Wow, this is so much like the house I designed it's eerie. Obviously I like it overall. :)

I'm a little concerned about the proportions from a general standpoint, although it make work for your lifestyle. For one, the open stretch from living room to windowless kitchen is going to be an oversized space that will be difficult to create a homey and comfortable space in. You also need to focus a lot of attention on your kitchen lighting to cover such a large, windowless space.

The dining room is long and skinny, which wouldn't be an issue with the implied hallway to the mudrom, except you've got and exterior door in the dining room. You will not be able to center your dining table in the room if you plan on using that door frequently.

Both BR2 and BR3 look like they are 10'x15', and only have natural light from one side. The master bedroom also only has natural light on one side. I'd consider at least adding some high transom windows.

For the mudroom, you could turn the pantry long ways and have room for a desk and a door and also line up with the dining room. This might play havoc with your roofline.

In the kitchen, I have concerns about the aisle clearance between fridge and cabinets, but I can't tell the exact measurements. I also think having the fridge closer to the dining room -- and by extension the whole work triangle -- would be a better layout. But you have plenty of kitchen room; drop by the kitchen forum when you are ready to tweak that layout.

One other concern... I don't see a play space for the kids where they can be messy and rambunctious. The den may work, but they will not be part of the action tucked away there and I think they will move themselves somewhere else. It's also right by the front door.

If you are planning to use this as a kids space (and not as an adult office space), I'd move the door to the living room side, or add one, so the play space is more connected to the center of the home and you can keep an eye on them easier.

You know you can't really park in that 3rd car stall, right? It's not only shallow, the steps interfere. If this is for the lawn mower and such, it won't be an issue. But if it's going to hold a car for the teens down the road, you may be wishing for an extra foot each way.

You may already have other plans for the area, but could you put your screened porch off the family room? You already have the door to the outside there and it would solve the problem of traffic through the dining room. It would also make it much easier to keep track of the kids, if they go out there, when you're in the kitchen or family room. Sightlines are everything :)

If you did move the porch, your walls would then line up, giving you more room for your mudroom. If you slid the mudroom towards the back a bit, it would also give you more room in your garage, if necessary. Alabamanicole makes some very good points about the space in the garage.

How large is your kitchen island? Remember, you need to be able to reach the middle when you're cleaning. You might want to trim a few inches off the sides that face the dining room and stove. This would give you more room for moving through the kitchen and opening your oven door. I think you have plenty of openess to the dining room and living room, so if you light it well, the kitchen should work out fine.

I like the laundry upstairs, but are you going to have a skylight in the hall bath? Also, how does one enter the bonus room?

The house looks like it will work very well for you, overall. Having the bonus room will give you a great place for the kids to have a playroom now and a teen room later.

There are a lot of nice elements to this floorplan, like the openness and efficiency. However, the 2 previous posters raise some good points. Just to piggy back on some of those comments.... I'd try to find a way to make that 3d garage bay be able to house a 3d car. Even if you think you'll be in the house forever, you may find that down the line you will want to put a 3d car in there, and just in case you do need to sell, that 3d bay will be helpful.

I'm a big natural light person, and I think your house needs more windows. It looks like it's going to be a very dark house. For example, your mudroom doesn't have a single window, your stairwell looks like it will be a dark tunnel, your master only has 1 skinny window and may be a french door?, your master bath is the only bathroom with any natural light, and your bedroom 1 only has 1 single skinny window.

A few of the things I would change: Slide the pantry and dining room over to the right (keeping entry to mudroom the same) so that you can access your pantry directly from the kitchen. The dining room will slightly straddle the family room and mostly the kitchen. Bump out the back wall of the mudroom to line up with the dining room wall. Keeping the pantry wall the same, you can then create a little alcove behind the pantry and put the door to the screened in porch from the dining room on the back wall. You will also then be able to make the mudroom deeper.

I'm not a huge fan of the skinny interior powder room with the outswing door. Just kind of tight and awkward, but I don't have any suggestions right now on where to put it.

