For kitchen help, your best bet is to post on the kitchen forum.

How much land do you have?

What direction does the house face?

Do you have room sizes?

Where is your powder room for house guests? Do they have to walk through your laundry room to use the only powder room? or will they have to walk into the kids room? And then the only way to get to the powder room is through the kitchen?

And anyone needing to use the laundry room has to walk through your kitchen?

And the only way out of your bedroom is through the kitchen?

Frankly that area to the right of the kitchen is quite convoluted.

Additionally your bathroom is quite long and large but adds nothing.

Can't say I'm a fan of the snout garage.

I don't think two boys need J and J bathrooms

I think you could save a lot of space if the kids have reach in closets instead of walk ins. Kids don't need walk ins.

I would switch your daughter's bath to line up with the son's bedroom, get rid of the walk in closet so your daughter has windows on two sides and the bathroom has a window on one side.

Initial impressions:

Where will guests park? It's a long hike from the front of the garage to the front door.

There is no coat closet near the front door.

Plumbing is spread out over the entire house - expensive to build, and to get hot water from one end to the other.

My two sons never spent a lot of time in the bathroom - making the jack and jill bath unnecessary. I would access their bathroom from the hall - which also gives you a bathroom at that end of the house that is not accessible through a bedroom, since the powder room is at the opposite end of the house. This also frees up space to reconfigure the boys' closets, so your daughter's bathroom can go on the outside wall, and have a window.

The pantry configuration is a bit wonky (though it's hard to really tell without dimensions). The safe room access through the pantry severely limits storage space in the pantry - especially with a freezer in there.

Your closet is as big as the kids' bedrooms, with a lot of open (potentially wasted) space in the middle. All those angles and jogs make it pretty convoluted.

What direction does the house face? How big is your lot?

Regarding your Kitchen - I agree, ask on the Kitchens Forum.

Kitchens Forum URL: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/kitchbath

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Asking for layout help:

How do I ask for Layout Help and what information should I include?

• http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2767033/how-do-i-ask-for-layout-help-and-what-information

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Kitchen Design FAQ Threads:

FAQ -- Kitchen work zones, what are they?

• http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3638270/faq-kitchen-work-zones-what-are-they

FAQ -- Aisle widths, walkways, seating overhangs, work and landing space, and others

• http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3638304/faq-aisle-widths-walkways-seating-overhangs-work-landing-space-etc

FAQ -- How do I plan for storage? Types of Storage? What to Store Where?

• http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3638376/faq-how-do-i-plan-for-storage

Looking for layout help? Memorize this first.

• http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2699918/looking-for-layout-help-memorize-this-first

I updated my post to say that we are on over 200 acres. It will be facing east with the best view overlooking our farm ground to the west. Our house will sit up on a wooded hill. I also added the room names where it wasn't listed before.

How would you suggest changing the garage? I wasn't exactly a fan of that style of garage either, especially with the modern farmhouse look.

I had just one powder room downstairs so that guests can access it from my photography studio AND the house. I may consider changing the boys bathroom like you suggested.

I wanted a split floor plan for a reason - I hate being directly next to our kids in our current home because we watch TV in our room and it disturbs them at night. In fact - I had plans to set up our bedroom like a makeshift media room since that's where we like to watch it.

They can't access it from the house unless they go through your laundry room. Is that what you want?

Nothing wrong with a split floor plan. I'm all for them for all the reasons you suggest but what you have on the right hand side is a maze of rooms and hallways.

I agree with you! I'm just not the best at trying to figure it out to work better.

I agree with you! I'm just not the best at trying to figure it out to work better.

If you are not a trained designer or architect, then I highly recommend you engage the services of someone who is trained in this. Designing a house is not a matter of fitting puzzle boxes together. A good house design is designed with the inside AND the outside designed at the same time. One influences the other.

Our house will sit up on a wooded hill.

No site plan of course but don't set the house directly atop a hill like it's the bride and groom perched atop a wedding cake, "king of the hill" syle. Set it on the brow of the hill....Brow: The part of the hill where as you ascend the hill and come towards the top you can just see over the top. It is just before you reach the absolute summit.

And don't write that that's where the best view is. If God made the hill 5' lower (and that's probably what we're talking about), would you have then not purchased the property? The best houses on hills look that way because they are positioned just right or left off of the top.

Views, from hills or otherwise should be framed and not overexposed anyway.

Any elevations? I see nothing in the plan that says "modern farmhouse".

I am working with an architect right now. I do not have elevations. This is what he came up with so far.

