For the kitchen I strongly suggest posting in the kitchen forum. You'll get fabulous help there.

Right away I can tell you that you don't want your stove in between your fridge and your sink.

Why? Because you pull stuff out of the fridge, bring it to the sink to prep and then move it to the range to cook. If you have the range in between, you'll be crossing between work zones.

Can you make the image larger please?

I don't like that you have to walk "through" the kitchen to get to the other bedrooms. Are both bedrooms or is the one behind the kitchen an office/tv room?? If it is, it's fine there but then I would definitely reconfigure the second bedroom so it opens to the front hallway?

I think the single bed bedroom is tiny, only 8' from wall to closet? Barely room to get past the bed into the room. And the bathroom is really tight. If you have very young children, there's not much room for the two of you in there. And it has no storage.

In the entrance off the garage, is that a freezer, a stacking W/D, or the furnace?

cpartist, thanks for the kitchen forum tip will post there. as far walking through the kitchen to get to the bedrooms, I'd like to hear your reasoning on why you think that's a bad idea. also, maybe this photo will be easier to read

I hope the wall between the bedroom and the mechanicals is well insulated. I wouldn't want to listen to those noises all night.

Now that I see the plan, it doesn't bother me like I thought it might. You do have a clear path to the bedrooms, however I am not a fan of bedrooms behind kitchens. A personal thing. And again you'd want it well insulated so if someone is in the kitchen the person in the bedroom can't hear the noise.

Do you need such a large pantry? I personally would prefer a larger laundry area.

So is the bedroom behind the kitchen an actual bedroom for kids or is it going to be used for something else? What is your family structure?

cpartist:

our family structure is just me and my wife at the moment. we are planning kids but I think just one for this house. perhaps as we grow we'd need to upsize. at 1450 sq feet this is the sweet spot of what we can afford at this stage in our lives.

we will be doing good soundproofing where it needs to be. luckily our utilities are all electric and we don't have a furnace, so utility room won't be too noisy. i see what your saying about the pantry being too large. i'll see if i can play with that.

bpathome:

what you see in the utility room is the stackable washer/dryer. the smallest bedroom is 9' to the closet. this will mostly be for a small office at this point. for the bathroom, do you have any suggestions? the small closet out side is for linens.

If you are planning on even one child in the home, I would do everything I could to get one of the bedrooms closer to the master. trust me on that one. ;)

Additionally children create Lots of laundry so definitely plan for a larger laundry room. And get the largest w/d you can.

I think your two bedrooms and the second bath size is ok for the size of the house.

My first home was smaller than yours will be. Only 2 bedrooms, it was an old sears home that had the master expanded. I loved that house. It worked so well in so many ways. My ex and I had two kids in that home and we moved when our oldest was almost 5 and the younger 1.

Oh you might also want to post this in the small house forum for additional help.

I think I'd flip the hall bathroom (between the 2 rooms) to the other wall so that you don't see the toilet from the living areas of the house (the angles will be better; to privatize that bathroom a bit more if you flip it).

I like to get the master bedrooms oriented to the rear and get garages more integrated into the house, eliminating the "tacked on" look.

i kind of like it. And definitely add an extra layer of drywall backed with green glue for sound transmission for those back bedrooms. Our builder fussed at us and said all we needed was insulation for sound transmission/sound proofing. I would keep the large pantry - one always needs storage space.

Yes but if they have a child, think of how much laundry they will have. I think they need to make the laundry room more conducive to doing loads of laundry.

how about this for the laundry/entry? does the pantry seem like an awkward size now? and yes i will need to hang coats-we are in upstate NY. I don't need a furnace because the house will be super energy efficient!

Now you don't have enough width to walk into your pantry. So it's too deep for what you have. Your shelves will be 12" deep. that leaves you with only 2'11". that's a bit tight. I do like the w/d being side by side instead. I think with baby you'll be much happier with it that way.

Just because of the shape of the house (rectangle with one 30' side) and the square footage - have you looked at any mobile home floor plans? Many of them are quite efficient at using space and might give you some ideas you had not thought of.

thanks annkh, i was actually going to ask about that.

What cars do you drive?

