There's lot of rooms!

First random thoughts (mostly on first floor)...

• Your mudroom could house a family looking for a "tiny house" - it may be overkill even with all your cupboards, etc.
• I'd consider making that downstairs bath adjoining the sewing room ADA compliant "just in case" / future proofing
• I totally get your open pantry (I am building mine that way and working on having something "out of the way) for bread making / dough rising etc) and your desire for a main floor laundry.
• Have you thought about combining the laundry / office? so many are doing cute things with laundry rooms / craft rooms these days that it might be nice to make to one larger room that offers more flexibility (and more light) Although it's possible that I have just looked at too many Houzz photos of staged laundries and there's no one that really lives like that... LOL
• not sure i get why you have doors to the living and dining rooms from the foyer - think it's gonna make that look like a bit of a maze there. I would enlarge those openings and not have doors
• It's a long walk to pantry from the garage - flour gets heavy. ;-)
• It's impossible (for me) to see the dimensions - so it's hard to provide any "size" feedback other than relative

Congratulations, it's very nice! Lots to like. Hope you are enjoying the process.

I will pick at the exterior door that is between the kitchen and the dining room and not fully in either one. You might consider putting it in the kitchen opposite the mudroom door. (Might you want another from the pantry?)

Personally I would probably switch the locations of toilet room and shower in the master bath. Then you can use the end wall for towels. (But I'm not on 5 acres so maybe if you're getting in the shower you wouldn't close the curtains/blinds. Or maybe it is a small high window? And I am slightly claustrophobic so I'd prefer no door or a glazed door on a toilet room.)

Might you want a door from the sewing room to the mudroom?

Are you planning a fireplace? (We built without an interior fireplace, but I don't see many layouts posted here without, so just curious.)

Good luck!

I would try to work in a laundry shoot!! That would make the downstairs laundry perfect! :) We built our house to have all the things we need on the 1st floor, which you have also done with the sewing room being able to be a master. I think you'll love it. I would also agree with making the bathroom ADA just so you have one bathroom on the 1st floor with those capabilities. Even if you don't wind up in a wheelchair or a walker, someone in your extended family could and it makes it so much easier to have family events at your home!

Good luck!!

Not bad at all, considering your peculiar requirements.

The only things that jump out at me are:

* the lack of windows in the kitchen. Blocking off virtually a whole outside wall with shelving seems a sin since you have wonderful prairie views in every direction. Red Deer? I built a house a couple of years ago with a similar plan where the owners put in a pantry and servery between the kitchen and dining room. Like you, they liked individual rooms.

* same oversight in the master bedroom. Take advantage of the vistas! (Spoken like someone who lived for years in a NYC apartment whose only "view" was 60 feet across the street to an identical apartment building!)

* the oversized mudroom; we had four kids and made do fine with rooms half the size in homes up to 4,400 sf.;

* the office, which you could merge with the sitting room to create a more usable space;

* the wall at the end of the foyer blocking a direct view of the staircase. (I take it that Feng Sui isn't a consideration.)

* the equality of master bedroom closets--even though I have built homes that way for others. (But, then, you do have a basement.)

I do sewing/quilting as well, and the house that we built includes my woman cave. It's my office, library and sewing/quilting room. I love it. Your sewing room does not have much natural light, with the only two windows being under the porch. Will that matter to you?

Nice house!

A few things. Your sewing room is very important and my guess is you spend a lot of time there. Might there be a more direct route from your sewing room to the laundry room? I'm thinking especially with the idea of using irons too?

Agree about the mudroom being huge, but then again, I'm not in a wet, snowy area.

As Janni mentioned, the biggest negative to me is the distance from garage to the kitchen. Ideally the kitchen should be closer to the garage for shlepping large bags. Is there anyway to flip the house so the kitchen is closer?

Here's it both ways to give a rough idea. First with the house flipped so the kitchen is close to the garage.

Obviously either idea would need work, including the fact I'd probably bring the garage closer to the front and then enter the house not at the pantry but between the kitchen and dining room.

Another thought. I hate the idea that the pantry is taking up the rear area where you could have lots of windows. Have you considered putting the pantry between the dining room and the kitchen and making the pantry a combo pantry/butler's pantry so that this way your kitchen would be flooded with more light? If you flip the house, then you'd be able to have an entry out to the back yard that faces north and east.

I'm wondering if the closet in bedroom 4 is really large enough for a walk in closet. I don't see any linen closets. I would turn the closet into your bathroom and make it a linen closet and the create a reach in closet in bedroom 4 since bedroom 4 is definitely large enough.

I don't see the reason for a second sink in the kitchen next to the fridge. If anything

I'd put a prep sink on the island if you want a second one. In fact, if you decide not to redo any of the house, I'd have the kitchen forum look at your kitchen. I do think it could be better laid out.

Edited to add, I agree with worthy about bringing in as much light as possible. And I see worthy and I were of the same mind about the pantry and kitchen.

Also agree that in a crafts/art room, I'd want more natural light.

I think the kitchen, dining, living should be near the play center, fire pit, garden. That would be more important to me than walking a few extra steps from the garage. The kids can help carry groceries in ;-)

Ordinarily I would want more windows on rear but that is north in Canada, so ???

That would be more important to me than walking a few extra steps from the garage.

Normally would agree with you if it was only a few extra steps. But I did a rough estimate from the garage to the fridge. By my estimate from the garage to the fridge is at least 50' long if not more.

cpartist you would really dislike our house, our garage probably is 75ft(?) from the fridge :-)

Well actually I'm in an apartment building now and it's a heck of a lot longer than 75' for my walk from the car, and yes I hate it although it does help with arm strength. :)

Ordinarily I would want more windows on rear but that is north in Canada, so ???

