Custom House Plan - Help Please
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We have been looking at various plans for several months now with no luck. My husband and I have decided to have custom plans drawn. This plan is around 1880 sq feet and I don't want to go above 2100. As a starting point, we want to have plans drawn that have the great room (foyer, dining room, kitchen, and family room) as laid out in this plan. We really love this aspect of the plan. :-) I like how the kitchen faces the exterior of the house and I like how the dining area is in the front of the home but not a totally separate area. Do you have any ideas on how I can improve the following items? 1. I want a large laundry/mudroom area. I can lose the half bath since we don't really need one. We are a small family, 2 adults with one child, 9. 2. The guest bedrooms need to be a few feet larger with a larger bath. 3. I need for the master bath to have two closets (his/hers) and a dressing area. I do not need a garden tub at all. 4. I would like for the kitchen to have a walk in pantry if possible, but this is not a deal breaker by any means. I thought about adding this off before the laundry area started. 5. I would like a screened porch off the back. 6. I will change the direction of the carport or not have one at all. This plan really closes off the view of the yard and I will make sure we have a view. 7. I want the bedrooms all close together. My daughter is an only child and wants her room close to ours. A split bedroom plan is not for us. This makes things difficult. Please give me your ideas. We have our first meeting Thursday. Thanks!
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Comments (7)Alex House: Thanks again for all the comments. I will definitely be looking into widening the kid's bath by taking some room from the closet and master. We vaulted the LR specifically to decrease the sq footage of the house. We had a larger house before (3400 sq ft) and felt it was too big. We also had a valued living room and loved all the natural light. 2 dedicated offices would be too much. The foyer is the full 2 storeys but the LR is only 1.5 storeys. We are trying to have that "wow" factor with the foyer as this was one of the biggest complaints with our last place. Estate agents consistently told us that their clients when shopping in the higher price bracket wanted to shock and awe their guests with a grand entry. We were planning on splurging on a light fixture and art for this area. There is no guest closet, again this is something that we went back and forth on. We were going to provide hooks, something sculptural that would double as an art piece. As for the DR/ Island seating, your questions are valid. We had this set up in our last place and it worked well. People hung out at the island while I cooked and then we would sit at the table to eat. Originally I wanted the dining table to face the back view, but due to other design issues (the garage cannot move all) we just weren't able to figure out how to do that without having weird spaces. One idea was to push the dining room out as far as allowed (the inside dotted line on the site plan) and turn the table side ways. This leaves a huge space along the closet/pantry wall and will again increase square footage. Also, we are looking to move the deck to start off the dining room and go along the kitchen and all our footings must be within that dotted line. I think with the pantry, mudroom and large kitchen we should have enough storage for the first floor. The fireplace wall in the living room will also have storage built in. bpathome: Thanks for the ideas about switching the office around. We did think about that before putting in the dog run. We decided that the office should have the exterior wall for a bigger window and more natural light and we liked having the foyer/mudroom wall uninterrupted to use as a gallery wall as we have a fair amount of art. Your comments have me thinking that your idea is actually better and if we keep a window where the dog run door is and then have a glass door to the office we could get a fair amount of natural light in there. Kids bath will most likely be widened thanks to the feedback I have received. The kitchen cabinets along the window will be removed for a window seat so I plan to replace the small prep sink on the island to be the single main sink which should make the kitchen triangle much better. We live in a northern snowy city, so somewhere to hang coats at the front door is essential. We thought that the sculptural hook idea would be a more contemporary unique idea for temporary coats but I do worry that this is bad decision for resale and that people would prefer the storage. If we flip the mudroom and office around and put the dog door there I can see the family rarely using the front door as we will use this door almost all the time if not coming through the garage. The views are amazing out the back and we love natural light. We tried to get every room in the house to have a source of natural light. Thanks again for letting me explain our decisions thus far and agree/disagree with your comments. You both have given me a lot to think about. And here I thought we were finished with the floor plan!...See MoreNeed Your Opinions & Advice on Custom Home Floor Plan, Please!
Comments (47)I would like to thank everyone who took the time to read through these posts and to post advice and suggestions and constructive criticism. I am taking all of it into consideration and some of it was not what i wanted nor expected to hear, but what I needed to hear. I feel as if a little more explanation is needed. We found a builder that we really like and everyone that he has built for has been really happy. He had several plans that we could look at or if we had any plans he could build whatever we liked. He has a gentleman that could draw and customize a home for us. We thought it was architect at first and the price was so good because we were going through him and he would then be able to have our house plan to use in the future. Upon our first meeting with the gentleman that was going to draw up of dream home so we could make it a reality, we learned that he was not an architect, or designer. He's retired now from 40 years of experience woking on/building homes and is good with the software. He is very kind and has been very patient with the many changes we have made along the way. However, we soon discovered that he really has no design ideas or suggestions. He just draws whatever we ask him to or whatever I draw to send to him. If we wanted something a changed, the standard procedure was to just make part of the house bigger, we had gotten up to almost 4400 square feet! If we didn't like the way something worked and asked for a change, he would fix that issue and cause 2 more. I got so frustrated that we are trying to build our dream home and pretty much the only person I had for design help was myself. Uhm, I really want someone with much more skill and talented and better taste to design my home. I know what I want, I just do't know how to get there. We have been working on this for 8 months. I got so frustrated that I gave up for 3 months. Our neighbors are using the same builder and they had difficulties getting their design as well. However they had found a floor plan that they liked and just had him make changes to it and add a mother in law