Your floor plan sounds a lot like our current house, except that we use the 4th bedroom as an office and have a 2-story great room with a loft that could be used for homework area. The number of people who respond to your post on this forum will not be large enough to be statistically significant and will not be representative of how people view floor plans in your area. I recommend that you talk to a real estate broker in your area to find out whether your proposed floor plan is ususual for your area. Your floor plan would not be unusual in my area even though I'm sure that you will get people responding to your post saying it is very unusual in their area or that have strong opinions about it one way or another. You want to balance what you like with the resale issues in your area, not what other people like with the resale issues in your area. Good luck selling your house!

Nothing you've said sounds 'odd'. I would question the lack of some separate living area besides just the great room. Not every family member wants 'togetherness' all the time.

I don't think your plan is odd at all. My only comment is that I would think you would need some other area that either the kids can go to or the adults, e.g. game room.

I like the idea of the homework area.

It sounds exactly like the floor plan I'm looking for! Except we need a 2100-2200 sq ft. Good luck...I can't even seem to find a planner to understand what I want. You might try Southern Living house plans, the one I like is called "Shook Hill", however, it's much too big for empty nesters. It may work for your family though. You would have to tweak the laundry area, I find it to be too small.

Thanks for the comments, I will eventually post the floorplan I've been working on for our family. I really love it except the 1/2 bath is by the master, off great. Can't seem to get it by the mud/laundry area. We could live with that, but that means 5 boys and dh tracking into the entire home to use the bathroom. Currently we have two 1/2 baths & it is so nice. One for the boys off the mud/laundry area and an always clean & guest ready powder for guest. That is another budget friendly cut this time.

Niecieb, I'll check that plan out.

Your plans sound great to me- especially the homework area. I just responded to a post about mudroom cubbies that you built and think it would be cool to incorporate the homework area in that space.

I am looking forward to seeing your plans.

I thought all of your ideas sounded appealing; for myself, I wouldn't have the homework area off the mudroom because I am in a very cold climate and it wouldn't be comfortable. I assume that's not the case with you?

I love homes with open staircases. I would never consider that wasted space! Looking forward to seeing your plans posted.

Of course, you do need to be aware of area customs, to try to meet as many local preferences as possible. Having said that, my feeling is that a custom house should be *better* designed than the locals; and I've noticed *our* fastest-selling local custom houses stay within the average sf and the usual exterior of the immediate neighborhood, while making their statements of individuality inside.

Now ~ for the purely opinionated comments...

1. The homework/computer area near the mudroom works as long as it isn't out of sight of the kitchen or great room. That is, parents shouldn't have to trek to be able to notice whether junior is doing homework or playing games. Do keep in mind that the older the boys get, the more homework is going to be assigned, so a spacious work area is going to needed. OTOH, desktops that slide into a cabinet [drawer] space give a bit of flexibility without crowding the room. You also need to consider just how congenial the different ages are when working on different projects -- not all 13 year-olds are going to be patient -or able- to study history while the 6 year-old mutters about basic addition. My personal preference is for homework to be done solitarily in the bedroom, while children's computer usage should be under adult supervision (and yeah, I hear all those adolescents screaming at that statement).

2. Open staircases, like kitchen islands, are purely a matter of personal taste. If you like and it suits the design, go for it. I don't think they are particularly wasteful of space (so very few houses do take advantage of understair storage), but one does have be careful of the safety issues and sound transmission. My personal choice is very much against open stairs, but it's your choice that matters. I very much like smallish enclosed foyers, and think all houses should have the equivalent of 'airlock entrances' just as a matter of conserving heat/AC. OTOH, great big expansive formal foyers are (to ME) ostentatious, and don't really belong in a house that doesn't follow-through on the formality.

3. Again, the desirability of a lack of a separate living room is going to be influenced by the local norm. If you have a well-designed great room, and the house is not exceedingly formal, then I'd expect the separate LR to be unnecessary. Yes, you may lose a buyer who doesn't want visitors to peer into the kitchen, but equally you could gain a buyer who doesn't want space wasted with a rarely-used separate living room.

4. Those all sound reasonable to me ~~ actually, they seem to be pretty much basic, and you already know the forum is widely split on 1st floor MBs, giving you a foretaste of future buyers: They will either like or not, so build to suit yourself.

~~

As far as there being an insufficient number of BAH posters to be of statistical importance, please remember that custom houses are expected to be somewhat different from their neighbors. If one wants a house that is statistically desirable to the neighborhood, one should buy a tract house. The best selling tract house HAS taken local preferences in mind and it's been designed to please the highest possible percentage of the local population.

No it sounds very reasonable...however again unless you want to move when kids hit teenage at least a study or sitting room will be needed, or when everyone but you wants to watch the science special. I'd suggest Southern Living Tucker Bayou...it received the Home of the Year award in 07. If you do a google search you'll pull up Bubba and Mooses page showing them bldg it all the way thru finishout.
For the empty nesters (like us who only want 2200-2400) who only need two bedrooms...the upstairs on this plan is a story and 1/2...so the gables are used for the upstairs (way cheaper to build then a full 2 stories). Simply finish out the stair area...bathroom and one bedroom and since there's a room on all sides you can pick the one that gets the best lite for your situation. We're going to use the room over the front of the house and put a set of built-in bunks on the other end of the Jack and Jane for grandkids. Due to the design it would be easy to add a bedroom or finish out the media room later if wanted. Awesome design...put the computer in the workroom (which is how it was designed) or in the closet area upstairs beside the stairwell. You can also get a acrobat copy of the magazine article with photos etc. when googling.

