This second plan is my modified version of Donald Gardner's Giverny Court.

Here is a link that might be useful: original Don Gardner Giverny Court plan

This is a Don Garnder elevation, The Richelieu, that we love and would like to use with either of the above plans.

Here is a link that might be useful: Richelieu elevation

This is a photo of the rear configuration that can be found on many of the Garrell plans. The modified Frank Betz plan that I posted above would resmeble this.

Anyone? :-)

We must have similar tastes! The kitchen in the Betz plan is almost identical to my previous kitchen. If you go with that one, I would bring the outer island all the way around the kitchen. We had 3 1/2' openings on each end and I adored the counter space and layout.

Your Gardner plan is almost identical to the kitchen we are about to start building, and our bedrooms 2 and 3 are behind the kitchen as well. I love the layout with the kitchen square to the great room. I am excited to build this kitchen 1. Because it's different from my last and 2. because the Betz kitchen is more typical (at least in Texas) and I am ready for something different!

In the Betz plan, I would definitely figure out how to make a WIC in bedroom 2. There is more space used in hallway than in closet space.

In the Gardner plan, there is quite a bit of square footage used in hallways. Relative to the overall size of the house there is a high percentage of space used in the hallways so I would try to work on that. You could have larger rooms, more closets, bigger kitchens, etc. In the kitchen, I would consider a double island layout as opposed to the one larger island. Thinking about how much space in the center of that island will be wasted? You could do two 30-36" islands as opposed to the one large island.

I love the elevation and think you can't go wrong there.

Between the two plans you posted, I like the Betz version better. Mostly for 3 reasons:

1) The shape of the MBR in the Gardner plan doesn't seem as practical to me, depending on how much furniture you have.
2) Plan 2 would be a complicated basement to pour. The shape of the MBR and Guest room, the bump out for the master tub. It's complicated and I'm not sure that it's gaining you that much.
3) The Betz plan has the powder room closer to the mudroom, something I would want with kids.

If you do go with the Betz plan, I do agree with the previous chisco34 that I would look at extending the island in the kitchen. And I think you could find a way to give BR2 a walk-in.

Also, do you want as many doors shown as you have in the study? I would eliminate either the doors from the porch or the french doors from the side by the kitchen.

@chisco34 - thanks for the suggestion on the kitchen counter. The original plan had the pantry and powder room in that location - that's why there's an empty space there. I planned on doing something else with the kitchen counter/island, but hadn't gotten that far! So, excellent suggestion - thank you. And good suggestion about the walk-in. I'll definitely do that. I was thinking the same thing about the Gardner plan - too much hall space. I'm definitely leaning towards the Betz plan myself.

@katmu - again, good suggestions. You're right. Those odd-shaped walls will be hard to work with. I actually was thinking of squaring the back one off just to make the framing a little easier - hadn't thought about the furniture. As for the study, I wanted to have the option to open the room up in case we decide we need it as a dining room (which is was previously). So I was thinking it would be nice to install pocket doors. Or even better, something like the attached :-)

I love the barn doors. Good idea!

In the Betz plan, extend the porch all the way to the right, and include a service door into the mudroom. We use our service door a lot!

Great suggestion @bpathome! Thanks!

The two bedrooms next to each other are for my son and daughter, now 3 and 5. They will share a jack and Jill bath. Is this a bad idea? Some have said it doesn't work too well when their kids turn into teenagers. And one architect told us we should have a bathroom for each room purely based on where we're building our house-- it's an affluent area and apparently that's how surrounding houses are built. I don't know... I thought we could save square footage with only one bath to share. Thoughts?

The problem with the Jack and Jill bath is when your son locks the door leading to his sister's room and forgets to unlock it. This will happen more than you will ever want to deal with.

Just picture screaming teens and lots of banging on doors...

:)

This post was edited by bird_lover6 on Wed, Oct 23, 13 at 8:32

Where are you building? In both of these plans, the kitchen is an interior room, and all the daytime living space is flanked with bedrooms that get most of the windows in the house. If you're building somewhere hot, that may be appropriate, but if it's someplace with winter, your house may be dark for much of the year.

The Gardner plan is really inefficient. Way way too much hallway space (the hallways to the master and guestroom use more square footage than either bedroom), and I don't understand why the master & guestroom (places you'll mainly use with your eyes closed) merit the diagonal corners and all those windows, while the great room is a big boring square. And if I were going to build a house with some clipped corners, I'd want it to be something you saw all over the house, not just in two rooms. As it is, those bedrooms seem like they came from a different house.

I think you could easily do better than either of these plans if you started from scratch with an architect, and it would probably cost you less in the long run, and you'd get a plan that works well for your family (i.e. the homework space would be placed appropriately for its purpose) and your lot, and isn't filled with expensive-to-build features that sell online plans.

bird_lover6 - a very good point! Thank you!!

zone4newby - we're building in Maryland. And I agree with you - the gardner plan is already out of the running. I was having the same feelings about the hallway space. As for the light issue, I'm a little confused. In the Betz plan, the great room will have a cathedral ceiling and therefore has a giant wall of windows in the back to let light in. Take a look at the photo that shows you what the back of the house will resemble. Also, the breakfast area and the vaulted keeping room have tons of windows. (again, see photo). Yes, the screened porch's roof will keep some light out, but I was thinking it wouldn't be a big deal. In any case, I'm glad you pointed that out because I don't want a dark house! We'll take a closer look at that. And I'm thinking we'll do exactly what you suggested - hire a local architect to create what we want - now that we have some pretty solid ideas about what we're looking for.

I don't really care for either much but they both would make a suitable starting point for layout.

It looks to be more than 350sq.ft. difference in size so that is a major factor.

I'm not a fan of Jack and Jill baths. The rental we are in now has one and my boys hate it. We made sure our new build had the bathroom opening into the shared hallway. That way, the bathroom is also easier to access for guests. I don't want people having to walk through a bedroom if they need to use that bathroom, or if both guest bedrooms are being used, I don't want guests to have to worry about accidentally entering the bathroom that someone is using.