I kind of like the exterior. I'm sure someone else will have some good ideas for you.

Good luck with this question. I asked and I'm very sorry I did, this plan looks similar to the one I asked about.

Personally I don't mind how it's shown here, it's not bad at all. The colors are much better than the one I came across. Something as simple as raising it up a bit so there are a few steps to the porch could help.

Exterior could be worse, but I do not like the floor plan. Do you really want to have to carry laundry from 3 bedrooms through the Great Room, Kitchen and DR to get to the laundry room? I wouldn't! Also, carrying groceries in from the garage is cumbersome. I also can't imagine having my MBR off the dining room. DR is VERY small - hope you don't need to seat more than 6 people. Bedrooms are also very tiny.

What would you be using this wasted "Flex Space" for? Seems wasteful and useless.

This is a huge, "fat plan" meaning there will be a large amount of pitched roof visible from the exterior which will be needed to keep the rain out.

Interiors and exteriors are inextricably linked together. What happens with one affects what happens with the other. In other words, if you don't like the exterior, you are going to have to make substantial changes to the interior.

My suggestion is to find a way so that your interior is not more than two rooms deep in order to keep the exterior roof massing and design manageable. An added benefit will be increased natural lighting in all of your interior spaces.

Good luck on your journey--exciting times ahead!

Anglophilia,

We are a retired couple so having the laundry open from our walk-in is ideal.

I look at the Dining Room as a simple and casual breakfast nook. We do not want a formal dining room. Dining room is good size for a casual breakfast room for us with our furniture we will be using.

I guess I view the master bedroom as off the kitchen versus off the dining room. . Yes, bedrooms could be "tiny" by most standards, but many plans around 2500-2600 have smaller ones. These were actually a good size for the square footage.

Flex room will become an office and one of the bedrooms a studio.

What are your thoughts on the exterior?

Remember that the dining room will really be 14x9, because you need the walkway from the bedroom. Will your table and chairs still work for you in that space, with room to get to the table on the back side?

Virgil Carter Fine Arts,

Thank you for the suggestion on two rooms deep. Of course the width of the lot is determining choices of plans as well. When I view the interior, there are at least windows in each of the rooms.

Ideas for the exterior? For instance, the window above the door doesn't necessarily appeal to me and yet, there would be a lot of space without. Any comments on the windows used? Door? We love the use of stone, hardie plank and shingles even.

bpathome,

Yes, presently our furniture works although it would be nice to have wider than 9 foot.

With seating at the bar/island, which is where everyone congregates, I think we will find using the breakfast nook (DR) not too cumbersome for four people. It is definitely a downside, but as I continue to look at plans, I am realizing I have to make priorities....so difficult when working within a budget and square footage. :)

Thank you.

Cpartist, we think so differently. Kids and grandkids, they are our life and soul and I'd never put them up in a hotel if they all came down; we moved 3000 miles across the country, sold some and relocated our businesses at an enormous cost just to be closer to them. Sure it would have cost a lot lot less if I paid for them to travel every month to see us, not that they would, than for the entire move and reestablishing ourselves here. We are living the dream of being close to our kids and grandkids, each 110 miles south and north of us respectively; we married young hence have everything in common with our grown up kids. Took my DW a few weeks to locate the two adjacent/commected brand new town homes we rent, while we wait for our build to commence. Sure there is lots of room for me and my hobbies, just not enough. We fully furnished five of eight bedrooms for the kids and grandkids when they come and we make sure the bedrooms are better equipped than most fine hotels.

That's a lot of rooms to be heating and cooling for a few weeks a year. Frankly, I'd rather take the whole crew on a cruise or to an island for a week's vacation.

There is nothing like having grandchildren come crawl in bed with you in the AM! I want them in MY house - children, too!

Tasha

>Good luck with this question. I asked and I'm very sorry I did, this plan looks

>similar to the one I asked about.

You are lying, I actually went out and redesigned your exterior, see at the bottom.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/4299585/exterior-woes?n=26

Because everyone was saying impossible, the two [exterior and interior] are married to each other, etc. While some of it is true Exterior can be redesigned. It is difficult as "I do not like my exterior" threads never say what is wrong, nor what you want or must have. And to redesign it, I have to spend time and need the dimensions. I redesign yours with the single wall change.

"Anglophilia There is nothing like having grandchildren come crawl in bed with you in the AM! I want them in MY house - children, too!"

Absolutely Agree!! On days/weekends the grandkids are here, my daughter who uses the second master next door, text's us around 7am 'Are you up?' and we say yes and she brings the little 1 yr old in through the common balcony doors while the 5 yr old whose bedroom is next to ours comes in too and both crawl into or onto the bed and we have so much fun; these are priceless moments we cherish and long for. We usually see them at least twice a month or more and facetime several other days; we don't calculate happiness and pricless moments with the kids and grandkids against cost of heating and cooling bills. They live close enough to see us whenever they want yet far enough to miss them when we don't see them as much during winter months and ski season.

That's all well and good Pine a Baron but the majority of us do not have unlimited funds like you seem to have.

It's a cute exterior, just an annoyingly BLAND paint combination. With more emphatic, closer to craftsman period colors it would look better.

I would do one thing for the pantry - have a service hatch between garage and pantry so you can offload groceries directly into the pantry instead of schlepping them down the hall and back to the pantry.

