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SORRY I WAS LOOKING FOR WHICH BUTTON I SHOULD CHECK TO ATTACH THE FLOOR PLAN. THANKS FOR YOUR PATIENCE.

I agree with pinktoes suggestions. In addition, I would consider moving the door to the laundry room (or is that a pantry?) out of the kitchen and into the little hall between the kitchen and the master suite. This will give you more counter space in the kitchen and a better work area. Plus, if this is primarily a retirement home, the idea that you have to carry laundry or supplies all the way around the laundry room makes my back hurt. ;-) If it is a pantry, carrying the groceries all the way through the kitchen is equally a pain.

I don't really like the way the sink counter in the master bath is in the traffic zone from the two doors. I'm also not fond of the way the bathtub is run - how hard will that to climb in and out of or to clean? I'd be tempted to totally reconfigure the bathroom along the exterior wall and put the closet in the interior space, but I am not sure how that would work for you.

Things I see:

Can't open the doors of the car in the 3rd/separate bay. You can't get into the house or upper apartment from that space. Pinktoes already mentioned it'll be difficult to get around the fronts of any of the cars in both garages. Will you only keep cars in the garage? No need for extra storage or shop space or anything?

In master bath, you can only get into the tub by climbing over the end.

Can't tell what's in the shower room that opens to the outside.

Not sure you can actually walk around to sit in the couch in the sun room.

Will you need coat closets?

Need some explanation as to kitchen and the rooms/areas adjacent to it. It looks like you have 2 cleanup areas...One in the kitchen and one in the pantry? Is that an oven in there, too? Can't tell. The kitchen forum is an excellent place to get specific kitchen plan advice. What is in the hall between kitchen and master bedroom?

I guess that's the master closet with the washer and dryer? Is this your only laundry area? It's a long way to go to tend to laundry if you're out in the kitchen, great room, etc.

We do need to know more about you and your family...Size, age, your area of the country, etc. to help more specifically.

Best wishes!

I like open floorplans, but your living area, dining, breakfast bar, kitchen, and sunroom are basically one big area open to everything. Looks like overkill to me (jmho).

I don't like how the master bedroom door complety obstructs the closet door. The master bath/closet needs to be reconfigured anyway, because the previous responders are right about that tub. It has to be moved.

I see the second bath in the back left corner has a door to the outside to service the pool, but it's very far away from the pool (and on the other side of the sunroom). I don't think any of the pool guests will bother to use it, or even know it's there unless it's pointed out to them. Will your budget allow you to consider a small pool-house with a shower and changing area? I'd reconfigure that bed and bath area, as pinktoes suggested. You'll have more options for doing that if you eliminate that outside door.

I also agree with other posters that don't like that 3rd garage space. It's narrow and there is no passage into the house (or upstairs apt) without going outside, and it's a long walk to the front door.

Could you post the floorplan again with more labels of what goes where? Where is the laundry area? Are there actually two laundry areas, one in the pantry and one in the master closet? If that is a washer/dryer pair in the master closet, I would get rid of that and use the space to create more room in the bath area to relocate the tub.

I really like the layout. It looks like the sunroom has two doors that go outside??? If you don't have doors that close this room to the rest of the house, I would add that. We have an open floor plan and I love it but when the TV is on, the sound fills the entire main floor - it's hard to have a good conversation in the kitchen while the kids are watching TV. We have a sunroom down a hall, with a door. Even with the door closed you still get some noise from the great room. I'm happy that we have a way to separate the sunroom from the rest of the house - it makes for a nice little getaway.
good luck - janb

I agree with the position of that tub in the master bath being a real problem. When you rearrange that room, keep in mind that although it's better to keep your plumbing connections on inside walls, you can put them on the outside wall if you need that flexibility for the design. Just build a an additional insulated wall to pull the connections in from the exterior wall.

A few more things: I just noticed that the master bath has a sliding pocket door to the hallway that runs from the garage entrance. Is this necessary? I would much rather have my master bath be private than to provide access from the rest of the house.

If you can do without that washer/dryer pair in the master closet (if that's what is is), then you can do away with the niche and have a flat wall in the bath area. You could then put the tub along that flat wall and put the toilet in the resulting niche where the tub is now. That would be a very simple fix for the tub access problem.

