House Plan suggestions

9 years ago

I am working on my home plan currently. I am trying to keep the house as small as possible, but still an adequate size. The problem that I am having is I would like a full size staircase in the garage to the attic. I would like to make the laundry room a little bit wider. I am worried that the washer and dryer will be to deep and there will not be enough walking room. There is a half door in the pantry from the garage to make putting groceries up easier. I will have my two small dogs in the laundry room at night and when I am away. I plan to have a doggie door in the door leading to the backyard from the laundry room.

Any suggestions that you have will be greatly appreciated.

I am trying to keep the house as small as possible and trying to save money where I can, but still have a well-designed home.

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Comments (16)

dekeoboe
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The bedrooms are very tiny, especially with the angled walls. And the one with two doors looses about 3 feet due to the pathway between the doors. Try putting some furniture in them and seeing how much space you have.

The family room also ends up about 15 x 15 once you account for the pathway from the outside door. What is the total square footage of the house? To me, it appears too small for a three car garage.
pixie_lou
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Unless you drive subcompacts, the 21' is tight, especially with the stairs. Stairs are 3' wide. Give yourself an additional 3' so you can walk in front or behind the car to actually get in the house - more if you aren't the best parker - that leaves you with 15' car length.

I think your master bath is huge in comparison to every other space in the house. You have a huge shower plus a tub plus double vanities, plus a toilet nook. The master is a decent size - you can get a king size bed in there. But with all the doors at the top, you really won't be able to have any sitting area.

