Need help with house design and layout- want to build this year

10 years ago

I want to build a cost effective two story house on an unfinished basement. Master and three additional bedrooms upstairs..... Any ideas will be appreciated:) I like the front exterior of the house in the link below, but it is a 1.5 story Don Gardner Brentwood plan and the floor plan doesn't work for us at all. I want the garage to connect to the house in such a way that we can walk in from the second story. The floor plan does not go with the house in the link, but the floor plan below is similar to what I'm looking for...dining room is office- family room is dining. I want more of a rectangular shape ( roughly 40x32 ) I need a full bathroom where the half bath is located and omit the butler's pantry. I also want a door from the office to the bathroom and a good size closet in the office- which would allow us to use this room as a bedroom with an ensuite bathroom if we ever needed to .

-I want the garage to be roughly 30' wide x 26' deep

-full unfinished basement- rough in for full bathroom- go ahead and install tub/shower

-wood burning fireplace in family room

-Tile in kitchen and bathroom on first floor and hardwood in living areas. Carpet and tile upstairs

-Good insulation (possibly spray foam)

-Dimensional shingles

- We do not want a spa tub in any bathrooms- just normal tub shower combos in all bathrooms

-front and back porches around 8'6" deep ( Concrete)

-transom windows over bath/showers where possible

-French door to office

- Two French doors on back of house leading to back porch

- Vegetable sink on island in kitchen

-White kitchen cabinets

-two or three windows over sink in kitchen

-I would like for the dishwasher to be to the right of the kitchen sink

- I would love to do granite in the kitchen/ but am ok with laminate counter tops

- His/her walk in closets in master ( roughly 5'x6' each)

-His/her sinks- toilet enclosed behind own door

-May not do two story entry in order to have more space upstairs

-Would like smooth ceilings on first floor- textured upstairs ok if it saves $$

- Would like to squeeze a small mud room off of the garage ( space for kids to store shoes and hang up backpacks and coats)

-Ceiling fans on front and pack porches

-Open floor plan with lots of windows

- Wide baseboards on first floor

-Safe room in basement

- Vinyl siding with brick skirt is ok- I want to upgrade siding if we can afford to

- At least 8' head clearance in basement

-Drain in basement floor

-Radon deflector pipes if we need them

-Zone heating/cooling ( possibly hybrid system)

http://www.dongardner.com/images/plans/renderings/998bw.gif

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Comments (8)

jennybc
10 years ago
A master with three additional bedrooms upstairs. So that wouldn't include the dining being converted or would? I think you will have a hard time getting the wish list of master bath ideas and all the rooms plus a bath for other rooms in a 40x32 space upstairs. If one if the three rooms is the dining downstairs then it might work. Or maybe in my head I'm allotting too much room to closets. Not sure.

If you omit the butlers pantry you get rid of a LOT of food storage space.

Fill us in on your family lifestyle. How many are in the crew? Is it small kids who would need a playroom? Do you want flex space above the garage? Do you cook most meals. This kitchen wouldn't be big enough for me.

If you want cost effective omit the bump outs on the footer. And keep plumbing centralized in one 1/4 or so, of the house.

If you have a basement then you would loose the entry closet for guests.

With your list it might be adventageous to enlist in the help of a designer/architect.

Jen
ChrisStewart
10 years ago
Seems to be a pretty reasonable list to me.

