i should have mentioned that the designer forgot that I asked not to put a belt of stone on the bottom of the home sections. That garage stone will be gone.

Also, there will be more elevation showing on the right side of the home because it is a walk out. So maybe the stone can be directed towards the foundation level.

Extend the shed dormer to include the bathroom and the rooms on each side and add more windows, or do three shed dormers, adding one in each room.

great idea. any way to move that tub away from the outer wall so I can have all the windows right next to each other?

extended on both sides into both bedrooms it could look something like this, correct?
[img]

[Traditional Exterior[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-exterior-home-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_736~s_2107) by Minneapolis Architects & Designers Charlie Simmons - Charlie & Co. Design, Ltd.[/img]

if so, very nice, but what goes in that dormer space in the bedrooms?

Move the tub on the same side as the toilet and put the vanity in that location.

Toilets (28" and tubs 30") are similar in depth and the linen closet can be adjusted to typical vanity depth (21"-22")

What goes in the dormer? A window seat with storage? It does alter the bed location so you may need to think about optimal bed locations when looking at window placement and sill height.

thanks. we were thinking about a pocket door to separate the watercloset and tub from the vanity portion (we'd have to shorten the vanity to do this).

If we switch the location of the vanity and tub, does it still make sense to have a pocket door there (now separating the toilet and vanity from the tub and linen closet)?

any comments on my exterior elevation at all please?

illinigirl - wish I had practical advice on your questions but it takes me forever to look at plans and get a visual of the things you are asking - I don't have that gift that so many here seem to have to actually READ plans and and immediately see the issues. However I can comment on your front elevation - I like it a lot. I like the mix of shake and b&b siding. Have you posted the rest of your floor plan? I look at everyone's plans and want the master from one, the kitchen from another, this family room, that screened porch.......!!!!

Probably not really, but there may be another way to get some separation, maybe the toilet and one sink on one side of a pocket door and the bathtub and one sink on the other side?

I like the elevation, I think it is cohesive.

I really like your elevation. Very nice and I think the shade and b&b siding will look great. The last elevation you posted with the shed dormer all the way across is really nice. I want to mention that you can use brick to cover the exposed foundation instead of stone. Either would look great. Here is the 2005 southern living idea house with brick over the foundation. If you google it you can see other pictures. I'm partial to white houses.

palimplest I really like that idea! And it would get me three windows right in a row in the dormer. I think maybe the only (maybe?) negative is having a tub right when I walk in the bathroom....is that a big deal? I hope not because this solves a lot for me. I thought of putting in a shower only to save on space but that may be a negative for resale.

thanks for the thumbs up on the elevation. We have a second meeting with the designer tomorrow because there are still some things to work through on the plan. The pantry being the huge one. I will post it to see if anyone has any good ideas.

[img]

We need to cut a bit of square footage to get down closer to 2300 on the main floor. Master closet, shower, and study/bedroom (the first room on the right off of the foyer) are prime candidates for that. Plus the pantry is way bigger than I need. I do need a big pantry because I need all foodstuffs stored there and able to be locked up due to my special needs child, but this is overboard.

Also I'd like to move the entrance to the pantry a couple feet to the left into the kitchen proper. My husband is concerned about creating depth to the kitchen because of the long island it will seem like a narrow kitchen, so we had a thought of putting a beverage station in the location where the current entry to the pantry is. Of note I don't think the island will be 12 feet like it is in the plan....more like 9-10.

any thoughts would be appreciated though! thanks!

Since the tub is 60" you can have part of the excess taken up by the linen closet in the hall for the door to swing against.

So it would be hall linen closet, tub, toilet down one side and linen closet, vanity/vanity down the other.

pps,
I adore white houses too! I don't think I could get my husband to go for it....living in Michigan our house would disappear for almost 6 months of the year!

The color scheme we are thinking, since the board and batten will be hardi plank, along with the trim, is one of the hardi blue options- either boothbay blue or evening blue. white trim, black accents (maybe the windows??) and I would love to see a barn red door with that.

To save a little money (a lot actually) we are going to go with vinyl shakes, fascia and soffit.....the hardi siding and hardi trim will be on all 4 sides of the house though. I hope that's ok.

any other comments on the rest of the floor plan? we have another meeting to discuss plans later today.

thanks for all the inputs so far!

