I had some free time this evening (DH is out of town!) and I love playing around with sketching floor plans, so I decided to pull out my non-professional CAD program and see what I could come up with to fit your property. Idea was to see if I could give you all the rooms on the main floor that you wanted including space enough for 30 - 40 family members to gather, while maximizing the views of the lake, and allowing light to enter all major rooms from 2 directions and keep the heated/cooled square footage down to under 2800 sq ft. I also wanted to minimize west facing windows because those can bring in way too much heat. And of course, I wanted to make the main floor fully wheel chair accessible. I kind of like what I came up with so I thought I'd show it to you. The floor plan is below and below that is the house situated on your property as best as I can figure based on the photos you posted. **************************************************** FYI - all single doors are 36" wide, the staircase to basement if 4 ft wide, hallway leading to mud room is 5 ft wide with a 4 ft cased opening to the foyer. I didn't put a fireplace in the Great Room. It could go on either interior wall. His part of closet is 5 ft wide, hers is 7 ft. Shower is 50" x 102" so plenty big enough to roll a wheelchair in. I think the only thing missing is the "sun room." I left that out b/c, except in the far north, sun-rooms are one of those ideas that sound a lot better than they often work out to be. But, if you really really want one and otherwise like the plan, the banquette could be shifted over to where the patio doors are, the kitchen patio doors moved to where the banquette is and then a sun-room with south and west facing windows could be placed in the corner between garage and kitchen. Even with windows on just two sides (south and west), I think it is likely to get way too hot for regular use tho. Besides, another alternative would be to make the sitting room into a semi-sun-room by using floor to ceiling glass. South and southeast facing windows would get plenty of light without admitting quite so much heat. Anyway, if you like the layout, feel free to use it as is or with any changes you see fit to make. I just do this for fun so I'm happy to waive all copyright claims.

This plan is one of the few house factory plans that has given thought to the design and appearance of each exterior face of the house. All sides have a pleasant variety of projecting and receeding planes, and avoid the boredom, massiveness of unbroken planar walls and the inherent large, bulky roof masses that go with such walls. If you "square-off" any of the elevations you will be losing what makes this plan special and appealing. Builders will tell you that you will pay more for more corners. What they won't tell you is the price you will pay for a visually boring and uninspiring "box" house! The revised kitchen with the enlarged island looks very large to me, causing a lot of walking and travel, since the kitchen "triangle" is so interrupted. I hope your feet, legs and back are such that excessive walking on hard surfaces with hot and cold items is not a problem. Your revised garage is located too close to the house for access to one of the garage bays. Turning it the way you have means: 1) it will have to be placed further from the house than the original plan; 2) your garage doors will be a major visible element from the front of the house and be what guests and visitors see, since the doors will be so large and numerous as to catch and hold one's eye. Garage doors are always the single largest item on the elevation of any house. More so with triple garages! It will be better design to return to the original plan configuration and hide the garage doors from view from the front of the house. Adding the bedroom and bath on the first floor results in a much longer corridor and "tunnel" from one end of the house to the other. Is this of concern? Finally, the stair is highly decorative and will be a major visual feature when using the dining room. Does such a stair work for your style of living? It will be beautiful, but quite expensive. Good luck with your project!

Here is my advice, even though I'm not really in a position to be offering anyone advice since I've been in my "new" home for over a year and a half and still have only made significant progress in decorating about half of the rooms. Anyway, I would suggest that you do one of two things to play with ideas: 1) use an on-line room planner (available from many furniture store and home websites) or 2) actually mark out areas on your floor with tape or cutouts. I have poor spatial reasoning and have found both approaches really helpful. My personal opinion is that a single sofa and two chairs are a better option than two loveseats. Loveseats are awkward seating for two people who are not a couple. Also, I assume you were planning to put the two sofas perpendicular to the fireplace (facing each other) or have one facing the fireplace and the other perpendicular to it, but having the sofa facing the fireplace with chairs on the sides is another option that might work. Also, I've seen some "apartment size" sofas that are slightly smaller than a standard sofa but larger than a loveseat. The configuration and size of my family room and kitchen are similar to your space, but my breakfast bar and fireplace are in different positions. Good luck with your decsions!

