I notice kitchens first, so...A 6 ft wide island? That'd be pretty hard to wash in the middle.

The walkway into the SE bedroom is pretty tight, especially with the bathroom intruding like that. Remember that you'll want to get furniture into the bedrooms through whatever hallways you give yourself.

Are those covered porches? If so, they will cut a lot of the natural light you'll get into the kitchen and family room. We have them, front and back...They are 8' deep, and I wouldn't want any shallower.

It actually isn't a bad start and I could like this layout. Remember that you'll want to figure in wall thicknesses, because it can really change things when you get them all figured in.

What size is your family and what stage of life are you in?

Best wishes!

I drew my own, am nearly finished building it.

It's a project with amazing rewards and equally amazing stress levels.

Start by figuring a cost per foot. Speak to some builders in your area about the sort of home you are building-- height of ceilings, roof angles, finishes, etc., to get a clearer idea of actual costs. 'Round here, $100/ft is 'builder grade' for single story if you already own the lot. It will be decent, but not luxury.

Then aportion your footage as though it's money, because in actuality, it is.

You will hear a LOT about 'tricks' to build cheaper, like keeping your exterior dimensions in 2ft increments for less material waste and keeping the plumbing grouped in one or two areas. They are accurate, but don't generally add up to significant savings-- while you can waste a lot by ignoring these hints, you don't save a lot by observing them because the kinds of numbers a builder will give you likely already reflect these efficiencies.

From that perspective, an 81 sq.ft. powder doesn't make much sense when 18 feet is doable, 24 ft quite comfortable. A 21 sf powder would save 60ft, at $100/ft, that's $6000.

Likewise, 12x20 breakfast room doesn't seem like the best idea. Your kitchen is already very large, and with this on the end of it, it will be vast. In fact, you could comfortably cut 4 feet right out of the middle and have a space that would [IMO] be more livabe [16x16kitchen, 12x16 breakfast], that's 112 ft, or $11,200.

I agree with rhome that the hall to the small bedroom needs revision: you can easily save 10ft there. And walking through her closet to get to his is costing both convenience and money.

You have a lot of exterior corners, which are pricey. I count 12, enough for 3 separate rectangles. A simple 'T' shape has only 6, 'L' shape has only 5.

Mind you, I think you have some great features going, but if you are early in the process and looking for ways to enconomise, this is the time to put in the extra work.

Hope this was more helpful than hurtful,
Oru

All good points by Oruboris.

I planned and drew our house, too, (very rewarding and designed to our needs) and actually tried to stay in 4 ft increments on the exterior...Just for overall measurements, not for window placement or things like that. Inside, I tried to line up walls and keep them in fairly straight lines, rather than lots of jogs, to save material costs and keep the framing simpler. (We built the house, too, and I figured the simpler, the faster!)

Have you figured out how many sq feet you have there compared to what you think you need/can afford?

When you change interior dimensions beyond moving walls within the footprint, you change the elevation.

I think that your floorplan is different enough from the original that you might be in for a surprise. Especially if you are adding a second floor - it will look nothing like the photo.

You have made all the rooms bigger and I like that. I think the breakfast room is too big, esp. given that you also have a dining room. I would not put in an unused desk. They are a PITA to clean under, esp. if there is a chair in the way. And you don't want a chair in a narrow passage. I think you should come up with a different cabinetry configuration for this area.

There are a lot of plans out there that are similar to what you have come up with (but with much smaller kitchens/breakfast rooms and slightly smaller other rooms). I think you are off to a good start, but you should look at soem more plans and continue to tweak it. Have you looked at the John Tee Americana plans?

Here is a link that might be useful: more plans

Interesting start. Where's north? (I have to guess that the front door faces north, but...) That'll affect where you get morning versus evening light, and which wall might get fewer windows. Is there anything we would want to know about your climate?

Do you see yourself building where you can see your neighbors? Will it be flat or sloped?

According to your scale, the powder room is about 4-1/2 x 4-1/2, not 9 x 9, which brings it to a more sensible size imho. (Though a square might not be perfect for a powder room.) There have been other comments about saving money by streamlining plumbing ("wet walls"), and I think you have an opportunity to save by moving your powder room closer to the other bathrooms.

It looks like you have a 2' corridor into "his" closet. My gut says this is tight, but you have to live there...

