Rule of thumb is that the most convenient place for primary prep is counter between sink and cooktop, which is pretty small in this layout, bit could be expanded easily by shifting rang towards fridge.

Thanks. I'll think about that swap. It's just this way for now because I tend to make things like pasta (where quick stove-to-sink transfers are a plus with boiling water) and PB&Js more than proper meals.

I'm with Gordo. My cooktop is closer than that, and it's too close. If you put it 18" from the corner, you will have prep space to make a samich by the fridge, and cooking prep convenient to the sink, and it's not a far reach to dump water.

consider a sink big enough to put a roasting pan in, or at least to have something draining while you use faucet for something else. It looks square in the picture, too small?

i can tell you're an aspiring hermit: huge pantry so you don't have to go to the store, and no closet in the spare bedroom lest someone be tempted to stay overnight? Lol! I could love this house.

All right, consider the cabinets switched. :)

The sink's somewhat locked in, in a sense. I managed to get a 23" 16-gauge stainless steel undermount for under $100 . . . have found I never use the second compartment in my current sink except for getting my spaghetti strainer out of the way (again, lots of pasta).

And yes, you nailed it with the pantry and spare bedroom. That bedroom's actually meant to be more for my pets than people. :)

Is resale a concern? If so, then there should be a door from the guest bedroom into the pantry, so it can count/act as a closet.

And the area where you have a desk now should be large enough to have a dining table. It's almost there, but the island counter overhang currently is making things too tight for a table. Another foot or two of width in there would be the difference between usable dining room and no dining room.

Those are small changes, but they keep your options open if/when you sell.

Other thoughts:

1) It is more common to have the master bedroom on the back of the house because usually windows facing the back yard are more quiet, more private, and have a better view. You might want to flip the bedrooms.

2) You have no front hall closet, either near from the door or the garage door. I understand you are usually entering through garage, and it would be nice to have a natural place to put your shoes, coat, bag, etc. as soon as you walk in.

3) There is not going to be a ton of natural light in this home. One small window on one side of every room except the living room.

4) Just expanding on #1, but if the view to the back yard is the nicest, then it seems a shame that the back wall is being taken up by two closets and the pet's bedroom. I'd want the better views in the master bedroom/living spaces.

Jillius – I hope to die in the house, morbid as that may
sound, so resale's pretty far down my list of concerns. If necessary, though—either for resale or to
impress a loan officer—I figure it'll be simple and inexpensive enough to just throw
a closet into one corner of the second bedroom.

Fair point on the dining room; I know just about any buyer would want
one, and I'll think about it. That'd
just be a lot of unused space in the time that I'd occupy the house.

To your other points:

1) It could go either
way, really. The back would be better
now, as it's shielded by more trees. But
at some point, those trees are going to become lumber, and then the front might
seem a lot more peaceful and private.
Either way, this'll be on >20 acres, so I don't have to worry about
kids sticking their noses against my windows on the way to the bus stop, at
least.

2) Agreed. I considered a coat closet mandatory at
first. The thing is—I'm a touch OCD, and
any time I come in from outside, handle my shoes, etc., I usually end up in the
bathroom, washing my hands. So I figure
I can overshoot it a little to get to the master closet.

3. Agreed again, and
   I'm not thrilled about that. I'm just
   not sure what to do. The size of the
   window over the sink is limited by the sink, and I like having the desk window
   mirror it. Not sure it's a good idea to
   have a huge window in the bathroom, and (at least when looking at the front
   elevation), I like having the bedroom window mirror it. There'll probably be a whole new post about
   my front elevation before this is over.
   
   4) Yeah . . . right
   now, I never look out my bedroom windows, but that may only be due to the fact
   I live in the 'burbs. And I was going to
   have much bigger windows in the den until I realized that would put a good
   chunk of the window behind me and make the blinds/curtains/whatever partly inaccessible.

Wow. That's a supermarket's worth of food for thought. Thanks for whipping all that up. I can't really respond to it right now, but that is perhaps a compliment--I'm going to have to take quite a while to think over some of those very good ideas.

Jillius' plan is excellent, as usual, but if you keep the original, but with range moved toward the fridge, a trash pull-out would be convenient in the cab to the right of the range. When prepping, you can open the pull-out and scoop debris directly into the can. Will a pull-out work for you?

I prefer Jillius' plan to the original. Personally, I can't imagine living in a space without a dining table of some kind. In your original plan, I'd replace the island/desk with a 42" round table.

Some mundane use cases to think through:

Do you use a computer for email, shopping, reading, ...? If so, what kind of computer (desktop, laptop, tablet, ...)? Where will it live and where do you plan to sit while using it (if different)?

Where will you charge your cell phone?

Does your morning routine involve a warm beverage, a small snack, &/or a newspaper or something else to read? If so, how will that play out?

