underway to the framing stage and you realize you don't think the layout is going to work the way you wanted it to. That's a $$$$$$$ expensive situation to find yourself in. In the end you will likely find that this board is full of people who you will/would like to call friends because of their sound advice, their willingness to be a shoulder to cry on when the project gets frustrating, and their honest, unbiased opinions/suggestions on whatever you ask for.

Hope this helps!

MrsPete, thank you for your detailed input!

Actually, not "all" houses "whether luxury or not have a front door that opens into the great room/living room". My parents have a beautiful home that would be considered luxury and their floor plan is very similar to the original plan I posted...you walk into the foyer and go down a hallway to get to the great room. What makes it beautiful though is the woodwork and other details in the home. Having said that, I do agree, I am starting to like the sketch I drew and the open floor plan much better.

The kegerator really shouldn't be an issue for anyone buying our house in the future. Here is an image of what the area would look like:

[

[Traditional Kitchen design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by Chicago Kitchen And Bath Rebekah Zaveloff

The keg would be below the counter and the tap would come out of the top. There would be a panel in front of the kegerator so all you would see is the tap. I use beer often for cooking...mainly for shrimp boils...and, since my husband will live here too, this is the most tasteful way I think we can accommodate one of his few possessions :)

[

[Traditional Kitchen design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by Richmond Kitchen And Bath Case Design and Remodeling

Surely this small detail would not affect the purchase of the house. That would be absurd.

We are still working on the kitchen layout. I would like the range to be on the island two feet down from the prep sink.

The master bedroom entertaining was an example. I don't know why everyone is hung up on that! Either they are men who "don't get it" or women who don't have friends that are like sisters to them.

Good thought on the garage and the windows for the great room. I don't know if the lot is big enough to allow for that but will check.

The island in the closet does have 3 feet around of walkway around it. These layouts are becoming much more common regardless of the amount of funds one has...they are not only seen in homes of people with unlimited funds as you said. Our builder advised us that most people are going this route instead of the traditional his and hers closets.

In the master bath there is a walk in shower and a pedestal tub.

One question I have for you (and everyone else) is that in the sketch that I drew the master is closer to the mudroom/laundry/garage. Would this be strange? I think we could push the entry into the master in about five feet and create a nook and nicer entrance into the master. I also think we should move the garage entry door into the laundry room instead of into that little hallway. Does anyone have thoughts on this?

You probably can't do a long and skinny powder room if the door to it needs to be at an "end" of the rectangle. Generally long and skinny, you have the door in the middle of a long side, and toilet and sink at opposing ends. So, I think in your sketch, that little part won't work.

BUT, the flow of the sketch is SO much better than your original posting.

Since you mentioned having 3 architects (maybe pick one?) go to them with the general ideas that have come out of this exercise--better flow, public spaces with public entrances, etc. And, see what they can come up with.

Also, I don't know why you don't want to have the master near the garage. That must be an old something or other--back when there was no insulation in houses or something? I have no idea. But, masters by garages work just fine. Yours will be separated with a hall/bathroom/laundry so any noise from the garage openers wouldn't actually be heard in the master.

Finally, having the laundry at the far end (near the master!) is actually a very good thing. It really isn't that far from the kitchen/GR. Many families are actually putting them on the second floor where most laundry (kid laundry) is generated. So, having it on the first floor (again, where you master is) is very acceptable. Keeping it away from where you spend most of your time is actually also a good thing--noise buffering. You don't want to be entertaining and have you friends listening to the cycles of the washing machine.

Glad you came back with an alternative. I think you will like this exercise when all is said and done.

Oh, one more thing--
you originally had the garages on the right and master on the left. If you end-for-end lwo's plan above, you'll have that again, but with a much better flow within the home.

I think having the master near the garage is something that can happen with a main level master, and as you have it designed, with the bathroom and closet between the bedroom and the garage, it will be fine.

What are your concerns about having the master bedroom near the garage? car noise? hallway traffic?

I strongly prefer your new drawing. Now your great room can have windows on two sides, which will make it a much more comfortable space, and you can have a window at the stair landing that will even more light in.

When I mentioned entertaining in your master I wasn't trying to be offensive, I was trying to understand if that was your first choice for a second entertaining space, or if you'd rather figure something else out. But clearly it is what you want, so, great!

This is a long thread, with many responses and ideas, so it's probably a bit late to comment on the elevations and the external appearance of the house.