You've already dramatically diverged from the elevation at the front door, so I'd skip the outside corners in the study.

I'm not a kitchen designer by any stretch, but your fridge/stove/sink triangle is about 10'-8'-12'. That seems like a lot to me.

Finally -- and this is going way down the road of personal opinion -- I am not fond of front doors recessed between wings and tucked under a porch. The elevation you linked has what I would call a "welcoming" front door. As drawn, your door would be tucked in and buried.

Just quickly: I can't give my ChiSue Seal of Approval to your drawing or the plan shown with the (very pretty) elevation -- because there is no powder room near the family entrance, which is usually from the garage.

I don't like 'furniture showroom' DR's that guests walk past when they enter.

A lot of your Family Room is devoted to 'walk-through' space.

MBR is overly large if you have all your clothes stored in walk-in closets.

This is exactly the type of feedback I was looking for.I'll try to answer all of your questions.

We are in our 40's with three children. DH will retire in 10 years, the same year our youngest graduates from high school. All three children will go through their teenage years and move out on their own from this house. We hope for three bedrooms, two baths and a homework area upstairs. On the main floor I really want a secondary bedroom/bath, as well as the master. I also really want a kitchen on an outside wall. I do not like interior kitchens. A back hall area with lockers, laundry, and pantry is also on my wish list. I tried to fit a powder room in here but no luck.(sorry, Chisue)

The hallway in front of the stairs is 6 ft and after the turn to the SE bedroom is 4 ft. Is that not sufficient? I agree that the powder room is much too big, not sure what I was thinking there. I could probably cut it in half and use part of it as a coat closet and eliminate the other coat closet in that area.

Yes the kitchen turned out bigger than I thought. When trying to decide what all I wanted, I pictured it as 16x16.2 ft of perimeter cabinets, 4 ft walkways, and a 4ft wide island. 20 ft wide is too much but it was the only way that I could fit the two entrances in for the Laundry/Pantry and the mud area leading to the garage. I can eliminate the entrance to the laundry from the kitchen, remove the desk and make a hallway there. This would allow me to bring in the kitchen 4 ft. I will play with that later today. I just hate losing use-able space to hallways in that area.

I had thought that by adding all the porches I was eliminating corners therefor in some ways cutting costs. The one off the kitchen was an after thought just to eliminate an extra corner there. I thought that it could be used as a small grilling porch.

The front porch and the back porch are both covered and something else I would like to keep. I actually really like the front porch between two wings look and mostly concentrated on finding this style house. We are all entitled to our likes and dislikes though, so I won't take it personally that its not to everyone's taste. I'm not a fan of open decks, although depending on grade, I wouldn't mind a patio off the back instead of the porch.

As for the exterior that I really like, I tried to keep the different aspects in proportion. For example, the garage is 6 ft wider in my plan, so I added the 3ft to the dining room and study to keep it in proportion on the exterior. If you look closely at the drawing of the elevation I chose there appears to be a second floor. There are two windows on the front as well as one halfway down the right outside wall just past the chimney. The rear elevation also shows a window on the second floor. I had hope to take advantage of this window placement to put rooms on the second floor without changing the elevation. Do you think that isn't possible?

The master bedroom closet is really just one big closet, wasn't intended as two. I just labeled part for me and part for DH. We have a queen bed, two nightstands, a dresser, a chair with ottoman and a very large armoire that would need to fit in the master bedroom, which is why it is somewhat roomy.

Solie,

I had seen several of John Tee's homes on the Southern Living sight and liked several of them, but none were exactly what I needed. I had somehow missed the New Meadowlark that you linked to, which is very similar to the one I drew. I will take a closer look at that and see if the mud/laundry area could be enlarged to get in the lockers that I really want. I would much prefer a stock plan that I can recycle slightly than pay for a full custom drawing.

I am linking another home by Stephen Fuller that is very similar on the exterior to my "dream home elevation" that I linked in the opening post. This home has the addition to the side with an extra bedroom so would give a better indication of how "my house" would look mixed with the Tybee front. So just picture the stone with box bay in the center instead of the clapboard and traditional bay.

Here is a link that might be useful: Another elevation but would use stone

I think the most important thing you could do right now is get a computer program that will automatically dimension the rooms [subtracting the thickness of walls for instance, makes a big difference], and allow you to place furniture in the space.

