skip to main content

Building a Home

Please review our house plan!

10 years ago

I, like everyone else, love this forum. It has been a life saver for me through the beginning stages of home building. We have some plans that I have shown only to family at this point but could really use some unbiased opinions (no matter how bad it might be!)

A little background... Our lot is 2.64 acres and is located in Central Illinois. This is *fingers crossed* our forever home. We have been renting a very run down home while we save for this and the time has come that we need to get out. The house we are renting is full of mold and literally falling down. I am pretty sure that they plan to demo it when we move out!

We are a family of 4 (daugher 7, son 12). The home is one story with a walk out basement where the lot naturally slopes. The idea is to separate the living quarters from the sleeping quarters to reduce noise issues. The home will be facing North.

Now, my concerns before I post the plans. How bad is it to have to pass by the closet to get to the bathroom like that? I am not awfully worried about resale. I want as much natural light in the bathroom as possible. It also helps keep the bathroom further away since I am a light sleeper.

The plan is to put a counter top/cabinets on the empty wall in the laundry room to give more space for folding clothes.

That is a drop zone area by the stairwell. The stairwell leads to the basement.

Another concern is in the living room area. The dining room will be straight across from the kitchen in the back of the house which leaves a large "rectangle" for the living room. We had plans of putting an old family piano near the front door and turn that area in a 'sitting' area. While the back section will be our living room. I have contemplated moving the fireplace to the back corner but I am not sure if that is a great idea.

So, enough jabbering... Here are the plans and some rough elevations.

Thanks SO MUCH to everyone ahead of time. This is the last step in getting things finalized. I can't wait to be posting in the monthly house update thread. :)

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (5)

maggiepie11
10 years ago
hi pinkchrome! congratulations on getting this far!

i just have a couple thoughts, and i'm sure you'll get different opinions and angles as others start weighing in.

first, i'm not sure if the corner is the right place to move the fireplace, but i definitely agree it should be moved IF you're planning to create two separately defined areas like a living room (sofas/tv etc) separate from a sitting area with the piano. otherwise it's just floating and you're not making full use of it's function or how pretty it is to have seating around a fireplace.

that said. you could also arrange the living room furniture around the fireplace where it is now and just have space on either end for other stuff like your piano, though it's not a full on sitting room space.

maybe it's me, but i don't understand the plan of the master bathroom. are those half/privacy walls to the left of the toilet and to the left and diagonal to the shower? it looks like a very tight walkway near the vanity/toilet wall and around the shower privacy wall. and do you take enough baths to justify the size of that gigantic corner tub? take this with a grain of salt because i'm putting in a freestanding lion paw tub strictly because it's pretty and i had the space to do it this time, but i'm kind of over these giant beastly tubs that never get used and take up a huge footprint. our last bathroom was 7x15, similar to yours, and we found the bathroom just spacious enough, and there was no tub, just a large walk-in shower.

i don't think walking through the closet is bad for the master, but i'd prefer not to look into the closet when i enter the bedroom. maybe if you move the entrance to the closet around the corner. that takes up a wall for furniture placement where you already have a wall of windows and a wall with a door to the deck, so something to think about.

i can't tell what the dimensions are, but make sure you have plenty of room all the way around the island, especially where you have refrigerator openings, pantry doors, etc.

if you're doing front load washer and dryer, you can have dueling counter tops on both sides of the room for folding and organizing!

from an elevation standpoint, it's an awful lot of garage you're seeing from the front. is there any way to make that a side entry? also, i'm not an expert in this style of architecture, but the aesthetic seems very bland. have you thought about curb appeal yet?
LawPaw
10 years ago
Adding to what Maggiepie said, You may want to consider a half bath near the living area. It's going to be a nightmare keeping your kids bathroom company ready all the time.

I'd also verify your fridge dimension and unless you plan on ordering a counter depth fridge I would recess the fridge into the laundry room to achieve counter depth.

Are you planning on additional task lights for the kitchen? otherwise I'd try to get those recessed lights as near the counter edge as possible so that you aren't casting shadows over your work area when you are working.

