First Draft House Plan Critique

10 years ago

I'm working on designing my own home, and would appreciate everyone's input on the layout I have so far.

A little background info: The house will be built on 18 acres, with the front facing the west. Out the back will be a large clearing surrounded by trees, and trees on both the north and south side of the house.

This will be our first house build, and hopefully something we can spend the rest of our life in. Any and all comments are welcomed. Thanks in advance! (and if anyone knows how to upload a bigger picture, I'd love to hear how.)

FYI - Disregard the dashed lines between the kitchen/living room area, that will all be open.

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Comments (6)

gingerjenny
10 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
can you post a larger picture or a link that will make it bigger?
ChrisStewart
10 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Is there a kitchen in your garage?

My guess would be that having to go through the mudroom to get to the master suite may not be a popular arrangement.

Is there a reason why you do not want the master bedroom facing the clearing?
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Great catch about the 3rd bedroom not having a closet....that will DEFINITELY be changed. The foyer is actually more of a galley (don't really know the difference), but you walk in and can see all the way through the other set of glassed-double doors to the back of the house. Does that make any sense? It's a feature used in Southern Living's Harrod's Creek house, which I love. We're thinking about moving the screen porch directly behind the galley/foyer so that you will look directly into the screen porch and eyes will rest on a floor to ceiling stone fireplace. Haven't quite mentioned this idea to husband, though! Dining room and liviing room are the same area. We will separate the dining room and great room with the dining room table (obviously!) and a few stone columns. Master BR seemed small to me, too. We're really needing to cut down the sq. ft, though. Any ideas? Thanks for your thoughtful responses so far. I am already getting great ideas!
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I don't think the no windows in the kitchen is a big deal, because it's very open and I'm sure you're likely to have plenty of windows along the back wall of the family room, which will bring natural light in. My concern about the kitchen is traffic flow and distance from one counter to another. I'm just not sure it's the ideal kitchen layout. I, too, could imagine traffic issues -- the entrance to the gameroom from the kitchen just seems a little odd to me. I think the angled linen closet near the master is a little strange. It will limit the "usability" of the closet itself, and make for a wierd angled corner in the master bedroom. Would not be my preference. Do you really need a "linen" closet there? Your master bathroom is huge with lots of cabinet space. If it were me, I would put linen "cabinets" in the bathroom. (many people use a vertical "linen cabinet" to break up the "his" and "hers" sides of the vanity.) LOVE the huge shower in the master -- very jealous! Seems like that will be quite the engineered beam that will be needed to span the "arch" between the kitchen and family room! That will be $$$ I would think, but I have no idea if budget is an issue for you. The Dining Room -- okay, it does kind of seem like an odd placement for formal dining. I guess I say that because I'm assuming you're going to have windows along the left wall, and french doors onto the back porch. Think about traffic patterns. 12 feet wide isn't super wide -- and you'll probably have another piece of furniture -- buffet / sideboard / china cabinet along the right hand wall. It might be fine, but again, not where I'd put a formal dining room.
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Overall, I like the flow of the rooms, and it seems like with some tweeks this could be a nice plan. However, some of the proportions seem really odd. For example, your foyer closet is 4X5. That is too small for a walk-in, too big for a reach-in. That is 10 square feet that is just wasted. And the laundry room - is it really 8X16? Unless there is something going on in there besides laundry (sewing? crafts?) that room is twice the size it needs to be. Maybe give some space to the pantry, and some space to cubbies and a drop zone for the garage entry? I like big kitchens, but only when they are functional. There is what looks like a 10X11 area just open in the middle of the kitchen. That is a lot of walking back and forth space. Lots of counter space can be nice, but lots of floor space doesn't really help you cook. I would reexamine the whole kitchen layout. Maybe post it on the kitchen forum? Do you really need three eating areas? I agree with previous posters that you could loose either the breakfast table or the bar. I would vote for the table, since there is another table in the dining room just a few more steps away, and then make the counter seating nicer when reconfiguring the kitchen. Maybe a wider counter, or an island with seating on two sides? Then give some of that breakfast space back to the living room, which as lavender lass pointed out, seems too small. I think you have a good start on a nice plan. It just needs some fine tuning. As i've been working on my own house plan, I've started measuring everything around me. Sometimes I'm surprised by the dimensions of rooms I am in. Try measuring some of the rooms where you are living now, and see how they compare to this plan. i think it could give you some ideas about where things are out of proportion with function or comfort.
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Comments (8)
The bedrooms are really large. That's not necessarily a problem, but they're large rooms with rather small closets. If I had that much room upstairs, I'd drop the 16' down to 14, and put linen closets along the hallway. I'd also either increase the closet sizes or recognize that I'd need to buy storage furniture. A broom closet would also make sense upstairs--somewhere to keep an upstairs vacuum (unless you're doing an all house vac) and cleaning supplies. There are two small closets in the hall--but are they really large enough for all of the linens for three bedrooms and two bathrooms along with all of the cleaning supplies? For the master bedroom, I think 20' is just too long. I've seen some of those in homes and they feel like football fields. There is a lot of empty space and unless you have plans to entertain in there :-), you might want to consider making it smaller as well. Again, I'd either consider increasing the closet size or recognizing a need for more storage future. 12' is not necessarily a wide MBR, though--try laying out furniture in the room and see where your walking space is and where you'd have to place your dressers and bed. At 12' it's cramped to put a dresser across from the foot of a bed. For the master shower, ours is 4'x6' with two shower heads. You have room--and if the two of you shower at the same time in the morning, I recommend you consider that. If you don't, 4x4 is really a large enough shower for one. You could rotate the tub to make room for the larger shower. I know you're reconfiguring the master bath. A house of this size (and this large of a MBath) really needs a private toilet room. You may not care--but lots of people would. You may also find that you'd feel rather 'exposed' in such a large space while sitting on the toilet. I'd also be looking for a way to make the vanity bigger--both in the master and the hall bath. If there are likely to be two people sharing that bathroom it saves a lot of sibling angst for them each to have their own sink. 5' is about minimum for two sinks--but 6' is way better. For the laundry space, I agree that it's tight--laundry rooms need some storage and room to actually take things in and out of the machines. There's barely room to bend over in there--and if there is a load or two of laundry backed up, where would the baskets go? I'm probably going to sound like a broken record here, but I'd add closets to the bonus room, too. Games? Toys? Books? Now for downstairs (went at this backwards for some reason) I wouldn't consider narrowing the mudroom--but I'd have the door in the middle so there could be cubbies on both size. And cubbies should be twice as wide as 'standard'--most people have 2-3 coats, 2-3 pairs of shoes/boots, gloves, etc--the most commonly used cubbie widths aren't wide enough--and you'll end up with stuff spilling onto the floor, especially if you have kids. The refrigerator is in a weird spot--it's all by itself, and as others have said, in a traffic path and inconvenient to someone cooking. I find it hard to decorate an entry way--unless something this size and grandeur is really what you want, I'd consider shrinking it. Best of luck!
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zone4newby
10 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
How to post a bigger picture: upload your image to a photo hosting site like photobucket, and then use the html img code in the "message" box to put the image in your post. You can add multiple images this way.