I'd rework the upstairs a bit. I'd open up the space above the stairs. Most of that space adjacent to it in the laundry room is wasted space anyway. I'd get rid of that tiny linen closet in the laundry room and open up that space to the stairwell. You already have a linen closet in the kids' bath plus a huge walk-in hall closet. I think the upstairs has too many hallways. If you move back the entrance to the master bedroom, you open up that interior hall space, and I think it would just feel more roomy up there. I agree with previous posters about having a place for your kids to just be messy. I like having a space upstairs. It looks like one day you plan to have a very large bonus space. Not sure how definite that is, but in the meantime, you could create a nice "loft" like space upstairs by rearranging the large hall closet the laundry, etc. I'd personally move the master closet all the way to the left into the bonus space and move the laundry to where the master closet is or where the hall closet is. Then you can have a nice little upstairs landing for the kids to play in/read/study, etc.

Anyway, just my 2 cents. I know all of this is a matter of personal preference, and you are the ones that are going to be living in it, so ultimately, you should tailor the house to how you live in it, and the feel you want. Best of luck!

I will let the other comments speak to those issues they discussed. I have concerns about your window size /placement in the dining and great room. The dining has 4 small windows with two much wall space between. Consider using a 48"-60" picture window in the center with a 30" window mulled to it on either side. This will keep your views much more open and less wall to interrupt it. This will also leave a bit more wall in the corner as well where furniture might be up against. The family room has similar problems. This is your primary room and it has a door with a sidelite( not good for much) and a small window on the right. Again I would consider a picture window with windows on either side or several picture windows. You have to find what works aesthetically but again most people's rear yard is their best view try getting a better view of it and let the light in. Depending on where your tv goes you may want the windows on the sides of the fireplace to be higher transom type so they dont take room for tv cabinets etc. Same problem in master bedroom rear wall. Also be sure stairs are wide enough to go up /down with furniture. When going down remember the foundation should be furred out to allow for finished drywall look and that will reduce stair width going down. I would start with 42" minimum going up but if possible 44"-48" to allow for furring out basement wall.

Open that stair well up stairs as stated above if needed move linen over stair where you first start up the stairs in foyer. That will allow more light and interest in the stair well and allow furniture to get up the stairs easier

Good Luck

My concern for the windows int he dining room is that they are too close together, not too far apart. With mine, which has a similar arrangement, we were very careful to space the windows so we had at least a brick and a half in between each one. This didn't work on the sides, so we went with double windows there.

I agree with the comments regarding the stairs. Open them up all the way.

you've been working on this floor plan for a long time... i like the floor plan but im not a huge fan of the powder room right off the foyer

Thanks everyone for your input. Here are some thoughts we had in addition to the plan. This is long winded (sorry) but we are so close to moving forward I don't want to miss anything.

We thought about moving the mudroom out to be even with the dining room and putting the screened porch behind the family room. Initially we were concerned about light coming in being reduced because of the screened porch behind the family room, but we think that would make the flow the best. We would then put a row of windows along the back wall of the dining room but the last window to the Right would be a door.

Do you think that would look weird "a row of windows than a door"? We priced out a huge 4 panel door and I think it would be over budget. (As you can probably tell, we are trying to keep costs down). But that would be a big focal area and may be worth it. What do you think?

Also we were concerned about putting too many windows along the back wall in the family room because of furniture placement. I would have limited walls in that room for a desk/place to put my DH's and kids fish tank. It is very special to them.

I thought we could put the fish tank on the wall between the window and door with sidelight. Or we could put built in bookcases flanking the fireplace with no windows and put the fish tank there.

The other idea I had was to build 36" bookcases to the ceiling on the far left and far right, then place cabinets next to the fireplace with transom windows over top for light.

Any ideas would be helpful!!! We are really confused about this.

As far as the garage.... I think we will plan on adding a detached 2-car garage in the future for the boys cars (if they are allowed to drive :) )

And with windows upstairs, I am having a hard time again with furniture placement. Do you have any ideas for me? I would like more windows but not sure about where to place the furniture.

Also the front of the house faces West-South-West and I was trying to limit the number of windows on the front to prevent the front rooms from being chilly in the winter.
I think I am thinking correctly, aren't I?

Powder room: I don't love it there either, but cannot figure where else to put it. I was thinking mud room, but I know it will probably be messy and I would not want my guests seeing the clutter. We are going to have the area in the storage part of the garage plumbed for a future bathroom in the event that we need to live on the first floor when we are older. We could put the bedroom in the Study area.

Stairs: I am confused about what open the stairs ups means...would you put spindles rather than walls?

Also, we do not have a true coat closet in the hallway. We were thinking of getting a coat tree to put in that nook in the C portion of the stairs. Any comments on that idea?

Thanks again for all your opinions!