I'm really enjoying and taking "in" all the great comments. I forgot to say we will definitely have a full basement. The basement would eventually house a gameroom, tv area, home theatre, play area, bathroom, etc. A definite place for the future "teens!"

Really, you are going through a lot of planning to end up with a home only 700 square feet less than what you have---and it's your "dream home". You might be better focused on what would make that home more livable currently until you become empty nesters and then build a home to suit that lifestyle at that point. The way the market's turned, staying in a home as long as possible is the only way to realize any great increase in equity. Selling short term will probably be at a BIG loss and leave you unable to build again in the near future. If you need to reduce monthly expenses to stay in your current home, focus on how to do that.

Thank goodness we have a lot of equity in the home because of large down & tons of sweat equity. Even in todays market we could make money. Problem still remains we can't afford the mortgage & will struggle forever & not have a retirement plan if we stay. The house is perfect & more than livable for us....oh, how I wish we could stay. Numbers calculted show a decrease in mortgage by $1000.00 per month. We realize the home is not worth struggling forever. We are willing & able to do this again for our financial freedom. We are decreasing the size some & using restraint with lavish upgrades this time around. We do realize the poor market, thus our plan to struggle for the next year+. We have studied our budget & can't come up with any other ways to change things. If you have suggestions, please share!!! I hate that we can't stay here forever, we can't live in this debt foever either.

If you are going to have a basement.....make it a walkout basement and put some bedrooms down there? Don't make it a 3 story house. That would save a ton of money. You might also want to look into ICF. It saves a alot of money on elect. exps. A spec house here(Charlotte area) sold for almost 800 grand this past summer and the master bedroom was on the main level and 4 bedrooms in the 'basement'! NOT water front but water view.

I have a friend whose high housing costs left little money for fun, vacations and savings. My friend did what you are planning on doing and she and her husband couldn't be happier with their decision. They didn't really understand how much stress their dream house had added to their lives and their marriage until they downsized. I think that what you are doing makes a lot of sense. Good luck.

Can I be frank? For some background on us, we built our "dream home" last year with an unscrupulous builder and will be working out the kinks--those that ARE workable, anyway--for several years. We actually thought we were building WELL within our means and due to all the overruns and unexpected costs (building permits, utility taps, etc., etc.) we ended up just about $100 less per month on the mortgage of our last house.
Anyway, DH was NOT into building at all and I dragged him kicking and screaming and wished I hadn't. We'd LOVE to sell now but we would take such a loss that we are hanging in there for a few years. So that's our perspective.
Anyway, this may not be popular on the "building a home" forum, but my DH's and my advice to you is to sell and then BUY an existing home, NOT build. While the real estate market is down, the costs of building a home are the same. Building is such a slippery slope of hidden and uncontrollable costs. What if you go through all that and still don't save that much? Why not sell then buy a house that is sitting there that you KNOW the exact cost? In this market, you can definitely get more house than ever before. AND, you avoid the nightmare of building while having little ones, which I also personally experienced. Just MHO. Good luck!

If you need a foyer, keep it small. There's nothing wrong with one, just size it to fit the number of people who are likely to use it all at the same time, and with some frequency [having 20 for Christmas dinner doesn't require a foyer big enough for 20].

The whole point of a mud room is that it's held to lower standards of tidiness than the rest of the house. I think homework space adjoining would be a bad idea, not just for now, but for resale-- how would future owners re-purpose that space?

I'd only do a formal dining if you actually use it. Not worth it if it's only a few times a year.

Otherwise, your plan's aren't un-reasonable at all.

As to whether it's wise to build right now: that's not really the discussion at hand-- OP isn't looking to build for years.

Aside from that, the problem is in areas where the market is down so much that the mid-level homes are a real bargain, the upper level home that you'd be selling would also go for way below cost-- if it sold at all.

But for first time owners, it seems to me that this is a much better time to buy than build.

Just to disagree with the last poster - we are building a homework area off the mudroom. It was the idea of the builder and his architect who have done it many times before. It is a space for bills/computer etc. I don't understand the downside - yes it is less tidy like a mudroom - make sense to me.

We ended up with more of a mortgage than we wanted, too, even though we built ourselves and have a great amount of sweat equity in our 2700 sq ft house. I sometimes wonder if we should've built more simply, but for the 10 of us, I'm not sure how. Anyway, I've thought about selling and having a 'do-over', but figure if we sold in the same 1 1/2 years, by the time we pay closing for the sale, closing costs and fees for a new mortgage, the likely increased building material costs, and the interests rates are up any, even building smaller, we'd probably still have the same mortgage and be starting over in number of years, instead of having knocked a few off. I understand the desire, and hope it works the way you'd like. Meanwhile, enjoy your house and those boys! Time flies.

Thanks for the comments, it is good to listen to all the advice. Last time I should have listened more to my parents etc about going over budget. We again realize the importance of not selling now. Like others we are hoping things will get better in the future. Though we do need to "get out" as soon as able. Things are uncomfortably too tight & we are just getting a glimpse at the price for kids as they get older (oldest almost 10).

I have been reworking a floor plan. We have now moved the "homework" area out of the mudroom & added a 1/2 bath there. DH has reminded me how much we use & love having the bath there in our current home. Also, he reminds me that I always help with homework while I'm cooking, etc in the kitchen. I think I would regret having to keep going back and forth. I added a very small area off the master for a computer area. It is larger than my now kitchen desk. So, basically we switched the computer area and 1/2 bath.

I'll see if dh can bring home the scanner & we can share the plans tonight.