The laundry is tight. Most washers are 20-24" deep. But you need to add almost 6" behind them to connect dryer vents, washing machine hoses, etc. it would be more comfortable with 3' of space.
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Working my way across the plan from upper left to lower right as oriented in Macv's post: I'm not crazy about having the water heater in a closet opening into a bedroom. I seem to recall reading somewhere that code won't allow a gas-fired water heater in a bedroom so unless the water heater will be electric, you may have to move it. Plus, with the door to the water heater closet where you have it, you can't put your light switch in the most natural location which is on the wall immediately beside the bedroom door. If you're using an electric water heater and want to leave it in that location, at least move the bedroom door 3' to the right creating a short, entry hallway for that bedroom. Then put the light switch on the short hallway wall you create. I would second the suggestion that you go ahead and use a tub/shower combo in the secondary bathroom. If you ever try to sell, anyone with small children will want a tub as kids often are either uncomfortable with showers until they are at least 8 to 10 years old ... or make a big mess spraying shower water all over the room. I also second the suggestion to get rid of that extra door in the hallway. It is totally unnecessary and, when open, actually partially blocks the entrance to the laundry room. Once you take out that door, consider flipping the entire laundry room so that the washer and dryer are up against the master bedroom closets instead of right against a bedroom wall. Less chance that someone doing laundry late at night or early in the morning will disturb someone sleeping in bedroom 2... especially as it is likely that the bed will be up against the laundry room wall. In the masterbath, I'm not a huge fan of closets opening off the bathroom but some people love them. Seems to me tho that the closet door needs to be hinged on the other side. That way, if spouse #1 is in the closet picking out an outfit (and left the closet door standing open like we all do), spouse #2 isn't blocked from coming in to use the facilities. Also in the masterbath, have you considered putting another window on the other wall by the corner jaccuzzi? It would help brighten up your master bath and make that tub look more luxurious. The dimensions on your plan are too small to read but the front porch appears to be about 6 ft deep. I advise adding another couple of feet if you want the front porch to be really useful. With your design, the additional cost to build it a reasonably useable 8 ft deep would be negligible. Also, since you have dispensed with having a foyer (I actually did the same thing so that is not a criticism), you'll want to pay extra attention to having your front porch act as a good transition from public outdoor space to private indoor space. A little extra depth on the front porch would help it act more like an "outdoor foyer" Not sure if family members will generally use the front door or enter the house through the laundry room or the back door. But, no provision seems to be made near any of these doors for coats/boots/hats/umbrellas/car-keys/mail etc. Even those of us living in warm, dry climates need a place to stash varous bits of "stuff" when we first walk in the door. And we usually want that stuff to be near the door so we can pick it all back up again when we head back out. I won't go so far as to insist that you have to have a closet near your front door and another near the main family entry, but you do need some provision for such "stuff" or it will all wind up stacked on whatever flat surface is nearest to the door. Your kitchen seems to have very little room for upper cabinets. This may be exactly what you want but before you commit to it, do think about how YOU actually use your current kitchen. Where do you store your most used items? I use my upper cabs for all the stuff I reach for constantly... like drinking glasses, coffee cups, spices, flour, salt, sugar, cereal boxes, bread, etc. Seldom used items like the fondue pot and crystal punch bowl get relegated to lower cabs simply because I don't like getting down on hands/knees to find stuff down there. (I am putting mostly drawers into the lower cabs in my new house and am hoping that'll make those spaces more useful - but I suspect upper cabs will always be premium space for me.) You do have a pantry so maybe storage won't be a problem but do think about it. At the very least, you'll probably want room for drinking glasses in an upper cabinet. I can't comment on the powderroom/pantry area till I see how you redo it. I definitely agree that you want to move the PR door so it doesn't open off the kitchen! In fact, I can't imagine why anyone would ever even roughly sketch a design with a powderoom opening directly into the kitchen. UGH.) I do like the idea of having a door to the PR opening out to the back porch though and hope your architect can figure out a way to keep that feature. Are you planning to have a dining table in your great room? If so, how far away from the serving bar will the dining table be situated? Do you want a chandelier or ceiling fan with light to be centered over the table? It's evident that symmetry is important to you so I think you may find it disconcerting to have the ceiling fan located at one edge of your dining table and I think that is about where it will fall. You might want to ask your architect to do a rendering showing placement of your major furniture pieces and see whether the position of your overhead lights and ceiling fans need to be adjusted. The great room with all those windows is going to be a gorgeous space! I see that you're also planning a cathedral ceiling but can't read just how high it will soar to. With such a large room, you're going to want to carefully arrange your furniture to create cozy conversational seating areas. Otherwise the room could wind up being gorgeous to look at but uncomfortable to live in because scaled too large. Finally, it bothers me that the front door and the back door in the great room are DIRECTLY across from each other. I'm not sure why but it just doesn't "feel" right. Maybe others will comment. Oh, one last thing. I can't read the dimensions on your plan but I'm pretty sure you need more electrical outlets in some of your rooms just to meet minimum NEC codes. - And in this day and age when everything we own needs to be plugged in and recharged, you'll want MORE than just the bare minimum number of outlets. Extra outlets are cheap if installed while building but ridiculously expensive to add in later. Also, since it is unlikely the furniture in your great room will be pushed back against the walls, you might want to have some outlets installed in the floor to avoid having lamp cords running where someone will trip over them. Here is a link that might be useful: helpful article on spacing of electrical outlets
