2nd floor
"excercise room" is another bedroom, closet is flipped the other way

A little background on us, we are building north of boston, the living room and screened-in porch overlook access to a large park with a small beaver dam pond (pretty view). We recently sold our first home (at a loss) but are saving like crazy in an apartment now with our 4yo and 1yo ...very tight quarters but we are making it work in 2 bedrooms because we think this will be worth it! I meant to post a long time ago, but now the foundation is poured and time is running out on changes. Any advice about wall moves, kitchen layout pretty much anything would be happily recieved. Thank you for looking.

I'd post the kitchen in the kitchen forum with some better dimensions.

Read all the little things thread about what people wished they built but didn't think about. There is some very good info. Do you have plan drawings without all the numbers/dimensions? It's really hard to see if there are any conflicts with everything on it without knowing what the plan already is. Thanks.

I would make the first floor bed room closet to a small reach in and extend the mudroom into that area. Right now it is a bit tight.

Make sure you have an outswing door on the master WC and the downstairs 1/2 bath (or pocket doors).

You might want to consider (though it would mean changing the window a bit) pushing the toilet and enlarging the shower into the laundry space at the "wasted end" of the laundry room (there is a window, but what will be under it?) It might be nicer to have a larger shower for that bedroom; but that really depends on who will be using it.

I can't read the numbers on the plan. What are the sizes of the master closets? (I'm seeing a 4'x) The small one does not appear to be wide enough to walk into (the rod with clothes will take about 24") or for a door swing to work as shown unless it is a skinny door. The larger one does not appear to be wide enough to have rods on both sides.

The breakfast room appears to be larger than the dining room and the foyer enters directly into it. I suspect it will require some clever furniture placement to make it work well.

Thank you! I read a lot of mixed reviews on pocket doors, our builder isn't too into the idea. I suggested a pocket door for the pantry and first floor 1/2 bath but he wasn't into it. Should I push for them? I like the mudroom suggestion, we added it, thanks gaonmymind! we will expand the mudroom by 2' into that guest closet space. I think the smaller master is 7' not four, I have to double check that...

Landrey-great job on the plan! I think that's why you didnt get alot of responses initially. There are only a few things I see that I would do differently other than those mentioned above.

-I would move the powder room into the mudroom area. Reduce the size of that giant walk-in closet in the guest room to about 4.5'-5' wide by sliding the mudroom wall to the left and move the closet entry over toward the side wall of the bedroom as far as you can. You should have enough space to do a 1/2 bath there. My reasoning for this is that right now if someone is outside playing/working and needs to use the bathroom, they will often come through the garage and now have to traipse all the way through your house to get to the powder room potentially leaving a trail of dirt/mud/debris behind them. Or they can come in the front door and trail dirt/dust/debris through the foyer (granted a shorter trail.) Just my $0.02.

Laundry room upstairs--I'm guessing that's a counter next to the W/D? How big is the sink you're planning to use? I would shift the W/D down to where the sink is and run a counter from the end of the W/D to the corner and then down across under the window. I'd put the sink next to the W/D with a sink base cabinet and hanging space above then I'd put pullout hampers along the short wall like these:

Reasoning--that's a small space and as the kids get older, the laundry only gets worse. Having an efficient space that easily allows for sorting and storing the dirties, as well as allowing for plenty of folding and hanging space will help keep the laundry (and potentially the rest of your house when it comes to laundry) neater & more organized.

I think you posted the kitchen in the kitchen forum and asked about building in a regular sized fridge or making the counters deeper. Personally, I wouldn't make the counters deeper--that will significantly increase your cabinet & countertop costs. Since you have the fridge placed on an exterior wall, recessing it back likely won't work as you need space for insulation in that wall. I'd suggest either going with a counter depth fridge (we love ours & I was really worried about going from full depth to counter depth--link to ours below) or moving the fridge to the opposite wall where the bar sink is and you could either leave the bar sink there or move it to the island.

Hope this helps!

Here is a link that might be useful: mydreamhome's CD Fridge

You NEED a pocket door on the 1/2 bath downstairs (or outswing)... How do you suppose one will get in there, close the door, and get to the toilet otherwise? They'll have to stand on the sink.

And, yes, you need to either put in a pocket door or an outswing door on your master WC. If the builder isn't crazy about them, too bad! It is your house, you are paying him.

What exactly isn't he crazy about? Yes, you have to pay attention when you are constructing so that you don't drive a nail into the pocketed door. And, you need to use quality hardware (Johnson), but they last a long time when done well with no issues.

These doors that you have currently drawn in are safety hazards (not to mention, just impossible to use in the powder room). If a person should become ill and pass out (or worse) in the rooms as drawn, an EMT would literally have to tear down the door because the hinges are on the inside of the room and they wouldn't be able to "open" the door with the dead weight of a body against it. (where else will a body fall in either of these rooms? There is no place for it to go, and no place for an EMT to push it out of the way to. The door will have to be destroyed, taking precious minutes).

So, a little graphic, but you need to understand why you cannot have inswing doors on those tiny toilet rooms.

Thank you!! I will broach the subject of moving the 1/2 bath to the mudroom, I definitely see the utility, I worry that it is too late for a move like that.
We clearly need to switch to outswing doors! I never thought about someone getting stuck in there...but I guess I still want to push for a pocket door for the 1/2 bath if it stays in the mudroom because if it is an outswing it will fill the space in the foyer there. I see the point about the master walk-in as well. Do pocket doors really cost that much more? Our builder gave me a long lecture on how they get cracked or people bump into the wall and then it doesn't work as well etc. If you have a pocket door are you happy with it? I don't know who's reading this, but he claims that people who have them are already having them ripped out in our development (oldest house is 5 yrs old) I find that hard to believe.
Thanks for all the feedback, I'm compiling it for our next framing meeting...

he claims that people who have them are already having them ripped out in our development (oldest house is 5 yrs old)

I would say this has more to do with the products being used and the installation procedure rather than the fact that they are pocket doors. You find pocket doors that work just fine in very old homes, so the problem is not with having pocket doors.