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Please review floor plan. Tough love critiques welcome:)

9 years ago

Hello,
I am re-posting my floorplan as I think I think the previous images where too difficult to view. Please let me know your thoughts as this is our first house and we could really use your help.

We are a family with three children 6, 10 & 13. 2 younger boys one older girl.

The Lot is downward sloping to the back so we are planning a walkout basement.

Thanks so much
Mary

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Comments (6)

Mary4070
Original Author
9 years ago
second floor
Mary4070
Original Author
9 years ago
Walkout Basement
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Comments (13)
kats - thanks for your suggestions. Nope, we're no where near finalizing anything, unfortunately. I've actually told my designer that I'm taking a break for a few weeks to reconsider everything. This plan just does not wow me at all and if I'm going to spend a bunch of money building my 'dream home' I want to really LOVE it, kwim? I have been rethinking the steps to the master, and I think I am going to nix them. I love the idea of something different like that, but I think it probably should be eliminated for practical reasons (I really hate being practical though!) I don't really care too much about resale at this point, because we plan to be here for at least the next 15ish years. And we're on 10 acres of land where land in our area is a definite premium and highly sought after. But even so, I'm not going to build something totally undesirable for the next person. chisue, we are building in central IL. weedyacres, thanks for your thoughts about the bathroom. I do like your suggestions about rotating the shower. I'm still undecided on a j&j bath. Some people love them and others hate them. So I'm not sure... I definitely agree with you on the storage issue! I need to add LOTS of closets and built-ins. Unfortunately, we can't dig the foundation lower since we're so swampy around here. We're not in flood plain, but our sumps run CONSTANTLY in our current house. So we were thinking of other ideas on how to still have a basement (we need one due to tornadoes) but possibly not going down as far. any other ideas? My dilemma is what to do with the center of the home. Most all plans I've seen have the great room in the middle of the home, but we want ours bumped off the back with lots of windows. We don't need 2 great rooms, so what do we put in the middle? I also need to have my kitchen on an ext. wall because I want lots of windows above my sink. I do agree with you on the choppiness though, so I'm probably going to nix this plan and start over. ugh. the e-space is more of a homework/blogging space for my 3 kiddos and I. I don't want them to have computers in their bedrooms, so I need for this space to be centrally located so I can keep an eye on their computer use :) thanks again for all the input! I keep surfing house plan sites hoping I'll stumble upon the perfect plan, but after 3-4 years of searching I'm not very hopeful...
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Please review/critique my floor plan!!
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Comments (23)
Wow MrsPete thats a lot to think about! I was not expecting to have to request so many changes to this plan. Considering we hired a professional designer to do the plan. I will do my best to address all the issues mentioned. Again thanks for everyone who has chimed in.. Great point on the double entry doors. I did not even think about turning the lights on. It looks like the master bathroom has double entry doors too. I am not sure I want to shut two doors every time I go in the bathroom. So if we flip the washer and dryer to the kitchen wall and make it come off the mudroom. What about the door entry from the mudroom ? Looks like the washer and dryer would hang out some past the doors edge. But I think this may be ok if they are placed on down the wall verses right beside the door. With the fridge I actually like it where it is for the most part. I like that when you look back towards the kitchen from great room, you dont really see the fridge. But this is also one thing I told the wife she could make the call on the layout of the kitchen. Also as far as all the plumbing goes I will be running everything. I have done a few houses that are rental properties and have all the tools to run pex and the drains. Ok, so maybe we need to make plans to eliminate a bathroom and add on for the pool area. When you say you would build one nice bath between the two bedrooms and having into opening into the hallway for a guest bath, do you mean the bath will have 3 entry doors, 2 from bedrooms and 1 in hallway? It seems like this would also put it really close to the half bath. Also what are the thoughts on a jack and jill? On the closets this is one thing I requested. I want some space for myself!! Otherwise the wife will take it over! I thought the divider wall would actually give you a little more room to hang things also. I do like the idea of putting the shower in the corner and moving the toilet. But at the same time I like the privacy of it being on the outside wall away from everything else. With the windows in the closets I am not sure what to do on this. I do agree its not the best scenario. I also do not know if I want a large window in the toilet room. I know the designer said he had a very difficult time making the windows work on the front of the house. We do plan to make changes to the doors leading out to the porch. I am concerned about furniture placement with all those doors. Also if your looking outside from the great room who wants to see the backs of outdoor furniture? I am kinda at a loss on how that will look. You all have been a great help so far, I am sure we will get this all worked up and build pics will be coming before you know it. I will also try to attach some pics that I gave the designer for ideas on what the wife and I liked. We basically gave him some pictures and he had us fill out a 3 page questionnaire.
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Comments (13)
Would definitely put the prep sink on the island so you can visit with company during the most time consuming part of cooking and enjoy the lake view (assuming of course that that view is opposite the island). As far as the neighbors house and clean up sink goes you can solve that with a decorative window that lets in the light but not the view. Check out how shanghaimom addressed her close by neighbor view... http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg052114271803.html Here is a link that might be useful: window
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Comments (44)
As I wrote above, I had to guess about clearances because you didn't provide enough measurements for me to know for sure. I assumed that if I were to draw a straight line from the front edge of the sink wall counter run straight across the kitchen table area, it would run into the great room column (assuming that's what those big square things are), which is 92" from the far right nook wall. To that I added 48", which is the aisle width I recommended in my Plan A to get a total of 140" for table and chairs. If you do a 36" aisle between the right wall and the narrow end of a 42 x 60" oval table with the table turned so it's 60" side to side (not top to bottom), you should have 44" between table and island. You actually might have more than that if the table and island are diagonally across from each other as they appear to be on my drawing (didn't know if the drawing was to scale). However, I didn't have enough information to do the math for that dimension. I missed the part where you shared that your great room is a step down from the kitchen area. For this reason, I'm recommending a 42" x 60" table instead of a 48" round table with a 12" leaf. That will give you slightly wider aisles at the top and bottom sides of the table, which will give a little bit more safety buffer by the step down, which would be good thing for all ages (my MIL stepped off a curb the wrong way and broke her foot!). IMO, extending the island edge to be even with the counter edge of the upper butler's pantry will look quite nice. I don't think it's a problem that it extends past the right wall. In fact, I like that it brings the island seating closer to the table and great room areas instead of having them smack in the middle of the working part of the kitchen. I'm not sure what you mean by "blocky," sorry. Do you mean bulky? Well, it will be a large island but the whole space is large as is the pantry and range so I think it's all in scale. I hope I made sense and that I helped you through this process. Oh, you asked ages ago about removing the wall around the lower butler's pantry area. If you do corbels on the upper butler's pantry, I think it would look very nice if you removed the wall around the lower butler's pantry and added corbels to that cab as well.
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annkh_nd
9 years ago
With a tuck-under garage, how will folks get to the front door? Where will guests park?

