Seems pretty nice.

Where do the kids come in from playing? Unless it's always through the garage, there doesn't seem to be another place that will handle wet boots and coats. Also, it's a long way to a bathroom from any of the exterior entrances for running in 'almost too late' from playing.

2 of the bathroom vanities upstairs have no drawers, only under the sink storage, and, the powder room looks like it has a pedestal sink, so doesn't even have that. Not to get too personal, but sometimes I find myself seated and see that someone left no toilet paper and I like to have some stored within reaching distance. I don't see any storage for that, grabbing a clean towel, extra toothpaste (or any toothpaste, toothbrushes, hair brushes...), etc. in the bathrooms.

I never really understand the master closet through the bathroom arrangement that I see so often now. For one thing, bathrooms are steamy and I think it'd be better to avoid moisture and stored clothing. The other is, I like to access my closet without going through the bathroom. It's OK when you're just getting out of the shower, but not so handy any other time. Is that laundry equipment in your closet?

Any chance of a chute from the upstairs to the laundry? I can't tell well enough how the floors line up to see if that's a possibility.

I know you're not chefs, but you should have a stove. ;-)

Is there comfortable room for a bed in the bedroom in the upper right corner?

Best wishes with your project!

beautiful plan overall but a couple of things strike me. 1) I'd be a bit leery of having a child's bedroom door open quite so directly at the top of the stairs. Little one who stumble out half asleep could easily fall down the stairs and, with a bedroom door so close by, you might not be able to fit a child-safe gate.

2) The downstairs laundry. Everyone talks about getting a laundry chute but, having lived with a 1st floor laundry room and upstairs bedrooms for 20+ years, I can attest that the problem is NOT with getting dirty laundry downstairs. You can stuff it all into pillow cases and throw it down the stairs easily enough. The real problem is lugging all the clean laundry BACK UP the stairs - and a laundry chute won't help that!

I'd reccommend seeing if there wasn't some way to rearrange the two front bedrooms and bath to incorporate a laundry room (opening at the top of the stairs) and two small bedrooms. I think you could do it by having a short hall that goes to the right (toward the front of the house) as you exit from coming up the stairs. Then divide the small front center bedroom into a small laundry room and a bathroom. Divide the current bathroom, closet and big bedroom into two small bedrooms. The one at the front of the house would be rather oddly-shaped but you could still easily fit a twin bed in it and it would a perfectly charming child's room.

3) If you moved your laundry room upstairs, you could increase the size of your mudroom AND put another bathroom in the space where the laundry room is. It could even have a door that opens directly to the outside solving those "almost waited too long" moments that Rhome410 mentioned.

I can see both sides of the laundry room question. If it's upstairs, it's not as easy to tend to during the day...Our last one was in the basement, and it was challenging to keep things moving efficiently when you're busy with young children on the main floor.

Any way to move the garage doors to the side? As it stands, the garage portion is bigger than the house portion. The family room has no furniture walls anywhere...this may not be a big problem, but it also limits the wall space you have for hanging art. In all 3 of those combined rooms (family, kitchen, breakfast) there doesnt seem to be any wall space for artwork. As for the upstairs laundry room question...I think I see a stackable w/d unit in the master bedroom closet. If you have any large house parties and the downstairs powder room is occupied, guests will have to go thru a bedroom to access a bathroom. Regarding the room off the kitchen with the angled wall(a study?) wouldnt a single door be better for a room that size? Secondary bedrooms will need to have odd bed placements (up against walls)

I've been trying to read the door widths, especially in the upper right corners. Doesn't look good no matter which way I turn the screen.

Okay, we'll say it again. All doors should be wide enough to navigate while on crutches -- minimum 34". Any smaller will give your knuckles scars to match mine, which were obtained with 32" bathroom door.

I very much agree with Bevangel that the BR opening directly onto the small landing doesn't look safe. A 40" landing that requires an immediate turn left/right is skimpy. Check your local building code, I hear safety alarms ringing about that landing.

Do make your to-scale model, and put in the to-scale furniture. Imagine making beds and vacuuming under the furniture. I think you may have a problem placing even a twin bed in the NE-corner BR. Am I reading the SE-corner room as being 10' wide and 16' plus 8' long?

Have to agree about the bedroom that has the corners. I have one of those and it was hard to place furniture. Also, is there a reason the back of the Great room has that angle? Could you square it up a bit?

