Thanks benjesbride! When we were planning the space I tried placing a square table that seats four in that area. When the table was far enough away from the windows to comfortably move the chair back, there was about 3' between the corner of the fridge and the corner of the table. Hopefully it's not too tight. But since we will have to buy furniture for this place I am hoping we can buy things that fit it, we're not constrained by existing furniture.

Once the overall floor plan is reviewed here, I'd post to the kitchen forum to make sure you squeeze the most function out of that space as possible.

What an exciting project.

what a well thought out plan. I think it will work wonderfully for what you are planning. I see two things. I think 9'1" wide is very narrow for a bedroom. I would see about increasing the space to closer to 10'. try taping it out on a floor now and then seeing about what kind of bedding can be put in the room for your occasional guests. Very very tight.

the second thing is I think the kitchen could be worked just a bit better. Are you married to the idea of the U shape?

a few of info

Thanks cpartist! We're actually required to have 1300 square feet and the plan right now is 1280. We were trying to minimize the amount of space devoted to the bedrooms but it might be a good idea to add additional space across the front. I'll look in to that. For the kitchen, I welcome your thoughts on what doesn't work. Right now I can't visualize what would be better than the U shape but I plan to take benjesbride's advice and eventually post to the kitchen forum.

I probably won't have time but you'll get great advice in the kitchen forum

I agree with cp about the bedroom size - my son's bedroom is that size, and when there was a double bed in it, there wasn't much room for much else (like moving). Your living room is generous, though, and you can steal a foot from there.

If you plan to use this place into retirement, I'd reconfigure the left bath to be at least walker-friendly. You never know.

I'd put windows on both walls in both bedrooms. Neighbors or not, cross-ventilation is nice.

How deep is the screen porch? Is it big enough for a table? Our lake place has a screen porch, and we eat virtually all our meals out there.

Can I visit when it's done? I think it's going to be delightful!

Thanks AnnkH! We definitely plan to spend lots of time on the back porch. We have it planned for 10' which would fit the same type of porch dining we have now. We could be talked in to 12' easily if the layout (slope) of the land will suit it.

The left bath is planned to have a walk-in shower, so it's good in that way, but the door may need to be widened to accommodate a walker. We don't plan to live there in retirement but certainly hope to use it for a few more decades, so that is very helpful.

We were hoping the house was small enough to get good ventilation from room to room without side windows in the bedrooms, but I'm making a note of all suggestions and I appreciate all of your thoughts.

Just checking to see if anyone else has comments before heading to the kitchen forums. Thanks!

I agree about the windows.

I have a lake cabin and have a similar layout. Although you are in the south and I'm in the north, many aspects will be the same. Your cabin is a bit tight on space, but you can pack a lot of great features into it. Our house is 28 X 40, with an upper loft bedroom. Having two baths can also make it tight, but it certainly helps when there is a crowd!

I think that you may be needing a lot more storage. Lakeside living entails a lot of items that need to be put away everytime you leave for home. Hidden storage will keep things uncluttered. You will need a lot of space for life jackets, boat paddles, fishing gear, activewear(hats, jackets, casual clothes) swiming floats, towels, linens, lawn chairs, yard care items (mower, weedwacker, trimmers, etc...), gas for boats and such. You can not store all of them in the carport. A small cubboard or mini shed in the carport can be used for gas, oil and such. If you were to lengthen the house a bit (4 feet) you could easily gain room in the lower right bedroom and have additional storage along the entire wall in the mudroom (2 more feet in mudroom and 2 more feet in bedroom.) This would also give you a bit more room for the shower and closet in the master bath. You will then meet your square footage requirements for the build-it adds only 128 sq ft.

As far as the kitchen is concerned, have you considered just an L-shaped layout? You can have uppers all around (save for the window). Move the fridge to the lower right arm of the L next to the hallway (and perhaps recess it into the now deeper master closet). This would allow you to use a larger open area for your dining table and chairs. No tight spots, and you'd have great views out the windows through the porch. The fridge would also be near the hall so that anyone can acess it for beverages and still be out of the cook's hair. With your dining table so close to the kitchen, you probably do not need the bar area on the current peninsula. Consider having the porch door swing toward the livingroom - we tend to have more people going in and out traveling to and from food area to the porch rather than from the living area. Your hands will always be full of food!

