House Plan feedback/suggestions please?
aliciaknits
8 years ago
Featured Answer
Sort by:Oldest
Comments (20)
Related Discussions
Floor plan feedback please. (crowd-sourcing my house design ftw)
Comments (12)kirkhall the north side/wall is at the top of the drawing, the south at the bottom. (the north arrow is shown to the right of the first floor). The wall facing south is the one with the front door, so its where the sun comes from most of the day. just fyi, there is about 7.5 ft ceiling height 5 ft from the south wall in the master bathroom, and there is a dormer in the center, which adds extra ceiling height (although not where the toilet is shown) (Also the dormers are not very clearly drawn...sorry about that....these are my drawings, so you know...drafting standards are lax, or rather non existent....) having the master suite upstairs in these cape style houses is tricky, in my opinion. the layouts in these houses are really constrained with the reduced ceiling height at those walls. however, the overall style has a lot of appeal for many reasons for us (appearance, energy efficiency, cost to build, etc.) the ridge runs east to west, and there is a lot of height there (entrance to master bedroom, loft overlooking below, and guest bath) I was originally advocating for the master suite on the first floor, for one floor living if necessary. DH has successfully argued for keeping all of the "public" areas downstairs, and "private areas" upstairs. Upstairs will have a cozy feel. He says we can always put an elevator in where the closet by the stairs is (1st floor) if we have too (I bet that's not cheap!). I'm with you on walking into the master bedroom facing the closet. it doesn't seem ideal for sure. I'm open to ideas. just keep in mind, that big window in the dormer on the north wall in the master bedroom looks out over the property and has views of the mountains. I don't want to block it with a closet. kelhuck re point 1) - i didn't even think about that. We toured a house with the stairs arranged just like it, and thought it was great. That's a good point though. I've thought about the stairs quite a bit, but never from that angle (odd in retrospect). They also had a little more space between the stairs and front door than I'm showing. 2)laundry - yeah, this is a big one for me. I go round and round on this:) The trade-off is to just have a laundry closet, but have the laundry upstairs, or put it in the mud-room, have more space, but have to haul laundry up and down stairs all the time. right now, i'm leaning towards not caring if the laundry clutters up the loft a bit, but there is not much room there at all, its only barely works. currently, my washer and dryer are in our garage, which is not conditioned. I bring baskets of laundry back into our bedroom, and process everything there. S, its not far fetched to have a small closet, but the appeal of a little room I can close off is strong. I swear I want a new house just for a space conditioned laundry room:) 3) pretty much, yes. the appeal of timber homes is showing off the structure, those gorgeous timbers. all timber homes I've seen have a least some two story view inside. however, there is strong sentiment on this board against it, that its loud. since I've never lived in a house like this, I'm inclined to listen. its a valid point, especially when its more than just the two of us (guests and/or kids). even just making the open to below over the foyer instead of the tv/family/living room may solve that. I dunno yet. I'll have a chat w/ dh about it later. 4) dont' worry about insulation, the entire house is going to be wrapped in SIPS. initial calcs for the efficiency we are looking for are calling for 10" SIPS, whereas almost everyone uses 6". No worries, this house will be tight (and require mechanical ventilation). we are focusing heavily on the envelope, so our budget is focused on SIPS and windows. I may even hae to sacrifice my nice kitchen initially (blasphemy!) in order to pay for it up front, but we'll see. liriodendron - that's awesome that you are using PV. the price is coming down, so its actually starting to make sense to pay for it, instead of just being for people like dh and me, who just have non-mainstream tastes and interest (energy nuts, sort of:) the property was logged 5 years before we bought it, so it doesn't have many trees (no trees anywhere near the home site) (and its an ugly mess, we've just now started re-planting). the south facing garage roof will have full sun all day. if it weren't for that, we would angle the house more, so the back faces the mountains a bit better, but we didn't want to sacrifice the front/south wall of the house with respect to facing the sun too much. we like PV just cause we think its neat, and we're trying hard to justify it, but it may be a few years down the road before we consider actually paying for it....See MorePlease give feedback on this house plan