A lot of what you've got here-- the island, etc.-- doesn't seem to scale. Impossible to overemphasize the importance of that.

The idea of minimizing corners is that they COST. It's fine to keep them as is, if budget allows, but IMO you aren't getting much bang for the buck with things like bumping the study out a few feet. The porches would just be built to bridge from one wall to the other, they don't 'save' corners, they just take advantage of the overall shape. In other words, they'd be cheap to build, but the house would be pricey. Again, fine if the budget allows.

Buy an architectural scale and some tracing paper. The stiffness of the computer program appears to be hindering your design efforts. Even the good CAD software is not conducive to creative design in my opinion.

ok,my two cents...
i'd move the laundry area to the bdrms,preferably snugged up under the stairs. that widens that hallway and brings the laundry closer to the bdrm,,where most of my laundry is generated. it would be great to access the w/d from the master bdrm closet or bathroom,as well as have easy entry to that foyer so you could take the laundry outside to the clothes line easily.
then i'd move the pantry to the outside wall where the laundry was and put the powder room in the space where the pantry was.
i'd make sure a door into the powder room was first stop from the garage--lord knows it's usually my first stop when i get home! plus it's more discrete for folks,,away from the dining room.
actually, even more important to me is to consider the natural daylight in each room. for me,,i want sunrise in my master bdrm,kitchen and bath. i like to see sunrise and moonrise from my bed, and dislike cooking dinner with afternoon sun in my eyes.
in any case,, i think you've got a great start!

I am using graph paper in excel. Each square represents 2'x2'so everything should be to scale. Hardly ideal, but just fooling around with what I have. MA you are exactly right, if something isn't in 2' increments I have to "draw" it in. I certainly wouldn't try to build a house based on what I have "drawn" but it would give a designer or architect something to work with.

The powder room was labeled wrong in the opening post. It was 6x6 not 9x9. Everything else was to scale based on the 2'x2' squares.

The stairs will lead to a second level in which I hope to get 3 bedrooms, two baths and a homework area under the current roofline for the elevation that I posted. Can anyone give me some pointers with that? They will also lead down to an unfinished basement, which is why I am not taking advantage of the space under the stairs.

I worked on it again last night, using the advice that I was given and have cut back on the square footage making the plan "tighter". Unfortunately, it seems I now have more corners than before. I know that the bumpout in the study seems like a waste for the amount of space it creates, but I have it there to achieve the outside elevation that I am trying to copy. I reduced the width of the garage by 2'. I reduced the kitchen by 4'. I moved the powder room to the mud area (is 5x5 sufficient?) but had to reduce the size of the pantry to fit it in. The entire right side has been reworked. The hall leading to the second bedroom may still be to tight. It is 4'. Here is what I came up with.

More thoughts?

Here is a link that might be useful: Inspiration Photo

I think that's much nicer.

You do have a lot of space dedicated to walk-through for such an open plan.

I'd still advocate a good program that figures in things like the thickness of the walls, and let you render it in 3d for a walkthrough effect. I love a graph paper and pencil, the freedom it gives, and the lack of learning curve. But the house I'd drawn on paper didn't work nearly as well when I put it on the computer and started to approach the design as a sculpture instead of a drawing.

Have to ask again: Do you need such a large MBR? You'll have a Study to escape to.

Second bath needs to serve as guest powder room as well as serve 2nd BR and Study. If Study has a closet it can count as a BR at resale time.

You've lost the foyer coat closet. Fine with me; never use ours. (Too small for large groups and family uses back hall closet and hooks.)

You don't want 'lockers' with doors opening into an aisle. Bench and hooks in cubbies? (Waaaah! Painful to type that word.)

I'd make the kitchen shorter to gain more 'back hall' space.

What will go into the garage besides vehicles? (Bikes, sports and lawn equipment, etc.)

A laundry sink is usually next to the washer for transfer of wet stuff. Will dryer vent into the garage?

The refrigerator is the most-visited appliance in the kitchen. Usually best near eating area.

I've put a lot of mileage in between my cooktop at one end of the kitchen and my breakfast room at the opposite end. It's OK here as there are only two of us, but cooking for kids...you might want to relocate the cooktop.

