My lot is big enough to build a Walmart . . . and a Target . . . and a Home Depot . . . but with all that, we'd only be able to squeeze in maybe two fast food places! No, we're not short on space. But I like the exterior, though the garage faces forward -- perhaps it's as Autumn says, It's quaint. The exterior looks better in the colored picture -- it's kind of a pale gray, which I like very much. I like that the garage is "set back". I don't like the idea of bringing it forward because it creates kind of a "cave" on the front porch. I agree that the lack of a window in the kitchen is the plan's greatest weakness, but I was thinking that with light coming in from the two windows over the booth, which is in the kitchen, that it would be bright enough. I love the pass-through picture, and I was imagining something similar . . . but between the kitchen and the great room. As for the bathroom door's proximity to the bed, right now I HATE our bathroom's location. It's at the foot of the bed, straight down from my side . . . and the light bothers me. But noise, no, I could sleep through that all night long. As could my husband. I've been paying close attention to where the light will fall though. I still don't know whether I like it "enough".

Everything about kirkhall's plan is better, IMO. The first house: garage is too small, the laundry in the garage entry is very inconvenient, the family room has so many walkways that there's hardly room left for furniture. There is not closet in the foyer, and the master closet has a lot of wasted space. The kitchen is loaded with problems, many centered around the location of the range. The second is better. I don't care for the powder room right next to dining and kitchen; same issues with furniture placement in the family room; only one tiny closet (between kitchen and dining) for coats and shoes for family and guests. The garage placement as shown is terrible, with that sharp corner at the front (next to the breezeway).

I cross-posted this here in Kitchens as well. Please forgive me, I am not sure if this post should be in kitchens or building a home. I cross-posted in both forums. Here is the kitchen plan I had drawn up for my first house plan. I have a large sink looking out to the backyard. Love! It does not line up the house plan perfectly below, since I do not have access to the pantry from the kitchen plan. I was planning on getting rid of the large pantry in that location. Old Plan is below. I love the plan and how it is laid out with the kitchen, dining and living room, but I do not like the long hallway from the entry way to the master bedroom. The front of the house is the right side of the picture with no real curb appeal as we opted for a side entrance vs. a front entrance. The entry area would actually be extended to be more of a welcoming porch so it would stick out from the garage. You can make out a pencil mark where we drew in angle for an entry. We had too many changes so we changed directions to a new plan. See below. Our newest plan, still not perfect. But as you can see, it is an interior wall that has no window at a sink. I have the sink in the island. There are windows in the living room and dining room, but it does not give direct natural light. I am still not totally in love with this plan, but there are parts that I do like. I am trying to like the kitchen, but I haven't been able to commit. I could change the layout so that the island faces into the living room, but then the rest of the space gets 'wonky.' A BIG thank you to all who help with any ideas!

About the house plan: - It's a lovely exterior. Just my style! - If family gatherings are a priority for you, I think you'd want a larger dining room. 13x13 won't hold a very large table. - Still on the subject of dining, do you really need a breakfast table AND island seating in two separate places? - U shaped kitchen don't particularly work well with islands in this configuration; they "trap people" in the U. - I would not place a desk in that spot in the kitchen. Imagine someone's sitting at the desk ... his chair will block the path into the kitchen, annoying everyone else in the family -- plus you have an office just around the corner. What I think you might actually want in the kitchen -- I'd want it a bit more out of sight /towards the entry -- is more of a family control center: A designated place for a calendar and kids' sports and school schedules, a place to stick the tickets to next week's Halloween carnival to a bulletin board, a shelf where phones can sit to charge, a place for sunglasses and car keys. And I want NONE of that in my kitchen. - Do you barbeque often? I'd want a more direct door to the backyard. As it is, you'll have to carry platters of meat around the peninsula, past the breakfast room table, and into the great room to reach the porch ... then you'd have to turn right and navigate the porch furniture to get to the steps on the far end. - Covered porches are wonderful (I have one on my current house and plan one for my next house too!), but 8' isn't wide enough for a porch that'll really be used (though 6', even 5', is enough for a show-only porch, as I suspect your front porch will be). My covered porch is 12' wide x 30' long, and it's perfect: We have the grilling area on one end, a table in the middle, and seating on the far end ... and we can walk straight to the steps without furniture being in the way. - I do not like bay windows under covered porches, but that's personal preference. - Speaking of porches, why do you have a set of steps on the far left of the front porch? It's not near the garage /driveway. - The laundry room is far from ALL the bedrooms. Note that to put away clean clothes in your master closet, you'll have to carry those baskets about 60' (half the length of a football field) and through four doors. Most people on this board seem to prefer the laundry near the bedrooms since that's where people change clothes, and keeping the rooms near one another = fewer steps. If you anticipate a large family, I'd consider a second laundry upstairs; it wouldn't be out of sync with a house this size. I would suggest a laundry chute from the upstairs bath, but the clothes would land in the great room! - I'd flip the washer/dryer to the opposite side of the laundry room. This will allow you to keep water in only ONE wall (and with the refrigerator on that wall, you're probably going to want water for an ice maker). - With the kids' bathroom upstairs, the downstairs powder room will see heavy use. This super-narrow set-up is not comfortable -- remember, you're going to use this room for potty training, which means you'll sit in there for long stretches at a time ... and that door is set up in such a way that you'll have to be in the room with the door closed so you can watch the child ... I guess you'll be sitting on the sink. I'd make this area into a large reach-in pantry and carve out a more comfortable powder room using some of the laundry room space OR some of that storage in the garage. - Since you anticipate a large family, I'd add some organizing items in the garage entryway. The size is already plentiful, but a bench where kids can sit while you put their shoes on /coat hooks /places for bookbags, etc. would be useful. In this same area, I'd add a door to close off the kitchen ... in a house of this size /expense, I wouldn't expect to see the garage door from the living area. - At 24x24, the garage is a rather ideal size. That's a large storage area in the garage -- do you need it, or will it just collect junk? Keep in mind that you have significant storage upstairs over the garage too. - The family room is plenty deep, but it's only 15' wide ... and about 3' of that must be used for walkway, so you actually only have 12' of space for furniture. This doesn't seem to be in keeping with the rest of the house. - How do you plan to use the office /homeschooling room? I'd add a second door into this room over near the master bedroom entrance, and I'd use real doors on both. The rest of the house is open; I'd want this room to have both visual and acoustical privacy. - I'd decrease the master bedroom width. 19' is very wide, even with a king bed, yet you don't have the right set-up for a seating area on one end. The windows in the master bedroom are very nice. - The master bath could be so much nicer! It's an odd shape: as you walk in, the around-the-corner part won't be visible, odd. Consider, too, the pathway necessary to reach the toilet: Through two doors and around a corner. The shower looks small; I think I'd make the current toilet-closet into a shower -- a shower gets daily use, and a large one is a nice luxury. The master closet isn't particularly spacious -- I might use some of that excess bedroom space to enlarge this. - Upstairs, the three bedrooms and bathroom look good, and all that linen storage will be great for kids' sleeping bags, etc. ... but why do you need a rec room AND a family room?