Is the house oriented towards the road with the garage "poking out" in front? Garages pushed out in front tend to overshadow the house and become the focal point. Likewise, the long, narrow entry (with a view of the side of a kitchen cabinet ahead of you) isn't a welcoming view.

However, once you're inside the house, it's a nice little layout.

With a "dead end living room", you're able to fit in lots of comfortable furniture, and I like that you'll have natural light from two sides. I like the arrangement, but I would want a fireplace somewhere in the room ... or perhaps a wood stove.

Because the dining room serves as a hallway to the living room and because it holds the only door to what I think is the back yard, you're only going to be able to use a small table. Is this an okay thing for you? I don't see it as a make-or-break; I'm planning on a small table, but we'll have a gate leg table behind the sofa, which we can pull out and use when we have large indoor gatherings.

I don't see much space for books, games, etc. in the public spaces. I'd consider adding a set of shelves across the whole dining room -- I'm thinking of the very popular squares-bookcases that you see everywhere these days. This would give you mega-storage ... and you could continue it on into the living room (maybe at a shorter height) as a built-in seat and/or something for "under" the TV.

The kitchen shape looks fine, though I agree with the above poster that your appliance layout needs some work. In general, you want to keep things moving in a straight line: Storage of food ... food prep, which includes the sink ... cooking of food ... serving of food. You'll want to serve from the bar that overlooks the dining room, so it makes sense for your "cooking flow" to work counterclockwise.

Your kitchen doesn't have great storage, so the good-sized pantry is essential. Since that pantry door is going to stay open pretty much all the time, I'd consider using a pocket door. I'd always rather have a large pantry instead of a large laundry -- as long as you have room for the machines and an area for "waiting baskets", you're fine with laundry; it's one of those places in a house where junk accumulates to fit the available space. Idea: How about opening up the laundry and pantry as one long, narrow room?

Moving on to the laundry, I would shift the machines to the wall where the hot water heater is now so that the dryer can vent directly outside. Of course, that creates a new problem with the laundry "backed up to" a bedroom -- and you have noise issues. Maybe the machines under the window?

Walking "through" this kitchen to reach the bedrooms doesn't bother me. The entire kitchen is located to the left, so it's more like you're walking PAST the kitchen. In another layout, this might bother me.

I would flip the whole secondary bathroom -- meaning move the toilet and sink to the opposite wall. Why? Because then the door would be moved a few feet to the side, and it would be "hidden" from the public room's view.

Both bathrooms are minimal in size, and that's a bad thing. You have no storage -- no place for a hamper, to store towels, to store anything beyond an extra roll of toilet paper. I'd make the whole house a couple feet longer; or I'd even steal a foot from each bedroom, if necessary to make the bathroom comfortable.

Still on the subject of bathrooms ... you have four rooms in this house that use water, and they're spread across the whole house. The most economical plans arrange the bathrooms, laundry room and kitchen so that they're "backed up" to one another. This means shorter plumbing lines, less expense, and a smaller potential for leaks in the future. Does this have to happen? No, but you're clearly looking for an inexpensive house here, and that would be one way to keep the budget in line.

I'd definitely turn the linen closet towards the bathroom/bedrooms rather than the kitchen.

I don't have any problem with a potential child's bedroom being "far" from the parents' room. First, in this house "far" isn't really all that far. Second, you're going to hear the child, and you'll be plenty close to respond to him or her. I like that the children's rooms are placed away from the living room, so they'll have quiet to sleep.

The bedroom to the right is going to have a problem with the door banging against the closet door. I'd consider a sliding closet door.

The bedroom to the right is forced to have a smaller closet because of the need for the door's swing. How would it work to place the closet where you have the bed? It'd make for a longer, more narrow room, but it'd take care of the door problem.

MrsPete suggested: "How about opening up the laundry and pantry as one long, narrow room?"

Great idea!

"I would flip the whole secondary bathroom -- meaning move the toilet and sink to the opposite wall. Why? Because then the door would be moved a few feet to the side, and it would be "hidden" from the public room's view."

I agree.

here are some updates based on feedback.

i shrunk the master bedroom a tiny bit in order to widen the entire utility/lundry/pantry area. now i have a huge pantry, entry closet and nice sized laundry area. yes the laundry is against the bed room so soundproofing will be key!

Can I see the front elevation?