As a revered American president once said, "a tree is a tree, how many more do you need to look at?"

worthy, OMG! Just OMG. LOL.

You have a lot of small rooms here, and too much circulation space. Ideally you want circulation to be 5% or less of total area.

Think "functions," not rooms. For example, the laundry ought to go in the mudroom, and a bathrom with shower, not a little sink. Why? You come in from the outside, your boots are muddy or snowy, also your clothes may be wet. So you have to get them off, clean yourself up, the kids, maybe a dog. You want more than a little sink. You want a washer and drier so grass stains and toddler goop don't set. You want a big floor pan/shower pan with a hose so you can clean everyone up, and leave all the boots in the pan to dry. Someone is likely to want to use a toilet, so there it is. Dry towels are right there, possibly also slippers and something dry to wear.

Now you have a fully functional mudroom that takes care of the things you need to do, without having to roam through the house. You also have a fighting chance of releasing clean(er) kids into the wild, before they destroy the upholstery.

The rest of the thought process goes the same way: function, not rooms.

Does something like this works bit better for your everyday life? Your entry hallway is too narrow at 3'7", so I aligned the bath wall to the sitting wall to widen the hall.

If you do not need a door from sewing to laundry, you can have more cabinets on that wall. Mud can have a door at the end of the office.

RE elevation, I suggest a double window above the living room.

Wow! Thank you all for the great feedback, there's lots to digest. I'd like to mention and discuss each item mentioned, but here are a few that stood out.

Some mentioned the large mudroom. I had it smaller, but my husband, the builder, and a couple other friends said it needed to be bigger, so I made it two feet wider. I like the idea of adding a small bathroom in this area, I'll have to think about that...

I agree that the pantry/kitchen are a ways from the garage. I would say that in our two year journey to come up with a plan, this has been our biggest challenge. Because we don't have a traditional front and back yard, but rather a front and side yard, the garage has to be on the west side, and the main living areas 'need' to face east. I guess I've been stuck on having my kitchen window face the kids play area, which is East. Thanks for the mockups though, it's so good to see a fresh perspective that I hadn't considered.

Lack of light in the sewing room... Very good point. I've never had a covered front porch, so don't know how much light it will block. Since it is facing South, I was actually worrying more that the porch would not be shaded and therefore not useable in summer. I had not thought so much about it blocking light to my sewing room. I think I may add that window facing west!

Naf_Naf, I quite like how you moved the laundry room. A great option to think about, as it would be so handy for pressing my husbands shirts, etc... About the window suggestion, were you meaning the second floor bedroom window should be the same as the living room? It's great to hear feedback on the exterior as well.

Why is the ridge of the main roof so high? Is there a third story? It would be easier to understand the elevations if the roof shingles were not shown and the other sides of the house were revealed.

Its difficult to read the plans but the little dormer on the left seems to be the only window in that bedroom. In general the window ere seem small for the room sizes. And putting windows so close to corners looks odd and might prevent the installation of curtains.

The scale of the drawings is difficult to see since there is no furniture and the dimensions are too small to read. I'm puzzled why an architect would so carefully render every roof shingle yet not show people or furniture for a scale reference.

I find it difficult to discuss the use of rooms and door placement until I can understand the concept of the house. Is your architect not going to provide a 3D drawing?

Here is the East elevation. He uses a third party to make us a 3d rendering, which we have not seen yet for this plan.

The main roof being so high is my concern as well. I think the reason for this is that the depth is 36' on this roof, and with a 10/12 pitch, it just gets that high.

There is a window missing from the back leanto, which is my pantry.

Interesting your comment about windows being too small. On the drawing it may seem that way, but is that really the case? I guess huge walls of windows don't seem to fit the old farmhouse look I'm trying to achieve.

Also, I really wanted all the second floor ceilings to be 5' kneewalls, which would have brought the roof line lower. According to my architect, this was not possible, so the portion of the roof with dormers is a 6' kneewall, and the rest is a regular 8' ceiling.

This is my drawing that I originally sent him, showing it with a kneewall.

I'm also going to try and make the plans larger so the dimensions are easier to read.

The original design is nice. I like the 10 in 12 roof pitch but there must be a way to avoid the high ridge. Get that 3D drawing ASAP. It can be simple shapes not fully rendered.

Farmhouses were not big square buildings because the rafter length were not available or too expensive. The house looks more like a barn converted into a farm house. I would try to pull the roof elements apart and reduce the central mass. Or just reduce the slope of the high roof and see how it looks in 3D.

Here's a couple still shots of the 3d rendering. Now that I see it in 3d, I'm not as concerned, as I think it looks all right. Just not sure how it will translate in real life. I really don't want a huge imposing hulk of a house!

From ground to top of tallest point is 33'. Is that a normalish height for a two storey house?

That's pretty tall. My front wall is 18' and I feel like it's HUGE - you are almost double that.

On my 2 story house it's 27'9". My first floor is 10' ceilings and second floor is 9' ceilings and my roof pitch is 5/12, so I don't think yours is too high

Your south-facing porch will be mostly shaded in summer - the sun is much higher in the sky then, especially in Canada (I'm in North Dakota, I know what the sun position is like here). Our LR window faces SW, and in the summer, we get very little direct sunlight. In the winter, when the sun is low in the sky, the sunlight reaches halfway into the room - just what we need, when the days are so short!

Elevation: The hyphen is really being dwarfed by the two larger masses. Would you consider reorienting the garage ridge the other way? Then the gable over the garage would be facing front/rear, giving the hyphen more breathing space.

Casey

Whether you go with something like Naf suggested or like your original, consider flipping the full bath and walk in closet. The bath could open to the mudroom (or hall across from the laundry). That way it wouldn't be in view from your gathering spaces and right off your front entry.