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I love how much storage you have planned into the house. Good storage really seems to make a house seem bigger. I am jealous of the laundry room. I agree it would make sense to have the laundry plumbing and the bathroom plumbing in the same wall. It looks like you have two doors into the storage room. This will reduce your wall space available for shelves. So you should consider whether the second entrance is worth the reduction in storage, depends on how you will use it. The 3 doors in the office will also limit furniture placement. You might sketch furniture into each room to give you an idea of traffic flows and size of rooms. In the kitchen you might consider moving the refrigerator to the bottom end of the counter. It seems to interrupt the flow between sink and range. The dining room room looks like it will only fit a 4-6 person table, which maybe plenty big for the two of you but would be something to consider. It does seem small in comparison to the great room, even at the smaller 22x26 size. At 22x36 it is bigger than my current house (with 4 people, a 100 lb dog and 2 cats) : ) Maybe the dining room could move into some of the current great room space and the spare bedroom could move to where the dining room currently is? You could consider having the dining and living areas mostly open to each other, this would allow each to expand into the other if you need a bit more space. That depends on how you feel about open living spaces. With the bedroom gone the stairs and foyer could shift to the left to make room for the spare room closet. That would depend on how important the stair location is for upstairs layout. That could also simplify your footprint possibly saving you some money. You could also get rid of that one small jog in the foundation meets the laundry room, it doesn't seem to add much. Looks like you have a good start on the design process. What's upstairs? Downstairs seems like a very nice space to me all on its own.
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About the house plan: - It's a lovely exterior. Just my style! - If family gatherings are a priority for you, I think you'd want a larger dining room. 13x13 won't hold a very large table. - Still on the subject of dining, do you really need a breakfast table AND island seating in two separate places? - U shaped kitchen don't particularly work well with islands in this configuration; they "trap people" in the U. - I would not place a desk in that spot in the kitchen. Imagine someone's sitting at the desk ... his chair will block the path into the kitchen, annoying everyone else in the family -- plus you have an office just around the corner. What I think you might actually want in the kitchen -- I'd want it a bit more out of sight /towards the entry -- is more of a family control center: A designated place for a calendar and kids' sports and school schedules, a place to stick the tickets to next week's Halloween carnival to a bulletin board, a shelf where phones can sit to charge, a place for sunglasses and car keys. And I want NONE of that in my kitchen. - Do you barbeque often? I'd want a more direct door to the backyard. As it is, you'll have to carry platters of meat around the peninsula, past the breakfast room table, and into the great room to reach the porch ... then you'd have to turn right and navigate the porch furniture to get to the steps on the far end. - Covered porches are wonderful (I have one on my current house and plan one for my next house too!), but 8' isn't wide enough for a porch that'll really be used (though 6', even 5', is enough for a show-only porch, as I suspect your front porch will be). My covered porch is 12' wide x 30' long, and it's perfect: We have the grilling area on one end, a table in the middle, and seating on the far end ... and we can walk straight to the steps without furniture being in the way. - I do not like bay windows under covered porches, but that's personal preference. - Speaking of porches, why do you have a set of steps on the far left of the front porch? It's not near the garage /driveway. - The laundry room is far from ALL the bedrooms. Note that to put away clean clothes in your master closet, you'll have to carry those baskets about 60' (half the length of a football field) and through four doors. Most people on this board seem to prefer the laundry near the bedrooms since that's where people change clothes, and keeping the rooms near one another = fewer steps. If you anticipate a large family, I'd consider a second laundry upstairs; it wouldn't be out of sync with a house this size. I would suggest a laundry chute from the upstairs bath, but the clothes would land in the great room! - I'd flip the washer/dryer to the opposite side of the laundry room. This will allow you to keep water in only ONE wall (and with the refrigerator on that wall, you're probably going to want water for an ice maker). - With the kids' bathroom upstairs, the downstairs powder room will see heavy use. This super-narrow set-up is not comfortable -- remember, you're going to use this room for potty training, which means you'll sit in there for long stretches at a time ... and that door is set up in such a way that you'll have to be in the room with the door closed so you can watch the child ... I guess you'll be sitting on the sink. I'd make this area into a large reach-in pantry and carve out a more comfortable powder room using some of the laundry room space OR some of that storage in the garage. - Since you anticipate a large family, I'd add some organizing items in the garage entryway. The size is already plentiful, but a bench where kids can sit while you put their shoes on /coat hooks /places for bookbags, etc. would be useful. In this same area, I'd add a door to close off the kitchen ... in a house of this size /expense, I wouldn't expect to see the garage door from the living area. - At 24x24, the garage is a rather ideal size. That's a large storage area in the garage -- do you need it, or will it just collect junk? Keep in mind that you have significant storage upstairs over the garage too. - The family room is plenty deep, but it's only 15' wide ... and about 3' of that must be used for walkway, so you actually only have 12' of space for furniture. This doesn't seem to be in keeping with the rest of the house. - How do you plan to use the office /homeschooling room? I'd add a second door into this room over near the master bedroom entrance, and I'd use real doors on both. The rest of the house is open; I'd want this room to have both visual and acoustical privacy. - I'd decrease the master bedroom width. 19' is very wide, even with a king bed, yet you don't have the right set-up for a seating area on one end. The windows in the master bedroom are very nice. - The master bath could be so much nicer! It's an odd shape: as you walk in, the around-the-corner part won't be visible, odd. Consider, too, the pathway necessary to reach the toilet: Through two doors and around a corner. The shower looks small; I think I'd make the current toilet-closet into a shower -- a shower gets daily use, and a large one is a nice luxury. The master closet isn't particularly spacious -- I might use some of that excess bedroom space to enlarge this. - Upstairs, the three bedrooms and bathroom look good, and all that linen storage will be great for kids' sleeping bags, etc. ... but why do you need a rec room AND a family room?
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mrspete
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Right away, I'd ask why -- if you're looking to stay small -- you're allotting so much space to an over-sized garage, which is not a necessity.