Your living room is very roomy. You can gain added storage by putting a line of cabinets against the wall it shares with the mudroom. (Cabinets hide everything!) If you don't want to add a full 128 sq ft by lengthening the back part of the house by 4 feet, you could perhaps "steal" a couple of those feet from the front, leaving your living room to be 17 x 15. The L kitchen would still allow for the dining table.

These are just thoughts to consider! You will LOVE lakeside living! (Don't forget a ceiling fan and rocking chairs in the the screen porch!)

Loonlakelaborcamp, thanks for these excellent points. We've actually drawn up a version of the plan with a small open loft, which would lead to floored attic space that could be used for some additional inside storage. The loft would have to be accessed by ladder. We both really like the loft. How do you access your loft, is it by ladder or do you have stairs to it?

Since the property has a slope toward the back, we thought we would be able to use the crawl space and area under the back porch for storage of some of outside the items you've mentioned. One thing we won't need to store is a mower - I really, really want to have low maintenance landscaping! But a weedwacker will be needed, plus all the lake stuff you mention. Since we are just estimating the slope of the land and don't know exactly where the house will be place, will may need to account for storage elsewhere. In any case we should add lockable storage to the carport.

I like your suggested change to the way the back porch door opens and already made it in the plan.

I'll play around with the other ideas and I appreciate them very much. The thing DH cares about most (other than being near water!) is the big openness of the combined kitchen/dining/living room, so I want to try not to take away from that while still having smart spaces.

You're lucky to already have your lake house and we can't wait to join you!

We have a much higher roof pitch (10/12), so we have stairs going up to the loft -- it has a large landing area that we converted to an office/library area (we plan to live there full time soon). Kids would love the ladder up to the loft, but I am WAY too old for that now! The guest bedroom is behind the landing area and is 15X15. We have kneewalls and slanted ceilings up there. Makes for some interesting closet interiors! We are on a slab, so we do not have the option of storage underneath the house!

Your kitchen/dining/livingroom area is a great open space. Our cabin is much like yours, except we made the area facing the porch shallower and made the bedroom side deeper. We have just the kitchen and dining area across the front of our house, with our livingroom occupying the area where your guest bedroom is (hubby wanted separated area for movies/media that we can darken). We have large families visiting, so we need to have some separation for all the noise! We opted to put knotty pine on all the ceilings for the northland effect - and still be able to decorate the walls without leaving "fade shadows" that never come out of the wood.

We elected to have only one bathroom-there is just the two of us, so we could have more storage. Since we are in Northern MN, we not only have summer clothes, we have winter clothes, hunting clothes, rain wear, etc...we have winter snow boots, work boots, mudding boots, and hip wader boots. Everything seems to be in quadruplicate here! Every season has a different wardrobe need. I also garden and can food at the lake, so I need lots of storage!

Our laundry area is about 3 feet wider in order to accomodate all the mechanicals for full time living - water heater, water softeners, well pressure tank, washer/dryer, a chest freezer, and cabinets above everything.

What are you planning for heat? Baseboard heaters are inexpensive and will extend your usable season. Also, in MN we do rely on air conditioning at times when it get sultry in the summer. Cross ventilation is great, but there are times when a simple window air conditioner is a life saver!

We are lucky enough not to have insects bothering us during the day, so we did not do the screened in porch. However, we spend so much time out there now that we can have shade over the patio! It is also surprising how well the porch fan works to keep the skeeters at bay!

Our lake house is also very similar to yours: 1216 feet on the first floor with a loft area housing a 2nd bath. I would encourage you, if you are considering a loft, to also add a dormer to make that area much more usable. We added it after we got the drawings, and it was well worth the additional $7500 or so. Her's a pic. We're in a cottage community, with small lots. Our view is to the rear side and the front. If you would like photos of the exterior or interior, I'll be glad to email some to you.

