Ok, so if I was to scrap the dining room.... Could I put the basement stairs and a seperate laundry room in that space? Would that be okay and where would you put them? I could shrink up the dining room and bedroom/office closet about 2 feet to line up with the foyer/front door line, so it would be straight across instead of bumped out. Then I could use that square footage to make the breakfast area to be the same width as the family room. Would that free up enough space? So that would make the breakfast area 11'8" X 14'. Is it ok to have it one big space with no breaks in the wall lines? I would then rework the mudroom/garage entrance and bedroom nearest the garage. I guess my main thing would be what do I do for a window beside the front door now? Obviously we wouldnt put a triple there, like it was in the dining room. It would be a window in the laundry room now, so what kind of window should it be to make it look right?

I had some free time this evening (DH is out of town!) and I love playing around with sketching floor plans, so I decided to pull out my non-professional CAD program and see what I could come up with to fit your property. Idea was to see if I could give you all the rooms on the main floor that you wanted including space enough for 30 - 40 family members to gather, while maximizing the views of the lake, and allowing light to enter all major rooms from 2 directions and keep the heated/cooled square footage down to under 2800 sq ft. I also wanted to minimize west facing windows because those can bring in way too much heat. And of course, I wanted to make the main floor fully wheel chair accessible. I kind of like what I came up with so I thought I'd show it to you. The floor plan is below and below that is the house situated on your property as best as I can figure based on the photos you posted. **************************************************** FYI - all single doors are 36" wide, the staircase to basement if 4 ft wide, hallway leading to mud room is 5 ft wide with a 4 ft cased opening to the foyer. I didn't put a fireplace in the Great Room. It could go on either interior wall. His part of closet is 5 ft wide, hers is 7 ft. Shower is 50" x 102" so plenty big enough to roll a wheelchair in. I think the only thing missing is the "sun room." I left that out b/c, except in the far north, sun-rooms are one of those ideas that sound a lot better than they often work out to be. But, if you really really want one and otherwise like the plan, the banquette could be shifted over to where the patio doors are, the kitchen patio doors moved to where the banquette is and then a sun-room with south and west facing windows could be placed in the corner between garage and kitchen. Even with windows on just two sides (south and west), I think it is likely to get way too hot for regular use tho. Besides, another alternative would be to make the sitting room into a semi-sun-room by using floor to ceiling glass. South and southeast facing windows would get plenty of light without admitting quite so much heat. Anyway, if you like the layout, feel free to use it as is or with any changes you see fit to make. I just do this for fun so I'm happy to waive all copyright claims.

Could you flip the center BR and the hall bath/closet to put the bath where guests might use it? (If you don't entertain, it doesn't matter.) Or make that BR 'shorter' and 'wider' with reach-in closets. Then the bath could be 'shorter' and have a window. I don't think you'll like the skinny foyer you've added. Could you move the office up in the plan? You'd lose some of the bottom part of the LR that's seperated from the rest -- mostly a 'walk-through' space. I might add a 'jog' so that your MBR door isn't in a direct line with the public part of the house. (Hall would end in a wall and MBR door would open along right side wall.) I'd want more windows in the house and few or none in the garage. I'd move the garage access door to the rear of the garage. (You could just as easily use the overhead instead of the 'people' door where you've located it.) I like the back entry with its powder room. Where is your 'view'?

It's good that you've worked on some ideas. The next step is definitely a design professional. As far as a few quick notes go, we agree with farmer. In addition it would help to know what type of lot you have. The views from your kitchen are now very limited. The closet in the dining room is awkward; is that meant to just be a built-in cabinet? Your upstairs linen blocks the only way to get a window in your hallway. A laundry in the foyer completely detached from the mud room isn't very functional. Is the space in front of the back patio door just circulation space? typically that could be flexible as a dinette, but you have no room for any kind of banquette or small table. Hopefully that helps, and good luck with your project!