The garage is tiny. My garage is 22'x22', and we can barely fit a minivan and a Jeep in there. I would never go any smaller than that - and wish ours was at least 2 feet wider.

None of your bathrooms - even the huge master bath - have any storage space. Where will you put towels, TP, extra shampoo? And windows in the upstairs bathrooms would be nice too.

The laundry room looks pretty claustrophobic. I suggest blocking off those dimensions around your current washer and dryer to see if it is feasible for you.

The master closet isn't very functional - corners really aren't useful for hanging. I would add a pocket door from the closet to the hallway, so you don't have to carry laundry through the bedroom and bathroom to get to the closet.

Have you laid out furniture in the living room/breakfast room? I think you'll concentrate your time near the fireplace, and at the breakfast table - what do you see happening in between?

I know you've posted your kitchen in the Kitchens forum, so I won't address that.

Good luck!
amoore1205
9 years ago
We are building our first house and posted it earlier for review. You'll have to take a look at it if you get a chance :)

I like your foyer with the 2 closets on the sides for storage. I also like the flow of the living areas.

I don't see a pantry?

Upstairs is lacking closets/linnen space. This is something we are working on on our plan.

I totally agree with windows in the upstairs bathrooms.

Good luck!
Mary4070
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks for all the feedback,
Annkh, I agree the garage is narrow and will think about how to remedy. It may mean flipping the stairway so that I can widen the garage on the left. I cant make the right section any wider as I will lose the symmetry of a colonial because Im constrained on the sq footage max by zoning.
I will definitely add some bathroom storage. I was hoping to use the closet at the top of the stairs but it may be too far from the bathroom.
Agree with the tight laundry and will see if workable. Interesting idea on the door directly to the closet. I wonder if it will take away from the retreat feel or on the positive side maybe make it less claustrophobic. Is a hallway entry to a master closet something unusual or have you seen this before?
As for the space between the breakfast room and the family room you have a good point. Im thinking of adding a wet bar to where the built in shelves are but would be open to ther ideas.
amoore thanks for the feedback as well. Yes a pantry is a must and I will be adding one as well as linen closets. Adding windows to the bathrooms is also a good idea.
quequeg
9 years ago
I like the overall design and only have a few comments. I would try to reconfigure the entrance to the two bedrooms at the top of the stairs. Something doesn't look right there.
I would leave the additional closet in the foyer. Those closets by the main door are very small and may not be enough.
Also you may wish to have a dry bar in the family room to give additional use to that large space in between the fireplace and the breakfast table.
best of luck!

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