If you do get a nice big lot, as you hope, are you sure you want your garage in front? I wouldn't call 3/4 - 1 acre a big lot, but still it's big enough not to have the dreaded garage-out-front situation. The garage is rarely a particularly attractive part of a house, so unless you're building on a lot so small that it's listed in feet instead of acres, why put the worst part of the house out front to set the tone of the whole house? Can you elaborate more on why I need to have a lot first? You certainly have ideas already about the type of house you want, but the specific lot -- especially when you're talking about an acre or less -- may dictate the type of house you'll choose. Examples: - If you choose a corner lot, you may opt for a side-opening garage placed at the back of the lot so that it'll provide some privacy for the back yard ... whereas that layout wouldn't work at all if you choose a typical lot. - If you find a great neighborhood that happens to have narrow/deep lots (or a neighborhood with large set backs), this house plan you've drawn could easily be too wide. Or vice-versa, you might fall in love with the last lot in a neighborhood, and it could be wide and shallow. Or, yet again, you might choose a cul-de-sac lot that'd necessitate a rather narrow front dimension. - The neighborhood you choose may specify what you can and can't have in a house; for example, the neighborhood in which we're going to build specifies only all-brick or stone and at least 1900 sf. Some neighborhoods require that the house plans are approved by committee, others require very specific items such as a specific roof pitch, a garage of a certain type or size, insist up on two-stories, even mailboxes of a certain type. - You may find a great deal on an oddly-shaped lot, and this fairly predictable rectangular house may not work on it. - You may find that very simple lot that you think has no real distinguishing characteristics and can accomodate pretty much any house plan, and your builder may tell you that because of geographical features of the lot, the driveway /garage MUST be placed on the left instead of the right ... and that throws off what you wanted to do. So until you know where you're going to build, it's absolutely not a waste of time to go through plans and develop a strong sense of what you want ... but don't get your heart set on anything specific until you've chosen your building spot. To get the square footage down, I think the size of your bedrooms are way too large. My master is 15 X 16 and it fits a king size bed, two end tables, GC stand, a dresser and a recliner. I think the rest of the bedrooms could be sized down to 12 X 12. It really is enough room. Your guest bath could also bescaled down. Just don't skimp on the closet sizes. Agree. Your bedrooms are all master-sized rooms, and that's not really a plus in a house -- it just means you need more furniture and your heating bill will be higher. Also, ask yourself if you need a walk-in closet in the guest room; I think this, like the upstairs walk-in storage, is a space that just fell into existence -- you want to control the rooms, not allow them to control you. I think you've defaulted to "oversized rooms" throughout this plan, especially in the bedrooms ... but in other areas you're skimpy. For example, you really don't want to build a study that's only 9' wide; by the time you account for wall thickness, this is going to be a massively tiny room -- it might work if you open it towards the foyer and use double French doors, but in its current rendition it's essentially the same size as your closet. Note, too, that once you allow walkways on three sides of the great room, you're going to have a fairly small area for seating. Yet in the dining room you've allotted space for a long table, yet really too much width -- the proportion of the room's going to feel "off". You might say "elegance" instead of proportion; an elegant room is properly sized, fits well into the grand scheme of things, enhances the house ... this first-draft house plan feels more choppy and haphazzard than elegant. Back to bedrooms: I also agree on fairly large closets; large closets allow rooms to be smaller and keep rooms neater. With that being said, all of those components, no matter their layout requires a decent amount of footprint. I don't want to have to compromise on these spaces because of the land. Consider that an average house in America is between 2000 and 2400 -- you're looking at building something significantly larger. Is this realistic in terms of budget? Not just building, but also maintaining, insuring, cleaning? If it is budget-appropriate, do you really want to dump this much money and this much time into your house? Is this over sized house going to fit on the rather modest sized lot you're anticipating? If you needed to sell it, would a house of this size sell easily in your area? I'm in no hurry to do this and would rather find the perfect land that would accommodate a house with these spaces. I agree that "right" trumps "fast", and I have the impression that you're very much still in the "developing ideas" phase. Don't rush through this. So with all those constraints are we talking 0.5 acre, 0.75 acre, or more for minimum? More. If you want a large house, an over sized garage, a pool and a garden, you realistically can't do that on 1/2 an acre. Test