Where will you sort mail and pay your bills?

Where do you plan to stowe your everyday dishes, flatware, and glassware? I ask because unloading the dishwasher can be a big pain if these things are stored more than a step or two from the dishwasher.

Lovely new plan. Now...since you plan to live here until forever, are the doors wide enough? Lever handles? Bathroom spacious enough for you plus an aide? (I'd move the appliances so the dryer can vent through the outside wall.) BTW -- where do you bathe your pets? Need a mop/laundry/doggie tub in the garage?

Great point about the dryer vent. I did the bathroom last thing quickly right before I posted and didn't give it as much thought as the rest of the plan.

mama goose_gw zn6OH - I like Jillius's plan, too. Cost/complexity is about the only reason I can think of not to run with it. I had tried really hard to create a rectangular foundation and roof, and also to have the water heater super close to the shower, sinks, and washers. Anyway, good idea regarding the pull-out. I'm not exactly hoping to keep my trash by the front door . . . I guess it's there now just so I know there is indeed room for it if I decide to use all my cabinet space for other things.

gaucho_gordo - Yeah, it's weird, I know. But I've only used my current dining table twice in about eight years. It just collects dust and gives my cat one more thing to jump on. I expect I'll mostly eat at the island or the desk (which is the separate item in the corner by the garage, if that wasn't too clear). Phone charging is a rare event for me--one of the upsides of being a hermit. ;) My morning routine will probably involve the microwave and my desk, which is also where I deal with mail. Dishes and such were going to go in cabinets above the dishwasher, which might be one more slight problem created by Jillius's plan and those beautiful corner windows.

chisue - All the doors are 36" wide except for the door leading from the hallway into the master bedroom . . . it's only 32", because I didn't want to make the 42" hallway wider and a straight shot shouldn't be too hard to navigate. Levers all the way. Bathroom maybe spacious enough? That's subjective, I suppose. Good point with the dryer vent. I was hoping to hide it in the roof overhang outside the bathroom, or perhaps lower the ceilings and run something through the master bedroom, but I'm not sure what it/isn't possible. Oh, and I was thinking any dog I get could just get in my shower, if necessary.

RE unloading the DW, it can be difficult & awkward ergonomically to unload the DW into a wall cabinet directly above the DW (see OSHA info on awkward postures for more info). It's easier to unload into drawers & wall cabinets adjacent to or across from the DW, and I think there are ways to achieve that in all of the layouts proposed above.

I suggest you check out Ross Chapin's small cottages. His work is small but distinctive and well laid out, and you can find a plan that'll give you these same rooms in less square footage.

I was about to say the same thing as gaucho_gordo about unloading the dishwasher into cabinets directly above it. It just doesn't work well.

Also, with the type of ample pantry storage you're planning, you definitely don't need uppers. In my kitchen, I have two 30" drawer based cabinets and an 18" floor-to-ceiling pantry cabinet, and all our dishes and food fit in there no problem. I have a bunch of uppers that are all empty.

You're going to have twice as much base cabinet storage as we do (they should be all drawers or almost all drawers -- minimize doors on base cabinets) and approximately a million times more pantry storage. Especially in this situation where natural light is needed, you're better off putting in more windows.

Here are two other options. In both, I've flipped the bathroom so your dryer can vent out the wall.

1) This one returns your home to a rectangle so you can have the cheaper roof. You lose the corner windows in the kitchen and the ideal fridge-sink-range flow. However, you still have lots of windows, and fridge-range-sink flow isn't going to kill you. I actually prefer that the longest stretch of counter is between the sink and corner (rather than between the range and corner as in my previous drawing). It's not an important preference, but I go back and forth between my prep counter and the sink way more often than I do between the prep counter and range, so the plan below would mean I'd not have to turn the corner so much.

Here is a kitchen with lots of windows on one side, similar to what I'm suggesting:

You aren't venting the range hood directly out the wall, but it's still a pretty straight, short shot to run the vent to the wall. Not a real problem.

If this tweak saves you thousands on the roof, it's a plenty viable option. You could easily add uppers along the range wall, although I wouldn't do any uppers on the sink wall -- make it all windows.

Normal, non-recessed fridges visually and spatially dominate small spaces in the most, bulky, inelegant way. I am very spatially-oriented (obviously) and notice and appreciate when space is used well, and standard-depth fridges fit so badly where they are supposed to go that it offends me on a very personal level. The person who decided that that should be standard must have been drunk.

Counter depth fridges are a better option than normal, non-recessed fridges. But counter depth fridges are also more expensive and are never really truly counter depth. They often don't count the depth of the door (3-4"), and they usually also tell you to leave 4-5" of air circulation space behind them or your expensive fridge is going to die faster. So your "counter depth" fridge sticks out, like 7" from your counter unless you ignore recommendations and shove it all the back against the wall as most people do. But even then it's not even with the counters. (We actually built a recess for our counter-depth fridge to fix this -- couldn't recess more than 6", which is perfect for counter depth, but not enough for a normal fridge.)

