Looks like you have the beginnings of a very cute little house

Which way is north? up? If you site allows I would try orienting the long axis of the house E/W. Or shoot for more windows on the south wall and fewer on other walls (unless you are in the southern hemisphere or a very hot climate)

The master bedroom is huge, I am guessing you have some other use planned for it? It looks like you could fit a nice desk/workspace.

Maybe try a U shape kitchen. Then traffic flow won't go through the working area of the kitchen and you could have a large pantry/storage area.

I would also modify the laundry bath. at the very least put the sink and toilet on the same wall as the washer/dryer. Or you could add another foot or two to that room and have a more spacious laundry space with cabinets or a counter.

ETA: have you taken a look at this [post[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/modest-vacation-home-plan-review-dsvw-vd~3116606)? it is very similar, great minds think alike :)

The house is oriented N to S with the walkout and 1st floor LR/DR to the S. The main entry ("the backdoor") faces N. The room you enter is a combination entry and sitting room until we later build an entry porch. The bedroom closets will be stand-alone antique armoires. This gives us the flexibility of "moving closets." Rather than an island in the kitchen, we are putting a farmhouse style table. Both the N and S ends of the house will have decks on them within the next five years.

Very helpful comments. Thank you. I definitely need to consider the plan you presented chelwa. How were you able to modify my plan on your iPad?

Will your farmhouse table serve as the dining table? There isn't much clearance in the kitchen for a table in the middle. And with the postion of the refrigerator in your original plan the pathway from that entrance into the rest of the house will be blocked if anyone is accessing the fridge. I like chelwa's u-shape plan. Then put your antique table in the end of the living area (west?). Wait! maybe you could clarify the directions of everything--is the walkout on the north or south end? in your first post you said north, and then just above you say that the LR/DR and walkout are to the south.

Kathie. I edited your plan on my laptop (a mac) using preview (the annotate tools). I am not sure if this method will work on an iPad but there are definitely apps that would let you do it. I like the idea of antique armoires.

Sometimes I'm directionally challenged. The walkout faces south. The entry door faces south.

One of the reasons I didn't build in an island is that I want to live in the space a while to see how we move around the kitchen.

Good observation on the ref. placement. Maybe I should flip-flop ref and pantry.

Your bedroom is taking up a lot of floor space ... do you have a plan for using it?

I would shrink the bedroom to sleeping area only and see if there's enough room for something like a separate office or something.

I'm working on the lake house plan that Chelwa linked to - great advice in both threads. I like Chelwa's modifications to your kitchen. If I were on 40 acres (lucky you!) I would consider an entrance directly into the laundry room. I would consider even taking some space out of the combination entry/sitting room to add a shower or at least a laundry/deep sink (maybe you already have something of this sort planned for your walkout basement).

Future basement bath will result in a second shower.

The short story about the big bedroom is that we have lived in a single-wide, 2 BR trailer for a quarter century; my husband refuses to build a home with one bedroom and have that room be smaller than our current one (14x17). I'm already finding that another name for building is COMPROMISE. That was one of mine:-). I appreciate the critique though.

I think the windows in the bedroom are too close to the sides of the bed. If you have window treatments the headboard will be in the way. It's also likely that the headboard will overlap the trim or the windows. If you have bedside tables the lamps will be right in the windows. It's also possible that unless the sill height is high the top edge of the bedside tables will be higher than the sill. I would move the windows further apart to alleviate these conflicts.

I would also want more of an entryway at the left hand door of the house, rather than walking right into the room. Furniture placement is going to be difficult in that room.

Will this be a one bedroom house then? If that is the case, you should check with the bank now to see if they will lend money for a one bedroom or if they will require a two bedroom. Also, you might want to ask if you are required to have a closet of some sort in the bedroom and if the house needs to have a bathtub.

Good point on the BR windows. I'll review measurements.

No problem on the financing of one BR, zero bath. Good consideration though.

If the entrance and walk-out are facing south, that means a big set of stairs up to the front door? Just curious.

With 40 acres, pay attention to your orientation, considering exposure, views, and aesthetics. Our best view is dead north, but I rotated our house a bit to avoid having any side of the house facing dead north. The north side of a house tends to be cold and uninviting, and encourages the growth of mold and algae. The back of our house gets enough morning sun to make it nice.

We built a one bedroom house to retire in. It's funny the things that we find important. In our case, we have a large walk-in closet because we've never had a big enough closet! We also built on a walk-out basement, and it is fully insulated (ICF), and has two large egress-rated windows on the walk-out side. This gives us the opportunity to add two bedrooms for very little work or expense. We're going to finish one soon, and use it as a den/ guest room. We've found the basement to be pretty comfortable year-round, so we won't need HVAC down there. We also roughed in a full bath in the basement during construction- again, easy to install a bathroom at any time.

Our house is very similar in size, but oriented very differently. We ran our house more east/west, with the kitchen, DR, and LR across the back, facing the view. One of my wife's few requests was that we have a big window over the sink, facing the view. I'll post our floor plan if you want to see it for comparison's sake.

Yes. I'd love to see you plan. I assume you are loving living in it. You very happy with your choices.

We are having pex put in the basement floor for future radiant heat if needed. It just cheaper to lay it before pouring the cement. Our basement will also have two egress windows to accommodate a future bedroom.

This is pretty much the way the floor plan is now. We're still technically under construction, but most of it is finished. I'm one old man, working alone, so it's a slow process! The front of the house faces south-southwest. 1444 square feet outside, but only 1295 inside due to the thick ICF walls.

What a nice design mush reek. I would love to be able to orient our house like yours, but we wanted the walkout on the gable end so the orientation is dictated by the slope to the river. The orientation isn't a true N/S. It' shocked just a little to follow the slope and to get sun in every window at some point in the day. Thank you again for sharing your plan and ideas.

I made a clumsy attempt to integrate some of your ideas, but the altered pic won't load. Basically, I kept the L-shaped kitchen, with the intent to put a work-table in the open space, and made the kitchen triangle smaller by moving the refrigerator away from the walkway over to the dining room end of the counter. This allowed me to widen the pantry, but make it shallower and gain some space in the Master Bath for a bigger closet and some shelving or shallow cabinets . It may also lead to adding 6 inches to the width of the laundry/half bath if I choose to give it up in the kitchen. I changed slider in entry/sitting room to window based on comments about traffic flow and furniture placement. You are all helping us to avoid future, "I wish we would haves." Thank you. Keep the comments coming. They really help.

Yeah! It loaded today. I don't have a cad program so i used a photo editor to make the changes. I hope you can see the difference.

I like those changes. I think your laundry/pwdr room is going to be a little cozy for get back to the washer dryer, especially with a laundry basket. I would try to make that room at least a foot deeper. I think you could afford to just slide the kitchen wall up a foot or two. My parents have similar combination but instead of a traditional bathroom sink they have a single bowl kitchen style sink, very handy in a laundry room.

Thanks chelwa. I am seriously, seriously considering that option.

I see large openings, passageways and pocket doors. Will wheelchair access be important to you now or in the future? Will access to the entrance be an issue?

We planned for accessibility. One knee surgery and visits from relatives that needed a scooter leaned our thoughts that way. It is also one of the reasons we wanted a walkout basement...even if a scooter had to go around outside the house. I'm glad you see no accessibly issues.

If a scooter or crutches are involved access to the entrance is the biggest issue. If a wheelchair is involved, the laundry, half bath and kitchen work space would need more attention.