second floors can be awesome for letting you put your living rooms (kitchen fam,liv, ect on the firast floor. They tend to be less expensive than firat floor sqaure footage. No addittional foundation or roof. My house is going to have a walk out basement with lots of windows. I wont be finishing it just yet but I want it to be ready when I do! I do like first floor masters but I like a master sweet of almost 600 square feet. this can be a lot to take of of the first floor! In the northeast it hurts resale to not have a second floor. If you plan on using basement for bedrooms/guest rooms use lots of windows

For starters, stop calling it a basement. If it's finished nicely, call it a lower level. ;)

We're on a lake and have a set up similar to yours. Master and one guest on main level. Three bedrooms on lower level (one is exercise room). The LL is so large, we did away with upper level (room over garage, bedroom and bath) but did build the area sturdy so it can be added onto if the next owner desires.

We poured our walls at 14ft. This left plenty of room for plumbing and HVAC between the LL and Main. Ceilings in the LL are just over 10ft.

fwiw, the lower level will have better views (more even with the water) if you're on a lake like we are. If you have mountain views, as long as you put in large windows on the upper level you'll have great views from their too.

Here's the back of our house. You can't really see the windows/french doors but the Main has four sets of double french doors going onto the back veranda and the lower level has one double and three triple sets of french doors going onto the lower veranda. The doors line up with the arches and the view is not obstructed.

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This was our second home in Avon, CO. The view was out the front. It was three stories tall with garages on the lowest level, Main floor living (two master suites, kitchen, etc) and two guest rooms on the upper floor in the back (they had windows over looking the great room/could see mountain view out the front of house). Great room - center windows. Windows/decks on each end are master suites.

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Back of house - center windows belong to guest rooms/baths, triangle windows on either end/lower belong to master baths on main level. Main level windows below. Doors going into back yard are not visible.

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Great Room View:

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The best thing is to work with the architect to get the best view for your dollar.

We were thinking along the same lines as you, but decided to do a 2 level home-main level with a walkout. We did not want to 'live' on 3 levels, our site lends itself more to a wide but not deep home and we found it more cost effective to have 2 levels over 3. Also because if we built up we would have had alot of raised decks and we wanted to walk right out into our yard from some areas of the home.

You might try the Don Gardner website, there are several nice plans with the lower level walkout. We used the Dogwood Ridge as a starting place for our design as it was the closest to what we are looking for. We designed the bedrooms so that each one on the lower level will have 2 outside walls so that we will have lots of windows to bring in light and views. The ceilings will be 9' in ours.
If you decide on 3 levels there are some that have master on the main, 2 bedrooms & a bonus room up and a bedroom and rec room on the lower level.

Good Luck, and Welcome!

Our DIL's parents have a second home in Michigan. It's a beautiful log house with three levels. The home had a master on the first floor, but they opted to finish out a loft as a master suite. There are laundry and guest facilities on the lower, walk-out, level. The main level has 10-12 foot ceilings. DIL's mom nearly died last year when she fell down the whole straight flight of stairs from upper level to main level. She still has some speech dificulties from the skull fracture/brain swelling.

I'd suggest that, if you want this to be your retirement home, you put in an elevator -- or build only two levels with all YOU need on the first floor. I'm also on a campaign against straight runs of stairs!

That's awful, Chisue! Bless her heart. Our CO house had an elevator. We didn't see the need to put one in here but I sort of wish we did for later on.

Wow, thanks for all the replies and wonderful pictures! Seems to be close to an even split between two and three levels. And good arguments for both.

I guess we really need to think about how we would use the other space on the lower level and look at more floor plans for ideas. And of course, get a better idea of the cost difference.

Oh, and either way definitely stacking closets for a future elevator.

Thanks again for your thoughts!

I'm doing 3. I really wanted an upstairs bedroom for the feeling of light and space. I put the exercise room up there, too, because if it isn't near my room, I won't use it. And the library/office is a loft space looking over the great room.

I'll still have a main floor bedroom, though: if I break a leg or something, I don't want to have to climb up and down.

As a general rule, basement footage is the cheapest you can buy, Second floor is cheaper than main floor.

Like you, my guest and fun room [pool table, etc.] is in the walkout basement.

The key for me was setting the size of the mainfloor, putting the must have rooms in the must have sizes in place.

That set the size of the other two floors, it was just a matter of making the most of the spaces.

If you don't need the upstairs space, don't have one. If you do put bedrooms up there, you'll probably want a bath as well, and that's when things get pricey.

Ok, I've been biting my tongue on this, but I have to speak up even though it is only slightly relevent. A house that has a basement and one additional floor is not a 2 story house. It is a one story house or a "ranch". A 2 story house is what the OP is calling a 3 story house - an above grade floor (first floor) and then a level above that (second floor). A true 3 story house would have an additional floor above that, such as a walk-up attic that has windows.

A "story" is an above grade floor. Basements are not "stories". A house with a basement and a floor above would be a "one story with basement".

Here is a link that might be useful: See #3

We're not discussing the "legal" description of a story for taxation purposes.

I had a basement in my last house. It was only open on the garage end. Our current home is open on three sides, built against a hillside. It does not have a basement. It is not dark, dank and dreary with low ceilings.

The house in CO was also built against the hillside. Trust me, you don't say or think "I live in a 1.5 story home" when you have three flights of stairs to climb to get to the top at a high altitude! ;)

In Florida (and other places) they are building homes with the bedrooms on the lowest level/story and the living areas on the second level/story - flipped houses, so that you enjoy the views during waking hours and sleep where the views are not their best since they would be wasted. You can call it whatever you want and the tax assessor can do the same.

(((((lower leverl)))))) I LOVE IT!

Allison, I didn't have time to read this entire thread. My eyes somehow managed to fall upon your "lower level" termoinology.

Yep, My new favorite word(s).

Met with the builder today and I think we've come up with a plan. As I mentioned in my original post, the primary living spaces including the master suite will be on the main level. We'll try to plan a partial third level to handle the two guest bedrooms and 1 or 2 baths. It will probabaly go above the master bed/bath/laundry area since the great room will have cathedral ceilings. Similar in concept to what Alison 0704 describes about her CO home.

Then we'll build only a partial lower level walkout for the rec room (TV, pool table, etc). Basically longways across the back to maximize the windows/doors. The bath, wine cellar, etc can be behind the rec area. This way, all of the living areas will have windows/doors and not feel like/be a basement

Hopefully, the reduced excavation (we're expecting rock)and smaller space will help offset some the expense of the third level. We'll see.

I'm so glad we're not on a time table, this is going to take time to get just right.

My GC learned right quick it was a lower level - so did the framers and everyone else. It became a joke along with how much copper went on/inside the house. :)

My first and only basement was dark, dank and dreary. This one has over 10ft ceilings, finishes equal to the main level and some of the best views so it needed a better name!

Glad you're getting the floorplan more to your liking, kangell. It will be worth the extra effort.