Which way is north? What climate do you live in?

It appears there is no door to the master suite. Was that intentional or is it missing? There is a lot of open space in the middle of the large, master closet.

I'm sorry, I meant to include that. If you drew a line parallel to garage doors and master bedroom wall where the bed is, the garage end of the line would be north. The rear of the house will have a lot of southern sun, which is what I want. We're in Virginia, so the climate is pretty moderate.

There's a door to the bedroom. The closet and bathroom doors are outside of the bedroom because my husband gets up before 5am most days and he isn't quiet. I know that isn't typical, but it's very functional for us.

We're planning to add built-ins to the master closet, but that will only be added once we see our projected cost to build.

With 30 acres, why on earth have a front opening garage? And where will visitors approach the house and park? Finding the front door is a bit of "Where's Waldo?" as it's not really easy to see. I'm also not really a fan of the bathroom toilet backing up to the entryway from a noise factor, and from what that does to your entry way. I'd rather see it back to back with the master, and have the study be across the hall from the DR.

Good to see that there isn't 5 dozen places to eat and a master suite that's half the space of the whole house! The kitchen is efficient, but can be tweaked if you wish to have more than one person preparing meals.

Will your daughter and son share that tiny bathroom next to bedroom 2 and 3? The bath next to the study is bigger than that one. I would see if that could be reworked.

Maybe you could shrink the bath by the study (which I'm assuming is for guests) and enlarge the one for your kids.

Overall I like it. Seem to suit your purposes. I really like the master separation from the bath and closet, but I don't like that the closet and bath are not closed off from the rest of the house as in when having guests or childrens friends over they could walk down that hallway or past it as you come undressed out of the bath to get into the closet across the hallway. I would want a set of doors to close off that area to become a true suite. I'd keep the door to the bedroom too though.

The other area is the kids bath. That is very cramped as compared to the other baths. Not enough counter space. The tub will be hard to reach and clean behind the toilet and not much space to move around for a teen girl getting ready.

@hollysprings: The front entry garage is necessary because the house will sit on a knoll, and we'll need the space to the left for an additional driveway that will lead to a 4 car garage. While we are on 30 acres, only 5-6 is cleared. I'm adding the elevation to see if that solves the hidden front door you addressed. I'll look at the study/bath combo you mentioned; you're right about the toilet. It's important that I have quiet and privacy when I'm working, so having the door open off the main living space wouldn't work for me. Yes, I think some tweaks are needed in the kitchen. It was important that we have a large gathering area to prep/cook/eat/socialize, and I made the aisles 4 ft to accommodate the traffic. Where do you see potential problems?

{{gwi:1481823}}

@okpokesfan and @lyfia: You hit the problem spot for me. I can't figure out how to improve that bathroom. We've played with moving it between the bedrooms, but it just doesn't want to work. I'm stuck, and hope one of you can see something I don't.

@lyfia: I originally planned a door to make that a suite, but it quickly became a hallway of doors. My hubby Xed that because he said it would never be closed. He's probably right. Now, if I could put a pocket door between the master closet and media closet, that may be a solution.

Keep the thoughts coming, it's so helpful to have other eyes looking at this.

This post was edited by tonyab122 on Wed, Jul 24, 13 at 22:31

Here's a version of the plan with more dimensions listed:

{{gwi:1481824}}

The other thing I'm debating is how to distinguish the family room and kitchen. I'm torn between running a 9ft ceiling straight across both rooms, or adding a gable and vaulting the family room. The family room isn't too large, so I don't have a lot of room to access the quad slider once the room is furnished. What do you all think of vaulting it and going with windows like this:

We could even have beams that would echo the beams in the dining room.

Bedroom #1 is master bedroom? Why do you need a central hallway connecting the bath/closet/bedroom? That is the "west wing"? Have 1 entry door to zone and have no separation between all the little "boxes"? In my world, a hallway is wasted space.

Just a couple comments...

1. You mentioned finishing the basement in the future. Are you finishing the bonus room immediately? If you finish the entire basement and the bonus, you're looking at over 6000 square feet to heat/cool/clean as you age. Might be fine for you, but that square footage seems a little excessive to me for a forever home.

2. Master Wing: three master closets is abnormal, but if it works for you go for it. The two smaller closets in the bathroom should both have their doors aligned across from each other. Having to close the main bathroom door to access a closet is inconvenient.

I'd make your master bedroom door swing into the bedroom, there's already enough going on in the hallway.

