Just got first set of plans - would love feedback!
E K
9 years ago
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Lavender Lass
9 years agoUser
9 years agoRelated Discussions
Just got my first preliminary plans!
Comments (15)Congratulations on your plans! I really like them alot. Elevation is beautiful. Inside is nicely laid out for the most part. There were just a handful of things that stood out to me as needing some tweaking: -The roof height change between the left wing of the house and the garage bothers me. It also appears that the roof of the left wing is higher that the roof of the right wing--is it? We encountered a similar challenge with our exterior plans. We opted to raise the height of the roof on the garage so the rooflines would match up. -Is the family room big enough? I see you have furniture placed in there on the drawings--is it based on your actual furniture? If not, it needs to be. Based on the furniture layout & the required walkways around it, your family room effectively shrinks from 19'2" x 15'4" to 13'2" x 9'4". I would definitely revisit this space. -There is ALOT of square footage dedicated to play/toy area. That's really enough space for a full on guest suite/in-law suite. Do you really need all of it? What are your plans for it once the kids are grown? -There is not a full bath on the main level. Not necessary but nice to have should have need of one (i.e. injury that doesn't lend well to navigating stairs, in-laws need to move in either temporarily or permanently, overnight guests who may bunk in the playroom or library, etc) -Are you planning any island/peninsula seating? If so, how many seats? In many of today's plans, there is a plethora of seating for meals where all family members fit--4(+) seats @ island/peninsula, nook off kitchen and a formal dining room--total overkill. If you have enough room for everyone in the immediate family to sit at the island, you could pull the nook wall back and make it part of the kitchen allowing more cabinetry for storage, more counter space, more light into the main room itself & you'll knock a nice chunk of square footage off that you say you need. -I see you've already posted the kitchen in the kitchen forum--that was my suggestion as well. -I'm not wild about the layout of the 2nd floor shared bath layout--alot of wasted space, IMO. Have you thought about flipping the vanity to the opposite wall and put the tub in the alcove where the vanity was originally, then put the toilet on the opposite wall where the tub was originally offering some privacy for whoever may be using it. You could make a toilet closet there if you want or just leave the short wall in place. You could also place a window in that area too for natural light. The linen closet could also be made larger in this scenario as well. A compact stacked washer/dryer may even be able to be accomodated. If desired, you could make the bath accessible from one of the bedrooms as well. -Love the big closet in bedroom 2, however, the door eats up valuable wall space (for furniture placement options) and puts 2 doors side by side. Have you considered moving the entry to the bedroom back into the hall just far enough to accommodate a closet door on the right as you enter the room? (looks like we're only talking about inches needed to accomodate this) That would give you back the precious wall space in the main part of the room, make use of the dead space currently not used, & take care of the door by door visual issue. -Do you need a linen closet in the ensuite bath for bedroom 2? How big is it drawn? It looks really tiny. What linens were you planning for that space (I'm guessing towels, soap, toilet paper, etc). Could the space under the sink be used for storing those items and remove the linen closet altogether allowing for more space in the main closet? Or maybe some shelves inset 1/2 way up the bath wall allowing for storage in both the bath and the closet. -Love the shower in the master bath, however, I'm not sure the rest of the bath feels as well laid out--almost as if everything was set in place based on the shower placement & layout. The space between the tub and the walls/windows does not seem very wide and will make entering/exiting the tub a challenge. There's a door collision issue between the bathroom entry and the toilet room which also makes getting to the toilet room awkward--think morning sickness/tummy bug/etc as worst case scenarios that happen on a somewhat regular basis not to mention one person trying to enter the bathroom when another is trying to exit the toilet room. Typically the purpose of the toilet room is to free up the rest of the bathroom for use by another when the toilet is in use. Currently, both doors will be closed anytime someone is in the toilet room which somewhat defeats the purpose and if someone does enter the bathroom while the other is in the toilet room odds are they will leave the bathroom door open causing a collision when the person in the toilet room tries to exit. I'll look at the master suite some more and see if I come up with any ideas on how to make the space more efficient. I don't like identifying a "problem" without offering a solution, but non are coming to mind right off. Overall, I think this is an excellent first draft and it won't be long before you get your finals. Hope this helps!...See Morewould love some feedback on house plans
Comments (25)It can take a lot of time to learn about the choices available, and then make the choice. Then order, wait for delivery, sometimes wait for the installation. Right there is one reason for knowing what you want before the build begins -- if you want an item x in mocha, it's better to know in advance that it might take 3 months before it can be delivered. Unfortunately, even in the best of plans, there can be totally unforeseen delays from late delivery, unexpected weather, unavailable work crews, or even theft [which can take time to replace the stolen material]. But with pre-planning, at least the crew won't be sitting around waiting for you say which faucet you want. You will have last minute decisions in approving the color/size/cut of stone or brick should you be using those items, for the reason that samples are always approximations and you won't know what you get until you get it. However, stone/brick is just about the only category that has a last-minute decision built into it. The next reason for getting specific in advance is that it can be difficult at best and overwhelming at worst to make a lot of important decisions in a