Kinda having trouble posting. Chrome works ok, firefox would not let me start a new thread.

Not an expert here, have some questions/thoughts.

1. Could you consider flipping the cooktop and sink?

- Marcolo's Ice. Water. Stone. Fire.

- sink wall would face south: great light for prepping

- easier to vent the hood out, past the mudroom

2. I know you're changing the mudroom, but consider putting in a full-bath in there.

great for dog bath,

unless you're going to use the 1st bath by the foyer (that should stay the "pretty" bathroom.

(We just adopted a new puppy this week, and I am so grateful to have a full bath on the 1st floor, compared to my friends' wicked expensive homes that do not have full baths).

3. I love my Miele 36" induction cooktop.

good luck,

Amanda

1.Agreed, I’ve debated if the sink would be better on the south wall. It’s on the east wall because there aren’t uppers on the south (at least, I think there won’t be), and I like having uppers near the sink and dishwasher so I don’t have to walk anywhere to put the dishes away. Also, a re-designed mudroom might allow for a window on that wall, although I doubt I could get it over the sink. Apparently I don’t lurk here as much as I thought, can you explain or link to Marcolo’s Ice water stone fire reference for more explanation? Good point about the vent hood.
2.Yeah, still debating the full bath vs half bath in the mudroom. Husband doesn’t like ½ baths, wants a full bath or none at all. I really want as much storage space as possible (might be overcompensating, we have so little closet space right now). We usually wash the dog outside (90 pounds of mess I don’t have to clean up inside), and will have hot water plumbed to a sort of outdoor shower/bath area. We’re in NC, so as long as I have hot water to work with, we can usually find a day to wash him outside most of the time (sometimes all year). Also congrats on a new puppy! Puppies are THE BEST.
3.I am so excited to have an induction cooktop. Definitely an impatient kid a Christmas. It feels like such a luxury. I need to see them in person to figure out which controls I like best. Miele is definitely on the list.
Thanks Amanda

1. Marcolo's ice water stone fire

2. I'm short, so I don't have a lot of uppers in my kitchen.

I love my dish drawers:

dish drawers

3. while you're at it, consider 2 Dishwashers.

I use 1 daily, and the other as a drying rack, so my countertop is always cleared off.

Amanda's sink wall of windows, 2DWs, and dish drawers

another idea: Amanda's appliance garage

4. we would love to retire down south. NC would be perfect.

It's almost end of March and it's snowing right now. We've had over 110 inches this Winter so far (the most ever).

good luck,

Amanda

Your floor plan is really neat!

The mudroom/utility area looks so useful, but maybe a bit wide. Are you talking about narrowing down the actual footprint so you could have a kitchen window? I think that would be a good idea, you could narrow it several feet and still have adequate space.

I hate to say it since it looks so unique and kinda cool, but is that corridor at the front of the house below the kitchen a bit of a waste of space? Is there a way to reconfigure the kitchen to use that space? Just an idea!

Also, I know you said the floorplan wasn't exactly right, but how do you get from the front door to the family room/living room? It looks too narrow at the foot of the stairs.

Amanda thanks for the links. The Marcolo post is epic, need
to finish reading it. Also, I have seen your kitchen before! The windows are
FANTASTIC. That view is lovely. Also, I thought I was short a 5’4”, but yeah, at 4’11” I wouldn’t
bother with uppers either:)

Nancy, will have to come back to what you said, but just
quickly, here is a link to my thread in the building a home forum, and a pic that shows the
area between the front door and family/great room. Also, I am having second thoughts
about the corridor in front of the kitchen (more than second, we’ve been round
and round. See the other thread for more explanation).

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2949454/new-build-floorplan-timberframe-house-input-appreciated

Sigh. Well, maybe I need to step back and take a look at this
again. In the other thread, I explained how we arrived at that hallway in front
of the kitchen. http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2949454/new-build-floorplan-timberframe-house-input-appreciated

Short version, the original layout of the house looks like
the pic below (the house plan we modified to suit our site). The constructed
version of that house can be seen in the video, screen capture above.

Basically, we were trying to hang on to the concept of
sharing circulation space between the front entrance and more frequently used
garage entrance, thus saving space, and aligning with our goal of making the
front door useful. I’m not sure it’s
working. Here is the space with the kitchen and mudroom entrance removed. The
constraints are that the mudroom entrance has to come in on the east wall. I
really don’t want to change the stairs, as that messes up the loft area above.

Here is the space, what kitchen layout works there? (fridge and full upright freezer, sink,
cooktop, and two ovens).

What about this? (This is my sketch, rough layout). Lots of windows over the sink. recessed fridge and freezer. Worth developing more?

Oh, I really like this latest plan. I really like how it flows and you can access the kitchen without a lot of turns. This makes bringing lots of groceries inside easier. I think your layout looks fine and very functional. If my math is right, you'll have roughly 92" between cooktop and fridge walls. You will need to keep that island or work table very narrow or I think you will feel squeezed.

I like a nice, spacious entry but yours looks HUGE! I would be tempted to move the entry door a bit to the right and then bring your master bath over more to the right as well. This will allow for a bigger master bedroom closet.

I love that style of home. And it sounds like it's going to be in a great location with awesome views. Lucky you! This is going to be a fun project.

Looking better I think. That corridor would work but it may not be the best use of space. I see how the original floor plan has the back/family entrance flowing into the foyer and that is nice. But I think with your modifications it may not work as well to have that concept. The way your last idea has the foot traffic from the back entrance coming past (not through) the kitchen would work great. That's a problem I have in my own house...argh!

