The secondary bedrooms seem really cramped, size-wise, but I appreciate the need to control square footage. I wouldn't want guests to have access to my study via that powder bathroom, so I would definitely want a lock on that door between powder and study. Even though I'm not a fan of having my office in my bedroom, I would be tempted to do so vs. leaving passwords, bank info etc. in a room just off the room than any passing person would have access to if they borrowed my powder room. It would be annoying to feel like I had to keep that info continually locked up. The living room....I'm not feeling a good furniture arrangement based on the location of door openings. Maybe four awesome club chairs around a round coffee table? Or am I imagining that those windows to the porch are sliding glass doors? I don't mind the size of the master bathroom at all, and don't see any need to make the master bedroom bigger. Bigger is not always more beautiful. Sometimes it is just awkward, full of space that must be filled. I love closets accessed through the bathroom - all my clothing and laundry mess is confined to the area where I dress, undress, bathe, etc. I do not have any clothing storage in my bedroom at all, and I like it that way. I have shelves with baskets for pre-sorting our laundry right as it comes off of us. Great time-saver. Consider flipping the master bathroom closet area and shower/bath area - and add clerestory windows with opaque glass to get some natural light into the bathroom that way, including another source of air to keep the shower dried out. If you also flip the stairs, you can have a door to dump dirty laundry right into the laundry room from the master bath, a huge work-saver. Especially if you can find a way to also send clean baskets of laundry back through an opening. Sweet. Whether you move the stairs or not, a door to access the under-stair area from the garage would be an extremely practical idea if you don't need climate controlled storage. If you flip your master closet, you can simply open up that whole under-stair area directly to the master closet for additional and more secure semi-hidden storage, possibly put a safe in that area, etc. I don't see hanging space for clothing in the laundry area. I can't do without that, as hanging to dry saves electricity and wear-and-tear on clothing. Create a way to put family member's clean clothing as well as backpacks, etc. in the "locker" area. might even be able to use the space for "hang drying." My mom used plastic dishpans set on shelves to sort our clothing so we could put it away ourselves. Add a closet to the study NOW and you can use it (and resell) the house as a 4 bedroom. And hide ugly file cabinets and office supply storage at the same time. We live in a digital age, and we often do not need as much space as we think for our office needs. Steal a little more space and add a shower to that powder bath, given the number of people you have living at home. And/or fix the J&J bathroom to allow access from the hall. Doing this also keeps guests from having to go through other people's bedrooms when the powder room is busy. I'm living with that challenge right now. People living in the bedrooms do NOT appreciate the through-traffic. There are two other potties in the house should an emergency arise during someone's shower. Also, I despise seeing a sink from the inside of a bedroom with these J&J set ups. So unsightly. Love that you only have one dining area. If it isn't big enough in real life, consider making the LR into a glorious DR-cum-fireplace, and making the area off the kitchen into a cozy lounge somehow. People can visit with you without helping you in the kitchen, and then everyone can retreat to a gloriously big dining area without any dirty dishes in view. Just a thought. Instead of two kitchen islands, how about one rectangular one that invites flow through the kitchen? The end can have space to sit and put your knees under for those who want to eat in the kitchen. Then you can extend the counter or pantry space all the way to the end of the wall where you currently have an empty spot. Expensive mistake: Front entry looks unpleasantly narrow. This is a big "first impressions" error that could cost you tons of potential buyers in the future. An extra foot or two will make a huge difference here. Seriously. So would a niche with an electrical outlet for a little chest, lamp etc. to create a welcoming feel to the space without impinging on a 4-5 foot wide walk space. Use the bump out creatively in the bedroom behind it by tucking in shelves, a little work-station and/or or a shallow closet in the resulting extra niche in that room. Neither the back nor front porches seem big enough to me. Remember, you can multiply your usable space by extending your outdoor surfaces. It is worth it to invest up front in the hard scape that carries you and all wheelbarrows and wheelchairs and whatnot gracefully and easily around all outdoor spaces and entries and exits. Your house seems to be one of those in which the garage is the main entry, because the front door is so darn far away from the driveway. It is important to make that front door entrance wide, generous, inviting. This costs quite a bit, and I'd hate to see that skimped and then ignored for a decade until you could afford to fix it up right. I really like the extra depth you have along-side the car parking area. Bravo. Read Myron Ferguson's Build It Right if you want great tips on avoiding all sorts of user-hostile home building mistakes. I also highly recommend anything by Sarah Susanka. I may not be spelling that right, but she wrote all the "Not so big house" books. Hope this helps!