Loonlakelaborcamp, your northern situation is much different than our southern one where we focus on keeping cool and keeping the insects away! We can wear the same boots year round (although there are also hunting boots, waders, and water shoes). You've got a lot more going on at your place than we will at ours - I'm very impressed that you garden and put food away there.

Around here most of the HVAC systems are air-sourced heat pumps. That's what we have on our house now and are very happy with it. That's probably what we'll have at the lake house but I do plan to read up on other options (mini-splits sound really interesting but costly). Ceiling fans (indoors and out) are a must, even on the screened porch, if there isn't a breeze off the lake we'll make our own.

I really appreciate your suggestions on storage and spacing, thanks so much!

Deeinohio, if you can attach a picture of the loft/dormer that would be great, thanks!

I was going to suggest making all doors 36" wide if you are going into retirement. You never know if one of you will need surgery at one time or the other.

We just got back from a friend's who has the same type laundry area as you. She HATES having the walkway in front of her washer/dryer. I would prefer a separate laundry alcove where "mud" is not a part of the other half of the room!

In the kitchen I would take away that peninsula and turn it into an island to complete the square.

Are your winters pretty mild? I would want a part of the porch/deck not covered so I could go seek the sun sometimes with my coffee.

We are working on our lake-front house plans. Ours won't be so modest tho.

This looks like a fun project! The size seems great for a vacation house. Since you don't plan on spending long periods there I agree it is better to prioritize living space over bedrooms :).

Since it sounds like you won't be doing tons of cooking, have you considered a one wall galley kitchen, possibly with a shallow cabinet along the lower wall? This would give you the most open floor plan over all with a lot of flexibility for how you use the space. A one wall galley can still be very functional and pleasant to cook in and avoids dead corner cabinet space. It is a very efficient design for smaller, open spaces.

32" doors should be fine for wheelchairs. It is far more likely they might need a walker, or a cane and with a wider door comes more weight.

Chelwa, I really like the idea of the one wall galley. DH and I both like to cook and wanted plenty of counterspace, but I think we could still have that with the galley plan. You're right that it avoids the corner cabinet issues, it would also allow the stove to vent directly to the outside, and it would give us better use of the wall space if we go with the loft/ladder option. I'm going to work on that before going to the kitchen forum. Great idea, thank you.

Still_waters, we have a similar laundry/mudroom setup now where we walk past the washer/ dryer and I'm fine with it but I do understand the issue - if the floor isn't clean you have to be careful taking your laundry out of the machines! For the back porch, we're in the south so keeping the back porch screened from insects is really needed, especially in a cove (mosquito heaven). I love sitting in the sun, in the winter with a cup of coffee, and will definitely find places for that.

Door size: We actually have 28" doors on the bathrooms in the house we're in now, and it's the house we plan to age in! My fault entirely, it's a custom house and I was not thinking about aging in place at the time. For the lake house, as cpartist says from what I've read a wheelchair can access a 32" door if it is a straight approach (36" if you need to turn to enter). A straight approach could be done in the master bath in the lake house, and someone with a walker can access either bath.

For storing lawn equipment, just put one of those vertical rubbermaid sheds against the wall of the house under the carport. They are only about two feet deep I think. And put in a built in fish cleaning station next to it with a sink. I actually like the u-shaped kitchen. I think it separates the spaces better but dat's just me.

Hmm, the long hallway bothers me. I am not against hallways at all, but this one could be better or placed to the side. Will your guests be "front door company" or "back door friends"? Or typically use the back porch door? If you use the front door, it's kind of a tunnel past the bedrooms to the view, and takes up space you could use for storage or a bigger secondary bedroom.

bpathome, we expect that most of our guests will be friends and family of the sort that get comfortable and come either door. We were a little worried when we planned this out in 2D that the hall would be too much of a tunnel, but when we view it in 3D the openness of the great room (and continuous flooring that goes down the hall all the way to the porch) really makes it seem rather welcoming and directs visitors to the great room. Of course 3D isn't real, but it made us feel a lot better about it. We really like the hallway functionally. It separates the guest bed and hall bath from the master, and it's a breezeway (I think also called dogtrot in the south) that allows air to flow through the house from front to back.