Hiya! My two cents:

This is a pet peeve of mine, but I don't understand the need for three eating areas right next to each other.

How deep is your pantry? I can't quite read it, but thinking it says 3'6" - if you take a foot away from that for shelving, its going to be difficult to reach down to grab things without smacking your rear into a wall. :\

The bedroom next to the front door seems out of place to me for some reason, perhaps because its between two very public spaces, and yet its a personal space? I envision hearing the front door slam, conversations that drag on forever when someone is visiting, etc, as they have no private space to 'get away'. The noise from the washer/dryer will also be noticeable from this bedroom.

Soaker tub in the master bath with a window over it - if you like that depends on your comfort/modesty level.

Are those trees or stepping stones blocking the front view of your house? If trees, that makes it difficult for visitors to find your place, and makes it quite 'private'. It also provides shelter for thieves to hide.

It looks like you have a lot patio, but a good chunk of it is narrow. The cost of patio stones can add up - so I'd suggest thinking carefully about where you really want to have a patio?

Your bathroom doesn't appear to be Accessible (as in for wheelchairs, aging in place, etc.) I'd recommend this if you want to enjoy this home for as long as possible.

A few good resources are: Inspectapedia and UDLL

I agree with the previous comment about a few things.

If you shifted your kitchen down a little you could make the pantry a little wider. If your shelving has the normal depth which is I think 12 inches, you don't have a lot of wiggle room to move around in there.

We had a small eat up bar and never bought barstools, a kitchen table and chairs, and a formal dining room at our old house near each other and we hardly ever used any of them. We will have an eat up bar and a formal dining space at our new house.

I see why bedroom 2 is in it's location because of it's proximity to the guest bathroom, but I can't shake the feeling that it's not very private at all but your office sure is. I don't know how to remedy that. Of course if you work from home, that privacy might be needed.

Is the office for your work, or is it for home management? If the latter, perhaps you could use one of the bedrooms as an office most of the year, and include a Murphy bed or sofa bed when your guests come. It can also be nice to have an "away space" that isn't too far away, and the office as shown is well out of earshot (but maybe that's the point lol!)

Oh, in the guest bathroom, you could probably do one sink instead of two. They won't be in there at the same time, but they will have all their accoutrements that will need counter space and drawer space.

do you plan on using the office for a bedroom also? if not this space could be much smaller, however, i would combine the third bedroom and the office space

you have a lot of rooms for the square footage

i agree with others on the number of eating spaces i would think the barstools and dining area would be enough...

overall i like your plan

Thanks Lookintomyeyes and Aimless

Great comments, we will need to rethink three eating areas and enlarging the pantry. We do plan to put a fold out bed in the office. The bedrooms are public but we don't know how to move them to another location. The back of the house is 50' from the beach so we don't want to move any of those rooms and we are at the max re width. The bedrooms will only be used when family visit.

The decks will be wood, raised 2' from the ground and we will probably reduce the size. As far as trees go we are 200' from the road on a wooded lot so you will not see the house from the road. We leave in a small town with almost no crime. Some people still don't lock their doors.

bpathhome/Zippity

Thank you, one sink might be the way to go and we will look at the office/bedroom situation.

First, I notice that you have not only a garage sticking out in front, but other rooms behind that garage poking the garage even further forward. The garage is seldom a house's best feature, so I'd consider moving it to the side /bringing it back a bit /whatever else.

Next, bedrooms: You say you don't have guests all that often; therefore, I suggest that you set up one bedroom as an office. Install a murphy bed or use a daybed so that the room can do double-duty /can act as a bedroom when needed.

You want to group your secondary bedrooms and your secondary bath together. People staying in the middle bedroom would have to walk across the foyer (which has a very public feel) to reach the bathroom. I also agree that I'd lose the double sinks, and I'd replace them with a small linen closet. Your guests aren't likely to share the bathroom at any given time, but they're sure to want towels without leaving the confines of the bathroom!

Your secondary bedrooms both have closets placed in such a way that they make the room feel narrow. In both cases, if you move them to the wall where the door is located, you'll create a small "indent", adding a bit of privacy to the rooms, and you'll make the rooms wider /more comfortable. You'll lose a bit of storage, but we're only talking about guest rooms.

