Looks like he just sketched something up really quick. Give him your feedback and see what he come back with. Architects only know what you want if you tell them and a big kitchen to them might be different than yours. Designing a house is a process. Good luck!

Stay calm! Preliminary is just what it says it is. It gives you a place to start talking from, especially if you have not done a detailed list or questionnaire in advance. Like yours, our architect started from hand drawings, because it said if he did them in CAD, people felt like they were too hard to change. Keep on talking. If you find he doesn't listen, then you have a problem. But you have to articulate what you want and what you need (and know the difference).

Is this the current location of the kitchen? Can you post a current floor plan and your idea of the bump out?

Thanks for all the quick replies.

Mama The house is gutted to the studs so we can move anything around.The drawings you see there are including the bump out. We are moving the stairs to where they are in the drawing because we need 5 bedrooms upstairs. We have 4 kids.

Lori We met him on the site and discussed what was important to us but we never filled out anything. I will definitely go back and discuss again what I need.

I dont like the table not in the kitchen area as well.

Maybe you have one too many dedicated rooms - LR+ FR, DR+KI (seating). Your plan to move the rooms around and to add a bath and den sounds wise.

By moving the DR, you put the kitchen in between the FM and the DR. Why not put the kitchen at the front, the DR in the middle and the FM at the other end? If you substitute an expansive banquette for the DR then you free up sf to use in the FR. Some pretty nice pictures of banquettes here on Houzz.

By making the stairs an L shape rather than a switchback, the size of the landing is cut in half. That's almost a small powder room right there.

I'd like to see the existing footprint too. Load bearing walls, staircase and plumbing would be good too.

Do you need both a living room and a family room? 17'4" seems slightly large for a dining room if you consider your home small.

Why not put your laundry upstairs and put your powder room there?

Honestly I'd put the dining room in the front of the house, the kitchen where the dining is slated to go, a den / powder where the kitchen is drawn, and leave the LR where it is but turn it so it's functional with the kitchen. Your stairs are perfect for tucking a small powder room under the "up" section, facing the LR / Den area as I just described. A pedestal sink and toilet are all that would fit but that is also all that you really need.

Benj here is the original house when we bought it. The extension will bump out 16 feet

What you have is not a "preliminary drawing"; it is a rough idea sketch and should be treated as such.

Design is a collaborative process; you should be talking to your architect. When you get a true preliminary drawing we can comment on it. If I commented on such a rough a sketch I would feel like I was interfering with your design collaboration.

Fairly early on, you need to determine how much work it will be to move the plumbing, especially drains and vents. What is under the floor? Basement, crawl, slab? Sometimes it's nearly impossible to move drains to other parts of the house. 'Nearly impossible' = $$$$.

Mush We really don't have a choice, we need to relocate all the plumbing. I need 5 bedrooms and 3 full baths upstairs. There is an unfinished basement where the existing house is now but we will be adding a basement also under the new extension. We have sewers here.

JDS Thanks for your words. I just spoke to the architect and discussed my concerns with him and he is going to do another rough sketch.

MAMA took your idea and presented it to the architect. I also dont really need a formal dining room so that works for me to move it there. I will make it more of my everyday eating room.

Not my business, but how big can those 5 bedrooms and 3 full baths be considering the first floor footprint? Seems tight...

Do you have historical restrictions? I'm wondering why this isn't a tear down.

We did a complete gut of our small single level house in January. The only thing original is the exterior walls and the roof. The floor was so out of level we had to sister up and install new joists for a new floor. We didn't add any square feet. We will probably always wonder if we made the best financial decision; it seems it was a wash.

We were told that if we added on it would be cheaper to level and build new. Is this not the case in your area?

A Teardown would definitely be cheaper if not restricted. This is a hugely expensive undertaking.

@nightowl the bedrooms are all on the smaller size but it works for us.

@benjesbride

@sophie we don't have any historical restrictions. To be honest I'm not sure why it's not a tear down but I think it has to do with taxes on Long Island. If it's new construction you are taxed higher and since our taxes are around $20,000 a year we are trying to keep them on the lower side.

@benjesbride

@sophie we don't have any historical restrictions. To be honest I'm not sure why it's not a tear down but I think it has to do with taxes on Long Island. If it's new construction you are taxed higher and since our taxes are around $20,000 a year we are trying to keep them on the lower side.

You're fooling yourself because the minute you do reconstruction you'll be reassessed just as you would if you build new. I'm on Long Island too (in the summer) and know that friends have been reassessed after renovating.

If you have no restrictions then you are trying to go from NY to FL via a long distance excursion to CA by car instead of hopping a direct plane. The end result will be better and cheaper by throwing off these self imposed restrictions of the existing home's plan.

Looks like you could keep the current layout and fit a powder room 3' wide x 7' and opening to the entry/hallway by taking that space from the dining or living room and keep the sketch as is. I like the flow of the rooms as is. Except that little breakfast area. I'd just use curved island seating for that and actually use the dining room daily.

Re-assessement -- find out if you are reassessed in a cycle only (say every ten years and you are on year two), or if re-assessment automatically happens after a reno, no matter where you are on that cycle. It may vary from town to town.

How large is your property, and what are the permissible setbacks, should you do a teardown?