I really like it. Seems a little strange having the door from the dining to the patio right next to another door to the patio. Remove the one in the dining room and center those back windows in there. I might switch the doors on the study to the foyer and make a closet in there. One other thing is the door to the toilet room in the master. I never like to have them swing in for safety reasons. If somebody ends up on the floor for some reason, you will never get it open. Might get rid of the little cabinet on the right side of the kitchen and extend the island the rest of the way. Don't care for the pocket door going to the secondary bedrooms. You have four corners meeting there and the right side of what will probably be a pretty heavy beam for the opening to the great room. May have some interesting switch locations in the master and bed 3 due to the adjacent wall being slid back. Just some food for thought. Looks good. Enjoy building!

MethodDesign, Thank you for your review. You are right about the swing door. That is going to be a standard door. The pocket door for the 2nd bedroom wing will only be used when kids are napping or if we have company and kids are in bed. We are thinking about changing the door in the dining room to a sliding door, but you are right about 2 doors being too close together.

Did we see a version of this previously? I'm kind of remembering it -- and this version shows improvement!

Things I'd still change:

- Love the big pantry, but it is entirely too far from the kitchen; I mean, around the corner and through the door -- too far. If you can't get it closer, I'd at least do a pass-through so you could go into the pantry and push the items through a little door onto the cabinet.

- The kitchen layout is just . . . not good. The parts are too spread out. You'll walk yourself to death going from work area to work area. Are those aisles 5' wide? 4' is better. 5' is just a little too far for comfort.

- I'd rather see the office door open towards the foyer. It'd be more private that way.

- Since your guests will have access to the secondary bath, I would skip the powder room.

I would suggest you add a closet to home office. If you ever sell the house, it can then be a 4th bedroom. Foyer seems Long.....not sure how you will decorate it. I'd add a chest or something.

I did think there seemed to be a lot of doors going to porches that are right next to each other.

Thanks Mrspete, You have seen this plan before. Or at least a version of it. We have made a ton of revisions. I am thinking about what to do in the kitchen. We going to have to keep tweaking it. It's just not right.

Cobbyw, that you for your review. I understand your point about the closet, but we really like the doors facing the great room. That's the was it was in our last house and we really enjoyed it. You are right about the doors to the patin. Were going to have to give this some thought. In one of our revisions MrsPete suggested a sliding door and we are considering that option.

Thanks again :)

Is that a foyer or vestibule in front of the powder room? It looks like you walk thru 2 doors to get to the powder rooms

As others have mentioned, it would make sense to add a closet to the office - in case you ever needed a 4th bedroom. It would also help with resale. If anything, it would be a place to hide the mess in the office!

Mrs Pete is right long walk from kitchen to pantry.

Laundry is across the house from the bedrooms. Long walk with clothes. Thru kitchen, dining, great room. I'd probably try to find a way to rework the laundry/mud/pantry/powder to make access to the foyer. Anyone coming in thru the mudroom only has access to the kitchen.

I personally don't like having to walk thru the bathroom to get to my closet. Maybe switch the doorway for the master closet so you can enter from the np bedroom?

Still, every time you come and go you walk right through all the working parts of the kitchen: clean up, prep, cooking. It's a nice Southern house, I think it would be nice not to brush past the stove all the time.

You'll need to reconfigure the kitchen anyway to bring the refrigerator back within reach.

I wouldn't like all the traffic through my working areas of the kitchen. The rest isn't so bad. But that alone would be a deal breaker for me. If there was a way to get from mudroom to office "hall" bypassing the kitchen, it'd be a keeper!

I agree with Kirkhall. That's the reason we are now working on reconfiguring our layout with the architect. Imagine also carrying laundry baskets, gym bags, and so on right through your kitchen.

Agree with Kirkhall.
The kitchen/pantry/circulation issues bother me.

This is a small point but it looks like there's a pocket door in your master closet on a wall that shows shelves and a hanging rod, and also is a plumbing wall. I don't think that will work (plumbing and things screwed into a wall that a door will slide into.)

I'd rather have the door to the WIC be at the top of that wall, and a swing door opening against the top wall of the WIC. Then your two sinks with a nice long counter and storage drawers go below the door and on the closet side it's a nice long rod and shelf. This also lets you go into the WIC without walking through so much of the bathroom.

I'd post on the kitchens forum too for great help with your kitchen layout.

Something like this for the mudroom/pantyr area?

I really appreciate all of your thoughts and comments. I am considering some of them into the design.

Senao1- Thank you so much for taking the time to make some changes. It's making me think :)

Chicagons - I think you are probably right about the pocket door. Well have to look into that.

I have no problem with the laundry room being away from the bedrooms. With our lifestyle a lot of dirty clothes will be dropped off directly in the washing machine.

Thanks again to everyone else who posted.

Overall, I really like the plan! Here are some changes...mainly in black.

I can see what you mean about the kitchen, but if you add a second laundry to the bedroom hall (move furnace to pantry small corner) it might cut down on traffic. And you'd still have laundry for messy farm stuff...I live on farm too! Just a few ideas :)

This post was edited by lavender_lass on Wed, Nov 19, 14 at 23:09

Lavendar_Lass - Thank you for your comments and taking time to review our plan. I like what you did with the washer and dryer. Very nice!!! I also like the bump out in the master.

Thanks again!!!

I'm glad! I like the master now that's it's more balanced with the two doors. I can't imagine having such a great bedroom and not being able to access the screened porch :)

I added the small bar sink for drinks (alcohol or not) so you wouldn't have to interrupt the 'cook' when they're grilling. Also, I have a great fondness for window seats and bookcases...so I added the one in the dining room and the books in the office.

Best of luck with your planning!