I have stacked dishdrawers to the right of my sink and a pull-out garbage/recycling on the other side.

That's a very large island to skirt around to get to fridge, freezer and whatever you are going to store along that wall. (Cut the corners off the island to save yourself bruises.) A smaller pantry feels OK to me; you have a LOT of wall storage within the kitchen.

I think you want a deeper porch along the left side of the house if you plan to eat out there. Make the porch entrance opposite FR door. That whole area is walkthrough. I like the big breakfast area. We 'live' in ours.

Will you use a DR? Will your furniture fit in 14 X 14 or would narrower and longer be better?

I agree with Chisue on most of the comments/suggestions, especially about the laundry sink's proximity to the washer, and the idea of giving your self more room in that back hallway, since I think you're shorting yourself on pantry. But I like where the fridge is...accessible to others, but handy to the cook. I don't see a problem with the cooktop location...Probably because it's a lot like mine, and I certainly have kids to cook for! ;-) The freezer location isn't that wonderful, but not terrible, and if you like it there for symmetry and appearance, it'll do.

Just in case you're interested, I'm linking my kitchen floorplan. Also, when you get something you think you'll use, you can post the kitchen floorplan on the kitchen forum for further advice.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Is cost or square footage an issue for you? The 2 plans you linked elevations for are 2170 sf and 2796 sf ranches. Yours, as designed without including the walls, is over 2500 sf just for the first floor, so with a second floor and basement, you'd have a large expensive house. Will you want all of that space when your children are gone?

I agree with those who have said you should get a program that lets you draw in the walls, and also lets you see it in 3D. I designed our house and found the software invaluable. Just from seeing what you've done so far, it seems to me that you will need to be more involved than most designers or architects have time for, unless cost is not a problem for you.

Anne

rhome410 -- homeagain is traveling over twenty feet from cooktop to table -- almost as far as I go and twice as far as you do. Maybe I notice it because my DH isn't picky about food as long as it's H-O-T. (I like your kitchen!)

Thanks, chisue. :-) The kitchen table is for quick meals that we might do in shifts (like weekday cereal breakfasts and sandwiches)...and homework, games, and reading the paper...So the rest of the family can be in with those who are cooking. We eat hot foods at the dining table...I think it's about 23 feet.

home410 -- OMG, someone who USES her DR! That's great! And, I like the snack/homework table right in the kitchen.

Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but I see way less than 24" each for refrig and freezer (mine are 36" and 38" uprights), and 12" (!) for 2(?!) dishwashers and a double sink in less than 24" which means awfully tiny bowls. You need one sink bowl wide and deep enough to wash your largest and biggest bowl/skillet/pot. 12" doesn't do it. Two dishwashers is a great idea, but I think they are going to be wider than your allotment.

I'm picturing breakfast here: big mug (hopefully convenient) and fill with water.. where's the microwave? over the range? okay, nuke water, where's the spoon, where's the teabag and sugar? around 2 corners to open fridge to get butter for toast; where's the toaster? the bread? around at least one corner to pick up the hot mug and prepare the tea (you might have coffee). Back around two corners to get milk for tea and back again to get the mug of tea and back again to put the milk away -- awake people might not do it that way, but I'm sleepy in the morning and rarely remember to pick up the milk at the same time as the butter ... I've gotta say that even if all the utensils and ingredients were handy, I sure don't like going around that island so often, and that's just for tea and toast. Imagine actually cooking a full meal in that kitchen. Basically there's nothing wrong with the design except for the island which is interrupting the walking-triangle, and that the fridge either opens away from use or doesn't have a counter on the open side.

Do you really like walking the length of the house to carry each load of clothes to/from the laundry?

A bedroom that is almost as big as your family room leads one to interesting thoughts... are you filling it up with lots of bureaus and armoires (which would decrease any need for one walkin closet, much less two of them) or do you just want a lot of carpet to vacuum?

I'm sorry if I sound contrary, because I don't mean it that way. But do consider carefully what daily life would be like in the present design. I'm seeing awkwardness, not in the overall design, but in the details.