I'm guessing that the bedroom nearest the front door will be used as an office /tv room /away room -- a good idea, given that you've got an open floorplan for your main living area. However, a room this small cannot support a window, two doors and a closet. You have no wall space, no where to place furniture. If my guess is right and this is an office-type room, I say eliminate one door and eliminate the closet doors /make the closet into bookshelves or an entertainment center. Size it like a closet so you could always make it into a bedroom in the future, but leaving off the door will enlarge the room visually.

The other two bedrooms are SMALL. They will do, if you're planning to have minimal furniture. My best suggestion here: Enlarge the closets -- they're only about 4 1/2' wide /less than 10 sf of storage space. You can "make do" with small rooms . . . IF you have enough storage space that the room can be JUST for sleeping and one other piece of furniture. But these rooms cannot support a bed, nightstand, dresser, desk and bookcase as would be expected in a typical kids' bedroom.

Also, the bedroom nearest the master needs to lose the connecting door -- just like the possible office bedroom, the room just isn't big enough to hold that extra door -- you need the wall space for furniture placement. Anyway, the doors are only steps apart -- a connecting doorway is unnecessary.

Where will you place the bed in the master? Will you have room for nightstands? With so many doors in a small space, it's a busy room.

The master bath is overblown for a house of this size. At roughly 126 square feet (not counting the closet), it's as big as the secondary bedrooms. In a house of this size, I'd expect to see a shower-over-tub and a 5' vanity with one sink. Your shower is bigger than your closet, and 4'10" is wider than necessary for the aisle. If you really want to build "as small as possible", this is the place to start cutting.

Also, I'd flip-flop the master bath and the master bedroom. The bedroom will greatly benefit from having windows on two walls -- it will make it appear larger, and it will feel more comfortable. I'd make the master bath shorter and put items on both sides of the aisle (takes less square footage). You'll still have roughly the same sized master bedroom, and you can have a larger closet in the area where the shower/tub are now. And you should never waste a corner on a closet! I think you need more master bedroom closet.

In contrast, the hall bath looks great: Moderate in size, inexpensive to build because all the water is in one wall, it includes storage, and the entrance is private. I'd leave the bottom half of the closet shelf-free so you can place a hamper in it, and this is a good bathroom.

The kitchen is modest in size but looks like it'll work well. I'd add a SMALL island to delineate the edge of the kitchen. The large pantry is the key to making this kitchen work. It's smart: Pantry storage is cheap, whereas cabinets are expensive. However, if you want to make it easy to bring in your groceries, I'd suggest skipping the hallway altogether and entering the house (from the garage) through the pantry.

I think you're right to be concerned about the width of the laundry room -- since the machines never go flat against the wall, I'm figuring that you'll have about 26" in front of the machines.

If I were trying to save space in this dining room, I'd do a built-in bench against the wall shared with the two bathrooms. This is a big space saver, and it'd look great in this area.

Then I'd replace the back doors with a bank of windows . . . and one single glass door scooted up next to the kitchen. This will make it easier to reach the door -- you'll be able to walk straight to the door rather than walking around the table and turning.

Finally, the living room. This is SMALL. Personally, I'd allot more space for it, but if you're sticking with this size, I'd do a built-in window seat -- again, a big space saver -- and then a small sofa and one chair. And the TV is pretty much going to have to go above the fireplace.

If you go with one flooring through out, it will help the space look larger.
jenlef82
Original Author
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thank you all for the suggestions. Looks like I have a lot of work to do. I live in a small town and there was only one option for an architect. I am concerned that he is not doing as well as I need him to do.
jenlef82
Original Author
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thank you all for the suggestions. Looks like I have a lot of work to do. I live in a small town and there was only one option for an architect. I am concerned that he is not doing as well as I need him to do.
User
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The stair to the attic should be entered from inside the house instead of from inside the garage in order to avoid the difficulty of providing fire and smoke protection between the attic and the garage. In any case the attic could never be used as a bedroom if it were entered from the garage.
jenlef82
Original Author
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I was not aware of the attic ladder issue. I plan on using it for attic space for now, but who knows what it could be in the future, and I want to leave my options open.

I am going to make changes based on all the great advice. I already had an island put in the kitchen.

I am concerned about the size of the living room.

I like the idea of a three car garage. Most families with kids will eventually have more than two cars. This is why I thought about keeping it a 3 car garage.

I love the idea of having a drop zone area and a large pantry.
mrspete
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I do think the attic stairs inside the house will open up options for you in the future. I wonder if those stairs could be incorporated into the laundry room . . . and tuck the machines /dog crates under the stairs.

