Review floor plan, please! Summerfield, you out there?

11 years ago

Please take a look at my floor plan. I'm pretty happy with everything except I'm not sure I like the location of the stairs. I like stairs that are more out of the way and closer to the living areas but I'm not sure where to move them to. Also, I eliminated a second stairway that was located in the mudroom that lead to the playroom. I really would rather only have one set of stairs but now I'm afraid that I'm going to regret eliminating those. Any thoughts on that?

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lexmomof3
Original Author
11 years ago
Here is the second floor. The other thing I'm not sure I like is the two story foyer. Suggestions?
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DreamHomeDreamer
11 years ago
If you don't like the two story foyer, make the open space above the foyer a walk-in closet for the front bedroom. That would then make the bedroom more 'fair' in terms of closet space. The other bedroom have nice sized closets and the front bedroom is cheated.

Or you don't have the need for the extra closet space, close in the area and make it a little loft instead of a wasted foyer area.
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I share the others' concerns about the living room size. The hearth room, too, will be cozy when you figure in that 1/3 of that room will serve as walkway from the garage. I like the kitchen, pantry, butler's pantry. Sizes look comfortably large but not overdone. The kitchen area is your greatest strength. I know you said you don't care for open floor plan, but I wonder if the dining room is going to feel "detached" and "enclosed". You have room for a large table in the kitchen area -- how often is this dining room going to be used? I'm seeing more and more one-dining area houses. If this were my house, I'd consider ditching the dining room and opening up some windows to the casual dining area. This would allow you the square footage to make the living room more comfortable. Guest room -- you're giving the guests more space than the kids? And only 1.5' less than you yourself, the home owner! That's not how I'd have allotted the space. I don't like the guest closet; it'll always be knocking against the entrance door, and IF this ever needed to be a "real bedroom", this isn't much space. I also wouldn't "split" the guest bath -- splitting costs more money and this is already a small bath; I'd rather see it in one space. If you bump Bedroom 2 forward to "match" Bedroom 3's forward wall, you could place Bedroom 2's closet against the bathroom . . . and give Bedroom 2's current closet to the guest bedroom. And you could open the tiny closet to the hall as an always-welcome linen closet, or an open bookshelf. I do like how you've split the jack-and-jill. Much more simple than people here ususally make these rooms, yet it gives you all the benefits of a jack-and-jill. I agree that the laundry is pretty minimal. I agree with the previous poster who pointed out that machine sizes vary, and 10-15 years from now when you need to replace your current machines, you don't want to be limited by a tiny laundry. I also think your master closet is vastly undersized. You're using all the square footage of a walk-in, but you're really only getting the storage of a reach-in -- in my book, the whole reason to build is to have these functional areas work comfortably. Any old living room will do, but it's the functional areas that drive you nuts. Likewise, I don't like your master bath a bit. It's on the edge of the house -- good! You can have light from two sides -- so you can do anything with its shape. Don't build an uncomfortable bowling alley. Without having sketched it out, I think I'd look at turning this bath 90 degrees . . . and splitting the closets into two, allowing that little indentation hallway to split the closets. Then as you enter the bath (which would be wider), you'd see the tub straight ahead of you and have your other items evenly divided behind the two closets. I think this concept has merit. Regardless, you need a little more space in the bathroom /closet area . . . I personally would give up a bit of the bedroom to make these items comfortable. One final concern: I see that the plumbing is strown across the whole house. Ideally bathrooms would be "backed up against one another" or located adjacent to the kitchen. Keeping your plumbing compact is one way of keeping your costs down. Also, the farther your plumbing lines run, the more likely you'll have an expensive leak in your walls at some point in the future, and if your plumbing is all "compact", it can all be closer to the hot water heater, which means faster service. I think the big thing here is allocation of square footage. This house seems to be about guests: A large place for them to sleep, a large place for them to dine . . . but it's at the expense of everyday life. If I could do only one thing here, it'd be REALLOCATE THAT SPACE. I personally would reduce the guest bathroom and eliminate the dining room . . . then I'd use that space to make a larger, comfortable living room and a comfortable master bath /closet.
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I totally agree with the hallway comment. I'm really concerned about it and that is truly the main reason I tried to post the updated plans here. As far as squaring up that corner... it is hard to describe what happens to the contour of the land. It falls away in that direction so the view is absolutely the best off of that corner. I can't turn the house because there is no way for the garage to work out. Like I said, it is very difficult to describe. I will attach our first attempt at a house plan, which was drawn to take advantage of the lay of the land. There were quite a few issues with this version. Mainly, we were told the cost for all the peculiar angles would be very expensive. We tried to enlarge, improve and still incorporate the best view. If we moved this portion to the basement then we would square up the corner and incorporate more windows. I'm really hoping someone can suggest a better flow/layout on that side. I am very happy with the master portion. We currently live in a house where the bedrooms are all together, and with teenagers it really isn't optimal... Thanks again for the input!!! Saftgeek-