plan. I firmly believe that we are his first truly start from scratch home. Again, this is the guy the builder sent us to to have plans drawn, not our builder. Giving him credit he has taking my very very basic sketches and turned them into something the builder can build from, but pretty much the design is about 99% me, not that I wanted it that way. Here is where I'm at, so you can see that he is doing all the builder type stuff. We don't want to be difficult, but we want a good design. We don't want the builder to think that we are difficult or indecisive because we just can't get there with his guy. I'm at a loss! Several people wanted to know the lot dimensions. So here they are: It is at the top of a ridge, has some slope to it and has a nice open are in the middle. Of course we want the house to sit about at the arrows part of the lot. There is an utility easement of 20 feet on the right side of the lot, but the utility poles are more like 30 feet inside the property. I really do appreciate all of your insight. It has been eye opening. I'll make another post addressing questions and comments. Sorry to be so long winded....See MoreBuying On-Line Plans vs. Custom Plans on New Home Build
Comments (65)I am referring to my personality, diving in with no planning. Not listening to solid advise. Being offended when opinionated house posters blew it up with critiques.Taking offensive to snooty, condescending summaries about a plan I had chosen. Not seeing past the tone of the message, not looking for someone that would work for me and with me. REFUSING to respect that there is a reason we each excel in different walks of life. Just don't mess with the ones you don't like, same philosophy with all our life choices. You'll hate some, but, there are professionals that truly could have helped me build a better home. I was not receptive at all, just got angry. I'll show them! I Disregarded that the chosen CAD program had flow issues. I didn't even understand the basic drawings. it did, it does.I have zero ability to translate a 5x7 closet into how that closet actually works. The laundry room, same, way too small. pantry, too small. what do those little drawings mean! I have two trained architect friends, and I was certain they weren't understanding I had to move, quickly, with no time for frivolous refinements. Had to break ground by fall, all those laid off Craig's list tradesman would certainly have more time, give my project the thought it needed, and I assumed you wouldn't say you could dry wall or tile if you couldn't. I could not visual the literal size of the storage closet, I now proudly call the master closet, for instance. Being driven by trend threads, that seem good on paper. Was that what I really wanted? Didn't take time to put true thought into those decisions. Did I really want them? Some yes, some no. Driving on to save money, I assume anybody with a lick of vision can hire quality work. So not true, I paid 4 times for new drywall, new painting, and it still is full of ruffles and ridges. Hire the legit drywalling company, wouldn't have lost 2 months with redos, paid excessively, interest hike during the never ending down times, of course interest rates went up.3.99 start build, 5.75 end build rate. Passed on licensed company to do the drywall, He gave me a two week time frame, (way too long in my narrow world)and was 3,000.00 more. So, hire some bozo on Craigslist that promised to get it done in half the time at half the cost.That decision cost me TWO MONTHS! for that investment,I paid up front, they needed supplies, and had me handcuffed, they already had my money. "save 3,00"ultimately costing me literally 4 times that, project set back two months( they showed up about 2 hours every other day and I swear they had no idea how to drywall. Flunked electric 4 times for COO, still have switches/ outlets with no idea their purpose. So, to answer your question, I paid 18,000. for a master bathroom, the tile job and the layout and quality is not good. With proper forethought and workability analysis this would definitely have been avoided. I could have hired someone to explain basic size, what to demand in workmanship, As in earlier post, I am just verbalizing my specific experience and begging you to not to buy that dress at Barneys just because it's 90% off. We were rear ended in 14, can't walk, but, I still want that dress from Bsrneys because it used to be the perfect dress for me. realize needs change, and you if it's an impulsive decision, it will sit in your closet with all the other GREAT deals. I learned from these costly mistakes, and am sooo receptive after the fact, to remedy issues that should have been remedied prior to building!...See MorePlease help me find a warm beige for our custom home
Comments (16)Yikes! Asking for colors on a forum of what will look good in your house !! You do know that is a cr@p shoot , right? Do yourself a big favor and hire a color consultant! I have visions of a dozen sample colors on your walls and no decision. We are not standing in your home; we can’t judge the quality of natural light. You probably don’t have your lighting in yet! The little bit of $$ you spend on a pro will be worth it!...See MoreJennifer McLaurin
8 years agoJennifer McLaurin
8 years agoJennifer McLaurin
8 years agoJennifer McLaurin
8 years agoJennifer McLaurin
8 years agolast modified: 8 years ago
bry911
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoJennifer McLaurin
8 years agomojomom
8 years agoJennifer McLaurin
8 years agomrspete
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoI have to agree with the above posters: This plan is designed for a narrow, city lot, and although two acres isn't a huge lot, this house plan will appear ill-proportioned for its surroundings. One of the main rules of house building is, The house you build should fit into its surroundings.
Also, you're crystal clear on cluster-bedrooms, and this house plan can't provide that -- the staircase prevents it, and if you're moving a staircase, you might as well move on to another plan. For what it's worth, we've lived in two houses with our now 18 and 21-year old children. We've always had clustered bedrooms, and it's neither a good nor bad thing. I wouldn't have minded if they'd been farther away when they were children, and they haven't been "too close" as teens.
From what you say, I think you're attracted ONLY to the layout of the main living areas, and they aren't really all that unique. Here are a couple to check out -- all have the kitchen on the exterior, mudroom, etc:
All are from Don Gardner's website. The first one is the Cornell and is 2262 sf.The second is the Avant and is 1856 sf.
The third is Devon and weighs in at 1972 sf.
I'm not saying, "Oh, you should use one of these." Rather, I'm sharing them as an example of something that fits your main criteria AND would work better on your lot; being wider than they are long, they'd appear more proportional to the space.
Finally, a note: When you find a house plan that you like, see if your website offers "other houses by this designer" or "house plans with similar floor plans". These will take you to house plans similar ... but slightly larger, slightly smaller, with slightly different features, and that'll be a help in finding that'll work for you.
Jennifer McLaurin thanked mrspeteJennifer McLaurin
8 years ago
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