Do you feel strongly that children's cars should be provided a garage space? I don't. I'd rather see the children have an adequate bedroom with good storage.
annkh_nd
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
We are a 3-car family with a 2-car garage. Our kids drive a 1996 Jeep. Would the Jeep be happy inside? Sure, but it works just fine sitting outside, even with our North Dakota winters. Where I live, a 3-car garage is almost always the sign of a higher-end home, which yours is not. The extra corners created by the garage bigger than that part of the house also add a lot to your cost. Line up the garage with either the pantry wall or laundry wall.

MrsPete is exactly right about the master bath. And the hallway to the other bedrooms takes up a lot more space than necessary. If you reconfigure the master to give more space to the other bedrooms on the same wall, you can eliminate the angled doors - even 2 feet would make a huge difference. The door to the office/bedroom will be at the end of the hall; the door to the left bedroom will be about where the closet is, and I'd move the door to the middle bedroom close to the master. Ideally, the two smaller bedrooms would have closets back to back, so each is twice as big as it is now (left bedroom closet would be a little smaller, if you put the door there). With the door from master to middle bedroom, I assume this is a nursery? Moving the nursery door to the end closest to the master keeps them close, but not attached. Baby won't be a baby forever.

I get the sense that your architect is used to designing large, expensive homes, and isn't thinking in terms of making the best use of space, or getting the most out of your budget. Hopefully he can reset his thoughts and help you make a great house for your family.
User
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
If you build a full sized stair to an attic and the attic is large enough for habitation, you have created an egress path.

In all building codes I have used, an egress path cannot pass through a garage so you should check the experience and credentials of the architect.
jenlef82
Original Author
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I am rethinking my entire home plan now and my architect. He is used to building much larger homes.

I am a single mother with one small child. I have asked my architect to schedule a one on one meeting to go over the entire plan again.

I have been saving for this since my divorce two years ago and have been living with family to help save.

I have paid for my land in cash. I am working to make sure my credit is a good as possible.

I want my son close to me so I think the door being close in the hall would work.

Maybe I could make the house a 3 bedroom with a two car garage and make it to where if I ever get remarried I could have open attic space that is unfinished but could be used. The full ladder was my idea, and I do to think he know you cannot do that and in the future use the attic space as heated sq ft.

I appreciate everyone's suggestions so much.
pixie_lou
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
If it's just you and your son, I would definitely switch to a 2 car garage and change to 3 bedrooms. Your son would have a decent size bedroom and you would have a decent size guest room. Or you could even take some of the space from the bedroom adjacent to the main entry and make yourself an office/den/quiet space.

I like the idea of moving the door on your sons bedroom. He may be little now and the 2 of you want to be near each other. But very soon he will be older and will despise having a room connected with mommy.

I know you are trying to be flexible about the what if of being married again. But unless you already have that partner picked out and are soliciting input from him, then just plan this house for you and your son.
Katie S.
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I personally think it is a nice, efficient plan, even as is. The master bath needs some windows.

I don't think that in a house of this size the fourth bedroom would be necessary for resale, if that is a concern.

Could you put dormers in your attic and enough headroom so that it could be finished later?

Wishing you the very best of luck :)
okpokesfan
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
My old laundry room was 6 ft wide and it was pretty tight. I wouldn't want it any narrower than that. Good luck!
mrspete
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
With this family information in mind, I'd definitely make some changes:

- Downgrade to a 2-car garage. As someone else said, a 3-car garage is in no way an expectation for a house of this size, and if money's tight, there's no reason you need to have an oversized garage.

- You're talking about two bedrooms each! I'd go with three bedrooms (for resale) and make them each a little larger and more comfortable . . . and you'd still have an extra bedroom to act as an office or guest room.

- Those bedroom doors are all plenty close together. If your son cried in the night, you'd be only steps away.

- My advice on the master bath remains unchanged, except that I'd downsize to a one-sink vanity. Two sinks are not necessary in any circumstances, and to put in an extra for a person who doesn't yet exist -- while keeping the house minimal -- is kind of silly.

As for a future marriage, I'd say build your house for you and your son FOR NOW. If you get married again, you don't have any idea whether that future spouse would come alone or with three children. You don't know what kind of house he might already own. If that ever happens. Build what you want, build with an eye towards resale, and if circumstances change, go elsewhere.
runnergirl79
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Completely agree with MrsPete's advice.

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