I like the plan!
Related Discussions
Please review our plan!
Q
Comments (7)
There is no front closet? If I were you I'd ditch the too-small formal dining room space and possibly the office space (unless you actually use it) re-work the space for a more generous single eating area, a front closet, a larger shared bedroom with larger closet for the two sharing. Also, either each kid gets their own sink, or they don't. These things matter to kids! And each kid should get approx the same closet space and room square footage. Also, it looks like one set of kids has to share their bathroom with "the public" when guests are over? I'd try to squeeze out a modest powder room from the office/dining space re-do, too. The kitchen folks would say that cooktop is waaay far from the sink, with pots of boiling pasta water. If you think your kiddos will want to be jr. chefs alongside parents, you might want to grow the island and shrink the bar real estate. I'd also consider a single shared master closet, trimming down the total master closet square footage and sharing some of that real estate with the kids. I'd rather my kid have that space in a bedroom than me in my closet. (Of course, not literally using the same space, but re-arranging the total available square footage, allocating less toward master closet and more toward kiddo bedroom.) This post was edited by beautybutdebtfree on Fri, May 23, 14 at 15:33
...See More
Please review our house plan. All opinions welcomed :)
Q
Comments (16)
I think I'd turn the office's door towards the foyer. It'd be more private that way. Secondary bedrooms look good, but both of their baths could use work: One has only a minimal vanity/sink -- no space for storage. This bathroom has no storage space -- no space for a hamper, barely space for a trash can. The other is trying to house two sinks in a too-small vanity; you really need at least 6' for two sinks to fit comfortably. I'd say make the mud room another 2' wider . . . so you can have shelves, lockers, or something else on the wall shared with the pantry. The storage would be very useful in that spot. Do you have a door from the mudroom /pantry area straight into the entryway? I can't quite tell, but I think you ought to have a door through that way. You don't want to be forced to circle through the kitchen if you want to enter the house and come straight towards the bedrooms. Note, too, that without such a door, you'd have to carry laundry through the kitchen and down the mudroom hall -- you're going to want a more direct route. Does the breezeway serve any function other than joining the house and the garage? I mean, I've seen some breezeways that also hold a couple chairs for reading . . . or whatever. The kitchen is large, but it's too choppy --- your work areas are divided from one another by walkways. I would want a pass-through between the kitchen and the pantry. If you're picking up lots of cans, or if you're moving lots of home canned goods into the pantry, you're not going to want to walk around that corner multiple times. Nice dining room and nice great room. Your plumbing is really spread across the whole house. This will be very expensive to install, and more plumbing lines = more opportunity for leaks in the future. You have three doors leading out to the back porch -- and two of them are within a few feet of one another. I'd cut out one of these. If you keep the one in the dining room, I'd consider making it a slider (take a look at the new sliders -- they're nothing like their 1970s counterparts) because a slider wouldn't interfere with the dining room table placement. Front porches usually end up being "just for show". As a result, I'd eliminate the steps on the sides. I can't imagine they'll be used much, and I'd save that money. This post was edited by MrsPete on Mon, Nov 3, 14 at 23:17
...See More
Please help review our Prelim layout / house plan
Q
Comments (15)
A couple of reason I was asking.....First, never stop designing at the exterior walls. Think of the site and house as one. That's why it's important to have a drawing that connects the house to the site. It gives the complete picture. And second, while I can see the motives for a rear loading garage, it not only makes for a "tacked on" look to that part of the house, it creates that poor master bedroom entry. And interestingly, the back wall of the garage (which faces the front) doesn't look all that great!! Not to mention that the form of the "garage wing" looks entirely different than the house. If a side load hides all the doors anyway, what the point then for a rear load?? And you get a much better geometry to work with in the master bedroom. Finally, I generally don't like to come into a house and be looking at a wall. If the sight line goes clear through the house it not only connect the house to the site better, it makes it seem BIGGER. I while back I threw in some examples into an idea book for some one else to illustrate what I'm talking about. Look at how all those houses are drawn with the floor plan on the site. You need to do the same thing. Also, look at how in all of those houses we're looking through the house from the front door to site features beyond. And coincidentially, look at the modern farmhouse example there. That garage is detached but the roof forms play off of the house, it not something totally different like your house is. If it helps look at this thread http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3285825/what-makes-a-house-have-good-design?n=39 and read my post there 23 post down. Pay attention to #9, 28,44,52,61 and 62. But good luck with your project. Exciting times for sure!!!
...See More
Please review our preliminary plan for one level home
Q
Comments (12)
Thanks to all who weighed in!! Lots to think about. We did speak to 2 local architects. Sadly, both were way out of our price range for a similar house & their lead time was quite lengthy. We’d love it to be our forever home, but it might not be and adding in their costs (both similar) we’d be hard pressed to recover our initial investment. Snaggy – we’ll have a small closet in the foyer and one in the back coming in from the garage, if I can figure out where to put it. tatts – there will be no bath in the center of the house, unless you mean the guest bath on the hall. Also, the kitchen windows – probably 6-8’ wide - face south. Summit studio – I agree the long, shallow porches on the plan are artificial looking, we plan to shorten the front one & center on the entrance, making it deep enough to sit comfortably. We sit on our current porch a lot. We have mountain views to the south and often have coffee and lunch there. The rear will be more of a gathering space, I hope. We'll cover only a part of it and have a patio for grilling, etc. We get our strongest winds from the W and hope the garage will shield us a little. The rear looks out to the meadow beyond and will have my gardens just off of it.
...See More
okpokesfan
10 years ago
Your garage overwhelms your front faÃÂ§ade. If I had that much acreage, I would find a way to "hide" the garage. Good luck!
cardinal94
10 years ago
Agree on the garage being overpowering from front of house.
Think the closet/master bath configuration basically okay, but don't like closet visible from bedroom entrance. What about bringing closet up to point where pocket door is currently and having an open area walk through from bedroom to bath. That would require a different layout to master bath on the other end. That would give you a window on that walk through area. I personally would reduce the size of the master bath a small amount and have a small linen closet or shelves.
annkh_nd
10 years ago
I would flip the house 180ÃÂ° (at least!). I would not want the morning sun streaming into my bedroom windows - I would much rather have it in the kitchen and living room.

