The powder room door bothers me.
Opening into the room will be a pain. And the location... can it be move to the mudroom or entry so that everyone in the great room doesn't have a view?

Kitchen cabinets seem to be non-existent.

Guest coats and/or shoes will go where?

I like the upstairs, except MY laundry would have to have a utility sink.

Well, I could move the powder room door to the entryway side so it doesn't open into the great room but doing that I would lose the entryway unit I was going to have made to go in the space to hang guests coats on, etc. And if I put it in the mudroom then guests would have to go through the mudroom to use the bathroom which means I would have to keep it looking nice... :) So I guess my question is, which is the lesser of the evils? You are right that the kitchen is limited on cabinets, however, down the road when I have a bit more money I will but in some more, shallow cabinets along the wall that is by the stairs. For now, I'll just have to make do I guess. I'm coming from a pretty small current kitchen so I'm used to it.

I would delete the kitchen pantry, allow the counters to be continuous, and put 13" deep cabinets floor to ceiling along the blank wall on the other side of the kitchen.

The distance between the fireplace and the stair seems a bit tight for furniture placement and easy circulation. Could the firebox be recessed in the wall? What will be on the wall above it?

Just looked quickly, but the shower door and the toilet in the master bath look like a very tight squeeze and I'd personally lose the pocket door between the mud room and the main part of the house

I wouldn't delete the pantry, personally. It's cheap storage for items you don't have room in the cabinets for, and corner cabinets are near worthless anyway. The kitchen design looks pretty good and you have plenty of prep space, but a row of shallow cabinets as you described would be high on my list of priorities.

I don't get the purpose of the pocket door IN the mudroom?

One solution to the powder room is to swap the door hang so that it doesn't open with a view straight to the toilet nor is it quite as viewable to the great room.

For resale purposes, I'd even up the bedrooms upstairs. That one bedroom is large in square footage, but anyone seeing a dimension for a bedroom that starts with a "9" is likely to be put off without even seeing it.

Since you are cramped on space, I'd reconsider that 2 story living room, or at least not ALL of it open. It's a very expensive way to reduce your usable square footage, and I think your bath and utility spaces upstairs are hampered by it.

This plan looks like it belong on a skinny city lot? If so, you may want to rethink some of those windows to the side, especially in the bedrooms. High windows (or skylights) which let in light but not the eyeballs of the neighbors may be a good compromise.

Just a few things to clear up as far as the plan. Yes, the firebox will be recessed into the wall. Above it will be the T.V. and then higher up will be some more windows...although I don't think they are on the plan yet...still working this out with the GC. As for the mudroom, I have the one door b/c I want to able to hide it if need be and the second door is there b/c I envision using the small space it encloses as storage. I don't have any storage on the first floor for such things as vacuums and what not so I think I probably need that? I like the idea of switching both the hinges and the swing on the powder room door. The home is being built on an acre lot in the country (or at least rural enough to require a well and septic...but Target is only 10 minutes away so not that rural...) however, to save costs we went with a smaller footprint with the intent of doing an addition down the road. We plan to be here a good long while as my parents live close by and will need care as they get older. Thanks for looking at this for me! You have already hit on some things that were concerns for me so having some ideas on how to make them a bit better helps!

You have an acre and your home front elevation will be 70% garage.
Are you sure that is what you want?
My main concern is the elevation, which you do not show. Could the garage be "side load?"
Is your home facing west? It looks like some windows could be placed in a better way.
On the second floor, maybe you could switch the laundry and bathroom placement, so the bathroom is closer to the bedrooms.
Your "great room" is going to have furniture placement issues. That 21'x16 is misleading. You see, between the stairs and the fireplace you will have less than 11' and then you have to allow at least 3' for circulation adjacent to the stairway and you cannot place furniture against the fireplace so you are actually going to have about 6' for furniture, unless you place the furniture to the back, in which case the fireplace will be off center.

I understand that you want a small home so you have a small footprint which is ok...and then... you are going to heat and cool the 19' tall great room. There is a consistency link missing.
You could proportion the spaces in a better way. Some spaces are tooo looong and some are to narrow.

Your plans have potential.
Good luck.

The reason the pantry could be a problem is that it is located in the middle of the the hot path of the kitchen work area.

When the cook is moving something (usually something hot) from the range top to the sink or prep area, it is necessary to step back to clear the pantry and that introduces two potentially dangerous conditions: 1) if the cook is looking at the food and doesn't step back far enough, the utensil can bump the pantry wall, and 2) if someone is momentarily behind the cook, it might cause the cook to stumble. Both conditions can be extremely dangerous or just inconvenient depending on the temperature and size of the object being moved.

The rule in restaurant kitchens is no obstacles in the hot path from the range top to a cooling or plating area. If you must mix horizontal work surfaces with vertical storage closets, allow at least a 36" heat resistant counter next to the range on the hot path side.

The safest and most convenient work pattern in a kitchen like this is to move the larger ingredients and utensils from an adjacent pantry/cabinets to the island so they can be easily reached from the cooking, prep and sink areas when they are needed. This is especially important if there are two cooks in the kitchen or children who need to get something from the pantry.

Kitchen cabinet sales people tend to see a kitchen as just a collection of cabinets and surfaces when they should see it as a work space.

I agree with macv on getting rid of the corner pantry and having shallow cabinets along the other wall.

For the powder room, I would switch the toilet and sink to the opposite wall, and then move the door to the left and have it swing in.

Anne

I really think this home is poorly conceived for a lot of that size and frontage. This is the kind of plan you'd see on a narrow urban lot -- but only if there was no alley access to have a rear garage. Or a suburban tract with tiny lots.

If I wanted to stay with this basic plan but make it more appropriate for the site, I'd flip the plan front to back. Have the garage in back with a side entry garage. The garage could be a single story with some much needed walk-in attic storage above. Then I'd add 2 or 4' of width to the main house and floor over the great room, which would provide bedroom space above.

Finally, if I were squeezed for space upstairs and the intention was to add on a downstairs master suite in the future, I'd make the master bath more modest, perhaps even a 3/4 bath, and save some room for a linen closet in the master or in the hall.

Another option is to simply move the garage to the side of the house.

Without knowing the site and orientation it's not possible to offer helpful suggestions about reorganizing the house.

Well, thanks for looking at these plans. Seems like I have some more thinking and more looking to do!