I agree that I don't like three eating areas within sight of one another, and the breakfast room isn't wide enough to accomodate a table. Where do you see the two of you eating most of your meals? How many people do you need to seat at most? Can you arrange things so that your everyday space can EXPAND when you have company?

Since you said you are at your maximum width, the garage has to stay at the front. What is that dimension? (Hate the new format when it comes to reading dimensions.) What is the deepest you can make the house? Am I correct that you want the master bedroom, living area and eating area across the back of the house to take advantage of the views? And the location of other rooms is not as important?

Thanks everyone for the great feedback, we really appreciate it. Unfortunatly we are now more confused then ever.

Mrspete: Your garage comment has us guessing. That do you think of the idea of detaching the garage and moving it towards the road and at a slight angle. Our lot is not square to the beach so the right rear corner of the deck is 6 feet from the line while the right front of the garage is 10 feet from the line. Local regs call for a 6 foot setback. Because the soil is sand we could save money by building the garage on a slab. The house will be on a raised slab 2 feet above ground. We have removed the second sink in the guest bath and are looking at rearranging the closets. We will eat most of our meals in the breakfast nook and our capacity for a sitdown dinner is 8.

Oaktown: We have considered the second floor option many times and are still considering that posibility. Would it save money to have the bedrooms upstairs with an additional bathroom?

Dbeoboe: The garage is 24wx20d, the storage room behind is 8 feet deep, and the office is 11'6". The view is amazing so we do not want to move the water side rooms but the front side could be rearranged. I will post a picture of the lot and tomorrow the floor plan we did for a two story.

Thanks again for all your help, it is invaluable.

I would vote for detaching the garage and having a forecourt area (so the garage is side entry from the front of the house). Not just because that is our arrangement :-) but because I would hate backing down a 200' driveway.

It might save a bit of money to build "into the roof" -- what folks on here call a 1.5 story -- since you're enclosing that space anyway. But that depends on a lot of things, so it's something to explore with your architect, builder, etc. I wouldn't do it to save money, but for a better layout that improves the rooms upstairs AND downstairs. Since your lot is narrow I think you really might benefit (more rooms with beach views).

But, I am writing from the land of ranch houses and Eichlers on small lots, and I have also seen some really nice one-story houses that take advantage of light by rambling a bit, never more than 1 room + walkway deep or wide.

Josey - Sorry, I meant what is the maximum width the house can be?

Regarding the garage, can't an attached garage be on a slab? Our house has a full basement, but the garage is on a slab. Not sure that a detached garage would help as it would still be in front of the house.

deekeoboe: The house is now 53'w and the max would be 55'. We are in the north east so I don't think you can mix foundations and slabs do to frost movement.

Oaktown: We were planning for a turn around area as backing 200' would be tricky. Turning the garage could help.

My two-story house was custom built by a couple in their eighties. The husband insisted on having their bedroom upstairs and stacked two very large closets to accommodate an elevator. I love the light in the house and the privacy of the bedrooms. Generally two-story houses are less expensive to build than a ranch of similar square footage and I've been told they have less of an environmental impact, but I don't know if the elevator costs would eat up the savings. YMMV.

I would consider flipping the rooms-- putting the office, master bedroom/bath/closet on the left of the plan, and putting bedroom 3, guest bath, pantry, and kitchen on the right side.

Then, you could have bedroom 2 open into the right hand hallway instead of the foyer. The office would open off the foyer instead of the bedrooms.

I'd use bedroom 2 as a den or quiet room when guests weren't there.

josey - I grew up in RI in a house with a full basement and there was no basement under the attached garage.

As mentioned, this is a photo of the lot taken facing west. Am modifying plan to include a number of you suggestions. Any more advise?

We really appreciate all the great comments.

You really need the services of an experienced architect. Oceanside building has numeous structural and environmental regulations that must be satisfed in addition to creating an actually functional floorplan. A floorplan is only one part of a home plan, and this one is far from ideal. Don't perform open heart surgery on yourself with a local anesthetic and a text book. Get a professional to do a professional's job.