I wonder about any architect, designer or artist who can only think in front of a computer and who does not create the exterior elevations along with the plans. They need to work together.

Are you sure he's a licensed architect and not a draftsman?

Here's some threads for you to ponder.

Thread 1

Architectrunnerguy is a licensed architect who offers his advice here for free. Here are some threads he's noted as well as some thoughts of his:

"Ok, had some second thoughts about posting here as it might be interpreted as hawking for work which I'm not being plenty busy, but on the other hand I want you to be in a situation where you're spending a healthy six figure chunk of your hard earned money the best way possible and I write this advice for the lurkers too! Especially since there are no "do overs" in building a whole house.

So with that said and in lieu of a massive retype by me, let me point you to a coupla threads......

Get somebody CREATIVE to sit down with you for a design session as CP described above. Doesn't have to be expensive or time consuming. Here's a link to one: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3887104/what-should-i-expect-from-my-architect-long?n=17 Scroll down to my 5/12/16 post. And there's a photo there of what one of these sessions looks like. It's not a bunch of hocus pocus "man behind the curtain" stuff. And while you're here, scroll down 2 posts to my thoughts on trusting a CREATIVE designer and the place for preconceived ideas. My guess is, and I'd agree if you said it's pure speculation, with all the cutting and pasting you're doing you haven't realized that a leap of faith is required on your part for the best outcome.

And here's another link from someone on this board who did exactly that: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3598813/we-fit-an-architect-into-our-budget-and-it-was-so-worth-it?n=17

And, for a little self education, here's a list of great books on good home design: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3281434/book-suggestions?n=10

And last but not least, here's a great thread on what makes for good home design. Get a cup of coffee, a comfortable chair and spend some time going through it. It's long but worth the read. All of us design folks chimed in there (along with many others) so you get all the great thoughts and ideas in one convenient location http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3285825/what-makes-a-house-have-good-design?n=39"

I do not have elevations. This is what he came up with so far.

I never have understood that. Lately there's been a bunch of "here's the floor plan but we don't have elevations yet".

Since architecture is a three dimensional thing, the best solutions are developed in plan, section and elevation all simultaneously. I can't think of the last time I told a client "Here's the plan, elevations later folks!!"...it all comes together.

Edit: Oh I see CP posted some of my thoughts on this...Thanks CP...And thoughts for the lurkers too!

Oops, I do have 1 Elevation - please forgive my ignorance. I misunderstood.

However, I have requested changes because I do not like the peaked windows and want the peak over the front entry. I want it to look more like the white house posted below:

FGY: Fergus Garber Young | Portfolio | New House | Atherton Residence · More Info

I also requested to remove the off-center style on the front facing part of the garage. The overall feel of the Elevation drawing made it feel like a Ranch Style with New American accents. The white house above has been my inspiration for the outside style.

I also forgot to mention that we will have a circle drive that will come around front off of the garage road. People can also park there and walk up to the front door.

From your conflicting comments, it's unclear whether the open portions of the plan at the rear of the house will be facing west or east. Either direction is problematic, due to the low sun angles involved, with west facing the absolute worst orientation possible. Is there a way you could reorient your house so that the major open areas and family uses are facing south? South is the ideal orientation.

Cpartist's idea for the kids' wing is good, but I'd go a step further and swap the boys' bathroom and the hall, and have their bathroom open off the hall between their rooms, that way they have a bit of privacy when you have company.

Don't you need a home office to store family/household/school/finance records?

The master bedroom seems more like a servants' quarters, tucked between the mudroom and kitchen. You deserve better! Can the stairs move, so the suite opens toward the living room?

Don't your guests need a coat closet?

Sorry - the front of the house is facing east... back (open portions) face towards the west off of the hill overlooking view.

Yes - I added coat closet to the list... Although - we don't use one currently now that I think about it.

Yes, everything can be rearranged as far as I'm concerned. I like the kid's quarters and the access to my photography studio/office. I relabeled the photo at the very top to show that the far right wing is my photography studio and office that I will be using for both my business and home.

The traffic flow through the kitchen would be a huge concern for me. I feel like maybe there needs to be a hallway where the stairs are or some way to access the right side of the house without having to constantly go through the kitchen.

A west facing house is the absolute worst facing orientation possible. That's because it is impossible to have architectural devices--trellis, roof, etc.--which will block the sun but permit views out and allow natural light in. West-facing exteriors and interiors can become almost unbearable in southern climes due to glare and temperature. The setting sun is impossible to block given its ever-increasing lower levels.