Comments (5)I have lots of thoughts, but would like to say that, like pp's, overall it is nice. I think you might be able to add the extra stairs to the first floor end and just move the LR door down the hall. I would reconfigure the powder room to get the toilet water service off the outside wall and give yourself a bigger vanity. Simply back the toilet up to the laundry wall room in the back corner of the PR and run the vanity along the same wall before the toilet as you come in the door. That gives the toilet a little niche beside the vanity, people tend to feel a little more secure with that arrangement :). You will also get your pipes off the outside wall, have water service for both laundry and PR on the same wall (less expensive for plumbing), have room for a 48" vanity (nice to have extra storage) and still allow a whopping 36" of space in which to center the toilet. Or you could have an 18" tower cab, 36" vanity, standard 30" wide space for toilet. Those measurements would adjust by 4" depending on which side you're putting your interior wall width. You need to swap the washer and dryer to put the dryer on the outside wall for venting and the washer further away from the outside wall. If it were me and I had both a LR (quiet place to read?) and a FR (TV, games, etc.), I think I'd take a few more feet off the LR and give it to the DR so that you can accommodate a crowd when needed and get better use out of the room for crafting and/or have room for piano or another secondary use. I'd put pocket doors in that cased opening between the DR and the FR. That way they can be open when needed and closed when desired (you'd be surprised how often in family life that need arises; especially if you do use it for sewing or put a piano, music practice area, or art corner in there! Or even if it just becomes a quiet place to use your laptop). I would also try to make the kitchen a little more accessible to the family room. Anyone with kids won't be able to see or check on them easily. Kitchen to family room is the highest traffic flow and talk-across in our family. I wouldn't want to have go through the mudroom (breakfast nook?) or go around through the dining room taking several turns to get to it. Pedestrian flow would be great, but even an old fashioned pass through over the base cabinets on that wall would help. The kitchen also seems a little widespread with over 10 feet between the cabinet run and the sink. It's not enough space for an eat-in table or island, but a little too much to me to just be open, kwim? If that extra space is your eat-in area and not mudroom, you could try schussing the whole kitchen to the back wall, swapping the peninsula with the range counter so that the range can vent to an outside wall. That shortens the distance walking in with groceries to counters and cabinets. Also, then your eat-in nook area could be open to or have a direct door to the FR and be closer to the formal dining room, too, for overflow family events (think kids' table or "befores" buffet, removed but not too far away from grown ups). As for collapsing or making the space between the outside wall and the pantry cabinet run more useful, I'm not sure, but I think it could be done by playing around with the arrangement a bit. And, yes, I'd definitely put the fridge elsewhere to make that doorway more open. Upstairs, how about making the two itty-bitty hinged-door closets between the office and BR one long two-sided closet with sliding doors instead? The office/extra BR probably won't need much closet space most of the time and that would give the BR more. Bath access for front left BR is awkward, but I'm not sure how to get around that with the center stairwell. You might trying playing with the idea of changing to a left-front entry instead of center, but that would be a lot reworking that might not work... Finally, what orientation is and what is the view out the left side (LR, DR, FR side) of the house? I see a lot of windows, but this seems to be a narrow lot plan. There is only one window on the other long side. I am wondering what you get to see from different places in the house and how the light works during the day....See MorePlease give me feedback on house plan
Comments (8)I'm not a huge fan of two-story rooms and, like J&J bathrooms, you'll find multiple discussions here on GW regarding what's right/wrong with two story rooms. You might want to review some of those so that you can make an informed decision about opting for two-story spaces. Of course, it may be that you're planning a roof line that will reduce most of that two story space to a much lower height. However, even if you decide that you really want the WOW-factor of having a two story living room, I really think you should rethink having it extend over to the dining area and HALF-WAY across the kitchen. It's going to look really odd and accidental for the ceiling to suddenly drop down from two-story height to single story height right over the middle of your kitchen island and right over the middle of your sink. Have you given any thought to how you would light that island and put lights over the sink????? If it were me and I wanted a two-story living room, I'd drop the ceiling back down to