Sophie, we have had the environment department involved and will have a professional draw up the plans. We are now trying to sort out our needs and wants before getting the pro's more involved.

josey11, what a nice property! I saw your other thread with the inspiration picture and thought of this plan you might look at for some ideas: Allison Ramsey Bermuda Bluff II

Oaktown:

Out of maybe 100,000 plus online house plans you suggested our #1 favorite. The Bermuda Bluff II is too large but the basic Bermuda Bluff could work. We have located several in the Beaufort SC area and hope to do a drive by in April on our way back north.

We searched to see if there had been an posts here but didn't get any hits.

Lot of good suggestions, many that I was thinking of as well.

One I didn't hear was in the kitchen design. I'd move the pantry door so I was able to put a complete L in the kitchen with an island. Reason being that I love a lazy susan as it's the best most convenient storage so I'd want at least one corner in every kitchen. That will also give you more room around the sink for dish stacking and such. If you do that, then you could actually eliminate the bkfst nook area and stick with the bar and dining as your eating areas. That would bring the sun room and the light closer to the kitchen. And it would allow you to make the pantry wider and more useful.

You can do upstairs guest bedroom/bath as an idea too...so long as you can resort to one-floor living as infirmity requires. And on that note, keep in mind how far the toilet is from the bedroom...it's the "go to" place for those late night trips. :)

Thanks Annie, good suggestions. We will look at some of your ideas on the redraw.

we live in a different version of bermuda bluff it has only one large bedroom and bath upstairs 2313 square ft

gr is 19x24 kitchen roughly 14x17 no separate dining area utility room and storage is "out the back door"

we absolutely love it we entertained 17 people for Thanksgiving dinner

a party of friends (22 guests) at Christmas and had plenty of room

screened back porch is roughly 12 ft wide and wraps around the living room and we spend a lot of time there

Thanks again for all the advice. We have made several changes as a result of your input. We have moved the bedrooms to the second floor, moved the dining room, eliminated the breakfast nook, enlarged the pantry, detached the garage, plus several other changes.

Please review and let us know if we are on the right track.

Second Floor

House with detached garage. The garage is offset 4' and turned sideways to allow more of the front of the house to show.

Zippy1

As said we love the Bermuda Bluff. We are heading in a very similar direction to yours. 2250 sq ft, GR 21x19, kitchen 12x18 and utility at back door. We want the outside look of the Bermuda Bluff. Is there a place online where we could see your floorplan and elevations.

yes there is a place you can go to see it (or was 3 or 4 months ago)meanwhile google bermuda bluff hgtv house 1998 video if you click on the video link you can see the video from the hgtv program and it gives you a bit of an idea how the house flows meanwhile i will go check the address for the floor plan (before i give you bad info)

josey11 if you just google allison ramsey bermuda bluff 2313 that specific plan will show up

we made a couple of changes took out the door between kitchen and entry (replaced it with a desk in the kitchen) took 6 or 8 inches out of the back of the coat closet and made a can pantry in the kitchen (in addition to the pantry already there) put hooks in the coast closet two rows of them and they are good for coats umbrellas, caps/hats etc we really like that took out the fireplace (we live south of houston texas don't really need a fireplace now we have lots of room for a freezer in the store room

my main concerns were if the gr would feel small with chairs sofas and dining room furniture.. and it does not we have a 48 in round dining table with three leaves and we used all of those for the holidays and we have 3 big men's recliners and a large leather chair with ottoman and a really big sofa in there and it's not too crowdedwe have quite a bit of storage upstairs in the attic spaces and lots in the store room i have empty shelves everywhere
our island is almost double the size of the one in the plan...

josey11 apparently i'm very chatty today we are in our early 60's also and having a "2 story" house was a concern but, since there's only a guest bedroom up there we've found it to be no problem (and i just had a second hip replacement a month ago) our guests seem to love that room and 2 of the couples are in their 70's and the older folks have chosen to stay in that room as opposed to our daughter and a granddaughter who have chosen to stay in the guest room downstairs