Front elevation

At first glance...

The front door would drive me crazy! Any way you would want to center it?

I would rather the master BR be in the corner than the bath.

What happened with your access to the bathroom from the mudroom for your farmer DH to get to the shower? That was you, right? My Brother is a farmer, and I know that type of thing was high priority for him and his wife. Now you have him walking through the closet (of clean clothes) and bedroom corner before getting to the bathroom. Are you sure? (PS, I'd want the bdroom on the corner if possible too).

Your Mbedroom wing bumps out to the south and will block your early morning direct light into the kitchen. The sun will have to make it around the "wing" before it will shine into the kitchen.

As for the 1/2 wall... Yes, it will let light into the stair area (northern light, mind you) but it will also let any wind whip through from the back door to your master hallway too (and down the stairs). And, dirt/dust. And, noise.

The door appears to be centered under one pair of dormers, so I would offset the dormer to the far left and make it a bit more clearly "separate". Right now, you have a different center on each floor and that is visually disturbing.
If you treat it like a three bay house that had an additonal bay added to the left of the fireplace you are okay with the door where it is --IF you offset the dormer on the left a bit, imo.

Also, set the porch pillars to reflect what is going on on the first floor and get the post away from in front of the door.

The window size vs. wall size is proportionally off in the dormers. You could use much wider windows. Dormers of that type are classically much more window than wall on the face.

I like it, these are just tweaks.

"As an aside, note that the wall between the mudroom and basement stairwell is denoted as a knee wall. This was my husband's idea. He thinks it will be an interesting architectural feature that will let light into the stairwell and "I'll thank him for it". I'm not really sure what the purpose is, but can you think of any major pros/cons to consider? "

Let light into the stairwell from... where?
That teeny window facing the left, or will there be skylights?

Kirkhall, you must be thinking of someone else :-) My DH is a lawyer who likes to pretend he's a farmer! But you have a good point about shower access. I originally planned for a floor drain in the mudroom for hosing off muddy boots, and wanted it close to the laundry room so he can toss in his dirty clothes.

I've had a lot of difficulty with the MBA layout, and finally decided I'd rather have a lot of windows in the bathroom (where I'll be getting ready in the morning and trying to wake up) than in the MBR (where I'll be trying to sleep)!

palimpsest, thank you for your suggestions. Good points on the porch pillar placement and dormer windows. I'm not sure what you mean about offsetting the third dormer though. How would I do that? By changing the shape, size, location?

As I'm sure you all can tell, this is a DIY effort so we're keeping things simple. PA doesn't require an architect's stamp, and my lawyer/farmer husband used to be a contractor too, so that helps. But, this is very helpful to hear from you all, because I consider you to be experts with very good perspectives.

Yes if you moved the left first story pair of windows Slightly to the left and then could move the roof dormer above that pair Sligthly to the left it would establish the facade as a three bay house (to the Right of the fireplace) with and addition (to the Left of the fireplace.)

This type of thing is discussed in the book "The Old Way of Seeing" by Jonathan Hale.

Interesting... I just Googled "three bay house" and this was the description:

"Three-bay houses are common in rural Pennsylvania. They may have central doors or off-center doors, they may be one room deep or two rooms deep."

That's us! I'm glad I accidentally picked something geographically appropriate :-)

LuAnn:

"Let light into the stairwell from... where?"

My thoughts exactly! I guess from the tiny north-facing window in the mudroom? My other concern is the sight-line from the mudroom. We'll be looking through at ... a wall. I guess I'm fine with letting him have this detail, I've just been reading all the posts lately about "custom homes -- what were they thinking??" and thinking this may qualify as one of those items.

It looks like there is no room for a sink in the powder room near the mudroom. I believe the minimum recommended clearance for a toilet is 15" from the center of the toilet to the finished wall. That leaves just 12" for a sink. Also, I'm not sure if your measurments account for the space taken up by finished walls. If not, you have even less space for a sink.

Why the tiny bump in by the kitchen table? It will make that back wall and foundation more complicated and takes away inches in a spot where you might want extra space. (What's your clearance, chair back to chair back, when people are sitting at the kitchen table and at the island? Is there comfortable room to walk between?) I like how it bumps in in front, because it separates the MB wing from the rest of the house and I like that in your front elevation. But in the back I don't think it will be enough to make the same kind of statement.