Our kitchen/GR/Dining room layout is very similar to yours. We put the screened in porch (yet to be built) off the side of the GR. I didn't want to loose the natural light or to look out our main focal windows into a screened porch, although I have often seen it done that way. Also, on our lot the view is significantly better off the GR side rather than the garage side. We really struggled with this decision too. I was very worried about the balance issue the door would create next to the fireplace, but I think it's just fine. Here's a picture of the door to the future screened porch. Now, if we were to have meals out there, you do need to carry everything through the GR, which isn't ideal. We used our screened porch in our old house all the time, but more for reading, relaxing, having drinks/snacks, coffee, etc and less for full meals (too much to carry out w/ 4 small kids regardless of where it was located).

I'm not a fan of the powder off the foyer, but I prefer that over incorporating it into the mudroom. I agree with you that I would rather not have guests going through my mudroom.

By opening up the stairwell, I mean change the wall that is the "C" part of the stairs into railing/spindles and leave the interior part of the C open to the 2d floor. I also agree about making stairs wider.

I would really try to move that powder room and avoid an outswing door. One possibility is to move the powder room forward to where the den entry doors are. That way, you could put a small window high up and also get some natural light.

I wouldn't put the screened in porch in back of the family room because you'd get no light in there, especially given that that room is northern facing, right?

Good luck!

There are several things you could do. Adding the door to the rear of the DR is not a bad idea, and it shouldn't look strange. We have 3 windows and a door in our LR. If you have the space, you could put 1 foot transom windows over each of the windows and the door -- thus "tying" them together.

In the LR, if you put a ventless gas FP in (no carrying in wood from the frigid outdoors), you could put a TV nook over the FP. Ours is 14" deep by 55" wide. In that way, you don't take up floorspace with a big-screen TV or TV stand. You can also hide all of your components elsewhere (just make sure you have all the wires run during construction). Depending on your ceiling height, you could put bookcases on either side of the FP with transom windows above for natural light, and, of course, storage in the bookcases.

You might consider a closet of some sort in the den/office. That way, if you ever sell, you have a 4 bedroom home. And, if you need to move your bedroom downstairs in the future, you have a place for clothes.

Could you move the half bath to the mudroom area since you are expanding it? Perhaps close to the kitchen with another door to hide the "mess" in the mudroom?

Consider spray foam insulation as well. It is more expensive, but our research when we were building showed that it would pay for itself if you live in the house at least five years. Our latest electric bill in our new house (3100 sq ft, 3 air conditioners) was $109.

I agree with "opening up the stairs" with spindles instead of solid walls. It will feel more open and you might find that moving furniture and such up and down is easier.

I also like the idea of moving the master closet into the bonus area in front of the master bath and putting the laundry room where the master closet is now. You could then enter the laundry room from the hallway (for your kids) and from the master closet (for your convenience). It would probably require a door from your bathroom to the closet, but that's easy. You also end up with a second solid wall in the bedroom for furniture placement. Our master closet is connected to our bathroom. Since I have to get up earlier than my wife, it's good because I'm not running from the closet to the bathroom and switching lights on and off.

You might also add a small, say 2'x3' window to the WC in your master bath, just to cut down on the feeling of claustrophobia.

In the end, though, it's your house and you have to make it work for you! Good luck with your project!

crazyhouse6- do you have any pictures of your layout or floorplan I could see to get an idea of how this will all work?

phillipeh - do you have pictures of the 3 windows and a door by any chance?

Also how would you position the bathroom in the front of the house longways like we have it or with the toilet and sink next to each other?

Does anyone think it is weird that we don't have a hall closet? If we open up the stairs with spindles could we still put a coat tree in the C part?

Thanks again for all this input. We are getting there. We are actually meeting with the house designer and builder tonight.

Here are pictures of the lot (Lot #6) imposed on top of Google Earth, showing North. I think we would get morning sun in the back. In this position, do you think it would still be too little light in the Family Room if we put the screened porch behind it?

If you want the screened porch behind the GR windows, I wouldn't hesitate doing so. You have a very open floor plan, so I can't imagine that it would ruin the feel of your GR. I personally don't care for the view, but lots of people do. I would guess that most people probably don't care for how we arranged ours, but it works for us. Here's an attempt to post my 1st floor plan. It's really busy and has some hand written mark-ups on it. The screened porch will come off the full view door on the top right of the plan. It also attaches to the master bedroom(on back side of GR fireplace wall). The dining room is just where yours is located/bumped out off the kitchen, but not shown in plan attached. I thought maybe the mudroom/pantry/powder room area might give you something to toy with. Our mudroom was large enough until we moved in! We used pocket doors into the mudroom and for the mudroom closet.