Also, as funkycamper mentioned, that foyer is very large. That's okay but it seems to narrow way down to pass into the living area and that may be awkward as drawn. Maybe you have some more modifications not drawn in.

A 14 foot wide kitchen could only have a 2 foot wide island (if you plan for 4 foot aisles). It isn't blocking things too bad but just think about how you will use it and if it will be useful or just in the way. You have a nice amount of counter space even without it!

BTW, I really like the style of house you're shooting for! Really neat.

Thank you for the comments. Both of you mentioned the island, and the entrance, so first up:

The kitchen island - as drawn, its 2x4 ft. I'm not hung up on having an island, I just wasn't sure what to do. 14-ft wide is just barely wide enough to have an island I think. Maybe it won't be fixed, but a smaller mobile unit of sorts. The kitchen seemed too wide not to have one. I could make it narrower, a more narrow u-shape with no island. The kitchen doesn't have to be 14-ft wide.

Entrance. Is it really large? Maybe you are right. That's why we wanted to use the center section of the house for the master bath as much as possible; that center bay is a lot of square feet that isn't being used for much (stairs, entrance). I also didn't draw the closet in that last pic, its shown in the builder drawing. My drawing does not show/account for wall thickness either, but here is another pic with a few more dimensions. I figure there is about 9-ft of width for the entrance, and about 11-12 ft in front of the entrance to the stairs. I am thinking in addition to the closet on the left as you enter, there might be a hall tree or hooks/bench/something on the right.

Also, yeah, I am really excited. I just want to get this figured out so we can move forward. We originally hoped to build in 2012, so my patience is waning. The upside is that everything about this project is better and easier for having waited, and I am still determined to make sure its right on paper before we build anything.

You might try one of those staircases where you go halfway up, then there is a landing where you turn and go the rest if the way up. Like this: http://www.hafblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/split-house-stairs.jpg

In footprint, those staircases are more of a square than the long skinny rectangle of a staircase you have now, and you wouldn't need to be able to enter both sides of the staircase anymore, since the split staircase allows you to go either up or down from the front if it.

Switching to that kind of staircase would mean then that you could push the staircase all the way against the wall to the left. Then you would have more of an open, wide, straight sight line and walkway from the foyer to the living room.

It would fix what Nancy is talking about.

Also, turn your dining room table 90 degrees. It'll fill the space better.

Is there a reason you aren't putting the laundry on the second floor, presuming there are a bunch of bedrooms up there?

Usually laundry only ends up on the first floor when people are trying to get it up from the basement, but they can't get it all the way to the second floor.

Now that you state the actual measurements, the foyer isn't as big as it looked in that drawing. But I do think Jillius's idea about changing the style of stairs might be worth considering. It should really open up the interior and make your whole house feel more spacious. Seems like it would make your master suite feel more private, too.

I wouldn't shorten your kitchen walls. Then you won't have room for any island or work table in your kitchen and you'd lose some of your storage and lovely counter space. If it were me, I think I'd either start out without anything in the center of the kitchen and see how it works for you. If you think you need something, start out with using some small table you already own to get an idea of how that impacts the space before you invest in anything. It would also give you a chance to play with the size and shape to see what works best.

In your style home, I think something rustic would be fun. If you decide you want something there, you might look for an antique butcher block or some other kind of rustic work table instead of an actual island. This would allow a stool or two so you could also sit and work if you want.

Fun project! I hope you'll share pictures as your build progresses.

ETA again (I always seem to be cross-posting when someone else offers a good idea, lol): I totally agree with Jillius that laundry near the bedrooms is great, so much easier, and worth exploring.

Regarding the laundry: I didn't explain in this thread, so that drawing with it in the mudroom is confusing - The laundry IS going upstairs at first. We're using the upstairs bedroom for the forseeable future, and the downstairs "master suite" as an office, since we both work from home full time (except, apparently, when I'm on houzz/gardenweb), and are really, really looking forward to having more office space than we do now.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2949454/new-build-floorplan-timberframe-house-input-appreciated

I drew the laundry in the mudroom just to make sure we have space; the intention is that we can easily convert to future one floor living. That area will be closet space or something first. I don't have a lot of space for the laundry upstairs, but I think a small laundry closet will be nice to have up there.

Oh, sounds like you have thought this through. Especially good planning for aging in place. Kudos!

Ok...still going. Re-arranged the stairs. So now (maybe I should post a new thread?) -

G kitchen or U kitchen (with or without island?) ?

G-kitchen about like so?

G-kitchen puts the ovens under the cooktop. Probably should have shown dimensions, but the space between the fridge (which is recessed) and end of the peninsula is 4ft-4in. Inside leg of the peninsula is 5.5ft (just a rough sketch).

U-kitchen (could be with or without island...rolling island, etc.)?

U-kitchen allows a place to stack wall ovens. A 14-ft wide kitchen isn't really big enough for an island.

I've done some searching about opinions between G kitchen and U kitchens, but haven't really come up with much (maybe my searching skills need help).

Oops. Delete. You stated measures in feet and I missed that. I don't know why I thought I was looking at metric. Should probably sign off I'm getting goofy.

I do think you'd get more responses if you could put your most recent plan into the original post in a new discussion. People tend to not want to read through a long discussion to find the latest info.

Definitely start a new thread. This is a cool house!