I would want the pantry door closer to the kitchen proper. I think it could easily be moved to the left.

I am bothered by the way the different rooms shoulder into each other on the right in the Den/Master Bath/Master Bedroom complex:

The den has a clipped corner entry and a bite taken out of it. I would want to resolve the bite taken out of the corner with a built in. I don't like corner entries, particularly when they show up singly in an entire floorplan (Its the only angle in the public part of the house). It's bias, but I would probably square up that corner and put the door on one wall or the other (or get rid of the bite and leave the angle.

Same with the master bedroom. There is a half-vestibule at the entry and I would either want to make a vestibule that contained the room doorswing entirely or just pull the door up even with the wall and create more hallway outside.

Everybody everybody puts in those big bathtubs in the window and the vast majority of people do not use them *over *the *life* of *the *house very much. A dozen people will come out of lurkdom to say how much they love their garden tub and spend hours in it every day just to contradict me, but the design and building community has done studies/surveys that show that over time these do not get a lot of use once the novelty has worn off. If you need to cut square footage, I would probably rework the bathroom to make it a bit smaller and put in a conventional tub and a large shower like you have, but tighten up the floorplan a bit. The bath/closet complex is bigger than any other space in the house save the great room, it looks like.

And, I think I would try to put a small shower in the mudroom powder room, by reworking that area a bit.

Thanks! I have to say most of the things you mentioned are the same things that bother me. However my husband for whatever reason loves that angled entrance. I wanted to move the door exactly across from the bedroom door.

Agreed about the space in the master bathroom. I will be asking to reduce closet space and if it were up to me I would also get rid of the tub. At least make it smaller. Again I am one one of two making these decisions and my husband is asking for the tub.
one of my other concerns is the angled entrance to the master bath. It takes away valuable wall space for our king bed and 30 inch night stands. I really wanted some extra seating in the master bedroom....a small love seat or chair.
nice idea about the shower in the powder.
I also want the pantry moved left into the actual kitchen.

thanks again.

Oh, let's say I negotiate my hardest to get the study/ den wall squared off but I can't sway my husband in that direction......what did you mean by helping it with a built in? What kind of built in are you talking about?

The shower takes a bite out of the corner of that room. I would consider putting some kind of built in shelves or storage between that and the front wall of the room.

I don't think the angled door there is such a bad thing on it's own, but the combination of the angle and the piece taken out of the corner make the shape of the room pretty irregular.

Why does your husband want the big bathtub, will he use it or is he just intrigued by the idea of it?

I have had to deal with husbands (or builders) on projects who will latch onto something because they think it is "cool" and for no other reason. One husband was fixated on a giant shower with body sprays and a skylight. He got it, but he also got a separate dedicated hot water tank and pressure system at moderate expense to run the whole thing because it trickled out when everything was turned on and would have used all the hot water in conventional system in under 5 minutes.

I've also had them insist on expensive beverage drawers and icemakers and such simply on the gadget factor. And sometimes they like very expensive design features, just because they were complex and hard to build, not because they ever really *look at them.

So find out why your husband wants the tub, if he thinks he will use it a lot that's fine, but if he wants it just because it's big, maybe you can talk him out of it, especially if you need to trim some square footage.

Pal, I will be the first to admit that we don't use the tub in our master bath. We put in a claw foot tub which takes up less floor space. And my consolation is that it's like a sculpture in the room. I don't regret the big picture window though. It's directly across from our shower and the view is visible from our vanities so we enjoy it multiple times per day.

I agree that I would rotate the shower and square out the study. We have a vanity on either side of the tub. you might be able to do that too by swapping the vanity and toilet. It's nice to look out the picture window while you brush your teeth and the natural light is nice too for make up application.

*whoa -- sorry for the huge image, I will try to repost later*

This post was edited by Oaktown on Tue, Jul 30, 13 at 14:45

Oh ok now I understand. We are going to put closets there.
Funny story about the body spray guy. My husband does on occasion take a bath....but we also have a hot tub outside for soaking.

The tub is a 6 foot tub but looks bigger because of the surround. Taking out the tub will reduce our square footage by 44 sq. Feet! I am hoping this will help convince him.

What do you think about a cupola on the top left near the garage? I also asked him to remove all stone to see what that looks like. We can add it back if we don't like it.