"Cost efficient" does not mean much to me. Certainly it is possible to build less expensively than the examples shown but one persons idea of cost efficient can be different from another's. Ceiling texture is not particularly expensive. Large garages and porches, and gables really add a lot of cost.
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I would not put the dishwasher between the sink and range. It would work better on the opposite side of the sink. If someone is cooking and using pots/pans to the right of the range, someone else could be cleaning up at the sink with the dishwasher to the right of the sink. It's our new set up and I honestly love it. Hubby can load/unload the dishwasher while I cook without tripping over each other. Pictures are here: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/4212346/reveal-before-and-after-nyc-kitchen-basically-done#19305396 I recommend a pocket door for the pantry. Otherwise, it would be tight for someone trying to enter the pantry while someone else is opening the frig. I thought about a prep sink too, but it wasn't an option for us due to plumbing limitations. I find that we use the island more for serving meals than for prep. The only time I use the island for "prep" is when serving meals from take out containers. lol If you take out the prep sink, you can add more seating on the island if you install an overhang.
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Consider undermount LED strips for kitchen cab lighting or other areas where you want accent lighting. Not that expensive but you need to plan as it requires a transformer. If you are doing entertainment system, dedicated 20amp circuit where equipment will go. If you have fans in beds make sure you space cans from fan to avoid strobbing. Also keep in mind there is a difference between accent lights, work lights, and lighting to generally fill a room with light. If putting cans in kitchen for work lighting for example install so they are in front of the person cooking. Otherwise you will cast a shadow based upon the direction of the light. This is one of the reasons why I like LED under cab lights. Also pay attention to the color of the light. Especially with LED. I find that most people ignore this when they finish there house all the light is different colors/tones. Make sure you like the light output of the 3000k lamp and get your other lights to match if in the same room. I also like putting walk-in closet switches on inside of closet and on occupancy switches. My son leaves his closet light on all the time and it drives me crazy. Instead of cans over island I would put pendants. Can lights should really be reserved for walkways or to provide general lighting in a room. Consider LED work lights in laundry areas. Similar to old fluorescent but better. If you don't work in the garage I wouldn't spend all the money on those can lights. Sorry for the verbal deluge. Going back and forth from lighting plan to comment. Hope this helps. Good luck.
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The changes you desire is best given to the entity designing the house, who has site and location specific data we do not. But in general: - The proportions of rooms do not vibe with what is typical for the "middle American" way of living, considering it's a 3BR. E.g. the Living is way too small, especially if there is dedicated Dining next to the deck door (which eats up space for a table); the Bed2/3 individual ensuites are taking up too much floor space in a small footprint that is hindering the rest of plan; the Master ensuite is too large in comparison to the bedroom. - The way of arrival into the house is not capitalized. You go upstairs and have to "shimmy" around the refrigerator and then island to get to the Living. Views, orientation, and function placement should be site and view driven. Maybe the Kitchen and Living should flip. - Lots of little improvements could happen, but your own list shows that maybe a broader and bigger change should be thought about. Then with that good starting point, smaller things like getting a vestibule for the Master off the main circulation, or hiding the Powder Room away from public areas, can be looked at.
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User
10 years ago
Buy a lot and engage the services of an architect. Houses should be designed to fit the lot and the people who inhabit it. It's not any more expensive than buying something not quite right off the net and then paying for changes and to have it engineered for local code.
dgruzew
10 years ago
Kinsley7

I am doing exactly what you say you want to - similar size house - similar requirements

Do you have a location / lot in mind ? whats your budget ? do you know how you want to finance ? Where in the country are you at ?
zone4newby
10 years ago
Are you saying that you want the entrance from the garage to attach to the second story of the house? Or do you want a bonus room over the garage that connects to the upstairs?

FWIW, I think you would be better off thinking about how you want to live in the house, instead of compiling a laundry list of requirements.
LuAnn_in_PA
10 years ago
" I want the garage to connect to the house in such a way that we can walk in from the second story. "

Yeah... I wondered about that too!
Maybe the husband wants to leave the bedroom and go straight to the car for his morning commute. :-)
Kinsley7
Original Author
10 years ago
I'm sorry it took me so long to respond, I thought I would get an email notification if someone posted. We have already purchased land to build on ( 80+ acres) and we have 3 young children. We don't need a finished basement because there was already a residence on the property when we purchased our acreage, we will use it for guests, rec room, ect. I have already decided that we need to make the footprint of the house a little larger...attached are some of the changes I've made. I'm thinking about bumping the kitchen out about 8 feet deeper and vaulting that area.
Kinsley7
Original Author
10 years ago
In response to the earlier post, we are building in Kentucky and would like to spend less than 250k ( not including the price of our land ). Each builder has a certain architect they prefer to work with and their pricing is very reasonable for drawing custom plans. We have not decided which builder we will be working with yet.

Need help with house design and layout- want to build this year

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jennybc

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Need help with house design and layout- want to build this year

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jennybc

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