Maybe it is my settings or maybe my eyes, but it is teeny weeny? When I enlarge it, it is really too blurry. I really want to see it :-)

Wow - you are right. It is an oversized pdf. I can't get it to show up bigger in photobucket. Lets try it this way . . .

Let me know if this doesnt work! Or how to upload a pdf (I converted it to a jpg) to photobucket which does not downsize it :)

Here is a link that might be useful: First floor plan

Or this

I'm so excited to see the floorplan b/c I love your elevation.

A few thoughts:
- I think the grill is fine where it is. Or do you want it in a covered area?
- I'm not loving the kitchen layout. You have plenty of room though. Post it on the kitchen forums and see what they come up with.
-I'm a little concerned about furniture placement in the living room. Where are you going to put your sofa?
-I would not want to lug laundry all the way across the first floor. But at this point, it may too big of a change to move it closer to the master.

The house is going to be great --- but I already knew that! I think the grill is OK distance wise... the only comment I have about it is that you have these 3 beautiful sets of doors and when you walk in the house, through the foyer and out into this pretty room, the grill is what you will see as you look out the door. I would be inclined to move it even more... to the side to the far left of the 3 sets of doors as that edge is a bit bigger. Also, I'm not sure if I'd want to sit next to the heat of the grill on the terrace and the screened porch in its current location. If you did move it, then you could put a door from the porch onto the terrace as well, which might be handy?

I know you are happy with the mudroom placement, and I have had this debate too -- In my house, my kids will dump their stuff inside the door instead of going into the mudroom, so I am opting to have the mudroom be the walk through. My mom thinks this will be regrettable, but I'm going to give it a shot. Anyway, given how you feel about it, I was wondering if you might just want to switch the door on the mudroom to be on the shorter wall. The benefit to me is twofold -- first, the kids might be more likely to step in there on the way from the garage since they would pass it on the way. Secondly, coming in the door of the friends entrance, you would not immediately see the mudroom, and that entrance would look really nice.

I agree with the poster above who mentions wondering about the furniture placement in the LR --- though I'm guessing you have it worked out since you mentioned the furniture in the study.

In the dining room, do you really want the swinging door --- seems like it will get in the way of the pantry?

My floorplan has some similarities, so this is fun to see! When are you starting?

Thanks for the thoughts!

pps7 - good idea about the kitchen. That is just the architect mock up. The only thing that has to stay where it is is the kitchen sink. We moved heaven and earth to get a window over it so there it must stay!

Also mythreesonsnc - great point about the grill obscuring the view. Interestingly the architect had the grill where you said (to the far left) at one point. I didn't want it there because I am the griller and the chef and I didn't want to have to go across the house to flip the burgers. Very very good point about the view from the front door though - that is a very important thing to me and it hadn't even occurred to me! He has also placed the grill to the far end of the screened in porch but still far away and I wonder how it would be with smells and everything. I also would like to put a table and chairs at the far end of the screened porch so I don't want to block that view. It is a raised terrace so that complicates things also! My architect is not a fan of the current grill placement and really wanted to connect the screened porch and the terrace as you suggested, but I was willing to sacrifice this for grill proximity, but now that it obstructs the view I am not so sure! I guess the grill will be built in so you will see brick on the side and there is room for a pot outside the french doors so maybe not terrible????

We have a fantastic unspoiled woods for miles view off the terrace so I have to take that into consideration too.

The laundry is no biggie I don't think. We have the same set up now and it is not a big deal. I am not a sitter so I don't mind a few extra steps. I am hoping I can get some help carrying it upstairs :)

As far as furniture placement, I have it basically worked out. I am going to float the furniture (with the sofa facing the fireplace and sofa table with lamps behind it) in the center of the room. I am not a real fan of putting sofas on walls so this works for me.

As far as the door to the mudroom, it was originally put there but I had him move it because I didn't want to be sitting at the table staring into the mudroom. Ideally the mudroom would be where the powder room is but that doesn't work out space wise without blowing out the already bloated square footage.

Good thought about the swinging door - my parents have the exact same set up so it didn't occur to me. Need to think about it though! Theirs is almost always open towards the dining room. Would you just leave the door off (I would be reluctant to do that because of kitchen mess and catering folks etc.? Other suggestions?

P.S. My kids dump their stuff inside the door too and I have to ask them to put it in the laundry room on their hook . . . I am sure this will continue :) but the trade off was worth it to me. I am almost pathological about having clutter hidden behind doors and I do realize that most normal folks aren't like this!

P.S. pps7 - got the revised elevation back and it is MUCH better - gable roof with narrower windows up top with shutters on the top and garage windows improved it greatly! Still fiddling with a few things but vastly improved.

Hi Athensmom-- nothing really knew to add to the other posters, just wanted to say I love your pocket office!! Looks good! Mine has cabinets in it, but no counter or open shelves yet and it looks good. I'm happy with it -- you will love yours!

One other little thing --- the way the door swings on the powder room by the friends' entrance is good because when the door is left open, you'll see the mirror, not the toilet. The other powder room is the opposite, which means the toilet is what you see as you walk by, and if somehow the door opened while somebody is using the facilities, they'd get a view of somebody on the potty, vs. the mirror.

P.S. Love the pocket office too --- wondered what the dimensions are? By the time I zoom-in enough to see the dimensions, they get too blurry to read.

my3sons - another VERY good catch! Architect Steve Gianetti has a powder room set up like that one on his website and the door swings exactly like you describe. Opening on to the vanity is lovely - onto the toilet not so much!!!