Is it possible to rotate your house towards the south and still have the view you desire--even at an angle?

The southern sun is always at its highest at mid-day, making it possible to use many different approaches to blocking the direct sunlight in the summer, while allowing it to penetrate the house in the winter for passive energy purposes.

If you haven't encountered this before, you can't believe how important it is if you have any choice at all about orientation.

Good luck on your project.

My husband and I talked and there is quite a bit of timber there that we can landscape and keep to block incoming glare from the west, but remove enough of the brush to get a nice view out. We are also going to rotate the plan a little so the front faces a little more southeast and the rear will face a little more northwest. Going the other direction would have us facing another house in the near distance (not desirable).

Sorry - the front of the house is facing east... back (open portions) face towards the west off of the hill overlooking view.

So what you are saying is that all summer, and most of the spring and fall, depending on where in OK you are, your back porch and screened area will be unusable because of the sun and the heat generated. The west sun is lower and later in the day when it's hotter.

South sun is much higher in the sky in the summer so overhangs will protect you from the hot sun.

My husband and I talked and there is quite a bit of timber there that we can landscape and keep to block incoming glare from the west, but remove enough of the brush to get a nice view out.

It won't block it out enough.

Did your architect come out to the property to figure out with you what would be the best orientation and view for your house? Did he/she walk it with you?

Did he/she sit down with you and work out the basics with paper and pencil, not a computer program to give you an idea of what he/she and you were all thinking?

Honestly, your elevation doesn't feel anything like your inspiration which happens to be beautiful. Actually it's gorgeous. I could be very happy in your inspiration!

You're on 200 acres. I think you can do so much better than what you're starting with.

Thank you so much Lily'smom!!! I have seriously been sitting here all afternoon fretting and rethinking everything we have done up to this point! I am a very very clean (OCD) person so I'm not too worried about my laundry area being tidy. I'd feel more comfortable with guests from the house walking through that area than guests from my studio walking into the house to get to a bathroom. Yes - the small bath will act as a guest as well as office client bath. And I reconfigured the boy's bathroom as a second guest bath opening into the hallway. See picture:

The more I thought about having my bedroom open to the kitchen - I actually like this. I hate that my bedroom and bathroom is so far away in our current home. It feels like I walk about 10 miles a day back and forth just for random items.

But - I am going to talk to him about the hallway needed like lakeerieamber posted. I feel like the kitchen right there will become a huge bottleneck for traffic coming in/out. It will interfere with the work zones! The architect is currently working on configuring the pantry a little to make use of the space under the stairs. But, when I bring up needing a walkway - I'm not sure what will happen.

The lot/space right now is FULL of nice mature trees. My husband owns a bulldozer and does clearing so we have left it alone for the most part. It can be as wooded or cleared as much as we want. However, we are talking about orientating the house more as others have said while still making use of the view as much as possible.

I really appreciate everyone's insight. I'm stressing here!!!

Why would you put a closet on the outside wall blocking a second window in your daughter's bedroom? Ideally you want light coming into every room from 2 directions.

The more I thought about having my bedroom open to the kitchen - I actually like this. I hate that my bedroom and bathroom is so far away in our current home. It feels like I walk about 10 miles a day back and forth just for random items.

The problem isn't that your bedroom is near the kitchen. It's that it's cutting right through your working area of the kitchen as is your path to the laundry room and guest bath.

I really appreciate everyone's insight. I'm stressing here!!!

I started my journey designing my house in March 2015. If I had gone with one of our earlier iterations, we would have had an awful house that we would have wound up hating. Not only did it look ugly, but it didn't function quite as well as we wanted. In fact we went to permitting back in January, but some things were still niggling at us, so we stopped the permitting process and reassessed. We bought a bit more land (we're on a narrow city lot with restrictions on how much of the land can be covered by the house) so it solved some of our problems

We've now been back in permitting for 2 weeks. With luck we'll start building by August of this year a full year and 5 months after we started designing our home. If you want, I can link you to my full saga.

I realize how frustrating it is to come here and think you have it and then to have it all shot down. However what I've found is that when it's right, folks will be patting you on the back congratulating you.

As Architectrunnerguy says, you're investing 6 figures of your hard earned money to build your dream home. There are no do overs with it and it's a heck of a lot cheaper to make mistakes on paper, than to make mistakes you'll have to live with.

Look at it as a process and each step of the way as a learning process leading you to a better outcome. Don't rush the process.

One of the things I like to do when looking at a house is checking the pathways for different activities. I just did that with yours.