And I have questions about that extra room behind the kitchen. Is it a combination laundry/pantry? If it's just a pantry it's pretty big; as big as the kitchen itself. Is it a completly seperate, fully-equipped kosher kitchen? Hard to tell from your rendering.

One more thing: the car on the left bay of the 2-car garage appears to be backing up and is going to take out the garage door rails and maybe even the beam supporting the roof. Could be an expensive repair bill there waiting to happen.

You're not going to like this, but...there is almost nothing I like about this plan.

There is no powder room to access near the kitchen and the garage entry. I can't find a laundry room either, unless what looks like a pantry to the right of the kitchen is one. Not a great location if that's it, and could be a noise problem for the MBR. If that IS it, how about a shower bath for pool users in that area. IMO a laundry needs a sink and some drip-dry space, not just a washer and dryer.

The 'pool/guest' bathroom is too compartmentalized; won't a pool-goer need access to a toilet too? Why divide those functions? There are no windows on that side of the house. The pool is too far from the facilities anyway.

Why put a closet on an outside corner (guest BR) where you could have windows? Reversing BR and closet would also provide a sound buffer from the foyer.

The Great Room/Kitchen/Sunroom feels awkward, a lot of walk-through space. (I'm thinking I'd need roller blades.) The sunroom is too small and looks 'stuck on'. Would you use a screened porch, too?

Master BR is larger than it needs be if you have a walk-in closet to hold what used to go into dressers. A personal thing, but I don't like closets beyond walk-though baths, especially since you have no separate toilet room.

The garage problems and odd master bath have already been mentioned.

Thank you very much for your comments. This is going to be our retirement home in Florida. I am struggling right now how to provide more privacy for the second bedroom which is going to be a guest bedroom. We do not have any children. The closet at the end of the hallway in the guest bedroom area is a wall that we can knockdown to add a handicap apartment just in case we end up taking care of our parents. The guest bathroom has a washer and dryer that is beside the shower. I know some voiced already that the pool is too far from the second bath which I am hoping could also be a powder room that is why the shower is separated. I was hoping to keep the pool where it is because we plan to enclose it with screen and the wide wall of the kitchen and master bath will mean we will have to spend less for the screen. I also thought that with the pool closer to the master bed room it will encourage us to use it for exercise. I will rethink if we could put the pool infront of the sun room. There are 2 doors for the sun room, 1 to go to the screened pool and the other goes to the garden. I also visualized tropical garden view in front of the sun room instead of the pool.

I will take out the 3rd car bay and just use it for storage and place spiral staircase going to the second floor of the garage. There is already a staircase from the main house to go to the second floor above the garage just in case we want to use it. But if we end up needing money, we thought we might rent it out for extra income. This is why there will be a separate staircase in the garage.

The small enclosed room with sofa will be a den or what hubby calls his audio/video room or man cave. The hallway with counters coming from the garage is the mudroom where we can just drop our stuff on the counters and they can be converted to lockers if the next family to live on the house has children. The pocket door from the mudroom gives us easy access to the bathroom just in case we need to use the toilet right away coming from the garage or gives us access to the closet to change clothes without going to the bed room. The closet has its own washer and dryer since it is just the 2 of us and that is where dirty clothes coome from. Wash and dry then hang or put away in the same room. I also do not have to pay for extra space for laundry room.

The room beside the kitchen is the pantry where there is double oven. I am short (under 5 foot :( so I minimized upper cabinets and opted for a walk in pantry that has a second sink and dishwasher.

When you open the door from the garage, if you look straight ahead, you will see a counter and the freezer on the left. The counter will be where the answering machine and phone books.

Please keep the comments coming. This will be the second house we are building. The first house, I planned for 10 yrs and even posted it here for refinement but we were in the framing stage and I can saw the mistakes. I was dismayed. I do not want to make the same mistakes with this final house. Building a house is too expensive to be making mistakes. Thank you very much. I do not get offended and I appreciate your time for looking at my plan.

You talk about certain things you have in the plan just for your particular lifestyle or way of doing things, but you also talk about potential resale...You will have a hard time meeting the needs of a family without, for instance, investing in laundry room space.