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AlexHouse - This isn't quite the first floor plan, it's probably the 20th or so. It's just the first one done not on paper and that I felt was closer to what I'm striving for and therefore 'worthy' of being posted on the site. I've been looking at plans for about 8 months, following this forum for about 4 months (slowly learning from summerfield and many other great posts here) and will still continue. Your comment isn't overly negative at all! It's exactly the type of feedback that I was looking for. While the 3D views certainly help me see how they relate to the human body (at least better than my paper drawings), they're still a bit misleading and I'll continue working on that. Excellent suggestion for saving variations! I already have a few and will continue! Kitchen entry - I overlooked it and will definitely expand. I read that 3 feet for hall space was normal, 4 ideal, should I stick to that or somewhere in the middle for the kitchen? Right now it's pretty flexible by shrinking the island and that spare area across from the pantry. Master closet width - I never considered the aisle width. I can easily expand it and take up more space in the master. Right now the width is 5'3". How wide to avoid the shimmy? Toilet - Another measurement I didn't consider. It seemed that since the program doesn't allow the toilet to be right up against the wall, it was automatically putting in the code requirements. I'm pretty small, so on a 3D view it didn't look bad to me. I'll definitely expand it and look into code requirements. Second floor - The second floor is directly over the garage. I decided to put it here for various reasons. I wanted to take advantage of the view of the backyard wooded area rather than just my neighbors and garage (which would have been the view above the main portion of the house). I also wanted some distance from the kids rooms, but still be on the same floor if needed. The kids floors will be added later in the unfinished area. The second set of stairs (in an enclosed room, if that makes sense), go to the attic. I don't care for the pull down stairs. Hall - I can reduce the wall on the first floor to shorten the hallway, leaving the living room more open, but I don't see how I could reduce the hall space to the master.
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Thanks for the replies guys... as for copyright, maybe you could consider it if you want to but it has way to many changes from the original. My cousin is an architect and said that it would be better off drawing from scratch than using their plan and modifying it due to all the changes. dekeoboe - As for simple, I like the look. It looks very large due to the garage in the picture. Lots of other plans that I have liked online are all much more complex as far as layout and the foundation plans. Lots of corners, shapes, more complex roof lines, etc. The actual house (while wide) would look like a normalish house in the area. The spiral staircase is the only way up and all furniture would be loaded from the upstairs balcony. The laundry room could use some trimming but Im not sure how to best do it. I guess the outdoor room off the garage could be bigger. This is where the water heater for the house would go. Also I will probably find a way to trim the extra closet (smaller one) and laundry out of the plan. When I get home I will do a screenshot of the lot. The neighbor on the left has a 5600sq ft house and the neighbor on the right 4600sq ft. For the most part they take up most of their frontage view. Lyfia - Tandem garage has been considered and may just happen.
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kirkhall
11 years ago
Because I have a cape style house... The right hand upper floor bedroom's bath will not likely have room for a mirror above the vanity as laid out... In our house, we have this setup and while it works well to have the toilet tucked under the eaves/on the knee wall (like in the middle bedroom's bath) it really doesn't work well for the sink. The slope of the roof will probably start too low to hang a mirror above the sink that will reflect anything higher than your mid-belly... I'd consider reorganizing that bathroom by turning the sink/vanity 90* and putting it on the window wall... Or something similar. If you have a tall knee wall there, this isn't a concern. But our knee wall is a 5' wall and that isn't high enough for a useful vanity mirror.

As for the stairs... Will you have a basement? (In my area, they aren't common, so that isn't as silly a question as you might guess). If not, you can reverse the direction of the stairs, and close up the foyer for a little sitting area/common area at the top/front of the house.

If you need basement stairs, then, how do you plan to use the little space between the LR and the FR/Master hallway? I think I would consider making the stairs a U shape with the top and bottom of the U in that hall way rather than an L shape. You could relocate the space that is now between the LR/FR to near the foyer.
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lexmomof3
Original Author
11 years ago
DreamHomeDreamer: That's a great solution. Not sure where the stairs will end up ultimately but I'll keep that in mind. Thanks!