A good designer can create a covered breezeway or shared covered porches between the two that also addresses security concerns. It doesn't have to be far and would suggest no-step thresholds as a more important accessibility feature. Sometimes even features like that will not work. In our case on our narrow lot, it would have been considered additional square footage "under roof" to add a covered walkway (even our lanai and porch roof is considered under roof) and would have meant I had to take that square footage from actual living space. And personally, I prefer to not get wet during the daily summer deluge in FL. But yes, we're talking about the OP who's on 7 acres so hopefully the OP can design something that is not directly attached to the house. However, instead of continually insisting no one should have an attached garage, how about instead showing us how we can minimize the hazards. For example, never start your car in the garage with the garage door closed. Never leave your car running in the garage. Never start the car when the door to the house is ajar. Never close the garage door behind you if the car is still running. If you have the room to build a shed or an additional garage use that to store extra things like snowblowers, etc. Again if you have the room, use an additional garage or storage shed to do hobbies that might create dangerous fumes. If you must use an attached garage put in a ventilation vent. So what other ways can we prevent problems with attached garages because truth be told, they're not going away. And yes, I agree, they're usually ugly.

This is a William Poole house, and he has several versions -- slightly larger /different kitchen /with a garage -- you might want to see those "first cousin plans" too. As for this one, I think it's a very cute exterior, and -- with its simple footprint -- it'd be inexpensive to build. Other specific thoughts on the layout: - Yeah, I'm not crazy about a kitchen by the front door. It feels kind of like a beach house in that regard. That is, it seems to keep the back for the best views. - I like the staircase's location. I like the way the sofa fits in /seems cozy. - I think the biggest issue is that the dining area is too narrow. I'd want to add 2-4' to the depth of the house so the table would allow for better circulation. It would also allow for a larger shower OR a larger closet, whichever appeals to you most. Plus the storage /linen closets would expand a bit. - I don't like that the powder room is in such a public spot. I think I'd flip the washer/dryer to the exterior wall ... and open the powder room door from the laundry room. In a house this size, I'd also look into the possibility of opening the powder room into the master bath so that it could serve both the master bath AND the main house. - Thumbs up on the natural light throughout the house ... though I'd want to double the upstairs bedrooms' windows. - Not loving the upstairs bath so much.

Why do you like this plan because I see lots of problems with it. There is no closet in the foyer. Why do you need double doors into the master bedroom, closet and bathroom? Is the master closet that special? Laundry room is far from the master bedroom where the majority of laundry is generated. Master bath is huge with lots of wasted space in the middle. Master toilet is up against the living room wall so guess what happens if one of you is using the toilet when you have people in the living room? Your living room will not be 15'4" because it looks like the double doors to the master bedroom are 6' wide, which means your usable living room space is only 9'4" The eating room is not 11'4" x 11'4" again because you have a doorway that opens into the room. The doorway is 3' so your usable space is now only 8'4". You walk into the mudroom from the garage and if more than one person is entering, good luck because that entry doesn't look to be more than 4' if it's that wide. Talk about bottleneck. And what's with the double doors into a walk in closet there? Except it's not really a walk in closet. The kitchen will be dark with no natural light and no, the windows from the eating area will not reach the kitchen. Ask me how I know. To get to the pantry from the garage, it means walking clear through your work zone of the kitchen. The butler's pantry and the dining room are probably the best spaces in the downstairs. I wouldn't want to be entertaining guests in the dining room and one of those guests needs to use the powder room. Imagine the sounds coming from the powder room as your guests dine. And no, no amount of insulation will help with noises. The back porch appears to be covered so once again the house will be dark on the interior with little natural light coming in depending on time of year and where in the country you are and what direction the rear faces. It's great that the master bedroom and dining room have windows on 2 walls but all public rooms should also have windows on 2 walls for natural light and cross breezes.