I HATE spiral staircases...Hard to navigate and dangerous. Impossible for carrying things up and down. You might let the renters move their stuff in through your house, but even carrying groceries would be terrible.

I sure wonder about the value of 2 cleanup sinks and 2 dishwashers located in different rooms. In our last house I placed a dishwasher in the kitchen and one in the dining room buffet...Thinking one for cooking and one for dishes. Didn't work well at all. If one was getting full, but we still had dishes, we had to go back and forth to fit things into both efficiently...Then when the dishes were clean, they were in the more inconvenient dishwasher. Usually the kitchen dishwasher was used most often, so occasionally the forgotten few dirty dishes waiting to be washed in the dining room got gross and stinky by the time someone decided to load and use that one...and we have 10 people in the house to fill and use the dw's.

Your floorplan seems to be very spread out with lots of sq footage dedicated to walkways. It seems like you could get a nice closet and master bath, and probably a pretty good laundry room in that same amount of space. That one large room (living room to kitchen) seems like it might be a challenge to clean and maintain. Room separation of some type would help with that, and with the feeling of the spaces...even if it's beams, flooring changes, or expansive doorways that don't really enclose them.

Love the message center and freezer idea and location.

You said you've been disappointed before...Have you considered consulting an architect or other home design professional?

Perhaps you are trying to make one house do too many things?

1. House you and your DH.
2. Include a rental apartment over the garage.
3. Provide a guest/parent suite w/kitchen on main floor.
4. Be appealing to future buyers who are not one couple.

Do you know if you could legally rent the proposed apartment? This is the first thing I'd leave out. You can leave unfinished space above the garage should you or another owner ever want to finish it. I doubt code would permit apartment access via a spiral stair.

If you believe you will need to house aged parents, and WANT to do so in your home, could you put wiring and plumbing for a kitchenette into a wall closet when you build? I would not sacrifice an outside corner of the house to this purpose.

I can't think of a buyer who would not want a complete laundry room: laundry sink, cabinets, countertop and closet space in addition to a washer and dryer.

I doubt that the 'two kitchens' effect would appeal to anyone who doesn't keep Kosher. If you are short, build lower countertops in the kitchen; they can be built up by a future buyer. I've found that a plentitude of kitchen cabinets means I only need a small closet for bulk goods -- not a full 'pantry'. We (two) have stacked dishdrawers beside the kitchen sink and seldom use both.

If you are screening the pool, what is the purpose of the sun room? I'm envisioning a large screened area across the rear of the house with sitting area and the pool. (Or do you mean you will 'screen' the pool via shrubs or a wall?)

If you are using the room to the right of the foyer as a study, do you need four living spaces: Great Room, Study, Screened Porch, Sun Room? I'd prefer the study door not open into the kitchen. If it had a closet it could be a potential BR for a future buyer.

I'm left with the feeling that there is a better plan for you! Maybe it would be good to consult at least a designer, if not an architect.

I missed the pocket door from rear hallway to master bathroom. Have you lived with pocket doors and know you like them? (We have two on our master closets; I don't care for them.) You know the bath needs re-working. I'd shield the toilet somehow even if you don't want a separate toilet room. You can see the tub won't work.

Thank you so much for all your points of view. I was proud of the plan I came up with and now that you all pointed things out I am changing my mind. I am so glad for this forum. I will definitely rethink the laundry area and the other suggestions. One thing I failed to comment on is that the shower in master bath will be open with no walls between the tub and the shower and it will be wheelchair accessible.

Please keep the comments coming. Before we build we will definitely consult with an architect. I am just playing with the plan right now so I know what to discuss with the architect. Our current house was so expensive and I did not hire an architect for it. I was being a cheapskate and an architect would have saved me thousands for a good design. It was hard looking for a good architect in my small town though as most of them did commercial architecture but I should have persisted. HIndsight is 20/20. Now I know what that means.

I think more important than a plan, is that you approach an architect with a prioritized list of the things you want to have, what you want to accomplish (like room for in-laws later, maybe a rental space, future resale considerations, etc.), and how you want to live in the house. Photos of styles/rooms/houses you like would be helpful, too. Maybe you've done this, but look through hundreds of plans, magazines, and books with great house photos. --Have fun! And best wishes getting just the right plan. I am sad to hear you built a whole house and were disappointed! I hope things are much better this time.