IMO, the outside of the house looks like a typcially bulky, over-inflated tract house shape. This results, in large measure, from an all-too-common, all-consuming focus on the 2-D plans (what goes where, what should be bigger, which way should a door swing), without much simultaneous thinking and exploration of what effects decisions about a plan have on the interior spatial sequences throughout the interior and the external massing of the house.

In other words, it's extreme, almost unilateral, two-dimensional focus without any parallel three-dimensional considerations.

Architecture, and good design, are a simultaneous and iterative study of plan, interior spaces and exterior massing. Changes here affect things there, for better or worse. But there's always an impact. Everything--plan, interior spatial sequences and external massing--must be in harmony and consistent. It takes talent, experience and a lot of "do-overs" to reach this important result.

What we have here appears to be a rather unimaginative exterior, with some lipstick on the front and an almost undressed behind, apparently covered with a blanket of large, highly pitched roof trusses for rain protection. The resulting elevations are an oddly vertically proportioned mass, unusual for most houses, with roof forms almost as big and eyegrabbing as the two-story walls of the primary building.

Of course the illustrations are elevations and not eye-level perspectives, but let's face it: the roof masses are BIG!

In art, one frequently asks, "what's really important in this painting". In these elevations, one may ask the same question--"what's really important about the house exterior"? What was the big idea--the concept?

Surely one of the three architects can help to come up with more imaginative elevations and the plans to support them. Or is that important?

Just a thought--which is probably too late to be helpful.

Virgilcarter, the original home design was taken from Don Gardner's Gracehaven. With much tweaking and personalization we have come to the facade that is above. We love it. The material would be a white or cream Hardiplank, black louvered shutters, a copper or bronze standing seam roof above the porch and mixed stone base. The 2-D images and lack of colorization don't show the mix of colors, materials and textures obviously.

We have tried to minimize the number of changes and pitches to the roof line in the back of the house in order to keep cost down. This home is already at the upper end of our pretty generous budget so we can't have everything.

Kirkhall, that was bothering me about the powder room, thanks for the suggestion. I'm going to have to see what our designer can work out. Thank you also for all of your input...those are excellent points about the laundry room being near the master and away from the great room because of noise.

As for the master-near-the-garage, here's one reason people might prefer it: My daughter, a nursing student, has been looking at the plans we're working on, and she has expressed a STRONG desire for a house in which she could walk in from the garage and straight into her bedroom, where she could change clothes. Her college clinical classes are making her a germ-o-phobe, and she says that she will want to come home and go straight to the shower /clean clothes. She'll want to dump her dirty scrubs straight into the laundry. I can see that plenty of people would want that type of feature: People who have dirty jobs, people who enjoy gardening, people who have a pool. That's not a concern that everyone would share, but that's why people design their own houses.

I think MANY people like the idea of the laundry being placed near the bedrooms . . . where ever they may be. Yes, in the past laundry was ALWAYS near the kitchen, and that made sense in a different era, when women spent most of their day in the kitchen and when laundry was more labor-intensive than it is today. Those details are no longer true in 2013.

Bathroom: Yes, I can identify the tub (though I didn't know it was a pedestal, and I wonder how that'll look in that corner) and the shower. But what's the angled "room" on the right of the door as you walk in? Now I'm wondering if it's a linen closet? I'm not sure about an angled linen closet -- sheets and towels fold square, and I wonder how useful that'll be. If it's a linen closet, I might consider going with a simple cabinetry cabinet that, although smaller, might provide more actual storage space. But I'm not completely sure what that item is, so I could be way off base.

Kegorator: The pictures you show do minimize the keg, but I personally would still not want it in my house. I'd not be willing to have it take up a whole cabinet. What I'd really want to know -- if I were considering buying this house on the resale market -- is, How easy /How cheap would it be to remove?

I disagree that islands in closet are becoming commonplace, regardless of house price. In my previous post, I did the math and figured that a closet-including-an-island would have to be 12' wide. Not many people can afford to build a master bedroom closet of those dimensions. While the island thing isn't particularly appealing to me, I would only build such a thing if I could do it right; that is, if I could build it big enough to make it comfortable -- I would not want to build an island-closet that's skimpy or cramped. I can't see the numbers in your floorplan, so I'm kind of assuming the numbers are small 'cause the drawing makes them look small.

MrsPete, that is an EXCELLENT point about the laundry being near the garage and the master at the same time. My husband is an interventional radiologist and has comes into contact with some pretty yucky stuff during the day. I am so glad you pointed this out! I am liking this idea even more.

