Hi everyone-

We are in the very early stages of
building a new home. We are working with a builder and an architect
to design the perfect plan for us while keeping us right around 4500
square feet. My list of wants on the first floor include a first floor guest
bed with full bath, an office, an open concept kitchen/dining/living room with
no formal dining room, a kid's playroom off the kitchen with barn doors and a
game room on the other side of the living room with a double-sided fireplace
between the two. Our lot makes it difficult to build out a basement so the game
room is our compromise. We want enough room for a ping pong table and
some seating. I am happy with the overall layout, but am concerned that the
combo kitchen/dining/living room may be too small. The biggest concern to me is
the "dining area", which if I am reading this correctly is only about
9 ft. wide. The total width of the room is about 41'. We don't plan to put a
lot of furniture in the living room; sofa, coffee table, two accent chairs and
TV mounted over fireplace so I think it's doable. I am wondering if it makes
more sense to push the fireplace wall into the game room 1 foot, which would
add 1 foot to the living area. We plan to go with windows instead of french
doors in the dining area and make the windows in the living room accordion
doors or french sliders so we don't lose too much space along the back wall.
Thoughts? Thanks!