I still cannot figure out the fixtures in the bathroom for the second bedroom. There is a sink on one wall and something else on that outside wall. What is that? It appears to be only 4 ft long at the max (again, it's been pointed out that you have not allowed for wall thicknesses in your drawing; none of the rooms are going to be exactly the dimensions you have on your drawing).

homeagain - you could try Envisioneer Express, which is a free program that I have been using to draw my plans. It is not the best in the world, but it will definitely help with actual sizes and scale of the items you need to place. Hope this helps!

Here is a link that might be useful: free software

Please tell me that in a kitchen like this, the micro isn't over the range. :-) I don't understand the round and round the island, as the prep sink is right on the corner of the island, situated perfectly between stove and fridge, which is a straight shot from the range, not around the corner? The area next to the fridge would be great for the micro and maybe a breakfast counter. These types of kitchens aren't as efficient as a smaller galley, but sometimes to fit in the work zones for family, they work better...A 1-person kitchen vs a multi-worker set-up. There are times I go round and round my kitchen, it seems, to accomplish a task...But, thankfully, not often, and it's usually because I'm not planning and thinking things through.

Oh, I think I do understand Meldy's concern...It's the location of the dishes. That was a tough one for me, and took a bit of getting used to. Some people keep tea mugs or snack plates and a bit of silverware in crucial places. That wouldn't work for me, so I do have to go across the room to get things. The length of the island in this plan might interfere. With mine shorter, it allows me to cross the kitchen without going as far around it. I'm glad my decision to have a table instead of a long island gave me that additional advantage that I didn't think of ahead of time. You might want to think of 2 islands, or at least, a shorter one. --BTW, Meldy, the squares are each 24", so the dishwashers are more than a ft ;-) It took me a few minutes to get that when I first looked at the plan.

Chisue, I could never fit the 10 of us in the kitchen for a meal, so we have to use the dining room...But I much prefer it anyway. I'm one who likes to leave the kitchen mess behind/out of sight and concentrate on conversation at the table.

I'm short on time today but I didn't want everyone to think I had bailed. I'll work from the most recent post back.

Rhome is correct. The squares are 2x2 so the dishwashers are 2 ft, the fridge and freezer are 30" each, the sink area is 48" but I will probably use a 36" farm sink. Microwave placement has yet to be decided, since this is a very preliminary drawing but I was thinking in the island. I have concentrated the items that will get the most use...range, fridge and sink at one end of the kitchen, so that there is no need to go round and round the island, or at least that was the idea, other than an occasional trip to the freezer, which in our current house is in the basement, so I don't think I will mind a few steps. Our current kitchen is 12'6"x14 and excluding the prep sink and the fridge (which we don't have in this kitchen) is almost the exact same setup. Our current island is 7' and the work area is concentrated on one side. I located the fridge in this area so that anyone coming in for just a drink would not get too much in the way.

Kelbrad, thanks for the link. I will check it out later this evening, along with researching what other options are out there.

ChapNC. I am working in excel, using a graph paper template that is 2'x2'. When I drew the bathroom I had a shower on that outside wall, but then thought that a tub would be a better idea for a guest room. However, I failed to lenghten the room to accommodate a tub. Thanks for pointing this out, as I had missed it.

meldy nva. I will look at the kitchen again. I'd prefer the laundry near the kitchen, as that is where I spend the most time and makes switching out a load or folding more convenient. The master is large, but as mentioned above, we do have several pieces of furniture. We could definitely make do with smaller. Do you have ideas on how to rework that end of the plan and still access the guest bedroom? I would love to see your ideas.

Rhome410, I really like your kitchen layout. It is similar to what I have drawn and I am happy to hear that it works for you and your family. It gives me hope that mine will work someday too.

Okay back to work now. I will try to address the rest later.

I am trying to incorporate as much of your advice as possible and still achieve the look I am going for.

I have trimmed the room sizes some more. Enlarged the back hall. Tried to eliminate unnecessary hallways. However, to achieve those I have moved the powder room back into the foyer area and separated the back to back bathrooms.

I've managed to get the square footage down to 2516 on the main floor. I figure the second floor would be 1000-1200.

Our current home is 4500 square feet so not a considerable downsize but at least some if we can get it to 3700.

We have no plans to finish the basement. It will be most storage...lawn equipment, tools, etc since we are downsizing from a three car garage and then the rest would just be open space that could be used for roller skating or other play activities.

I hope these are getting better and not worse. I haven't taken the time to look for a design program yet.

Your advice is appreciated.