Even on your enlarged images, it is still impossible to see any dimensions so that makes it a bit harder to comment. It looks like TinyPic is actually posting a screen-wide image but that your picture has a huge section of white space on the right. In the future, before you upload an image to TinyPic, first make sure that it is cropped as closely as possible to the actual image you want to post...no extra white space on any side. Then upload that as a 15" or 17" wide image to TinyPic. Ultimately, only YOU can decide if a 1st floor master is right for you. For resale value purposes, a 1st floor master is usually great b/c many buyers who are a little older don't want to make the trek upstairs all the time. And, many folks with older kids prefer the additional parental privacy. With a toddler tho, it makes sense that you would want your bedroom on the same floor as hers. Still, by the time you get moved in, she'll already be moving out of the toddler stage and, as a previous poster pointed out, you could use the office upstairs as your temporary master bedroom until your daughter is a little older. It it were me, unless I was considering having more children in the future, I'd probably decide that on balance, the 1st floor master was a good thing. If I'm reading your roof lines correctly, it looks like one OUGHT to be able to expand that 2nd floor bathroom back at least another 3 feet or so for almost no cost. The space behind the bathroom is attic with the same amount of headroom as there is at the back of the bedrooms and that line across the bedrooms at the point where the dormers attach usually indicates the 7 foot headroom line. Or, for a much larger outlay of additional cash, you ought to be able to add in a third dormer which would give you a huge space for your upstairs bath. As for the dormers themselves, dormer windows and sloping ceilings give bedrooms a charm not attainable with a standard perfect box shaped room. The question for me would be whether these dormers are so deep that light from the windows can't really penetrate to the main portion of the room. If the plan is one your builder has built before, perhaps you could see the previously built model. Without being able to see dimensions, I can't comment on whether the nook is large enough or needs to be bigger. Some concerns I would have with this plan that you don't mention are: 1) Is the kitchen really large enough to do what you want with it? Bear in mind that a kitchen island must have aisle space clear around it. On the sides facing perimeter counters that include any major appliance, you're going to want at least 4 feet of clear aisle space...and remember that fridges can stick out as much as a foot beyond the perimeter cabinet. On sides of the island that don't face any major appliances, you can usually get by with a 3ft aisle UNLESS you want a bar and barstools on that side. Where you want barstools, add another 1.5 to 2 ft to the aisle space. You can estimate how large a kitchen island you can fit into a given kitchen by first sketching in 2 ft wide perimeter cabinets on whichever sides you want them. Decide which wall(s) you think you want your stove and fridge to sit on... you don't have to have an exact placement. Sketch in a 4ft wide aisle on the side where the stove will sit of and a 4.5 to 5 ft ft wide aisles on the side where the fridge will be. Then sketch in 3 ft wide aisles on the other sides. The space that is left over in the middle is the maximum area that you can devote to your island PLUS bar and barstools. Is it as big as you want? If not, you'll need to find a way to enlarge the kitchen. As your children get a little older, do you envision that they will take their noisier play into the space over the garage and use their bedrooms primarily for sleep and study? If not, will the noise of children playing overhead bother you if you're trying to entertain adults in the family room directly below the children's bedrooms? With two kids and a plan with the staircase clear across the house from the garage entry (which usually becomes the main entry for families) I would definitely want a REAL mud room with cubbies for all the kid's jackets, hats, shoes, bookbags, sports paraphernalia, and other "stuff." Otherwise it'll wind up scattered on the dining room table, across the backs of family room chairs, and over stair bannisters...especially since, given where the door to the garage is located, the only closet near the garage entry is in the opposite direction from the normal flow of traffic into the house. If you can afford it, I would recommend pulling the nose of the garage forward about another 3 feet. (This should be relatively cheap additional square footage.) Move the wall separating garage and house forward by the same amount so that your garage space doesn't change and move the entry door so that it is down closer to the laundry. Put a 5x5 walk in pantry clear on the left (closest to the dining room) and the powder room (5x5) immediately to the right of the pantry. This would leave you with a nice sized mudroom on the between the garage and laundry and traffic will flow thru the mudroom on the way into the house. You can even add in a door to separate the "hallway" from the mudroom and then, when you have guests they would be able to use the powderroom while any mess in your mudroom remains hidden behind a closed door. Even if you decide you can't afford to add square footage, I'd still shift things around a bit. Put the Pantry on the left, then the "closet" and then the garage door. Then, instead of a closet, put in cubbies with hooks for coats and bookbags and stuff. Kids then to actually use cubbies with hooks for their jackets and stuff far more than they do closets and if the door is situated where they have to walk past the cubbies on their way in/out of the house, all their "stuff" is much more likely to stay contained in the mudroom instead of being scattered all over the house. AGain, I would probably put a wall with a pocket door between the pantry and the "mud room" area...just so I could close off the mess if need be. Of course, if guests must go thru the mudroom to reach the powderroom, they're going to see your mudroom area anyway. However, if your house doesn't have a basement, you COULD fit a guest powder room under the staircase so that the one by the garage is for family use only. The space under the staircase itself is plenty wide enough for a toilet. You just need to make a little bumpout on the side to accommodate a vanity. And the hallway next to the staircase is plenty wide enough that a little bumpout wouldn't matter. Or, if you really like having that wide hallway leading from bedroom to bath (maybe envision it as a kind of dressing room area), then move the closets over next to the staircase and have the hallway run down next to the exterior wall. Then the bumpout needed to allow a vanity for a powderroom under the stairs would fit so that it only cuts out the corners of the two closets. And, since closet corners aren't all that useful anyway, you would lose very little useful closet space. Plus, making this switch would also allow you to put some windows into the hallway/dressing area thus making it a more pleasant space! Just some ideas...