I agree with looking through magazines and google images for ideas. Keep a scrap book with your ideas to make it easier when it comes time to explain : )
I personally like open floor plans......when I retire I want NO STAIRS!!
From what I was reading that you like/want and a few of my own thoughts, I printed your pic (hope that was OK) and used my white out to add/remove, until the 'white out' was out LOL.
I see lots of doors in the house and if you are thinking of possibly wheel chair accessible I'd ditch some of them.
The hardest part for me to visualize was the 2nd bedroom opposite the MBR. This is where I ran out of the white out but I'll try to explain......I would remove the closet in the bed area and put it outside the room, maybe at the end where you currently have the shower/laundry. I think you could make that bathroom more accessible to others plus the guest room by putting it between the GR and walkin closet.
I'd also open up your sunroom and lose the 2 doors for french doors on one side. Same for off your DR/kitchen, I would also add French doors with same size windows on each side. If you want to keep the island in the kitchen try making your kitchen U shape, or you could put in a sit/eat up bar too. There are lots of ideas on FKB
I changed your doorway to DH's cave just to create less of a "box" feel (you could mirror that with the Guest room entrance). I'm not sure what you think about the master bath/powder room but I know I wouldn't want anyone else using my master bathroom plus I'd want to pamper myself and maybe splurge a little : )
I like the size of your laundry room.........space for 2 washers & 2 dryers! Plus pantry storage.
I also removed the extra car to show storage and private entry stairs to the future loft/guest house with small deck.
Hope this helps a bit. Have fun......and be picky, it is your retirement home, make it work for YOU.
Guest room bath
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Here are some more ideas for the bathroom.........as you can tell I need pics to put it into perspective HIH
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Now Master bath ideas
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Here is a link that might be useful: FKB

Saskachewan girl, THANK YOU SO MUCH, you've given great ideas. I love the sunroom, garage, guest area, laundry and master area. I am so thankful for this forum. I will incorporate your idea :)

Let me start by saying I hope your expeience this time goes better than your first on. I hate to see people spend so much money on poorly layed out plans. Its not life and death but most people have no real experience with design and its to important to get wrong up front. I am an architect and do only residential design /remodeling and constrution. The thing that happens is people get attached to a plan or idea and cant get passed it or have limited experience on how to look at multiple plan layouts .

I always show my clients 3-6 plan ideas and discuss the pros and cons of each with them based on their wish lists.

I am concerned that you plan has problems with many issues of cirulation, window location,size of rooms, space( between counters and islands etc.) The plan seems to be 1 story or 1 1/2 so the location of your stair up leads it to the lowest part of the roof and wont allow the head height you need to reach an apartment above. It will need to reach the highest point in the roof to get ceiling height and then the roof pitch needs to be higher to get that height. Please be sure to check this out closely with a design professional or builder as it is a potential costly mistake. Im not fond of the sunroom blocking the view of any windows that should be in the living room maybe consider moving it in front of the dining area ?

I prefer to see the bed in master be on opposite end of room so you see it acroos the room and not have to walk around it so much. Move or eliiminate centered window or use higher wider transom over bed.

Be sure the shower is big enough I like 42" wide minimum x 48" plus a bench making shower 42" x 72 overall. Benches are nice as you age, shave legs, sprain ankles etc or just enjoy a steam shower if desired. Be sure to have linen storage cabinet/closet. Consider eliminating one door to hall to save space and cost in bath. Doors swings can also be issues be sure they have room to rest and dont block other doors. Consider 36" doors for furniture moving and possible walker or wheelchair use in future( sorry) Reduce one door in sunroom, and its size seems small to me but too much circulation reduces a smaller space even more.

Kitchen island is awkward in orientation and seems to limit your location to stand. Keep shape simple to reduce cost if in solid surface. Dont make windows to small reduce numbers if needed but make them larger for better views. Flow of space is important as is noise in open spaces to consider but not critical if you like open plan.

