Thanks for your input Renovator8. Are all of the major spaces awkward? Which ones in particular look the worst? Do you have any suggestions on how I could make this flow better? We've looked at how we live on a day to day basis and how we would like our home to function. This plan seems to be the best flow for our lifestyle, but some help from GW may help us change it for the better. If you were to provide some more feedback I may understand why it is so awkward. I'm definetly an amateur so I would love some input on how to make things flow better. I do recognize that some aspects of our plan is not traditional in the way most houses are being built: i.e. stairs are by the entrance, not accessed easily from the interior of the home. Living room is at the back of the home and not accessed through an entry to the home. There are some reasons why we chose to do this. On the east coast of Canada we have a much more informal way of living. We entertain in the kitchen/ dining room (kitchen parties) rather than the living room. We will have a covered deck off the kitchen since we do have so many kitchen parties. Sometimes women and children gather in the kitchen/ dining and the men will go to the living room or the garage. Many people including us do not use their basements other than storage and utilities such as hot water heater, furnace etc. The stairs are usually only accessed to store seldom used things such as extra supplies, seasonal wear and seasonal decorations. Our lot is set up so that all of the outdoor living and access to the home is on the south side. The north side is 100 acres of family woodland that won't be accessed. I hope these extra details of our lifestyle and how we would like our home to function will help you provide us with some input.

Congratulations on your upcoming build! This is a nice plan overall. I really like the master bath and the office off the master bedroom! The things that stood out to me that I would recommend taking another look at were: -Do you really want a giant window in the master bedroom (opposite the bed wall I'm assuming) that looks out onto the back porch where your kids, relatives & friends might be hanging out? Also, what is the view potential for such a large window--a wall, a door and an angled fireplace. Now the fireplace you're planning may be a beauty, but I don't think the trade-offs are worth it. -The door onto the back porch from the breakfast room will be useless unless you 1)enlarge the breakfast room or 2)use a table for 2. Any table larger than a 2-seater with chairs around it will block the access pathway to the door--especially if someone is sitting in the chair on that end of the table. I would eliminate the door or eliminate the breakfast room. -While we're talking about the breakfast room--I know they are the "in" thing and you see them in just about every plan out there, but do you really need 3 places to eat? You have the island that will seat 4 comfortable on the side facing the family room and maybe another 1-2 on the end. You always hear people complain that they don't use their dining room--take this as an opportunity--delete the breakfast area, pulling that wall back even with the family room wall and use the dining room. If you do this, you can gain 5 things: 1)more $$$ as you are saving square footage, 2)elimination of an additional jog in the foundation (another money saver), 3)more back porch space, 4)more light in the actual kitchen (even though it is under the porch roof) & 5)you can gain more storage by adding another cabinet run along that end of the kitchen. -While we're talking about porch roofs--I know everyone says the porch will make your rooms dark. I would not say dark, just more shaded--you will get more ambient light than direct sunlight. With the rear of the house facing SW, I think the porch is an excellent idea. You are more likely to be sitting in the family room in the afternoon/evening hours and the porch will eliminate the late afternoon direct sunlight glare in your eyes & on the TV.You have plenty of windows in there, so you will have plenty of natural light (just make sure those windows are long to maximize the amount of light that enters). -I'd move the porch access door in the back hallway closer to the family room wall--it will give you more options with furniture placement & give the door a 'place to rest' when open. -I think the entries into the J&J baths are fine--we have that exact set up in DS1's room on the door location where there is a short wall with the vanity on the other side, then the door then a longer wall. It works great as he has a nightstand that goes in that space. To give you an idea using your plan--his bed is on the wall that backs up to the family room with the nightstand on the bathroom side--when he gets out of bed, the bathroom door is directly in front of him. If you plan to put the bed on that wall as well & you slide the door toward the family room door, whoever is getting out of bed will have to skirt their nightstand to get to the bathroom door. If you plan to put the bed on the wall where the closet is or on the bathroom wall, that little area makes a great place for a dresser. -More on the J&J bath--what if you eliminated some jogs in the foundation (saving money again) and pushed the J&J bath wall out to be even with the window seat bumpouts in the bedrooms & pushed the back of the house out 1-2' using that space in the J&J? Then you could give each bedroom it's own bath. With all the plumbing you've got going in there already it really shouldn't cost that much more. Besides you saved money on the foundation at that point, so it will likely be a wash. -Definitely make some to-scale furniture cutouts & place them in the plan where you see them fitting just to make absolutely sure everything fits. Make sure you consider bed upgrades in the future if you plan to stay in the home any length of time (i.e. kids have twin beds now & they fit, but later on you want to upgrade to queen beds, which are wider & longer, in those rooms). It's no fun once the house is framed to realize a room doesn't work the way you wanted it to. -I don't care for the walk-thru laundry room entry from the garage into the house. I know the W/D are set back, but it is still in a position to be an eyesore. I would add a wall separating the mudroom area from the actual laundry area and put in a door. -2'0" doorways are something to reconsider. 2'6" would be my absolute minimum with 3'0" being ideal. How long do you plan to stay in the home? Any possibility of older parents who may need crutches, walker or wheelchair coming to live with you in the future for any length of time? What about resale especially with 1/3 of the US population being obese? Doorway clearances are increasing becoming a very big deal. I would steer clear of smaller doors (less than 2'6") unless they are providing access to a small reach-in closet. -The shower stall in the guest bathroom is very tight, I would definitely consider stealing some space from the closet to make it larger. It looks like that would make the two walk-in closets in the secondary bedrooms the same size. -I would change the pantry door to an inswing vs. an outswing. You don't have any shelves on the wall that backs up to the family room so this shouldn't be an issue. That's all I have. Hope it helps!