Is there are garage? Not shown on the plan, but listed on the sf. And where do the stairs from the first floor go, since stairs are not shown on the second floor? Would it make sense to move the laundry to the first floor . I envision coming home with dirty wet beach towels, swum suits, etc. not wanting to carry the mess up to the second floor. Would you want to enlarge the deck off the mbr so that bedroom 2 would also have deck access? Or is that a private deck for the mbr only? The bath off bedroom 2 has doors on both the toilet and shower. Do you need these to be in separate areas . Or could you remove the wall and have the shower and toilet combined? If you eliminated the door to the sink area from the bedroom, it would probably make the closet more usable. I'm guessing this is a guest room, since it has 2 double beds. There are no dimensions, but the master closet looks tiny. Its labelled as walk in, but I suspect there is only room to stand in there. The whole closet looks about the size of your toilet stall. I think the whole master bath and closet could be reworked. You have a tiny closet, yet a huge open space in the middle of the bathroom. I'm not sure where those stairs go, but the ones on the right come up to the deck and the window to the powder room is right there as people make the turn onto the deck. Which means you will want to keep that powder room covered at ALL times.

Unless I miss my guess, this house is for a couple with no kids? If so, for that lifestyle I really like the concept. A few things: -I'm not fond of jack & jill bathrooms. People who dislike them tend to feel strongly about it, so if this isn't your final home, for resale considerations I'd look at something else. I also dislike the use of a double sink there since there clearly isn't a need for two sinks. -The front bump-out and door is awkward. It's small, for one, and the door and sidelights are off-center. In such a small feature, I think that will be really obvious. You could bump that other side out a touch and set the bench back farther from the door. -I'd like to see you draw in your porches. -The seating island at the kitchen is a bit problematic from a storage standpoint -- angled islands are tough to actually get any storage in. If you cook a lot, your kitchen as a whole may be inadequate for storage. The pantry is great for large items, but not so much for the basics. The island is also too far away from the main cooking area if the idea was to create a spot where people could visit with the cook. Moving the sink to the rectangular item might be one way to bring those areas closer together. -The home could easily be handicapped accessible if you eliminate some bottlenecks. For example, widening the hallway into the master bedroom. -You realize how expensive that shower is, right? -In the toilet nook in the master bath, I'd angle the doorway and put a swing door there. That pocket door will never be big enough and you have plenty of room for a swing. You sure you want a window in the toilet nook? -Garage: The bay closest to the house really won't fit a car, if that's the intention. -The laundry room appears to be an afterthought and it's a strange space. I think that whole corner could be reworked more effectively. A shower there, easily accessible to the garage, might be a good addition and I think you need a utility sink in the laundry room. -I'd like to see what happens if you swap the dining and living spaces for two reasons. One, a masonry wall will provide better soundproofing for the master bedroom. And two, you could easily add a fireplace in the master bedroom or made a two-sided fireplace, which might be an interesting feature. Okay, that was a lot of things. :) I really do like it.

Thanks for the comments so far. There does not appear to be a consensus, but several folks have recommended Solatubes. I guess I could put in two 14" Solatubes in the Family room by putting them in the centers of two coffers at one-third and two-thirds of the way along the length of the room. But would these point sources of skylight be too bright, like really bright light fixtures that make you want to wear a baseball cap to shield your eyes from the glare? I guess we could build the house as-is, and add the Solatubes later if we decide we want more light. Have also thought about long linear skylights at the boundaries of the kitchen/family rooms, dining/family rooms, and entry/family rooms. In response to a few questions, the porch roof will be about 15' high. I like the suggestion about making the patio and underside of porch roof light colors. That may help some. Per requests, I have also attached sketch for second floor, which contains a guest bedroom, study, exercise room, and two baths. Any more opinions welcome. Thanks.