If I were to have a built in, small desk somewhere for a computer and printer for both the kids and me to use then where do you all suggest I put that? Enlarge the laundry room into the hallway next to it and put it in the laundry room? Have the doorway from the garage come into the laundry room and put it in the hallway between the laundry and the dining room? I feel like that might be too out of the way. Thoughts?

So I'm going to throw one more thing out there. What if we just reversed the Great Room and the Kitchen in the original drawing? That would still keep the G.R., Kitchen, Dining Room and Laundry all near each other and would put the Master at the other end of the house away from these areas.

A few people have suggested this and I want to get your opinions.

No to built ins for any computer anywhere. Laptops and tablets are here and no one I know has a desk top anymore. All you need for a printer is a small cabinet with some ventilation.

I'm afraid I agree with virgilcarter about the rooflines in the original. It's like the classic picture of the New Years baby with the top hat. It's mass is not proportionate the the space below it. With you having the rom for a side load garage, one solution to that would be to focus on making the home less deep from front to back and wider from side to side. That will reduce the overhead mass somewhat.

I don't know about a built-in desk. I think it could go any number of places. Since you have children, I'd suggest that you keep the computer somewhere "visible". The internet can be a rather dangerous place for children, and it's imperative that parents keep an eye on kids -- and teens. I had a student not too long ago who "went missing". She came to school, then that afternoon she was just GONE. Her car was in the driveway. The only thing gone was her purse, her eyeglasses, and her. After some three weeks of hell, her parents found her two states away with a guy 8-10 years older. She'd met him online, inflated her age, told him a bunch of lies about her homelife, how terrible her parents were to her . . . and he'd come to "rescue her" from this awful life. When he learned she was really only 17, he cooperated with authorities 100%. He was something of a fool but not a criminal. This girl was from a home with two involved, college-educated parents, went to church every week, had friends and an active social life, was an honors student who was involved in school and had plans for college. It can happen. Her aunt, who is a good friend of mine, said later, "All kids have fantasies -- however fleeting -- that they don't need their families, and they'd be better off without them. The internet puts feet to those fantasies." True, that's an extreme story, but kids need to be supervised on computers.

But I digress . . . my husband and I have been kicking around plans for our retirement house, and we've gone through some stages of thought for a computer desk:

1. We need a small office for our computer, files, etc. We need storage for books, school supplies, etc. That's what we have now, and we use it daily. The kids use it more often than we do. RIght now we have a 22x20 office, but we think something smaller -- perhaps 8x10 with built-in shelves /built-in desk -- would do.

2. Then we downgraded that thought: We're going to retire shortly after building this house, we won't need as much space for computer work. For the 2-4 years we're still working after we build this house, we can do without a dedicated office. And the kids'll be gone, so they won't be using it for school work Most of our files have to do with work; and, truthfully, we could digitize most of those files. Instead of a real room, we'll look to more of a closet-office: Something under the entry-way stairs, something in a back hallway.

3. Then we downgraded that thought even farther: We use the computer-computer for work-related items . . . but for personal stuff, we both tend to grab the ipad. I attended a workshop recently in which the presenter said she'd challenged herself in 2012 to use ONLY her ipad and to avoid printing altogether -- she said she hadn't done it 100%, but she'd come close. Add in that ipads are getting better every day. We're both convinced that by the time we retire, we'll each want JUST an ipad . . . and a printer.

Our current thought: We're going to have a drop-zone by the back door, and we'll use that as an ipad charging station. We'll want a printer (though we're not thinking it'll get frequent use) and a small file area somewhere in the house, but we're thinking it could be tucked into either that drop-zone, the built-in bookshelves in our bedroom, or possibly even the laundry room (which is looking a bit more spacious than is strictly necessary).

I'll note, too, that my husband and I are not the type of people who define ourselves through our work. Once we retire, we might work seasonally here or there, but we're not going to start a business or maintain a professional library. I know that everyone can't do that. I'm thinking of a friend who HATES being retired and still gets up and dresses as if she's going to work, still maintains a full home office as if she has clients, etc.

Where am I going with this long-winded advice? I'd say start with what YOU REALLY NEED to do with your desk, and work from that point. I think we all have widely varying needs when it comes to this kind of thing.

We have 4 computers, a few laptops and 3 iPads. The computers get used most of the time ... who wants to work/research/play on a small device for several hours. The iPad is great for traveling, but I'm on my large PC right now. We just did a 15 ft built in with 2 desk spaces for the kids. DS1 does his homework at his full size PC most of the time. The built in is in the playroom, but in full view of the kitchen and family room.