Im not going to try to solve every issue I see as Im not sure whats all important to you and my solutions may not be right for you and every change I speak of causes one other thing to change or more and needs addressed then to find a final answer that works to solve your problems andmakes you feel good every day and functions for you and any potential buyers in future. A few well invested thousand dollars now will save many headaches later, can reduce costs, increase functionality and increase the value later in resale if needed. It will be recouped in higher sales price as well.

Good luck and really look closely at these issues or conider an architect. Not all are overpriced arrogant eggheads!!! or consider plans from such online arcgitects as Donald Gardner. He has many plans and versions of said plans with many different square footages for different budgets. Hope this helps some.

Consider flat screen tv on end wall not corner to make furnishing more flexible and windows in back wall for view.

BigKahuna, thank you so much. Your comments are very insightful. This time around an architect will definitely be consulted. Can you give some tips on hiring an architect? It seems difficult finding the right person because few are going to residential architecture and it might be hard to find someone that understand your wants/needs. I have seen some comments on the forum before that they spent thousands on an architect stating their budget and giving him all the info but the architect provided a plan that the owners were not happy with. With my current house, I have consulted 3 "house designers" and spent almost 10K because the first 2 did not get what I want and they were being paid per hour. I wish I directly went to an architect but it is all done now. I like my house but I know I could have saved thousands by hiring an architect that understands what we wanted.

You can start by contacting the local AIA office to find qualified architects... I suggest one who does mostly residential. Be sure they do the size homes you want.

Meet with several and interview them. Find out how they work? How many schemes they might show you? How much and how do they charge. I do hourly with a budget in mind. If client changes mind too often or asks for extra thats going to add costs but can sometimes be tricky as its not an exact science. I offer free consultation... But please respect their time and let them know of your final decision if you take their time to gather information. Its simple common courtesy and not done enough in my experience. If you choose not to use them they dont have to wonder if you are...just say I selected another for whatever reason and thank them for their time.

Look at their work. See if you like their style. Ask if they can work within your construction budget, call a few references and talk to them .

Also you might find a plan thats close and have them modify it....Be aware there are copyright laws though and ask if this is an option from the original architect if you purchase them online.

Since I bill hourly I break it down into design and construction documents. If client isnt happy for some reason they can choose to stop at any time. I start with freehand sketches ( to scale) that are quicker and get the design idea on paper to discuss then narow down plan options and make plan changes based on meetings and feedback...then work out elevations based on the plan that we narrow down to. The plan you were looking at isnt overly complex so they should be able to come up with several ideas pretty easy to discuss. Once the design sketches are ok with you..you can take them to your builder and get preliminary budgeting under way and see if you need to cut back or not for budget before documents are completed. These are rougher numbers since plans arent finished but most builders will be helpful and reasonably close at this stage.

Now I dont always like this way but you can have architect do design only and the Construction Documents might be done by your builder if he has a draftsman. ( not always in your best interest as design is sometimes low priority for builder) but could save a little money.

Some builders also work with an architect and you might try that. Remember... A draftsman /designer is not an architect. Architects are Professionals and are trained and licensed by the state. Therefor they expect to be paid as one. Not saying all are great designers etc just noting differences. They should give you better overall service. Not everyone wants a masterpiece but everyone deserves good design and a well thought out functional home that works for them.

I always look at architecture as an investment...If its well thought out & well built. It will live better, you will enjoy it more ( hopefully no or fewer regrets when done) and if you decide to sell...it should sell quicker and for more money. We all have walked into homes that make no sense that are for sale...bad design holds up the sale and most likely costs the owner money in a lower price and lost time and headaches of selling.

Good luck

Thank you bigkahuna. I copied and pasted your info so I will follow your suggestions. I did not know that architects can work the way you described it. I was intimidated with architects because the first one I called did not seem to be interested in our project and quoted over the phone that his fee was at least $25,000. That does not involve any construction supervision. Some also said that they are not interested if they are not going to oversee the project. It was disheartening so I just looked for house designers. I ended up paying 3 different designers. The first one cost me $5k. Second was $2k and the third which we used the plan he drew was $3k. I felt bad with all those expenses just to have my dream house and when we were building the house I can already see the mistakes. The second time around, I am hoping it would be a blessing. I think my current one is a blessing too but a lot of heartache during construction.