As far as the pocket office goes, I had to go look it up. It has been moved around so much I didn't know exactly how wide it was in this incarnation. It is 7'9 1/2" wide by 5' 4 1/2" deep. I asked him to widen it from the 4' 4 1/2 inches that it was to 5 feet and I guess it went to 5' 4 1/2 inches. Wonder if it matters for framing purposes that there are all these 1/2 inches there??? We were trying to fit it in without making the foot print much bigger?

I think I will love it too - and it is actually wider than I thought it would be. I decided 6' wide by 5' deep was the minimum. Wanted to be able to scoot my chair back without being in the hallway! Also a good place for the printer/fax etc. as our study won't have a desk in it I don't think (husband never uses one - just his lap top in his leather club chair) so didn't see the need for a formal office.

Thanks for the dimensions....My "pocket office" is going to be pretty similar - 5'x8', which was just created out of an awkward leftover space --- it was originally going to be a broom closet -- and then I realized I could increase it just a tiny bit without upsetting the other areas to make it a bit more useful. I know mine will be a tight squeeze, but I'm like you, like the mess behind closed doors, so I'm hoping it will be a super compact but efficient space!

Your plans look great! Will you be starting soon?

It is nice but your home is above 4000 and your living room is only 16' wide, and in many cases it could be ok but not your set up. I will
comment more later

Marthaelena - please do! You are freaking me out a bit.

We want to avoid a great room feel - instead a cozy, homey room. We specifically kept our room sizes small for the most part for this reason (except kitchen, dining room (we have a 10 foot table) and master bath which were driven by other issues).

We plan on floating furniture in the room and on putting furniture in front of the french doors, as in the below picture. We will also only ever use the right door, and then only the far right side of it. The rest will have furniture in front of it.

Would pocket doors to the bar help (I admit that concerns me as well)?

We actually have a very similar set up now, except the walkway is in the middle of the room instead of on the side. The walkway in the center of the room is 3 feet at its narrowest part. We would allow less on the left side of the room (the minimum walkway is 22").

Anxious to hear your thoughts!

Here is a link that might be useful: Den with triple french doors

Also, just pulled out my parent's floor plan with a similar set up and their room is 14 feet wide. They have a walkway down the right hand side.

[IMG]http://i780.photobucket.com/albums/yy83/athensmother/Inspiration%20photos/photo-73.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i780.photobucket.com/albums/yy83/athensmother/Inspiration%20photos/photo-18.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i780.photobucket.com/albums/yy83/athensmother/Inspiration%20photos/photo-17.jpg[/IMG]

Sorry I don't have a better picture - hope this helps as far as your analysis. They have a bar too (doors to right of fireplace) but theirs is a little smaller (too small they say). More like 3 feet wide instead of 4. The doors on their bar are double 1'6"s.

athensmomof3, I think our floor plans are very similar as far as the spaces we wanted. We also have only one living room with a formal study., I wanted my living room to feel cozy too. It's about 16 1/2 x 17 1/2. The main difference is we have a hallway so it's not a walk through area.

What I did was draw out the space on graph paper. I cut out little cardboard pieces for the sofa, loveseat, coffe table etc and played around with it. I shaded out any walkthrough spaces.

Athens,

I think you've come a long way on the floor plan. It really looks great! I second mythreesons motion to put the grill on the far side of the stone terrace where there is a wall just the right size. It will be a few extra steps, but the tradeoff of the improved view from the foyer and the ability to access the screen porch from the terrace will be worth it.

I would also suggest that all the doors in the living room and breakfast room swing out rather than in. It will give you so much more floor space. We have a similar sized living room now with two pairs of french doors and you effectively lose that floor space unless you want to move furniture everytime you open the door. It's much easier to squeeze behind a chair and swing a door outward.

The only other two things I thought of were a) putting some good sound insulation between the master suite and the public rooms and b) shifting the kitchen window toward the front of the house. I know it is "on axis" with the fireplace, but it would drive me nuts to look out at the porch column of the friends' porch and the side of the garage storage. A few more inches to the right and you would have a lovely view of your little courtyard.

It looks really great! Very well thought out! I hope you'll post the revise elevation.

Great thoughts! Headed out to dinner but you have convinced me to move the grill :) This lets us reconnect the terrace and the screened porch. I might even do a slight curve on the edge of the terrace. I saw a great one which had a simple iron railing with a decorative piece in the center and had a slight curve. I am a symmetrical person so I go for angles not curves, but I am afraid the whole place is a bit angular!

Also, I am almost convinced about the mud room door :) Trying to figure out my options. Should I do a pocket centered on the closet door or a swing in on the wall opposite the lockers. I am not a fan of pocket doors generally but this room will almost always be open.

Lots of great suggestions - sooooo glad I posted it!

marthaelena - any other thoughts??? :)

athensmom, I looked at your plan the other day, but didn't have a chance to comment. Overall, it looks great. I'm sure it will be a wonderful home. Like the others, I am a little concerned about the width of the family room. Since there is no hallway, I feel like you will have to walk around furniture, or place your furniture to the side instead of centered on the fireplace in order to get through. It seems to be a bigger issue since you have the powder bath over on the other end of the house (I am assuming this is the bath you would want guests to use) so it might not be as convenient to get over there. You mentioned pocket doors to the bar and that seems like it would work well.

The plan is great, so if you think the space will work fine from your experience I'd just go for it. Maybe we are all conditioned to go bigger these days when it really isn't necessary?? Have fun finalizing your plans. I know I am!