normal height along a line extending from the right edge of the pantry to the south wall. That would provide a visual divide between living room and dining room, give the dining room a lower ceiling and avoid the weird ceiling height jump right over the center of the kitchen island. A lower ceiling in the dining room would allow that room to feel much cozier. And, you would gain up to 200 sq ft of extra space upstairs for almost NO additional cost. Even if you plan for a sloping roof on that side of the house so that only a portion of the extra space upstairs would be fully useable, 100 sq ft of extra space would allow for larger bedrooms, larger upstairs closets and/or a second bathroom so as to get rid of the J&J. At the very least, each bedroom could have it's own vanity area so that only the toilet and bathtub are shared. The only thing I really dislike about the downstairs is having the "laundry area" in the pass thru space coming from the garage. Consider...a couple of friends drop by for drinks before they and you and your significant other all head out to dinner together. You decide to drive so everybody heads out to the garage to leave. Or, you pick up your teenager and one of his/her classmates from school and bring them both to your house because they're working on a school project together. Of course you pull into the garage as usual to unload. Do you REALLY want to have these guests walking past the family laundry that is stacked on top of the dryer waiting to be put away, or having to step over/around the piles of dirty laundry waiting for its turn to go into the washer??? Let's face it, getting laundry done takes time and most of us have at least a bit of laundry piled up in the laundry room on occasion. Do you want to have to constantly make sure your laundry room space is immaculate? Or, do you want to face your teen's utter mortification if that classmate who has to wade over the family's dirty laundry just happens to be someone he/she has a huge crush on? Me, I'd move the laundry room upstairs (into some of the extra 200 sq ft gained by getting rid of the two-story ceiling over the dining room. Or, I'd move the laundry to the basement. Just my 2 cents....See MorePlease Opinions / Feedback on House Plans
Comments (13)The kitchen and bathrooms seem to be stuffed into dark spaces with no elbow room in order to create a large LR and MBR. It's like something out of the 50's with some walls removed, more like a renovation than a new house. For instance, the MBR lavs should have their centers at least 18" off the wall to be able to brush teeth comfortably and the toilet compartment should be larger or have a window. If you live in the South with no children perhaps hooks on the wall would be adequate off the garage but not in the North with children. Without knowing something about your family and climate I wouldn't know where to begin with suggestions but I would let some light into the house in any case....See Morealiciaknits
8 years agoaliciaknits
8 years agocpartist
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agomushcreek
8 years agoDLM2000-GW
8 years agolakeviewgirl
8 years agocpartist
8 years agochisue
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoOaktown
8 years agoILoveRed
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agomrspete
8 years agomrspete
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agocpartist
8 years agodekeoboe
8 years ago
Related Stories
LANDSCAPE DESIGN6 Suggestions for Harmonious Hardscaping
Help a sidewalk, driveway or path flow with your garden design, for a cohesive and pleasing look
Full StoryHOME OFFICESQuiet, Please! How to Cut Noise Pollution at Home
Leaf blowers, trucks or noisy neighbors driving you berserk? These sound-reduction strategies can help you hush things up
Full StoryEDIBLE GARDENSAn Edible Cottage Garden With a Pleasing Symmetry
The owners of this cottage garden in Australia grow vegetables, herbs and fruit to delight their family and friends
Full StoryGREEN BUILDINGEfficient Architecture Suggests a New Future for Design
Homes that pay attention to efficient construction, square footage and finishes are paving the way for fresh aesthetic potential
Full StoryHOUZZ TOURSHouzz Tour: Nature Suggests a Toronto Home’s Palette
Birch forests and rocks inspire the colors and materials of a Canadian designer’s townhouse space
Full StoryDECORATING GUIDESPlease Touch: Texture Makes Rooms Spring to Life
Great design stimulates all the senses, including touch. Check out these great uses of texture, then let your fingers do the walking
Full StoryREMODELING GUIDESHouse Planning: When You Want to Open Up a Space
With a pro's help, you may be able remove a load-bearing wall to turn two small rooms into one bigger one
Full StoryREMODELING GUIDESHome Designs: The U-Shaped House Plan
For outdoor living spaces and privacy, consider wings around a garden room
Full StoryKITCHEN DESIGN9 Questions to Ask When Planning a Kitchen Pantry
Avoid blunders and get the storage space and layout you need by asking these questions before you begin
Full Story
mellyc123