Unfortunately we have absolutely no room to make the house wider...we have 41 feet to use and we have used all of that. We would be on the neighbor's lot line if we went any wider which, obviously, we wouldn't want to do.

Some things just have to be the way they are I guess!

Your question of "What if I just flipped the family room and kitchen in the original?" is pretty much what I suggested based off the new layout drawings above. You may have missed it as you posted just a couple minutes after I did which means we were likely both writing at the same time. If you didn't see it earlier, take a look--it was at 1047am today. That post also addresses your question (indirectly) about entering the house through the laundry room from the garage.

Hope this helps!

Mydreamhome, thank you for your well thought out and kind response :) Per your suggestion I flipped the great room and kitchen to see what it would look like.

I have NO idea what to do with those stairs and have NO idea what to do with the kitchen layout. I think I cut a big chunk of kitchen off because of the stairs but don't know if the space under the stairs could be usable. What do you guys think of this? I like how the great room is centrally located and would like an open kitchen overlooking it. I also like the placement of the master but I like the other plan I drew up, too, with the master near the laundry.

THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR YOUR HELP!

Either version will work nicely. I think I lean more toward the original plan you drew with the master behind the garage as the other rooms are more centered to the front entry, you don't have stair issues & the kitchen stays nice & large.

The latest rendering you posted tonight reminds me of a some other Don Gardner main floor plans that may help you better visualize and tweak your own in-progress plan with the master off the family room vs. behind the garage. Our builder built the last DG house linked below as a PARADE home--it had a very nice flow to it, and was spacious yet comfortable. We're in NC too--what area are you building in?

http://www.dongardner.com/images.aspx?pid=3217&fn=floorplans\50191_f.gif&f=

http://www.dongardner.com/images.aspx?pid=3361&fn=floorplans\50111_f.gif&f=

http://www.dongardner.com/images.aspx?pid=4450&fn=floorplans\1301D1_f.gif&f=

http://www.dongardner.com/images.aspx?pid=4228&fn=floorplans\50101_f.gif&f=

http://www.dongardner.com/images.aspx?pid=2721&fn=floorplans\50041_f.gif&f=

Hope this helps!

And since you asked what the other posters' home floorplans look like--here's ours with the master suite & laundry room behind the garage (the area to the right of the 7 or so steps in the pic is the pantry that runs under the 2nd run & the landing of the U-shaped stairs):

Hope this helps!

This post was edited by mydreamhome on Mon, Feb 25, 13 at 22:34

Here is my Don Gardner floor plan that we are building...tweaked a few things on this plan though...also has a finished area above the garage.

Thanks mydreamhome for the links and your plan...and thanks, LOTO, for your plan! I'm going to look through all of them when I get more time today.

2 questions:
1. Where could we put our stairs? Turn them 90 degrees and put them in the hallway where the current garage door entry is?

2. What would a decent, very functional, non-cramped kitchen size be? We cook A LOT and I am in the kitchen most of the time so I want to make sure I have plenty of room!

Kitchen size depends on what features you want the kitchen to have--(i.e. island or no island?, how big will the island be?, will the island have seating?, seating for how many?, will there be a kitchen nook?, what size & how many appliances--range/rangetop, fridge, DW(s), wall oven(s), etc?, how many cooks in the kitchen at one time?).

As far as the stair placement, they could go anywhere you want them to go as of right now. The question is, did you have an idea in mind for where the stairs will go? Think about function with the stairs and go from there. For example, stairs in the foyer look gorgeous upon entry into the home, but if all the living spaces are on the back side of the house, then the stairs on the front can be a pain (especially if you're building a large house). So where does it make the most sense for your stairs to be accessed from and descend into? My guess would be family room, kitchen, or central hall area.

Hope this helps!

So if we rearrange this so that the kitchen and the great room are switched then we will no longer have a two story great room...it will only have ten foot ceilings. What are the thoughts on this?

I'm personally not a fan of two story rooms. They tend to echo, it's hard to clean the walls (think dust bunnies that accumulate high up on the wall or in the corners), you have to build scaffolding to paint, and on an everyday basis, they allow noise from downstairs to travel up and noise from up to travel down so much easier. I always worry about kids falling over the railing down into the 1st floor whether on purpose (i.e. Hey Mom, look what I can do!) or by accident (the railing gives way, the kids get into a scuffle on the landing, etc). With a 10 ft ceiling, you still get the open feel plus you get ease of cleaning, painting, etc. & one less potential hazard.

Just my $0.02 :-)