very short period of time. Unless one is already a professional designer /builder /carpenter /tiler /plumber /electrician / decorator /et cetera, one is going to have make choices and decisions about things we just have never even thought about! It's an exhausting process, and that's a major reason for stress for the builder. Another reason for making as many decisions as possible in advance is actually the simplest: budget. And there is no way to have a budget without knowing what numbers are in it, and what those numbers represent. Unless you have an endless supply of money, there will be a limit as to how much can be spent. A pre-computed budget lets you know that if you spent $30,000 on kitchen counters then you won't have $20,000 for lighting. It gives you a chance to determine which is most important to you -- waiting to the last minute decision might find the counters installed but leave only $1000 for lights when in real life you don't cook much and it is the lighting that's important. Keep in mind that every time the owner changes his/her mind *during* the build, it is money wasted. Cosmetic changes [such as finding the "blue" paint is really brown when on the wall] can usually be fixed at once and during the build. However, changing the placement of a window or door is in the same category as changing a ceiling height or where the staircase is located -- the structural integrity of the whole house can be affected, and changes from blueprint shouldn't be done without approval of a structural engineer (ahem: $ and time), and the change may require re-inspection to be sure codes are still being met (ahem: lost time -- and $ while the crews wait). And another page of the budget is simply that there is difference between what the average GC thinks you'll be satisfied with and what you actually are satisfied with, in terms of quality, uniqueness, and customizing. Sometimes the difference is even more -- I've seen kitchens put together from the local discount-mass produced store and I've seen kitchens where every detail from crown molding to toe-step was handmade by a craftsman. Not going to say that one is better than the other, but IMO the wallet-holder should know -in advance- that there really can be tens of thousands of dollars difference in the final bill. The same is true of almost every detail on a home: you can get mass-produced in all levels of quality as well as getting custom-made or handcrafted. But if you didn't get specific on the contract, the odds are pretty good that you will be getting the least expensive whatever. On this same page is simply that item A can be the same or very little difference from item B, except in the price tag. Many builders are going to use the less expensive because they have figured a set price which includes their [or the subs] labor -- and the cheaper item will give them a bit more profit. And the last thing is, if it isn't written in detail in the contact, you shouldn't expect to automatically get what *you* want. The builder must make a profit -- and that's fair. But there is flat-out no way to reasonably expect the builder to know what you want if you don't already know, and finding out during the build is the most expensive way to go -in terms of time and money and stress-building....See Morewould love feedback on this plan please!
Comments (16)I had the same thoughts as pp7 - looks expensive! That may not be an issue but just wanted you to realize that. . . Even if you have a very healthy budget, it is something to consider. My thoughts were - the more expensive the roof and foundation are, the less I can spend on cabinets and countertops :). Yes, all the bump outs make for not only corners but more complex roof lines (more expensive to build and more likely to leak) to cover all the bump outs. Also, the offset garage will cost a good bit more than it would if you straightened it out. The plan also seems to have a lot of hallway space, which expands square footage and adds cost. Obviously hallways are necessary some places, but keeping them to a minimum definitely helps. There also seems to be a lot of square footage on the first floor. This is often unavoidable (we have the same issue because we wanted a master on main and we also have two staircases and a large back hall) - however, if you can fit everything in in a smaller footprint (or even eliminate the back stairs and connect to the bonus room from the rest of the upstairs) it would help. Our back stairs go to the bonus room but also serve the whole upstairs and go down to the basement. The reasoning was that we wanted our boys friends to use the side entry and back stairs rather than tromping through the entire house and entrance hall to get there. . . You may have a similar reasoning, but I will tell you that decision, however well reasoned, made our house more expensive by quite a bit (cost of the stairs, expanding the footprint to fit the stairs, etc.). Getting a builder on board at this point (even if you have to pay him a consulting fee) would likely save you a lot of money. We didn't do this and made decisions based on our needs that did not take into account the costs....See MoreWould love some feedback on our remodeling plans, and a money question
Comments (17)Thanks for all the hints, guys. We like the corner sink now-as I mention above, the view is great and I’ve spent a lot of years watching kids climb the tree outside while doing dishes. Willing to reconsider though. I share your though about the front door and the stools-except we never actually use that door. We always come in through the kitchen door, which will be a mud room after the remodel. I mean, we use the front door when we have trick or treaters and solicitors. I really think of the mud room as our entry. We will use the front door ourselves to go to the porch but don’t see it as a main entry generally though hopefully it will look pretty :). That being said, we’d love to expand our kitchen more in a useable way. We are pretty constrained in space in this part of the house, unless we switch the kitchen to the dining room area which I think would cause all sorts of other expensive changes....See Moresheloveslayouts
9 years agodekeoboe
9 years agoE K
9 years agozeugirdorxela
9 years agobpath
9 years agoE K
9 years agolast modified: 9 years agoLavender Lass
9 years agolast modified: 9 years agobry911
9 years agoautumn.4
9 years agoUser
9 years agobry911
9 years agoLavender Lass
9 years agoE K
9 years agoE K
9 years agoautumn.4
9 years ago
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