Thanks for the awesome advice ladies. I have been away from the forums..we were out of town dealing with family illness. ANyway, on a brighter note..back to the reno! Jeri: I am not familiar with the designated broom closet thingy. I would love to see it. I am having a closet set up for that in my kitchen area, too. FirstHouse: Any idea who it was that put the cubbies underneath? I'd love to see pictures. I can somewhat visualize since my current W/D is up on a pedestal but curious how useful they would be if I had to stand on my head to see in them. YKWIM? I am getting nervous abt the 3x3 space. I guess I never thought abt that! I am so thrilled to be getting it changed, I am blinded to the downsides... Jsweenc: Thank you for your thoughts...Where are u in NC? We r in CHarlotte...been here abt 5 years after being out in the midwest for most of our married life.DH is a USC alum/fan so we have the running.."real" Carolina discussion a lot! Of course, there really isn't any discussion since *we* know the answer! Anyway, you are very kind to play with my layout. That wall between the two rooms already exists. We had just planned to cut a hole in it for the door. The front part (where the powder room will go) is my current laundry room and the back part (cubbies) is a storage room that backs up to the laundry room. We are stealing that space from the garage if you will. The back wall is approx 10 ft wide. W/D are standard front loaders at 27" but GC said allow 30" for each one. Not a lot of space. It looks a lot bigger on paper!! We are moving our entrance to the house to back area from a door that is currently on the other side of the commode wall in the drawing. I am putting a coat closet there.So I will have additional storage for coats besides the ONE they are to put in the cubbie.(yeah, right...I'll need to do an inservice with the kids on that!) I am not married to closing everything off in cabinets. I am leaning toward wanting to close my laundry area off from the powder room with a pocket door though. I'd like to think my LR will be neat and clean but it really never is.I suffer from CHAOS which is an acronym for "Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome" because my house is always a mess.I feel like that back area will suffer the most even with additional storage. I thought about switching the kid's zone to the file drawer area but worried about the mess. I also have that window right in the middle. Both of those windows currently exist and moving them would require a lot of additional expense. I toyed with the idea of putting the powder room on the window side but figured it would make it dark down the hallway. That would free up cubbie space on the other side. I'd LOVE to hear what you guys think about all of this....My GC emailed me yesterday and wants to finalize things next week!!!!! Yikes....I'm getting a little panicky...

Your laundry/mud/bath is a similar layout to what I have, except I have a tub/shower in that bath. A laundry setup like that doesn't leave you much storage, or room for ironing, folding, or hanging, so keep that in mind. I have to do my ironing in my bedroom. I also don't have a utility sink, to make room for extra cabinets. While a utility sink would be great, I do have a kitchen and bathroom sink close enough that it's not a big deal. And the way the rest of that floor is played out, it puts that bath really far from your guest entrance, office, living room and dining room. You mentioned a downside being that guests will walk through the mudroom, but remember that they will also have to go through your kitchen to get to the bathroom. I'm not sure I'd like that. BTW, you might as well forget about the door between the kitchen a mud room, as it will almost always be open. We changed ours to a cased opening instead of an actual door. I'd have preferred to go with a pocket door, just in case we wanted to be able to close it off for some odd reason, but we didn't want to have to tear into the wall to do it.

Is the screened porch/sunroom going to be a screened porch or a sunroom? If it is enclosed and heated/cooled...it solves a lot of my concerns with the first floor...namely no "away" space and lack of space for dining when entertaining. You could set up quite a large table in there for Thanksgiving, etc. Also, it would be a good place for the kids and your future baby to play while you are in the kitchen. The downstairs bedroom would make a great "day nursery" for the baby to nap while you are working downstairs. I am worried about where your older kids will have their rooms, though. I guess they could share the basement room for a little while...but the 10 year old girl will want some privacy in the next few years. Can you carve out 2 bedrooms in the basement? All in all...a very pretty house!

Hello althom1 , Nice job on the hand drawing - it's where all the greats started! Quick question first; Can you not go from the utility room directly to the office? I see no door & you asked for suggestions - but are they the same floor level? At a glance it seems you have enough space to fit your full program in. Generally you'd want to keep the loud stuff (washer) as far as possible from the doors to the rest of the house. You'd also want your utility stuffs (vacuum, etc.) closer to the kitchen entry - where you may need them most. 22" deep is plenty for a row of vertical storage (Ikea if you're on a budget) that can house some of that stuff & keep the rest of the place open. It also gives some sound buffering at the office wall. You have an open space right now, & I'd love to help. I give every project a 15 minute assessment, free. Hit me up on my profile. thanks, -f Build Beautiful