I agree with the others on the importance of separating the master hall from the rest of the home. I attached a picture where I straightened out an angle in the closet so you could have a sliding pocket door. Even if it is almost always open, being able to close it when guests are over would be nice. The way the plan is now, telling guests their bath is "the first door on the right" could potentially lead them straight to yours!

*Looks like I forgot to add the main master bath door. Whoops. Also in the master bath, you plan shows the toilet room as 4'10 by 3'6.... seems awfully small and public-bathroom-stall like. I think extending the wall with the toilet room door to line up with the closet wall would make it much less claustrophobic.

3. Kids' Wing: I played around with your plan and figured out that if you extend the Northeast exterior wall around 4' out, you can fit a nice sized jack and jill bath in the corner between the bedrooms. Not only does it give the kids some space and privacy in the bathroom, but it would enlarge the bedrooms as well.The current closets for your kids seem a bit undersized.

4. Basement Stairs: I have a major issue with these. If you plan on finishing your basement like most do, with and entertainment room, bar, theater, etc., you are going to have to usher your guests through a back hall and a mudroom to get down the dark staircase. Not ideal. A more centrally located basement staircase might be a better decision.I moved the staircase to near the kitchen, with a window high up to light the stairs. I took the space of the old stairs and made it into a coat/linen closet.

Then comes the problem of still having to access the bonus room. I rotated the stairs so they are parallel to the garage. Not only does this still provide access to the bonus room, but it makes room for another staircase underneath leading down the the lower garage. Not sure if you've even seen one of these in a house, but a staircase from the garage into the basement/lower garage is somewhat common and is ultra convenient for moving furniture and accessing storage.

That's about all I have for now... hope it helps.

@nicke360 You are WONDERFUL! Thank you for taking the time to help. I'll respond to your list:

1- The basement will not be finished until our parents need help as they age. We're going to have a family room, kitchen, bath and 2 bedrooms down there so they can have their own space.

2- Love the solution with a pocket door! I missed the toilet area being small, glad you caught that. This change is a definite.
3- I played with that kids area trying to do exactly what you accomplished. I'm so excited to have that solved. The only problem may be increasing the budget to add the space and another set of stairs.

4- I love the concept, now to convince my hubby we should spend more money to do this! You very wisely gave him access to his lower garage, which may make it easy to sell to a frugal man. Very smart, and efficient, which speaks to my heart.

Do you have any thoughts on using the ceiling treatments to distinguish the main living areas? I'm not in love with the family room because it's too narrow to allow easy access to the doors to the exterior. I wouldn't mind converting those doors to windows and having the kitchen doors as access to the deck.

Again, thank you! I love the GW community, you are all a great resource!

1- The basement will not be finished until our parents need help as they age. We're going to have a family room, kitchen, bath and 2 bedrooms down there so they can have their own space.

Then is there a plan for an elevator? Because if they need help as they get older, it is likely the stairs could be problematic.

I think it would make more sense for your kids to move to the basement and have your parents take the main floor bedroom. They could use the other mainfloor bedroom as a den.

I would try to make the basement space as nice as possible ( decent ceiling height, large windows, careful hvac placement) and possibly rough in for 2 bathrooms.

This post was edited by pps7 on Fri, Jul 26, 13 at 22:19

I do agree that, as is, you need a door to close off your master suite area.

However, I don't like the line of site through the hallway straight to your master bed. If a guest uses the bathroom next to the study and your master door is left open, they see into your bedroom as they are walking to that bathroom. So, I would try to make an entry space/vestibule that changes the line of site to make your private areas actually private. Something that doesn't waste so much space on a hallway would be ideal, but I am not sure how to do that.

As for the master bedroom itself, what do you envision on those angled walls? Consider squaring that wall off and incorporating that extra space into the closets (or some other area that is actually functional.) That is, unless you have a vision for those walls as they are.

@dekeoboe No elevator because the basement will contain a kitchen, bathroom, family room and 2 bedrooms. The purpose is for them to continue their independence, while putting them close to us for for our convenience. If it become necessary, we can add a lift to the stairs.

@lolauren The walls you question are going to be where we place 2 antique dressers that are special to us.

At this point, we're adding the pocket door to close off the master suite when necessary. We also increased the size of the water closet in the master bath. We've also reworked the kids' bathroom to move it as suggested by nicke360. We are not adding the square footage and additional stairs, but the bathroom works great between the rooms.

I should have the revisions posted next week.