The red is to bring in groceries from the garage. That works very well. (Except you do have the garage out in front which takes away from the exterior of the house)

Next I did the green which signifies the laundry. From your bedroom the laundry is a short walk and very convenient. However look at the path to get the laundry from the children's rooms to the laundry area.

Lastly I plotted in green the distance you'd have to go if one of the children get ill in the middle of the night. That's in blue. While I agree the split floor plan is a good plan, I would also like to suggest figuring out a way to make it a more direct line from your bedroom to the kids bedroom so in the middle of the night for example, you're not running an obstacle course.

You have so much acreage. Maybe instead of building a second floor and wasting so much space on that staircase, you'd be better off building a flex/media room and workout room off of the kids wing somewhere.

I like it. I'm not a plan guru but I think it's a really nice family home. Great kitchen. Lots to like about this house.

i would keep the mudroom door. Your mudroom is plenty big and I like the door. Great way to let out the dog or let in the kids. Especially with 200 acres.

Where will you put overnight guests? Can the upstairs double as guest space?

i wish the outside looked more like your inspiration picture.

as a photographer, will your clients change clothes in the bathroom? Ie: bridal shoot, senior pics, etc. Bridal portraits may make a comeback, lol. With a photography studio that large a dressing room would be really nice. I know lots of clients want pics "out in nature" but I would plan for the contingency with a studio that nice. Are those overhead doors into your studio?

I didn't read through all the comments but saw one about coat closet - do you really need that if you have a mudroom?

I don't love the placement of the dining room in the middle like that. We have that right now and it drives me nuts. We have really nice dining room furniture but it just feels like a hallway, and we have to walk around the furniture.

In the master bathroom, can you put one of the vanities on the opposite wall? Might make it less crammed for two people to use.

Your front porch also seems really large. You have such a large back entertaining space, do you need to make the front so huge? You could gain more interior space, is what I was thinking.

If your studio is going to be heated / cooled / conditioned space, those glass garage doors look GREAT - but it will be a BEAR to 1) seal them and 2) heat and cool that space as their R values are pretty terrible and usually the glass is not good at managing the heat. And if that rear door faces west - it will be unbearably hot in there.

Don't get me wrong - I totally love that look - but you will hate it if that door faces west. And I have no clue how your HVAC contractor would design a system to carry that kind of load in the summer.

Siting your house is critical - I am concerned your architect isn't taking all this into consideration when designing the windows, and overhangs. Our architect did essentially a solar study, and then we designed our front overhangs so that the sun STARTS to come into the house on the autumnal equinox, and leaves the house on the vernal.... yes - the very day.

If you live in the country...you want to see the view! : )

If you live in the country...you want to see the view! : )

Absolutely but not to the detriment of heating/cooling especially in OK where summers are extremely hot. In the PNW where you live, you don't get the extreme heat that they do in OK.

Where in Oklahoma is your property? And where is your architect?

We are about 30 minutes east of Tulsa. Architect is out of Tulsa.

Revised plans are in! I went to the Tulsa Parade of Homes and with all of your advice - we completely changed a lot of things. I am so excited about the revision. I would love your perspective as well. I think we addressed the main concern... the huge bottleneck at the kitchen. I love this version much better. (Please forgive the crude pool drawing I added.)

Last minute - we have been talking about adding the pool - that is why we are going to add a small pool bath/shower off the back just to keep wet kids from streaking through the entire house!

My thoughts are going to focus on the entertaining / outdoor area.

#1 - like the idea of an easily accessible outdoor bath if you are going to have a pool.

#2 - With the large covered entertaining space - would you consider some more / different ways to get out there? Maybe a nano wall? or some large sliders in dining / great room? Feel like the door set up in the dining room is less than optimal and will create a pinch point

#3 - do you really want the only access to the screened porch through your bedroom? In my part of the world - it's a great entertaining space and bug control - place for an outdoor TV, etc. If you just want it for yourself that's fine - but I kinda feel like if a screen is good / necessary, why not use it other places?

overall I like the layout - love the big pantry. get feedback and kitchen details in kitchen forum before you finalize. Love that second entrance to your closet to put away clothes. Like how you use interior spaces to buffer your master. I think it's a pretty cool design.

That is not a farm house, it's a plantation!.. lol

Beautiful design.

R

Thanks jannicone for your feedback!

We have considered having more 'farm style' doors to connect to the back through the living area. But, I don't know if I want to give up the LARGE/TALL windows that are in the plan currently. Let me mull that one over a little bit. I would LOVE the idea of a nano door, but in Oklahoma where bugs and heat are a huge problem in the summer - I don't think it would be the best option, unless we screened that whole section together - which I'm not completely against because I hate mosquitoes!

