Thanks for your input Renovator8. Are all of the major spaces awkward? Which ones in particular look the worst? Do you have any suggestions on how I could make this flow better? We've looked at how we live on a day to day basis and how we would like our home to function. This plan seems to be the best flow for our lifestyle, but some help from GW may help us change it for the better. If you were to provide some more feedback I may understand why it is so awkward. I'm definetly an amateur so I would love some input on how to make things flow better. I do recognize that some aspects of our plan is not traditional in the way most houses are being built: i.e. stairs are by the entrance, not accessed easily from the interior of the home. Living room is at the back of the home and not accessed through an entry to the home. There are some reasons why we chose to do this. On the east coast of Canada we have a much more informal way of living. We entertain in the kitchen/ dining room (kitchen parties) rather than the living room. We will have a covered deck off the kitchen since we do have so many kitchen parties. Sometimes women and children gather in the kitchen/ dining and the men will go to the living room or the garage. Many people including us do not use their basements other than storage and utilities such as hot water heater, furnace etc. The stairs are usually only accessed to store seldom used things such as extra supplies, seasonal wear and seasonal decorations. Our lot is set up so that all of the outdoor living and access to the home is on the south side. The north side is 100 acres of family woodland that won't be accessed. I hope these extra details of our lifestyle and how we would like our home to function will help you provide us with some input.

Thank you for all the suggestions! fondantfancy, We did consider switching the shower and toilet on the first plan, and even drew it, but when I showed the three plans to the contractor, he nixed that one. The spaces are much tighter than it seems from the drawings. Although the dimensions are to scale, the tub is just an icon my husband dropped in, and the real one will be a bit larger. We drew a rectangular shower in that position, but it has to go almost to the tub, making a kind of barrier along much of the tub side. I could make it glass there, but still. We have pretty much converged on the later plan now (shower and tub both against outside wall). shannonaz, we saw two possibilities for the shower. One is a rectagular shower butted against the tub/deck (is a "pony wall" a half wall with glass above?) and the same width. The other is the one shown here, with the shower cut off at an angle. The gap between them would be filled with a 12"-18" wide low cabinet for storage. If we leave the large window behind the door, then we don't have much storage in the room. tzmryg, This is not our master bath - we do not have a master bath, much to my dismay. We have two hall baths, all shared by my husband and myself and two sons. At the moment, the bath you see here is emptied out in preparation for gutting, and we are all using the other, very small hall bath. Here are photos from an earlier thread, posted when we were renovating that one: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/bath/msg0917504220483.html I did look at the thread on turning one bath into two, and I was astounded at how well they turned out. I think that there were no windows in that space, which probably helped with space arrangement. I see your point about using the entire wall for the vanity/cabinets (we would have to remove the large window). But one reason for getting away from the plan with a vanity is cost - the cost of a large vanity is probably about the same as the cost of sealing the two windows and greatly enlarging the one over the bathtub. I think that the large window would add more to the room. What do you mean by "towers" - tall cabinets? If we stick with the second plan, we have the option of putting a floor-to-ceiling cabinet in the space behind the door, if we remove the window that is there now. If we don't remove the window, then we can us a low cabinet or bank of drawers.

Overall, it's nicely done -- as you said, basic and traditional. A couple things I'd want to tweak: - You said you want to cut down on square footage. The foyer seems very large in proportion to the rooms -- it's only a hallway, but it's larger than the den or the dining room. - The problem with changing the foyer, of course, is that while your front rooms seem to be a comfortable width, and the master and kitchen seem to be a comfortable width, the Great Room and the breakfast spot are none too wide, and you cannot afford to give up space there . . . thus, you really can't cut down the foyer without making major changes in those other rooms. - Up above the foyer, I wonder if that smallest bedroom could be made "equal" to the others by closing in that open space a bit? That might be impossible. - Or, better yet, switch the bedroom to the back of the house and bring the -- what's it called? Loft? Rec space? Whatever, to the front of the house. This'd give you a smaller open area and a larger bedroom. - Bathrooms upstairs were discussed. How many people will share this upstairs? Three bedrooms. If it's three people, I'd cut out one bathroom and save massive amounts of money. Three is a fine number to share one bathroom. - I see that you don't care for island seating (and I'm with you on that), but you will have room only for a small, small table here. I find the "table against island" concept a little "busy". How would this do: Remove the doors in the nook area (move the doors to the great room). Bump a four-person table way back near the window -- wait, make it a bay window. This will allow you walking space in the middle of the room right in front of the island. - I like the layout of the great room - nook - kitchen, but not the photograph. Carpet on one side and hardwood on the other makes the room look choppy, but that's a super-easy fix. And that fire place looks like some pre-fab something stuck into the wall. Yuck. I'd absolutely want a fireplace, but you can absolutely do better. - I don't think the kitchen is as bad as some other posters think. I would have to get the sink out of the corner, of course. And the refrigerator is too far from the action; if you move it out into the main kitchen area, your pantry could be large enough for shelves on both sides. - I like the beverage center on the way to the dining room and the location of the pantry. This is very practical and will be great for parties -- I'm imagining food on the island, drinks in the butler's pantry. - Master bath: I do not like all those doors. They're constantly going to be in the way. I'd eliminate the one for the toilet; it's kind of silly to hide the toilet in a closet -- it's claustrophobic, it's difficult to clean behind the toilet, and it's a nightmare for an elderly person who needs a walker (and although you're probably not an elderly person today, you probably will be eventually). Then I'd make the closet doors into pocket doors. - OR at least make the doors both bump "into" the closets instead of having one in /one out. Since both closets have a wasted "blank wall" inside, there's no reason both doors couldn't open "in" without blocking storage. - I would flip-flop the whole bathroom so you'd have a window over the toilet. It would make no difference in function. And I'd get rid of one sink. No one actually uses sinks at the same time anyway, and this would give you better storage by the sink area as well as saving money. I think it's an okay plan. I like traditional, and this one could be very nice.

Nana Doors: From on initial concept of a high curtain wall I changed to two 16x8 4 panel doors and one 12x8 3 panel fixed door, all with transom windows above. I looked at Nana doors then have quotes from Panoromic doors and waiting for a quote from yet another manufacturer who recently added the type of doors to their collection. I love Parnaromic doors since they are in line with our needs and at a much better price. They also have an option of a full size screen. Check them out; they are in CA.