I didn't build it but I like the main floor, especially the side entrance down a coupld steps: that's gotta keep tracked-in stuff contained.

If you aren't planning a basement, you could move the pantry under the stairs, move the sink to the back wall of the kitchen, and move the range further from the fridge.

bpathome - I was wondering the same thing about putting the pantry under the stairs! My concern is that it would be annoying to have to leave the kitchen and walk down the steps into the mudroom every time you need to get something from the pantry...

I am really looking forward to having the mudroom steps as a natural barrier to tracking dirt into the house. My husband is a farmer, so there is plenty that gets tracked in every day!

Are you willing to make any changes to the existing exterior walls? E.g., enlarge the "Family Entry" area to put a Laundry Room in the Family Entry (to the left in the layout in the next post - the layout has been turned 90 degrees to fit the page better)?

Is this for a young couple or growing family, or is it for a retirement home? If retirement, I would not want the Family Entry at a different level than the rest of the floor - it could become difficult to navigate if you have knee problems later in life or if a wheelchair is needed someday. (If a retirement home, then this floorplan would be problematical anyway unless there's an elevator b/c there's no full bathroom on the first floor. The Library could be transformed into a bedroom, but without a full bathroom, but there's no full bathroom.)

Here's a suggestion for your Kitchen (turned 90 degrees):

.

Zone Map with the Family Entry expanded to include a Laundry Room:

Like this overall:

Wow, buehl, thank you! I am looking over your images now. Giving me a lot to think about...

The other option is to put your Laundry Room on the second floor - that's where all the bedrooms are and where most of your laundry comes from/goes to. Similar to what FoD2 has.

I've never seen this home, but I can't imagine not having a basement. Of course, I've lived most of my life in Tornado Alley and I'm a packrat! I just think that a basement is a very useful thing to have.

In looking at the floorpan, there appears to be no powder room - just a toilet off the mudroom (I would think of this as a "children's toilet", not a "guest powder room".

I like that laundry room addition, but looking at the elevations I'm not quite sure how the roofing for it would work. However, if you build out beyond the half-bath and mudroom onto the porch, you could incorporate a laundry, though you'd lose the wraparound porch.

also, you might consider configuring the back hall so you can access the half/bath from the library.

Did you notice there is no storage in the bathrooms?

Anglophilia - in many parts of the country, homes are built on slabs, not basements. Sometimes it's b/c the water table is so close to the surface; sometimes it's b/c the area is rocky. There are other reasons, I'm sure.

Bpathome - I know, I wasn't sure about the roof line(s) either, but I thought I'd throw it out there for consideration - and I was hoping someone could say definitively if it could be done with the current roof. I will be the first to admit that I'm much better at designing Kitchens than designing houses - especially when attempting to design the exterior with the interior. In fact, when it comes time to design our retirement home, I've finally convinced my DH that we need an architect (thanks to the many posts here)! (He thought I could design it w/o help - no way!)

We are currently building this house. We absolutely love how it looks from the outside so we didn't add anything on. We chose to give up part of our Master Bedroom closet for a laundry room. I'm excited to have the laundry upstairs by all of the bedrooms. This freed up space in the mudroom for a row of lockers on one side and a bench and hooks on the other. Enjoy all of your planning for this house. We've been dreaming of building it for years and are SO excited to see it take shape!