I ultimately want the screened porch to tie into the covered entertaining somehow that's not drawn into the plan currently... probably have an access door off the side onto the patio. I figured I would talk to the builder as the time came for that to come together. All of the entertaining off of the back will flow together but I haven't given that a ton of attention yet. The house floor plan has been driving me nuts until this latest revision. I feel like he cleaned up everything and brought it all together!

Depending on how large / tall those are - there are some absolutely amazing huge sliders, etc - that really make a statement!

And I am totally with you on the bugs. Using some good fans and then screening that back area would be nice. I've seen the screens that drop down from the soffits that are motorized, but I'd rather just have them fixed. However, if they cut down on light, it might be helpful.

Congrats - you are definitely getting there.

Looks like some great improvements! You may consider putting a window in both of the kids bathrooms over the tubs to bring in some natural light.

jaimeeap I actually thought the exact same thing!! :) I'm getting there on learning design. Ha! I feel like I've spent a fortune in design and construction minded books. I hope it pays off!

^^^ I think it's already paying off!

Overall, it's so much better. I'm wondering if there's a better way to get the small bath by the pool to be so it can be indoor/outdoor but right now I'm too tired to play with it.

It also looks like boy 1's bedroom is larger than the other two?

Lastly, the powder room under the stair is a problem because you'll see it from your dining room whenever someone (usually a kid) forgets to close the door.

Overall, I think you're almost there but nothing major like before.

Looks great. Is the Gym/Media over the Garage/Mudroom? You might want to switch the Gym so it is completely over the garage as those machines or weights or jumping around make a lot of noise so you want it as far from the living areas as possible.

cpartist said: Lastly, the powder room under the stair is a problem because you'll see it from your dining room whenever someone (usually a kid) forgets to close the door.

One easy fix for that is to swap the powder room with the closet that part of the mudroom and then the door for the powder room is not in line of sight and you have a coat closet closer to the front door. You might could eek out 2 closets (hall coat, and mudroom coat) in addition to the powder.

I'd think your porch there is large enough to split between covered and screened (and ditch the one off the master). I'd put the screened portion off the living room and the open portion by the kitchen so you could easily go in and out and grill. Love your elevation too.

Completely amateur but with a pool you will probably use an outside space frequently so it would be great to tie it in. Just a couple thoughts: First one keeps it all the same depth. Second one integrates your screen porch off of the master and wraps it around with dual access. Not sure which direction your house faces and what it does to passive solar.

Oh if you are facing east then you'd welcome the covered porch and screen porch to shade your house from the intense sun but will it be too hot to sit outside?

We are going to orientate the house where the front faces more southwest, the back will be more northeast to avoid the harsh sun in the afternoons.

Here's one change I would do with the elevation.

You basically have a farmhouse look but with some things that don't really work with it.

1. the columns on either side of the porch stairs are more in keeping with a craftsman house, but none of the other columns read craftsman

2. The gable detail over the front door again reads craftsman but nothing else says craftsman on the house.

3. The stone work on the front bump outs, only seem to cut the house and distract the eye. I would keep the stonework only on the bottom.I switched out the columns on either side of the stairs, removed the craftsman gable detail and lowered the stonework.

Additionally, I made the window in the garage match the window in your daughter's bedroom. I think now it feels more like your inspiration.

One thing that bothers me is the kids have windows on only one wall. That means not a lot of light during the day and not a lot of cross ventilation for those days and nights that heating/cooling are not needed.

I would love to figure out a way to get the bathroom off the corner of the girls room so she could take advantage of being on the corner and the same with boy's room 2 with maybe moving the outdoor bath somewhere else. I do agree with you that you should have a place to rinse off, etc.

I did make two changes on your master side of the house. Basically just moving the closet doors around. Especially instead of from your closet to your utility room, changing it from your closet to your hallway right near the door to the utility room. It's still close enough to carry your laundry there, but the advantage now is if you need to run to your closet to get something you forgot, it's an easier in and out than running an obstacle course through your utility closet.

Additionally I changed the door from your bathroom into the closet to put the door towards the end of the closet. I did this because corners in closets are wasted space so put the doors there instead. The only reason I didn't do it to the main hallway from your closet is you have to balance the corner closet space with the idea of looking down your long hallway and seeing a doorway instead of a nice vignette.

And it's the corner issue why I moved the door into the pantry too.