I'm not an expert on dimensions, but here are a few things that caught my eye: - Maybe move the MBR closet door a bit toward the front of the house, and use a pocket door. That would allow you to have a hanging rod or shelves on the other short wall in the closet and you wouldn't have to work around the open door when you're in the closet. - If you're planning a masonry fireplace/chimney, you're not going to be able to have the window where you've placed it in the Master Bath. - You might want two windows on the long wall in the MBR, so there is one on either side of the bed (assuming the bed goes on that wall). - if the Bonus Room is meant to be a media room, you could stub in plumbing for a bar sink in the corner behind the main bath. - if the main floor office is meant to serve as a guest room at some point, you might consider making the powder room at least a 3/4 bath. I'm not sure how to do that in the space you have, but it's a consideration. (Maybe cede the coat closet space back to the powder room and rob some space from the office closet for a new hall closet?) - You don't have a way to close off the laundry room from the rest of the house. Maybe there is enough distance and drywall between the laundry room and the LR to make the noise not an issue, but maybe not. - You're definitely going to be floating furniture in the LR, so consider ample floor outlets in your electrical plan.

Several suggestions (some in support of what others have already said) and comments-- Lower level: --I'd take space from the too large bath and storage rooms and enlarge the bedroom. --10' is too short a distance for large screen TVs; there are suggested distances for most screen sizes. --The office seems rather large, unless someone works from home, or you plan to have a computer activity area there for the kids. 2nd floor: --The bathroom is larger than it needs to be considering the relatively small size of the master bedroom; they're almost equal! --Having lived with bedrooms that had 9', 10', 11', 12', and 13' as their shortest measurements, IMO I wouldn't go smaller than 11' for a kid's room, or smaller than 12-13' for the master width if at all possible. --I remember a thread discussing jack & jill baths where opinions were about split on their desirability. I'm one of those who doesn't like them. --Our design had a tub/toilet room like yours for the girls' room. It was supposed to be 5' x 7', but ended up 5' x 8' (more space between the toilet and tub). FWIW, it is so much nicer with the 8' length. 1st floor-- --You have too much square footage in the halls for 1400 s.f. Like you, I designed a lot of halls into our house when including the pantry, laundry, powder room, stairs, and entrances. But I kept hacking away and rearranging the plan until I got the square footage better distributed so that my other rooms were the right sizes, and there was no wasted space in the final hall designs. --When your kids are just a little older, I think you're going to wish you had a lot bigger dining area! And when they're teenagers . . . --Our appliances, island, and wall cabinets are similar to how yours are set up, and 42" (cabinet face to cabinet face) is plenty of space between them. (39" countertop edge to countertop edge) --2 different neighbors used one column of 8"x8" glass block as their front sidelites. We used three 12"x12" glass blocks for a couple of lower level windows. IMO the larger size glass block looks better than the smaller sizes that used to be used. --It's more energy efficient to have the fireplace between two INTERIOR walls. Our living room is the exact same size as yours. We put a 2-way FP in the wall between it and the dining area (which has a regular informal dining table) that is part of our kitchen. We also got the FP for backup heat during power outages and have it hooked up to the generator, so with its 2 sides and central location it can heat up the 1st floor general living area. Since our house is also very energy efficient (ICF walls to the top of the 1st floor & geothermal heat), the FP is normally only on for a brief time on cold winter mornings when we first get out of bed and DH has just walked the 200' to get the newspaper. We just moved in in December, and are still finishing up some things on the house. It will be interesting to see how low we have to set the heating thermostat to have the ambiance of the FP when we have company over this winter here in Michigan! So, just some food for thought in case any of it might help. We benefited greatly from various GWeb posts when we were still in the design stage, and I know how hard it is to get everything right. Anne

A window in the mudroom is something I considered, but didn't want to lose the hanging space to add a NE window. It just seemed like a waste. The powder and laundry will be highly functional for us because we are all outdoors people. I wanted quick access to both the washer and a bathroom. Do you think there's a better way to arrange the space to accomplish that? The fridge is a 36" fully integrated paneled fridge and the cabinet beside it will mirror the design, while disguising the pantry access. The pantry size is perfect for us. Keep in mind, we will have a full kitchen in the basement for the teens, so a lot of their items will be down there. The office closet appears to be missing part of the back wall. It's a simple double door reach in. I believe that's the odd angle you noticed. The master closet layout is designed to keep down the noise and light if one of us is up before the other. The small linen closet is addressing the need for a place to store extra sheets, etc. Do you see an opportunity to work that into the space another way? I hope the level of finish keeps me far from the plain and basic category. The material selections for the interior aren't represented on the plans, but our estimates for the build only are $650-$750K in Va.

Okay, I'll throw out a partial idea for consideration: If you move the bathroom towards the middle of the house, the kitchen /dining area bumps to the front ... allowing windows on two sides of the room. Natural light on two sides always makes a room nicer, and it makes the room seem larger. In such a small space, it would also allow you space to include a bay window (or box bay) as seating for the table. Alternately, you could go with a big slider door in the living room, which would also open up the space visually and bring in more light. This also gives the bathroom some privacy. Next I'd go with a double pocket door between the kitchen /dining room and the bedroom /living room ... this allows the rooms to function as one space, when needed ... yet they can still separate, when it suits your needs. Additionally, elimination of the door swing in such a small space is a positive. I'd eliminate the equipment room and instead line the back hallway with storage. The blue boxes represent bookshelves /cabinets /whatever storage appeals to you. This also provides some soundproofing for the recording studio. In such a small space, every square foot must do double-duty, so you really can't afford two hallways to be nothing but hallways. I didn't draw it, but a closet between the recording studio and the bedroom /living room would be a good idea. Two last thoughts: - The framing technique in which you're interested is all well and good, but it's not worth the sacrifice of good design. - The people who are warning you about trouble with financing an unusual build are spot-on.