I also agree with opening up the stairways as much as possible. It just makes for a much nicer feel to the areas.

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I forgot to mention that I don't think it's that unusual not to have a foyer closet. We almost ditched ours when they started framing. We've only used it once since we've been here, but we haven't entertained during the winter yet. I have several friend w/o them and we normally set our coats on a bench in the entry. As others had mentioned, I'd try to find a way to get a closet in the office. It could also serve the purpose of a foyer closet.

Good luck with finalizing your plans!

The stair tread dimension seems too large for a comfortable residential stair and meeting tread nosings at a 90 degree turn is not a good detail. Is this a preliminary drawing? Will it be developed further. It is important to get the stair right early to avoid unnecessary redrawing. What is the floor to floor height?

If you are concerned about furniture placement, put it on the plan. Fish tank, too. Measure your furniture first... that sofa is probably bigger than you think. If your software supports layers, you can turn it on and off. Or you can make too-scale post-it notes and shuffle things around on your printed plan.

You CAN put things under windows -- just set those windows higher off the floor.

"Also the front of the house faces West-South-West and I was trying to limit the number of windows on the front to prevent the front rooms from being chilly in the winter.
I think I am thinking correctly, aren't I?"

Not quite. If you are in a cold climate, you want to be frugal with windows on the north side of the house. Or on any side in which a prevailing wind blows against the house. The southern windows will bring in sun, which will help warm the space in winter.

Okay, I see you are in Maryland, which is a mixed climate. Don't overload on south windows or you'll fry in the summer. But no need to be too parsimonious with north glass.

I don't mind the powder room. When guests come to visit, it's right there if they need a break. They fact that you don't have at least a 3/4 bath on the ground floor is more cause for concern, and I think roughing in the plumbing there is very smart of you. But leave room for a ramp and be sure the door between the mudroom and kitchen and the door between the garage and mudroom are 36" wide. Everywhere else, your ground floor is mostly wheelchair accessible, although you'd need to make the kitchen more wheelchair friendly if that happened.

I don't see any issue with not having a coat closet. I hardly ever see anyone use their coat closets for guest coats anyway. 99% of the time the family will be coming in from the mudroom -- that's where you need a place to hang up drippy coats and dry out galoshes.

One more comment: do not use a ventless fireplace or heater of any kind. In a nutshell, they use your house as a chimney instead of venting combustion products outside.

A sealed combustion direct-vent gas fireplace has all the pros of a vented unit (except it costs a bit more), but it will be safe to use for extended periods without giving you and your family CO2 poisoning.

Thanks for all the info. So we met last night with the builder and designer...here is a summary of what changes happened...

1. Made the hall bathroom into a square (~4x5) so the door could swing in.
2. Made the mud room line up with the dining room.
3. Reoriented pantry to long and skinny.
4. Put windows on either side of the fireplace to add more light. Pic below. It is not exactly right but gives the idea. We are going to have smaller windows and the bookcase will be in line with the break of the cabinet. Do you think this will look OK?
5. Made the hallway in upstairs 4-0 not 5-0.
6. Put spindles going up the stairs to open them up and put a 1/2 wall at the top of the stairs. We discussed spindles there but I thought it would be nice to be able to put "stuff" on the half-wall ledge before bringing it down.
7. We added an octogan window at the base of the stairs.
8. Added a fourth BR next to the Master Bath with the increased space added from bumping the mudroom out.

--The only thing we could not decide on was adding more windows upstairs in the BRs. Both the designer and builder thought it would mess with furniture/bed placement. I plan to play with this a bit, but any ideas would help.

So, what do you think??? Thanks!

Here are some updated plans. We took into consideration lots of your advice. Thanks so much. We really need to finish up the design so we can move forward. In less than 2 weeks, we will be living with my father-in-law during the build. So we need to submit these plans to the lender to get a move on. I just want to make sure we are getting things right..

What do you think? Thanks everyone for your input. Where would you advise us to place more windows?

Thanks.

We are going to make the screened porch line up with the dining room. What do you think about windows in Family Room/Dining room. Do we need more? Where?