i can gladly try to help you , but i can not see the dimensions on your plans ... could you post the overall width and depth of the full house? that will make it far easier ... thanks !!

Thanks - I am sorry the dimensions didn't show up! The width of the house is 70 ft and it is 40 ft 6 in at the master suite end of the house. The dimensions can be seen a little better at the link below

Here is a link that might be useful: Elizabethton house plans

We are also retired, and built a new home 3 years ago, and I don't think of our rooms as being small. Some of your rooms seem large to me, but I've never lived with 6 dogs! Do they move about in all of the rooms during the day?

If you could show more of the layout for the kitchen, laundry, and bath, as well as the probable location of furniture in the other rooms, it would help us to advise you where to cut. Also helpful, would be more info about how often you entertain, or how often you think you'll have grandchildren over, etc. Also, what kind of climate will you be building in?

Anne

Hi Anne

Yes, our dogs are in the house with us all day. We don't entertain very much and the grand kids will probably visit 3 or 4 times a year .. so you can see why our dogs are important to us :)

my first response to big space saving ares are these:

it appears your rooms are all very large. Simply remove 1-2 feet in each direction and you will be amazed how much sqft falls off, and that 1' in those sizes rooms will never be missed. My other thought is your entry. You have a lot of space that is "dead space". I would suggest pushing your front door into your house some, about 5-8 feet maybe. This also might help create more interest in your elevation too. You would still have access into your dining from both sides.
There is also a bumped out area north of your kitchen. Is that a eating nook? IS this needed? That would be a lot of $$$ savings due to the corners in your roof and foundation as well.
My other thought is looking into your finishes. I am assuming you want to remove sqft to reduce costs. One tip...its is MUCH cheaper to build the space you need now then later. So if you want to reduce money in construction, keep the sqftage but revisit your finishes inside your house. $6k granite counters? What if you went with $1k laminate for now and changed them out in 5 years? Look at different cabinetry options, cheaper doors, hardware, plumbing fixtures, etc. Just because the price is cheaper, doesnt always mean its quality cheaper. Also anything DIY as well. If you think you can do it, do it! Shop around online for better deals instead of going through or builder or to Lowes.
these are my thoughts, hope they help.

Obviously a big house which always makes cutting easier. The problem with cutting is that you have a design and short of removing a foot here and a foot there, you might wind up changing the design.

As someone who lives in a big house, I'll tell you that there are some spaces that are not needed. Master bath space could be trimmed some. A big master bath looks all grand but the space isn't "needed". I second that with master bedroom. I realize the dogs but still, you can trim some.

But the room that I would really cut is the study. You just don't need that much room for a desk. And media rooms are often made really big to impress, they don't need to be that big. In fact being closer to the screen makes for a better media experience.

One suggestion, especially since its just the two of you.. put your washer dryer in a master BR Closet.. we did that, and it was the best thing EVER.. why carry all your clothes to the furthest spot away from where you keep them?? then you could probably make that room smaller..
but we were in a similar situation.. had house plans drawn up, and tried to start cutting.. didn't work well.. so we just started over..
I'd say like someone else, if its due to cost, cut down a little on the finishes. And maybe just a little on room sizes

I don't know if this cuts TOO much out, but I'd take off the whole left wing...upstairs and down.

You could widen that end of the house (kitchen/nook and living space downstairs) about five feet. I'd put the pantry up front, with the kitchen in the middle and the dining room in the back. If it's just you two and the dogs most of the time, why have two dining rooms?

I'd take out the walk-in closet in the front, move the front door over, and bump out the area (where the dining room is now) for more pantry/clutter area. This would give you the same shape (with two bumpouts) that you have now, but with a lot less square footage. The laundry in the master bath or closet is a GREAT idea!

Downstairs, I'd make the family area a little bigger, but use a sleeper sectional, in place of the second guest room. Grandkids love to sleep in the family room (it feels like camping out!)

If you invest in some nice closet organizers, I don't think you'll even miss the extra space...and less to heat, cool and CLEAN! Hope this helps :)

Thanks so much for all your suggestions. We will spend the holidays working out what we need to do next!

Yes, cost is the issue. We need to sell our existing house to pay for this one .... and, as you all know, prices for existing houses are dropping through the floor ... but costs of building are not :(

i was able to cut your main floor down by roughly 350 square feet ... hopefully , this version doesn't stray too far from what your original designer was trying to achieve ... without knowing what the exterior is supposed to look like , it's fairly impossible to plan appropriately.

while i have not had a chance to work on the lower level , i'm sure at least , as much , or more , can be reduced there , as well ...

Summer- That's beautiful! Hadn't even noticed there was no powder room. Lovely master bath, too. The kitchen/dining area is pretty and functional...I don't know if they'd even miss the other dining space!

Thank you so much for your hard work, Summer, it is a great design, and such pretty software that makes it all so clear! It certainly gives us an excellent idea of how we can reduce space.

Summer did a great job with cutting down square footage, but I'd recommend looking seriously at the kitchen plan. Summer and I don't see eye to eye on kitchen plans :-). I don't see enough counter space in that kitchen to do any real cooking--it looks as if the main counter has two 24" spaces--one on each side of the sink. I'd hate to cook in this kitchen--and wouldn't look at the house twice if I were househunting. There is a pantry--and it'd be essential, because there's hardly enough storage space in that kitchen for dishes.

Totally agree on that kitchen.

The bumpout is 5 feet yet somehow that is enough for a table and chairs. I realize the chairs on one side are not in the bumpout but 5 feet of which 3 feet is table is not going to be room for chairs and passage (at least not comfortably). And since that is the only dining space, the kids and grandkids will be cramped.

IMO, if you are only going to have a kitchen-based dining area, it better be big.

I don't know how to fix it, and I am sure that some people would have no issues with it.

Summer- I like your kitchen...I would just switch the fridge to the other side, by the microwave, which would leave you more room to slide the range down and have prep space on either side. I like all the stools by the sink area.

For the dining room, it is a little cramped, but I like the bump out. What if you brought the entry area out even with the powder room, flip the entry closet and hall, so the hall is between the coat room/pantry and the laundry area? This would give you room to move the kitchen down and would make the dining area a little bigger.

"bump outs" add money. They add to foundation costs, truss costs, labor costs, etc. Reducing corners in your plan reduces cost. Sometimes it can reduce cost greater then yanking sqftage out by simply getting rid of corners.
Looking at summer's plan, you can easily get rid of the bump out (thus saving both corner cost and sqft) as well as increasing the size of each room (kitch and dining).
my professional suggestions: slide the kitchen up, creating an L design with an island. Move the entry from the kitchen into the Hall to the left of the pantry, thus allowing you not to have to go through a door to get to it. then move the study entry off that hall instead of the main space. the left over space by the entry after sliding the kitchen should be plenty of space for the dining.