I'm not sure I like the idea of a closed in kitchen. Am I reading that right? There's no walkway on that one side. You have to go all the way around the counters. If that's a pantry in the back..that's huge. Seems as big as the whole kitchen. I think I would rework this part of the plan for sure.

I'll say this again too...LOL...I love having the closet off my master bath and have had that in every house we've ever lived in. No problems with moisture and it's easier for hubby to get ready for his sometimes early morning trips without disturbing me. ;c) This is really one of those subjects that we aren't all going to agree on I think!!! I like your setup in the Master! ;c)

I see a butler's pantry type of counter, a mud room, and laundry, but no pantry. I'd guess the room with dbl doors to be an office, maybe? ...But, is the breakfast room straight out from the sink or straight out from the other room's double doors? Either way, as lindybarts has pointed out, you go out toward the family room and around to get there...It's a long way when you see a little one about to knock a glass of milk off the table! ;-)

And you are right about the master closet, lindybarts...It was just my own preference.

What is the room in the upper right corner on the first floor? Playroom? Office? (Just curious.)

I'd get tired of making the 'end run' around that peninsula in the kitchen. How about a cut-through on the right?

Would it work to have a person door into the garage from the side? Kids could come in via that and not trek through the house to potty.

Imaginitive positioning of the jack 'n jill bathrooms! Be forewarned that one poster said her kids had 'lock-out' wars over shared baths. Heaven forbid!

I don't like a walk-through master bath at any time, but especially where there's no separate toilet enclosure. I access my closet more often than the bathroom, so it's more convenient for me to have it between BR and bath.

I'd love to see an elevation. The garages do look massive on the plan.

Thanks so much for the insight. This is our 4th house, but first build and it already seems like it is going to be overbearing! To follow up on the posted comments and questions...

Our plan is for the kids to come in to the mud room.

We have used the closet in the back of the shower room before, and it works for us. I think we will keep that.

We are also having issues with the landing outside of the kids room, and are trying to figure out a way around it.

That is a stackable W/D in the master closet. The wife would rather have the laundry up, but could not fit it, so the compromise is the full laundry down and a w/d in the master.

Our garages must go out the front as our plan is taking up the buildable space on the lot. The garage does not seem too overbearing in the front elevation.

As far as the art on the walls, we are taking out the corner built ins in the great room and will adjust the windows. This will maybe give us a little more wall space. If it doesnt, then I guess there will be fewer spaces for the wife to make holes in the wall :)

I agree that another powder room in the lower level may not be a bad idea.

The double doors in the office in upper right corner of the lower level were to make things "open", we could change that.

All door widths upstairs are 32, will talk to architect about widening.

The SE bedroom will have a closet put in the open space in front.

Angled area in the kitchen/great room/sun room is for the table.

We originally had an island in the kitchen, but there was no counter space and no cupboard space. We connected it at the displeasure of the architect in order to add counter space.

There is no pantry behind the kitchen. There is a mudroom entrance area. We may add a pantry as the kitchen is adjusted.

Breakfast is straight out from the sink, other area is a "sun room".

Room in upper right is an office on main floor.

Thanks again for the help, keep the suggestions/ideas coming!

Ryan

"We connected it at the displeasure of the architect.."

ouch! If that's the same arch you will ask about door widths... maybe you ought to duck immediately after mentioning that they are unsuitably narrow. And I guess I better not say that it should be possible to shorten the SE room to lengthen the odd NE corner room, so as to have enough space to put a bed without squiggling around corners.

And keep the key to any shared bath well hidden [for your use only]. Lockouts aren't unusual even among otherwise friendly sibs; there seems to be something irresistable about being able to lock the door.

I must be going blind. There already *is* a person door from the side of the garage! However...kiddos (and Mom in the Kitchen and Pop in the Office) have to trek across the house to use a bathroom. This is a deal killer for me. I don't know that you need TWO powder rooms, but I'd absolutely insist on one near the entrance from the garage.

Maybe "displeasure" was too strong of a word. He has been easy to work with. He just recommended having the easiest access point to kitchen from garage. We decided we valued the counterspace and decided we could put groceries on counter as we walked in and then go around and put away.

I think the door ways upstairs only ended at the width they were because we were moving things around. He has, in general supported having extra space for moving around rather than less.