I agree that the sightlines from the front door could be better. I would want to rework the stairs/closets/guest room entry in that part of the house, so that the guest room doesn't open right into the foyer. I'd look for a way to have a straight staircase--they're cheaper and more space efficient. Could there be a straight staircase where the closets are, and then you could reorganize the other rooms in the space that's left? It would leave a bigger space in the loft too. Regarding the knee-wall: I'd rather have the option of hanging something on that wall in the mudroom (a mirror or a piece of art). If it were my house and we did put the knee wall in, I'd make sure there wasn't a sprayer on the sink, because I could absolutely see a kid waiting in the mudroom ready to spray the kid coming up the stairs. Also-- if you don't put in the knee wall, and you do put a door between the mudroom and the rest of the house, it will act as an airlock for cold air in the winter. Otherwise, every time someone goes in or out, there will be a draft through the whole house. Also, consider the sightlines that kneewall opens up. It would mean that when you walk into the house you see the door to the nursery/office, and whenever the kids bring home friends who go downstairs to play, they'll see into your mudroom. If you're going to have the long sightline available, I think you should make sure there's something attractive on the other end. Maybe you could move the nursery door, and put a really nice piece of art there? But that doesn't fix the view into the mudroom.... All my feedback aside, I really like the house you've designed-- it will be a lovely place to live! This post was edited by zone4newby on Fri, May 17, 13 at 11:15

The OP is aware that they are subfloors hence the original question. Most houses in certain parts of Texas are built close to the ground on a slab-on-grade with an integral shallow concrete perimeter foundation. This house has a pier & beam foundation where the house is raised above grade on beams supported by concrete or CMU dug piers or driven piles. This foundation system is usually more expensive than a slab but not when the soil is expansive clay, a common condition in Texas. In the 80's developers liked to use carpet and resilient flooring instead of hardwood finish flooring and these finishes required a subfloor and a layer of underlayment. Apparently that was the case in this house and the developer chose to use nominal 2x6 T&G decking instead of two thinner layers or a single 1 1/4" thick layer of plywood which might have also made it possible to use 24" o.c. or wider joist spacing. What we haven't been told is the elevation difference between the decking and any finished hardwood flooring in the house especially at the stairs. It might not even be possible to install finished wood flooring over the decking and still be able to align it with with other finish flooring in the house. Regardless of the appearance of the finished decking, it is important to avoid large transition strips where different materials meet. This post was edited by Renovator8 on Sun, Mar 23, 14 at 13:00

A__'s 8 (almost 9) He lives at four different houses - so his life in incredibly inconsistent (BM's, my BF's, BM's mom's, and my BF's dad's) We only have him on weekends (and the time frame is highly variable - sometimes we get him Friday night and BM calls Saturday morning that she wants him back, sometimes we have him until Sunday night. Sometimes we don't get him until Sunday morning and drop him at school on Monday) He plays soccer (usually one practice and one game per week) BF usually winds up taking him to that because even though everyone else says "Ooooh, it's soooo important for him to be in sports" they also can't be bothered to drive him or attend his games. (but that's an unrelated rant about hypocrisy and unreliability from A__'s other caregivers) Warcraft is a fantasy game (orks and mages and stuff do quests to find treasure and learn skills) that was originally designed for teens and up, but it's not graphic or adult themed, so it's really popular with 8-12 yo boys. He plays about 5-10 hours of it on weekend days at the moment. 5 is a lot, but 10 is just plain unreasonable. He plays for about 2-3 hours after he gets up (he wakes us up usually around 8, I get him breakfast, then I go back to bed until about 10 and get up to shower etc) We don't mind him playing in the morning before we're up and being allowed to play in the morning keeps him from sneaking up in the night and so on. Then he wants to play it all afternoon and evening too. I can't say that I blame him, there hasn't been much in the way of toys or other things to do at my BF's place lately (A__ outgrew the toys that BF had, and every time A__ gets presents, BM wants them all at her place. BF bought him a Wii, BM said it should be at her place, etc etc. BF asked BM for some ideas of what A__ is really playing with these days and she said "I'll send some toys over" but then changed her mind and wouldn't even give ideas because "He doesn't need toys at your house. He has toys at my house" - another unrelated rant in the making) The other thing is that A__ is very very high input (ADHD in action) so it's very hard to keep him at an activity for more than a few minutes. My BF really wants to do other things with him, but BF has always been at a loss as to how to keep someone with A__'s attention span focused on something other than Warcraft. He's a good dad, but he has trouble thinking from A__'s point of view sometimes and isn't all that creative when it comes to thinking up activities for A__ to do. Which is where the other thread (Hands-on/Active ideas) comes in. A__ is pretty good about listening when we say "Only one hour of Warcraft tonight" - he sometimes stalls by starting a quest with 5 minutes left in the hour or says "but I lost two minutes when I went to the bathroom" etc, but what kid wouldn't? So now that we're working on the activities stockpile so actually have other things for him to do, and we have decided to give up on toys from BM so just go buy him some, we were thinking of starting with 5 hours of Warcraft (for a whole day) that he can earn extra 15 minute blocks for with good behaviors. After awhile, we think we'll drop it down to 4. That means the structure of the morning can stay the same (which is good because all three of us like this system) but then he has to budget his time for the afternoon and evening and it legislates that he HAS to do something else. BF works some odd shifts and we don't live together (A__ asks me each week to "stay for the whole weekend pleeeeease?" and that's why I get him breakfast and stuff). So at present it's not all that practical for us to have A__ for a more structured time, but once we get engaged and move in together (probably this summer) we plan to ask for a more regular schedule, which will help with some of our troubles stemming from unpredictable schedules.

I agree that the master bath could work much better, and you have the space for a better arrangement. I don't see any point in installing a small fiberglass shower now -- not if you intend to remove it later and upgrade it to a large, tiled shower. It'll be more expensive in the long run, not to mention wasteful of materials. The master bath is plenty wide -- I'd look at stealing 1-1.5' from its width . . . and add it to the laundry room, which is kind of puny. This would allow you to have a narrow folding space across from the washer/dryer, which would be very practical. I'd also consider flipping the closets /bathroom in the secondary bedrooms. This would give you natural light in the bathroom. And I agree with the previous poster who suggested reach-in closets as sound barriers in these bedrooms. Or, you could bring the left-hand bedroom forward to the space that now occupies the closet, and you could place the bathroom through the wall from the master bath. Consolidating your plumbing is a money-saver. I'm not loving the kitchen. It looks "disjointed" to me, and I think it can be solved with one change: Lose the door that's interrupting your prime work space. Yes, I see that the intention was that you'd have a door close to the garage entrance, but if you bump that cabinet run to the right, you're only looking at a few more steps down the hall to enter the kitchen. I don't enjoy cleaning bathrooms, so I would absolutely rearrange the guest bathroom to open towards the hall so that it would be accessible to guests. I agree with losing some of the doors across the back of the house, but the one I'd ditch first would be the one in the eating area. Once you place a table in that spot, you won't be able to use it anyway.