Will you ever have guests over? Will they use the front door? If so, they'll walk right into your living room / dining room with no closet for coats etc.

Perhaps you can recess the wall behind the toilet into the pantry a bit and turn the toilet facing North to get the minimum 21-24 in front of it and then have 24" for a sink.

The site line from the front door would bother me. You walk in the front door and you see the side of the closet and right into the guest room. Plus, guests have to go into the entry in order to use the guest bathroom.

Have you considered a skylight over the basement stairs for light instead of a half wall?

I would not want the floor outlet where it is shown in the family room. I prefer floor outlets to be under furniture so cords aren't strung across the floor. What we did was wait until we moved in and figured out exactly where the furniture was going to be placed before we put in the floor outlet. This worked for us because we have an unfinished basement under the family room and my husband installed the floor outlet.

Sounds like I need to steal some space from the pantry for the powder room. Thanks for confirming that.

Chicagoans -- apparently the small bump-in in the back is necessary because the roof on the kitchen section needs to be offset from the roof on the main section (so I'm told). I wish it could be flush too. I think there is a little over 3' from chair back to chair back, and I know more would be better.
Also, there is a coat closet near the front door (across from the stairs).

The sight line from the front door bugs me too, but I'm not sure how to fix it. My pet peeve is front doors that open right into the living space, so I need a foyer, but I also want one-room deep living spaces for light and views on both sides. The only alternative I could think of was a bump-out foyer in the center of the main house section, and that just seemed awkward. I guess we can't have it all, right?

Thank you everyone, for your thoughtful feedback.

I agree that the sightlines from the front door could be better. I would want to rework the stairs/closets/guest room entry in that part of the house, so that the guest room doesn't open right into the foyer. I'd look for a way to have a straight staircase--they're cheaper and more space efficient. Could there be a straight staircase where the closets are, and then you could reorganize the other rooms in the space that's left? It would leave a bigger space in the loft too.

Regarding the knee-wall: I'd rather have the option of hanging something on that wall in the mudroom (a mirror or a piece of art). If it were my house and we did put the knee wall in, I'd make sure there wasn't a sprayer on the sink, because I could absolutely see a kid waiting in the mudroom ready to spray the kid coming up the stairs. Also-- if you don't put in the knee wall, and you do put a door between the mudroom and the rest of the house, it will act as an airlock for cold air in the winter. Otherwise, every time someone goes in or out, there will be a draft through the whole house.

Also, consider the sightlines that kneewall opens up. It would mean that when you walk into the house you see the door to the nursery/office, and whenever the kids bring home friends who go downstairs to play, they'll see into your mudroom. If you're going to have the long sightline available, I think you should make sure there's something attractive on the other end. Maybe you could move the nursery door, and put a really nice piece of art there? But that doesn't fix the view into the mudroom....

All my feedback aside, I really like the house you've designed-- it will be a lovely place to live!

This post was edited by zone4newby on Fri, May 17, 13 at 11:15

Sorry I was reading the plan wrong; thought the front door was from the porch shown at the bottom of the first floor plan. So you'll have porches on front and back? I love big porches, but they will affect your sunlight in the main part of the house.

Re the kneewall, I would also be worried about kids climbing up and potentially falling into the stairwell.

zone4 -- I laughed at your description of kids spraying each other in the stairwell -- you must have boys! But you and beasty have some very good points on the downsides of the knee wall.

Father of three here, nursery next to a kitchen can make naptimes/bedtime difficult. Cabinet doors slamming, plates, dishwasher, etc...Even when it's just an office that can be distracting. Not a huge deal but maybe insulating the interior wall will help keep the noise down.

Regarding trying to improve communication between lower level and main level somehow, it'd really be nice. It's just too bad the knee wall opens to a rather dark mud room instead of a more central location.

You have tons of storage in the kitchen,meaning the pantry need not be visited even once a day. If you were willing to trade stairwell position with the pantry/powder room, you could do great things. Being able to monitor children downstairs, and even more importantly make them feel mom and dad are close by and they aren't isolated, is a good thing, and so is the additional feeling of spaciousness you'd gain by opening the two floors up to each other a bit.

If you leave as is, though, at least you'd be able to holler call back and forth casually as you do laundry. You know, "You're very quiet down there. What're you doing?" "Nothing, Mom."