MrsPete - Hadn't thought about a table in the entry area. Not sure how we could change it but worth discussing with the architect. We were hoping to have two spaces that could be used as one if needed for entertaining but mostly as separate gathering areas. Cartoons in the hearth room, parent time in the great room. I agree we probably don't have enough acoustical separation but haven't found a solution. Maybe french doors or something similar between great and breakfast. Extra storage for kids sports equipment, coats, shoes etc. The mudroom also has 6' of lockers and two small coat closets. I kinda like the idea of opening it to the pantry. The fridge would be by stairs and we'd probably put a prep sink in the island by the cooktop. Our thinking was the island by the cooktop would be used for food prep and the second island for gathering/serving etc. Agree with the additional windows. The fourth side of the dining room is actually a wall with mudroom lockers on the other side. It's set in about 12" for a buffet. Good point on the walk from the laundry. I guess we didn't consider that as these days it mostly kids laundry. Like you say not sure there is a good fix. Moving the washer/dryer to the outside wall makes sense. The closet is about 12x11 now. Would always welcome a bigger closet but thought it may take away from the front elevation. Commented on the garage in an earlier post. Hoping the width would offset the garage. Appreciate the feedback!

I am at a stage of moving forward so I need make some quick decisions. I feel like it is good for me to sit down and summarize where my plan stands right now and specific areas of concerns needing help. I ended up with something really long and here it is. Thanks for your reading and feedbacks! Jf 1. Family 2 adults, 3 children (13 yr daughter, 9 yr son, and a soon to be born baby boy) Lot constraint and house orientation / zones The lot is close to 2 streets out side the subdivision and it is close to the gate entrance. There would be noise from the street. The traffic is not that bad at this time as there is a T stop on one and there are speed bumps on the other. There are about 40 houses inside the community and being in a corner lot I do have concerns about the flashing light from cars entering the gate and making left turn during nights. Besides landscaping, any architectural considerations for this issue? The bedrooms are to the east and south (except a bedroom for my daughter on the 2nd floor to the front) for reduced noise and better privacy. More public and service areas like study, dining, kitchen, laundry and garage are to the front north and right west side nearing the streets. The living is in the middle to have good view of the backyard and sufficient lights. I am most concerned about the west side wall. It will be very hot in the summer here so I am trying to avoid windows as much as I can. I do think I need something in the breakfast so I put one window there. There is another one in the laundry for drying clothes. Windows in the garage would be ok just for appearance I guess. I may still need a small window in the kitchen for better ventilation as we cook a lot at home. We may also consider skylight in the kitchen if it is too dark there. The garage in the back has rear entry door. I understand we need may about 28ft driveway in front of the garage to have big enough turn radius to enter and backout from the west street. I would love to have a side entry garage. However, I was told that I need 18ft away from the property line and that would push the garage 8ft to the east and block 8ft, or about half of the current living area view. So I gave up that idea. 3. Types, number and sizes of rooms My current house have a living area of about 1600sqft witht the four of us and it has a three bedrooms(14'6x12', 11'x10'6, 11'x10'6), 1 small study (14'6x8'4), one eating area (14'x10'6), a kitchen (14'x10'4). The living room is 18'x14'2. The two bathrooms are kind of small. We having been living there for over 8yrs and it is really not too bad. The new house has a planned living area of about 3200sqft, which doubles what we have right now. So it shall be more than adequate for us. My wife prefers bigger kitchen and living areas over bigger bedrooms. We would also like comftable bathrooms and can never have enough closets and storage space. She also insists on separate dining and breakfast instead of one big eating area. She doesn't mind an OK sized breafast like 9'x9' and we plan to use the dinging as a guest living/sitting area or playroom as formal dining is not something we do often. Masterbed room downstairs. It seems that most of my friends from the north/Canada they have masterbed upstairs and I understand heating in cold weather maybe one big consideration for them. While we love the idea of keeping an eye on the kids, we are mainly concerned as we age we may not like the idea of walking up and down the stairs. We also do not mind letting the soon to be teens to have some of their own activies out of our sight. Gameroom upstairs. We think we need some open area on the 2nd floor to play or just sit down and relax. It is like a gameroom/familyroom multiuse. I understtand it would be noisy to the 2nd floor bedrooms and the living area below. We need carpet flooring and some noise reduction, floor hardening techniques. 3.5 baths. There would be a powder room/guest bath on the main floor. On the second floor, my daughter will have her own bathroom. The issue is bathroom setup for the two boys. I am proposing a shared bath for them and guests in the gameroom. I tried the idea of separate bathrooms by halving the bath nearby the gameroom. It is kind of tight and it maybe more expensive so I gave it up. Lundry/mudroom. I think a decent size there would be of good use. The main constraint is budget here. Staircase As I am planning to use the area to the left of the kitchen upstairs for all the 2nd floor needs, the staircase has to connect to center of that area so that we have hallways surrounding it to access all the nearby rooms. The issue is where it shall start on the 1st floor and which type of stair case is better for us. I tried the idea of curved staircase in the foyer (starting from somewhere close to the dining left wall). it would be too costly to build. An alternative option is to build a L or even multi turns. We did not pursue it as my wife has the diea of being able to see kids coming down from 2nd floor or people entering from the mainfloor going upstairs from the kitchen. Another concern is that while an open staircase in the 2 story foyer looks grand, it has to be done right otherwise it is too striking and blocking everything from the entrance view. The proposed U shape staircase is kind of half open to the living and visible from the kitchen and not directly in foyer. For an area of 11' by 7'2" we shall have enough room to acheive the right rise/run for a comfortable stairway. 5. Powderroom location Once the staircase location is fixed. The next biggest challening is to find the right place for the 5'x6' half-bath. I have tried at least 3 different places. 5.1. Under the staircase off study room. The place can be easily identified. The problem is that is taken space from the study and it has some views from dining. 5.2. Close to the staircase off masterbed hallway and masterbath. It has very good privacy for the guests. However, it is taken some area from the masterbath and make the setup there difficult. It also will have exposure to masterbed room that is not too good. 5.3 Close to the Garage inside the laundry/mudroom area. Privacy is good. Location is OK (it is close to the door to garage). It is taken part of the area from laundry so make the laundry small and difficult to set up. Additional good thing of not putting the powderroom close to the foyer is that the coat closet would be under the staircase and the study would be increased to its original planed size. Right now I am inclined to place the powderroom nearby the garage door. 6. Kitchen Right now the kitchen has a size of 14'6 x 14'. There would be some layout tuning to separte the different tasks of cooking, cleaning, and baking. One thing I would like to do is to recess the right side wall so that the frige is not sticking out to block the walk way. 7. Bathroom Next, I need to examine the layouts of the bathrooms. As kitchen and bathrooms are most expensive and we are using them so often, I would like to make sure we are getting most out of it and setting up them right. Closets and Storage I already mentioned that we never have enough storage space. Make sure we have access to under the stair space. I also have a door to access the attic in the 2nd floor. There would be some unfinished bonus storage space there. Laundry chute. I am not sure if it is doable but we (especially the kids) would love the idea of a chute from the gameroom to the laundry/mudroom.