Thanks, everyone! This is SO helpful! So, for using the baskets" ours is more of a "laundry traffic management" system. We each have our own (they are actually Bungalow Scout Junque Trunques - pretty huge!) - so Mom, Dad, Daughter #1 and Daughter #2 each have their own spot for laundry. We don't actively keep dirties there or sort with them, everyone keeps their dirty laundry in a hamper in their room and then it comes down to get done. Then when dry, it goes in their own basket, they take their basket to put the laundry away and the basket comes back to the laundry room home base. That's why the kind that sits in a pull-out drawer, or even the rolling wouldn't be as ideal (we have a three-story house so the laundry is traveling all over. rococogurl, can you send me a link or take pic of those baskets though? I'd love to see what those look like - and it certainly saves me on base cabinets since I don't have those?!) That SAID, I am now thinking that since Ikea has those handy cabinets with pull outs that are pretty reasonable, maybe I'll build in two of those for towels and sheets? A big hamper for those would be fabulous and they never fit in our "personal" baskets. Knowing that, what do you think in terms of where the baskets live? That's sort of why I'm focused on the folding, packing in basket, and returning, process. In terms of using a sink, we've had laundry upstairs for 12 years and the ONLY time I've soaked something is when my husband washed whites with a red sock and i was trying to white vinegar out the pink. So, wouldn't say we are big "hand washing people." It's more to have the option - and to have a place to wash your hands which I do want b/c of sticky soap, lint, etc. So, in light of that, thoughts on the sink? The think about our corner is that unless I put a giant lazy susan, it is a dead corner because of the window, so it's sort of why I considered that option? The idea of it by the big utility cabinet is interesting too through (again, rococogurl - thx) - it leaves me the MOST countertop space in one swoop. And, the big utility cabinet is actually for the mop, swiffer, vacuum, etc so there could be some value to it being there? rococogurl, any chance you could take some photos of your laundry room (I won't judge - it's about function!) The washer and dryer are going to be on a platform and then on a pedastal - I just couldn't do that in the IKEA rendering. I'm 5' 11" and my hubby is 6' 2 and our daughters are already tall, so the higher the better! I'm ok not having counter there as a sacrifice for not breaking my back. The only thing that occurred to me after is that I could have run a counter along the wall to the LEFT of the washer - that would have been handy, even if it was just width of a basket b/c I could have set something there and it's sort of dead space now. Hmmmm... I think the plumbing is already in though for the washer, does it need to be right behind it? mydreamhome, if I go corner, what brand is that? it does look like a nice size? Last question to toss out there, I've been struggling wth what countertop material. My contractor has a slab of soapstone that is pretty and could be used for a really good good price. I know soapstone is soft but I guess what I"m thinking of is making it a very CLASSIC laundry room - white subway, simplicity? My house is a 1917 Colonial, so while having a laundry room on the 2nd floor like this is out of period, soapstone is not?! Even if it gets marked up and "loved" over the years? Thoughts? THANK YOU to all of you - I have no one here to help me. No designer and my contractor just executes. My husband has a mantra: "I care deeply but have no preference." So, I really appreciate your thoughts! Alexa

aplemac: thanks for letting me know. Whatever I do at least part of my sorted dirties will be bagged. iasheff: thanks for the link. Walmart also has one of those with a wooden folding table. Don't know how that works since their images aren't displaying for me. Found some other sites with things which I'll explore later. Now I'm off to the bookstore to see if there's any laundry design book/chapters in organizing books that I've possibly missed. SOMEONE OUT THERE NEEDS TO WRITE A BOOK. Include mudrooms while you're at it. Oh, and I see another 20 square feet, mostly circulation space, but enough of it would be usable wall space to extend my walls by 2 feet on both sides of the Laundry Room. That would solve my problems. Just by merely extending an exterior wall by 2 feet, for 10 feet of length. Really BAD of me to even think of it since we have our builder on a mission to save us money by changing the plan. But it'd be relatively cheap space. DO I HAVE THE NERVE TO GO FOR IT???