Here is the upstairs.

Also wanted to know what everyone uses to make floorplans thats quick and easy?

I think it's a cute layout, but it's so small. Definitely a starter house, or a retirement house for one person. I think it needs to be more than a tad bigger. I suggest you get out the measuring tape and see in your current dwelling just how small these rooms will be.

How will you arrange furniture in the living room? You're going to have to leave "walkways" around the edges, which will cut into an already small living room. It's a cute room with the windows on two sides and the fireplace . . . but you may end up with only a love seat and a chair. Going with a wood stove in the corner (or a corner fireplace) would make sense: It would allow you to place the furniture against the walls, opening up the middle of the room for walking space.

I like a U-shaped kitchen, but this one is small . . . and you have no pantry. You'll have no storage. Did you notice there's no dishwasher? You could put one into the peninsula, but then you'd lose your only nice-sized cabinet storage.

Could you reverse the staircase so that you "start" walking upstairs from the foyer instead of from the kitchen? This would also mean you could have a small pantry under the stairs, which would open from the kitchen. As it's drawn now, it appears that the space under the stairs is not being utilized.

At best, you could have a four person table in this eating area -- and that's only if you ditch the snack bar seating. I'd consider a built-in banquette bench to save space.

The only way to access that great back porch is through the dining room . . . which is a narrow pathway.

The linen closet attached to the downstairs bathroom is only 2' wide. I would incorporate that space into the bathroom, which would allow for a larger vanity . . . and use the space under it for storage. Or have a tower-type cabinet inside the bathroom.

In a house this size, I'd also go with a stack-up washer/dryer, which would allow for a small folding area. Since your master bath is directly above the laundry, you could have a laundry chute.

And I'd go with a tankless water heater for the space savings.

None of the closets are even remotely spacious. The smaller of the two closets in the master could be made better by opening it into the adjacent attic space; it'd be short closet space, but it'd be space.

The master bath would feel more spacious if you get rid of the toilet door -- and that tiny toilet room would be awful. Also, the vanity isn't big enough to support two sinks. The shower is going to be small; I'd consider going with a shower-over-the-tub and make what's now the shower into a linen closet.

I vote no to a garage on the left. The greatest strength of these "public rooms" is that they have great windows. Take that away (which will be necessary if you attach a garage), and the rooms will really feel tiny.

i'm with MrsPete I see no way to arrange furniture in the
great room, the bedrooms are smaller than apartment
bedrooms
I normally like smaller homes, but this one will live very
small

As I look at it again, I notice something. It's a small house that's trying to incorporate all the features that're considered "must haves" in a bigger house: eating bar with stools, walk in closet, laundry room instead of laundry closet, separate shower/tub, fancy staircase, fireplace with raised hearth . . . But those things require space. As a result, the space is stolen from the living space.

If you had this same square footage in a simple ranch instead of this fancier plan, it would "live" more spaciously.

It's not a bad plan at all, nor is it an uncommon layut, but I think you can find it in "medium" rather than extra-small. Finding its first-cousin in a larger size would probably be more cost-efficient than having this one drawn up larger.

This post was edited by MrsPete on Thu, Nov 7, 13 at 21:45

I definitely agree that it is a little small and i do want to make it a little bigger. Where is a good place to look at house plans? also what is a good program/website to make these floorplans myself?

i would put the master down and the two bedrooms up. It is small so would be a good retirement home with the occasional guests, etc. In the alternative, I would ditch the tub in the upstairs master and make it a great shower since you have a tub on the first.

If you want to try drawing your own plans, there are a number of inexpensive programs. Others will no doubt chime in with their favorites. I did all of our design work in Google Sketch-Up, which is free. While not an architectural program per se, it works for me.

I agree- I'd hate to lose the windows on the left side to a garage, unless there is a house right next door, and thus nothing to look at.

I think it is a cute weekend cottage, but not something that can be a liveable, full-time house.

I used floorplanner.com. They let you have one design for free. It's not amazing or anything, but I was able to move walls, add furniture for placement. I printed it off and gave to my contractor who had it drawn up and it came out better than I expected.

I think I would get rid of the two story great room, and put a bedroom up there, and then you could merge the 2 tiny main floor bedrooms into one workable one, and possibly move the utility room over, so you could enlarge the kitchen.

Even then the "nook" needs more width to be functional. And adding another bedroom to this house would be a mistake, IMO, because there is so little living space.

How many people would live here? What part of the country?

There are a million websites with floorplans, but before you get too far with those, or with designing your own, it might be good to do some reading about home design. I found it really helpful when we started evaluating plans.

I think homeplans.com is a really nice one. I looked at a MILLION cottage plans lately so I will try to find some of my favorite 3 bedroom ones when I go home.

Also, the sink and the range are way too close together. I have this layout in my kitchen, except a little bigger, and we are about to renovate our kitchen to do away with it. It's very frustrating to have more than one person trying to work in the kitchen with this setup. And the snack bar counter gets covered with stuff that won't fit elsewhere like baskets of snacks, or phone lists, or toasters, and so on and so on. It's pretty maddening.

I was looking to find something similar to the one you posted but a little bigger.

I would still make adjustments to the plan in the link. Move the sink and window over in the ktichen perhaps, and do an attached garage with a mudroom connecting from the kitchen instead of the carport.

Here is a link that might be useful: Country House Plan 48-118