My house is 45ÃÂ° from square with the world - my living room faces SW, bedroom windows face NE. There are no windows on the NW side of the house, which is nice, since our prevailing winter winds come from that direction (and the neighbors on that side are close). With your acreage, you shouldn't be stuck with ordinal directions.

I agree about the garage issue, but I'm not sure how to fix it.

Related Stories

ARCHITECTURE Think Like an Architect: How to Pass a Design Review

By Dylan Chappell Architects

Up the chances a review board will approve your design with these time-tested strategies from an architect

Help Me Design My Wine Cellar - Please!

EDIBLE GARDENS An Edible Cottage Garden With a Pleasing Symmetry

By Bettina Deda colour design

The owners of this cottage garden in Australia grow vegetables, herbs and fruit to delight their family and friends

GARDENING AND LANDSCAPING No Fall Guys, Please: Ideas for Lighting Your Outdoor Steps

By Marianne Lipanovich

Safety and beauty go hand in hand when you light landscape stairways and steps with just the right mix

HOUSEPLANTS Mother-in-Law's Tongue: Surprisingly Easy to Please

By creative jewish mom.com

This low-maintenance, high-impact houseplant fits in with any design and can clear the air, too

BATHROOM DESIGN Upload of the Day: A Mini Fridge in the Master Bathroom? Yes, Please!

By Mitchell Parker

Talk about convenience. Better yet, get it yourself after being inspired by this Texas bath

DESIGN PRACTICE Design Practice: The Year in Review

By Eric Reinholdt, Architect

Look back, then look ahead to make sure you’re keeping your business on track

SUMMER GARDENING Houzz Call: Please Show Us Your Summer Garden!

By Annie Thornton

Share pictures of your home and yard this summer — we’d love to feature them in an upcoming story

HOME OFFICES Quiet, Please! How to Cut Noise Pollution at Home

By Christine Ciarmello

Leaf blowers, trucks or noisy neighbors driving you berserk? These sound-reduction strategies can help you hush things up

PRODUCT PICKS Guest Picks: 21 Rave-Review Bookcases

By Cristin Priest {Simplified Bee}

Flip through this roundup of stylish shelves to find just the right book, toy and knickknack storage and display for you

Sponsored

MCR ROMERO WORK LLC

Innovative & Creative General Contractors Servicing Franklin County

More Discussions

Anderson Woodwright vs Marvin Elevate

10

Hardie Board Discoloration

6

Give your advice on my DRAFT first floor layout

15

It's May 2024. How is your build going?

5

Trex Deck Stairs with Builder or After Installation?

2