Sorry for the hiatus. Moving and working and kids - well it's a bit inconvenient. Hahaha! Appraisal today. Now the only thing left is the health department to check the drain field and water. I hope we have a closing date soon. momtoblondie-*LOVE* my doodle. :) She by the way is having the hardest time out of everyone with all of the house showing/packing/routine changing upheaval. ;) We are not fans of that funny little angle by the front door either. We will be addressing that and the windows when we meet again on Monday. I am still trying to figure out the front laundry closet area with the windows pushed together-it is a struggle. I am also pondering the kitchen layout. The mudroom however, we like. I asked for a place for lockers, a separate closet, a small 'pocket' office and to be able to close the dog in. This is what we got and I do like it: The doorway off to the right by the closet goes outside where we will have a covered porch for grilling and also where we will let the dog in and out. The doorway by the 1/2 bath leads into the kitchen area. The square footage - hmmm. It is about 300 sq foot over what we were hoping for. So we need to look at that. Likely the mudroom is a little big because I don't feel like the actual rooms are too large. But we don't have any 'extra' rooms that I feel we could ditch. We are not including the screened porch (to be finished later) and the basement (also to be finished way later) in our sq. footage 'wants'. It's about 1700 on the main floor and 550 in the upstairs. I also need to having things figured out - this has been driving me nuts. I wouldn't say you are starting to soon but yes I concur it is overwhelming and sanity breaks are needed (chocolate also helps). We didn't think our house would sell so early. Happy it did so we can start this fall BUT the plans aren't ready and so now I feel rushed which is not what I wanted at this stage. :/ I too like watching every size build. It sometimes causes my eyes (dreams) to be larger than our budget but it is exciting to watch nonetheless! I can't wait to watch your build progress as well. When are you hoping to list your home? It kind of sneaks up on you so hang on to your hat! Thank you for your kind words and blessings - right back at you. There are a few kindred police/fire spirits on here. :)

Don’t get caught up on number of design “iterations”. It takes time to do it right. Also, careful review is required from one revision to next. This is important. Don’t assume it was revised with all previous details. In just a quick look at your plans your garage size is too small for today’s vehicle sizes and sports equipment along with overflow storage needs and trash and garbage containers, etc. A truly custom home requires an experienced “team” that communicates well together, during planning/programming phase and in problem solving throughout the building process. This is just the beginning. If your builder is using their architect, there will be questions of “conflicts” of interest. Be ware of plans starting out with “smalls” they will all represent “upgrades” later on. Get plans right and take the time to do it well. It will minimize problems later. You will have problems. It’s how the “team” handles these issues that will be valuable as you build these relationships.