Built-in fridges are truly counter depth, but they cost a million dollars.

OR, you can get a normal fridge and recess it, and then the sun shines and angels sing, and everything is better.

(This is the point where my dad tells me that he's worried I haven't given this enough thought.)

So in the plan above, you'd need a counter depth fridge.

The island doesn't really face the TV as well as it did before, but you're still looking at the living room and windows instead of a wall, so it's still an improvement on the original in that sense.

The front closet is not well-positioned to also be a pantry (too far from the kitchen). This seems like a deal-breaker downside. You've gone from an enormous pantry to no pantry.

And some of the lines are off. The TV wall used to line up with the right wall of the dining room. Now with the kitchen on that wall, even though the wall is in the same place, it is visually bumped forward with the kitchen cabinets and no longer really lines up with the TV wall. The pantry/front closet used to line up with the fridge/kitchen cabinets. Now the front closet is just sort of just sitting there by itself, sticking out into the room.

Mamagoose, I appreciate that "as usual" very much.

As I tend to 'hit and run', I'm always impressed by your thoughtful, detailed, and well-illustrated posts. :)

gaucho_gordo - I know I clicked the "thank you" button yesterday afternoon, but thanks again.

mrspete - Thanks, will do. I decided to try this from scratch after a couple years pushing and pulling other people's plans in Photoshop, figuring out what I did and didn't like, but I'm absolutely open to learning (and/or buying) from the true pros.

Which brings me to Jillius! :) It's extremely kind of you to have spent so much time addressing my idiosyncratic needs, and you've done a great job of it, at that. For starters, you're right about the upper cabinets . . . mine are maybe 2/3 full, but half that is just junk I could throw out and never miss. I'm with you on fridge-range-sink flow, as well. And now you've almost got me thinking that a recessed fridge is a necessity . . . trying to create a 42" wide aisle in the kitchen was already a point of frustration, where either the fridge butted in or the cabinets were too far back. Some, if not all, of your ideas are definitely going into my floor plan. Thank you.

Of course! Have you considered vaulting the ceiling and/or skylights? This home is actually ideal for vaulting. The peak would exactly split the living spaces in half and run straight down the middle of the hallway.

I'm thinking that you, of all people, should have some real beauty in your home. You will spend so much time there that it ought to bring you joy.

Here are some examples of cool ceilings in non-enormous homes:

Interesting idea. I've already ruled out 8' ceilings; I can touch them with my fingertips, which makes things seem a little cramped. And I am in favor of a more formal look that'd go with a vaulted ceiling. A couple of my "inspiration pics" (although the last one's too ornate):

A lot of the doodads I've bought/plan to buy play into that theme, too (the metals match better than the photos show, by the way):

So again, good idea and thanks!

If you vault the ceiling, you can actually start it from an 8 foot wall, which will save some $. The height will climb pretty quickly and you probably don't walk around the very edges of the room a lot. Ours goes from 8 to something over 11 at the peak and it does a lot to make our small house feel plenty big. (I love the "Jillius Plan" for you.)

>>>I'm thinking that you, of all people, should have some real beauty in your home. You will spend so much time there that it ought to bring you joy.

As a fellow OCD hermit (though I tend to mask it pretty well) I do strongly urge you to follow as much of Jillius's good advice as possible. Open up that space as wide as possible so you can live and breathe in it. I love small homes, and yours looks delightful. But by all means do vault that ceiling. Do recess that fridge. Install as many large windows as your budget and utility bills will permit. And do not, I beg you, group the plumbing; it is a small price to pay for beautiful flow. Consider a floor outlet under the kitchen table. Then it can be desk or table space.

So far as MBR position, my mother lives in a rural area and insists on her bedroom facing the street. Well, if you can call it a street. She feels it is a security issue, as cars approaching are rare, and she wants to see who is driving up before the bell rings.

I look forward to seeing your home progress. When do you break ground?

lori_inthenw_gw - Thanks for the tip. You're right--I can absolutely live with 8 foot ceilings in a few spots . . . it'd just be nice to be able to fully stretch out in some/most of the house.

MizLizzie - Thanks for the encouragement. I like Jillius's advice (and yours), too. Your mother may have a point regarding the master bedroom. With my lot, privacy and the views will in large part depend on where I situate the house . . . I'm going to guess there'll be at least 125 feet between it and the "street" (a debatable term, as you say). But, regarding groundbreaking, I have quite a while to sort all this out. My particular brand of obsession has had me chipping away at this issue for quite a while, and I probably still have 3-4 years to go. I treat house planning as a hobby now, while also realizing that the more I think about it (and seek input from other people), the better the final product will be.