Thanks! Yes, we are considering the option to increase the slider door size to blend the inside and outside. However, given our climate, there is only about 4 months of indoor/outdoor time in a given year... So we may not get full value in this type of investment. Thanks for your revision to the plan... Will mull it over with my wife and see what she thinks.

Our great room (living room) is 20x20 and is definitely too small. But I am probably not a good one to give input on this (but I will anyway). I love large rooms with lots of space to maneuver and don’t care for a room that looks and feels like it’s been crammed with lots of furniture because it’s too small. In our space we have seating that can basically fit 6 comfortably (we have a large sofa, 2 club chairs, and one other chair). For just our immediate family though, if we are all gathered together, we would need 10 seats, so we are 4 seats short. Now add to that larger get-togethers, and we are really lacking in seating. Obviously, if you have 40 people over you will not be able to seat everyone, but it’s nice (at the very least) to be able to accommodate your immediate family so that everyone has a place to sit down in the living room. So.....if I had to do it over, I would definitely make our main living space at least 25x25 (and that’s just the living room with no added eating area). With that size, there could even be a small game table spot. I think it’s important to take into account how much seating you feel you need for your family (and guests if you entertain a lot), and then from that point design a room that will easily accommodate the furniture needed to seat your family and friends.....especially if you only have this one room. So, my mentality is to make the room large enough so you’re not squeezed in and to make sure there is ample square footage to accommodate the needed furniture.

Cp, thank you for those photos and again for all your input. Your staircase is beautiful: I think I’ve covered the rest of your questions. bedroom one dimensions are 14’1” x 13’8.5”. Closet is currently 8.5’ by 5’1”. In the kitchen if you're planning on keeping the fridge where it is, I'd put a prep sink on the island. Otherwise move the fridge to the right of the sink. (Although I believe the prep sink is a better option since then the fridge and pantry are next to one another making it easier to put away groceries or take food stuff out when cooking. —I don’t like anything in the island but would consider your suggestion about the other option. I recently set up a cardboard life size layout of the kitchen (because I’m just that nuts I suppose) and felt good about the arrangement that we currently have. But I’m not married to it. The weird jog in the kitchen is unintentional (at least I think!) The change there was in an effort to shave off some square footage and I asked to see the kitchen (and rec room) 1-2 feet narrower. It looks to me like he moved part of the wall, but somehow not all of it. That wall will stay straight whatever dimension we end up with. Don't love the afterthought door out to the backyard from the living room. -I haven’t given much thought to it. For me it could stay or go. Double doors never work as well. First of all they leak air and air leaks in. Secondly where do you put light switches? Better to have a single door with sidelights. -I know there are disadvantages. But there also some pluses- much easier to move big furniture through. Mainly I just like the way they look. I don’t plan on them looking anything like in the rough elevation though- I’m thinking 3/4 glass doors. Clothing can't turn corners in closets. A bedroom closet isn't important enough to need double doors into a walk in closet. -yes....this needs to be fixed When you walk into a house, a bedroom should not be the very first thing you see. -I know this is a big qualm most people would have with this plan. I don’t think it would be the FIRST thing people would notice when opening the front door and I personally don’t mind it there. I can see why most people would. Do you have plans that show how the house sits on the land? That's something any good architect would do from the start. -No, though he did visit the site. The master bedroom suffers from the same problem as bedroom 1. -We’re in Tennessee. We are adding a window to both bedroom one and master because I’m a fan of natural light. It will face west but I don’t think that matter much as we won’t usually be in the bedrooms when the sun would affect us. Again clothes can't turn corners. At the very least have the clothes on the two long walls and have the entrance to the closet (a single door) as you enter the bedroom. I have thought about moving the entrance closer to the bedroom door. I don’t know how I feel about having those close possibly cross paths. Whatever route we go, it won’t be double doors. And if it’s kept on the wall it’s currently on, I was thinking of moving it to the far right so we’d have room on that wall for a piece of furniture. Also again are you ok if your spouse turns on the light in the bathroom in the middle of the night? I’d sleep right through it I’m sure. :) I don’t suspect that would happen; the few times either of us have stumbled to the bathroom (only one bath upstairs at our current house, not a master bath) I do note that we don’t turn the main light on anyway. Too bright. The hidden room is cute but if it were me, I'd rather have an extra closet in the hallway and a window in the bathroom. -I’m committed to the idea of the fort room. I worked and worked to try to figure out a way to have both an exterior bathroom that was not aJack and Jill along with the secret room but couldn’t come up with another solution. Neither could the architect. I’ve thought about doing a solar tube light in the bathroom...but I’m concerned about roof leaks (metal roof). If I could warm up to the idea of Jack and Jill maybe I’d change my mind about this, but I’m stuck on the disadvantages.

I don't understand why the main bathroom terminates in a hallway beside the hallway. If it went all the way out to the main hallway, then it would be useful to the person who would inhabit Bed4. I'm assuming Bed4 is a guest bedroom? Right now, they either have to use the master bathroom or go into the hallway beside the hallway to access the main bathroom if they want to shower. If you extend the main bathroom to the main hallway, it would be accessible to all of Bed 2/3/4 and a bonus would be that the vanity could be a little longer permitting more storage. Your kids are young, but they one day may have makeup and hair gels and other assorted stuff they want to keep seperate from each other. It also gives you more options on where to put the doors and closets in Beds 2 and 3 (presumably, the too would then open to the main hallway instead of the hallway beside the hallway - hallways are a big old waste of space and designs should seek to minimize them if possible IMO). I'm assuming that you want the kitchen at the back so that you can overlook the yard and pool? Do you also have a view and that is why you are trying to keep the livingroom and dining room at the end as well rather than on the side? I don't like wasting outer window walls on pantries especially the versions where you have the long skinny ones. Frankly, I don't like huge pantries unless you live in a remote area and you need to stock up between monthly shopping trips. I know they are very popular and useful and I would fill one if I had one (I tend towards hoarding so I try to limit places to cache my hoard). Do you need a Study? It's in some plans, but not others. Consider making it vestubule of some sort. You could add a closet along the wall it shares with Bed 4 and have a nice bench for people to sit on to put their shoes (or to serve as a landing zone). It would break up the long hallway look that is throwing off so many. Mabye then Bed 4 could be a smidge bigger (unless Bed 4 is for those guests you don't want to have stay too long). I like the activity room off the family room with all the doors. You could either have a bank of french doors or accordian doors or maybe a sliding wall. It's nice to close off when you have company, but close enough that you can keep an eye on the kids with their activities. The Home Theatre next to the kitchen and the master bath in that plan is also one of the better locations for it.