Kirkhall, good catch on the vanity. I'll have to check with the architect. We're in the south, so basements are common where we are and we're not doing on. I thought about turning the stairs but I'm worried that the foyer will look odd with a dead space between the back of the stairs and the front doorway. Any thoughts? I'll google to see if I can find a picture. I really need a visual.
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lavender_lass
11 years ago
Can you access the living room, from the entry? It looks like a nice layout and those stairs will be beautiful, at Christmas time.

I think I would put the second staircase, back into your plan. It will be nice for the kids to go from the mudroom to their bedrooms, without walking all the way through the house, to the entry.

And, I really like DreamHomeDreamer's suggestion, about making the area above the entry, into a walk in closet! That will be a great use of space :)
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mydreamhome
11 years ago
Lexmom-I haven't reloaded my pics yet, but as soon as I do, I'll post a pic of our home's exterior as you requested. Seems like there should be a pic somewhere in the 'How is your build progressing?' threads from maybe last July, August or Sept.

You have a very nice plan overall. There are several things I would think about...

-Is the laundry room large enough for the # of people living in the house?

-No bathroom near the garage entrance--picture this..DH is hot, sweaty and dirty from mowing the grass/gardening & the kids are dirty from playing outside and making mudpies--do you really want them having to traipse all the way through the mudroom, kitchen, family room and hall to get to the bathroom trailing dirt and grime as they go?

-Do you really need 3 areas to eat (breakfast room, island seating & dining room)? That's square footage that could be cut & save $$$ or you can trade that square footage for something else--like enlarging the area behind the garage to enable a powder room to be added and a larger more functional laundry room.

-Is 16x18 wide enough for the family room? Subtract ~2' for the fireplace protruding into the room, and a minimum of 3' for the walkway behind the sofa and you're down to 11x18 for usable furniture space.

-In the master bedroom, 13'4" is a little too narrow IMO to place a bed with a dresser/armoire on the opposite wall and still have a nice size path to walk between them/open drawers.

-The living room is a "dead end" room where the rest of the common areas on the first floor are open. Have you thought about opening it up on the foyer side?

You may want to check out some of John Tee's plans. Many of his plans are very similar in layout to what you're after (note that the exterior elevation may not be exactly what you're after). Here are links to a few plans that helped us tremendously when it came to trying to decide stair placement and other layout issues. You may want to browse through his various plans on his website and see if any of them would work for what you're after.

http://store.johntee.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=JT&Product_Code=1003&Category_Code=2500-3000

http://store.johntee.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=JT&Product_Code=1320&Category_Code=OVER-3000

http://store.johntee.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=JT&Product_Code=1327&Category_Code=OVER-3000

http://store.johntee.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=JT&Product_Code=335&Category_Code=OVER-3000

Hope this helps!

Here is a link that might be useful: House Plans by John Tee
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summerfielddesigns
11 years ago
i'll review your plan , as time permits ... :-)
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lexmomof3
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks mydreamhome and Summerfield!
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lexmomof3
Original Author
11 years ago
Mydreamhome: Thanks for posting the additional plans to review. Here's a few answers to your questions.

-size of laundry room. I think it's big enough. What I currently have is just slightly smaller and works fine for us. I'm also considering putting a second laundry room on the second floor. I have a 14,10, and 7 yr old up there. My 14 yo will be responsible for helping with laundry.

-No bathroom near the garage entrance--good point. Will reconsider.

-Do you really need 3 areas to eat? Unfortunately, yes. The island won't be big enough for the six of us to eat at. I plan for it to be big enough for all four kiddos, though. I wanted to do away with the formal dining room as you have but dh and designer advised against for resale purposes.

-Size of family room. You're right. That's not big enough. I was thinking that the 16' did not include the fireplace but I'm sure you're right that it does.

-In the master bedroom, 13'4" is a little too narrow. Yes, that was a concern too. I currently have 15.5" and it's perfect.

-The living room is a "dead end" room. This will be my 2 year old's bedroom until our daughter goes to college in four years and then it will be a guest suite so I don't want it to open to the foyer. We don't need a formal living room. I know the closet isn't technically "in" the bedroom but I'm ok with that since it will eventually only be a guest bedroom.

Thanks for your suggestions and help!
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Review floor plan, please! Summerfield, you out there?

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lexmomof3
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Review floor plan, please! Summerfield, you out there?

Comments (9)

lexmomof3Original Author

DreamHomeDreamer

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mydreamhome

summerfielddesigns

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lexmomof3
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