Copy and paste the html img code from here: http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_img.asp

Other helpful information: who will live in this house, what part of the country are you building in, and which direction is North? Where do the stairs go?

I agree with Chris that having the master bedroom off the mudroom is unusual. It wouldn't appeal to me to have to stumble over my kids' boots and backpacks on my way to coffee in the morning.
LuAnn_in_PA
10 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Why is there a kitchen in the garage?
I would not like such a prominent garage...especially when there are 18 acres to work with.

I would not like to go through a mudroom to get to the master.
I would not like two sinks so close together in the master bath... one sink with more space is better.
I would rather my sleeping area get cross ventilation that the master closet.
mrspete
10 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I made the image bigger by picking it up, moving it to word processing, then zooming in on the screen.

- Your site sounds ideal.

- I agree with the others about your garage. With so much space, why squeeze it onto the front? I'm not a big fan of angled garages. Sometimes they're necessary for small city lots, but you don't need it here.

- I think that's a workshop in the garage. I'd suggest that you don't have the builder install this for you. Instead, keep your eyes open on Craigslist 'til someone sells old kitchen cabinets, and you can install this yourself for a fraction of the cost -- and avoid having it financed in with your mortgage, which will save you big bucks over the years.

- To stay on the other folks' bandwagon, I'm totally in agreement that I would not like to circle through the mudroom to reach the master. I don't know that it'd be a make-or-break item for me, but it isn't ideal.

- I also agree that I'd want the master bedroom facing the back of the house /would want to take advantage of the ability to have windows on two walls. Your master is kind of small, which I actually prefer -- I don't see the point in a huge, oversized place to sleep -- but windows on two walls will make it appear larger visually and will make it more comfortable, especially since you'd get lovely southern sun from the back.

- The master bath could be much better arranged. It's relatively large and could be much nicer.

- Love the big pantry. If you're going for enough space for L-shaped storage, only one extra foot could enlarge your storage area by 30%. If you don't do that, I'd consider either in-wall can storage (like Pharoah's Storehouse) for the wall "behind the door, OR at least a pegboard that could store seldom-used kitchen utensils. And consider Lazy Susans in the corner; they don't have to be expensive, built-in items -- just have your shelves built wide enough for the ready-made pantry-quality versions at Bed, Bath & Beyond.

- Your eating area is going to be cute, but it isn't overly spacious. If you do away with that clipped corner, you'd have space for a larger table. And in such a set-up (with a big window behind), I always like a built-in banquette.

- In the kitchen, angled cabinets are expensive and provide less storage than plain squared-off cabinets. Being in the center of the house, the kitchen won't be particularly bright, so I'd go with white cabinets or pale wood.

- I'd consider putting the bathroom into the middle of the two bedrooms. First, this would be more convenient than walking all the way down that loooong hallway. Second, it would allow you to make the back bedroom nicer: It could have windows on two sides, and part of that giant hallway could be incorporated into the bedroom. I don't think I spelled that out very well: When you enter the secondary bedroom hallway, you'd see the first bedroom door and the bathroom door on the right-hand wall . . . but the back bedroom door would be straight ahead of you -- and closer than it is now. Less hallway, more bedroom -- win-win situation.

- I have a friend whose house has that half-moon front step configuration, and she has no handrails (where would you put them? Against the house?) as you walk up the steps. It isn't a problem for me, but it is an issue for her elderly mother.
Lori Wagerman_Walker
10 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I totally get the mudroom on the way to the master. I basically did the same thing. It works for us. My husband is a farmer/mechanic/welder/jack of all trades. He comes in FILTHY 90% of the time. I have a sliding door that shuts off that "wing" of the house from the public areas.
He can come in, ditch his clothes in the laundry/mudroom, go straight to the master bath/bedroom and come out squeaky clean, before he even touches the rest of my house....

First Draft House Plan Critique

Comments (6)

gingerjenny

ChrisStewart

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zone4newby

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