it. Go onto your county's GIS system and look at lots and houses -- pick houses that have pools -- you can easily see the lot size, the square footage of the house. You'll find that 1/2 acre lots can support a house of about 2000 sf and a medium pool ... but they're really tight. At an acre you can include the larger house, the deck and screened porch ... but not with a whole lot of room between you and the neighbors. Upstairs: the kids will not use the kids study. They just won't. Those are long, dark, narrow hallways. They separate the boys from one another, and from the action downstairs. Agree and agree. No reason the kids can't study in their bedrooms. I agree that this floorplan has excessive hallways. Why not just give each bedroom its own bathroom, or let them share one bathroom with hall access? Again, agree. This bathroom is overly complicated with too many doors. What it doesn't have is storage space by the vanities. I suggest a plain and simple 3-piece bath opening on the hall. Not set on 2 staircases. Husband wanted that....I think to have an easy access to the bonus room. Staircases require more square footage than you realize, and they are a very big line item in the budget. Other thoughts: - Pay attention to all your doors. For example, note that once you place a table in your dining room, you won't be able to comfortably reach that door. You also don't want doors that open towards the outside ... think about the hinges, think about what's going to happen to the doors in the rain. - Look, too, at where the interior doors "park". The study has it right: When the door is open, it lays against a wall. Now look at the master bedroom -- the door is in the middle of the room, meaning you have an uncomfortable spot "behind the door". You want doors to open into the corners of rooms. And look at the guest bathroom: When you walk in, you're looking at the toilet -- nicer to walk in to a view of the sink/mirror; it makes the room feel larger. Also, if this door is left open (and it will be), it blocks the hallway. - Note that you could easily use the guest bathroom as your downstairs powder room. It's in a private location and is accessible to guests. This would be a very big money saver. - Pay attention to sizes in bathrooms; for example, neither the guest nor master bathroom has a vanity of adequate size to support two sinks ... and neither one has any storage at the sink. In both places, you'd be better off with one sink and a stack of drawers for your necessities. Note, too, that the toilet closet in the master bathroom is minimal in size; it'll be uncomfortable to use and impossible to clean -- since the 2'6" door barely opens into it, I'm thinking it's smaller than code. - You say you're not clear on "good flow". Consider the pathways you'd take through the house to complete daily tasks. Here are two examples: Look at the red line. It's the flow between your master closet and the laundry room. It's awful. Look at how many turns, how many rooms you must walk through, how many doors you must open -- all while carrying a laundry basket. Don't miss the "pinch point" formed between the coat closet and the island. This is too complicated a line. On the other hand, you have very good "food flow". Look at the blue line. You come in from the garage, and the pantry is located near the door. You put your food away before continuing on into the house / no interruption of the cook, no traipsing through the kitchen. Then when you're ready to cook, the food comes out of the pantry, moves to the sink, is cooked nearby and it moves straight on to the table for serving. This keep-things-moving-in-one direction is what you want. Consider other daily patterns. Think through your return home from work, your kids setting up their materials to do their homework, washing the dog. In all cases, you want to arrange the house so that you have space and storage where you need them -- not too far, not too close, no backtracking. Often houses with good flow have a circular pattern, which allows people to move from one area of the house to another. For example, look at this oh-so-simple houseplan:You could use the foyer to reach any room, or you could "circle through" the butler's pantry to reach the rooms. Everything's close together and accessible. This is what's meant by "good flow". - What's the elevation going to look like? And the roofline? I'm not able to visualize a roofline from these drawings. - You've placed the two first floor bedrooms on the sides and a screened porch on the back ... the result is that your living spaces, the places where you'll spend most of your waking hours, are squished into the middle. They'll have less natural light than the bedrooms. You could alter this by moving the guest room upstairs (and it could use some of that walk-in storage or the bonus room). This would allow natural light into your kitchen. - Consider, too, that you want to attempt to "stack" your walls and your plumbing in a two-story house. Two-story walls are easier to build, and electrical and plumbing can be run "straight up" to the second floor. This is a big money saver. - I'd move the dog cubbie to the mud room. It'd be quieter for the dogs, and it'd get them out of the way when you have guests who don't necessarily want to be around the dogs. I'd also move the coat closet out of the kitchen and into the mud room.