And I wonder about the master closet location. I personally HATE walking through the bathroom to get anywhere - it's a destination, not a through-way.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/painting-a-garage-door-makes-a-big-difference-dsvw-vd~4216172

We are a retired couple so having the laundry open from our walk-in is ideal.

Yeah, the connection between the closet and the laundry is one of the plan's good points.

But I would adjust the doorway so it's farther down ... this allows you a huge linen closet across from the shower (just where you want to store your towels) ... a large vanity for your sink ... and then the door in a more logical spot / a spot that means you can walk through the edge of the room, not to the middle of the room to enter the bathroom. It greatly reduces the "walking through the bathroom to get somewhere problem"; rather, you're just skirting the edge of the bathroom -- much more practical.

Now that I look at it again, I note that -- alternately -- you could more than double the size of the shower by bringing it across the back of the room. Since you're a retired couple, I'd lose that toilet-in-a-closet; you're limiting yourself to the size of a public toilet stall, and if you need a walker or other mobility device, the toilet will be inaccessible to you. Alternately, you could place the toilet in the back of the room (near a window) so it'd be a bit "hidden" by the tub /shower, yet still accessible.

We fully furnished five of eight bedrooms for the kids
and grandkids when they come and we make sure the bedrooms are better
equipped than most fine hotels.

PineBaron, It's not an all-or-nothing proposition. Not many families will fill FIVE guest rooms on any given weekend. It makes sense to me to prepare two nice guest rooms ... and occasionally when more than two rooms are needed, then add in hotel rooms. Let 'em take turns being the ones to have rooms at your house vs. the hotel.

Alternately, consider making one of the rooms more of a "bunk room" -- that lets you fit a whole bunch of people in one room. If you go with double down /single up bunks, you could get a bunch of people in one room, and -- done well -- it could be very appealing to grandchildren.

I can't see keeping FIVE bedrooms "at the ready" all the time. Building, maintenance, heating and cooling, insurance. It's a very expensive proposition.

Incidentally, one of my grandfathers ran a hotel (and lived in a one-bedroom apartment in that hotel). When we stayed with him, each family had a room of its own -- I remember LOVING that, and I still have a bit of the furniture from his hotel today.

mrspete: I agree. What I meant to say is, have as much space or rooms allocated that meets your requirements and if one is able to afford and justify it's use. If someone only expects a single guest or relative then one spare bedroom is enough; someone else may need two or want to bundle all in one room, that's fine too. We just happen to have a need for five spare bedrooms and still run short at times when someone may need to sleep on the sofa or a spare bed, hence maintain five; folks like to visit us. I won't even go into cleaning, it is a pain only because we are both neat freaks. Sure it is somewhat extra to maintain but I do my part.

I won't even go into cleaning, it is a pain only because we are both neat freaks. Sure it is somewhat extra to maintain but I do my part.

Good luck as you get older but then again, it sounds like you can afford to hire help to keep things clean.

lazy_gardens,

I did not see an example of the garage to pantry as you provided in the link.

cpartist

That's all well and good Pine a Baron but the majority of us do not have unlimited funds like you seem to have.

Not true at all!! I'm an extremely bad example to copy, most would be broke if they did. I probably have fewer funds than many here but have no debt, live like there's no tomorrow, work smart and often 15hrs a day, have way too much fun and rely on my experience, knowledge and luck to push through life. Most would say it's a recipe for disaster and I'd wholeheartedly agree however I've miraculously got through this life since childhood. My DW keeps reminding me that luck's going to run out one day; we will see when that day arrives, hopefully I'll be gone by then. :)

Exterior thoughts, assuming you go with your overall design:

Over garage - window that looks like, same size as, one of the small windows over the main body of the house, to tie things together better. (Centered, of course).

Leave upper part of house color the same, but punch up the color on the lower half of the house (under porch and to back right layer of house - going around the house, too.) Something brighter, or complementary.

Curving walkway from drive to front door, with edging of the same material as the lower part of your pillars. Walkway itself probably concrete.

**

Interior thoughts - Mrs. Pete has some great ideas. Don't disregard her master bath advice - separate entry to closet and to the bath. Put that toilet towards the "north" side (as drawn), remove the toilet wall/door setup that will only get in the way as you age and need to have accessibility.

You have space for windows on the right side of three bedrooms. Put them in - cross ventilation, extra light! Nothing says "tract housing" to me more than a lack of windows!

If Bedroom 4 becomes the studio, just have an entry to it's own closet, not to a third bath. This will enable you to cut down on having a third full bath, and you can make Bath 2 larger.

Bring the kitchen to the Kitchen forum - they do wonders over there!

My current dining room is 8.5 x 11, open at the living room end. Makes entertaining more than four people including myself, hellish. (So I wait for warm weather and we eat outside, or set the table up for buffet style and litter ourselves all over the living area, not very convenient.) The only way I manage even this is with a table 35" wide, and I never put the table leaves in. Check your entertaining needs.

Also the flow from the Master out to the main body of the house. I constantly trip over the head chair in my dining area, for instance. Your plan seriously cuts into that 12 feet, the way it is drawn.

I may have missed it, but would you need a coat closet?

The facade is not bad; its just poorly detailed. I would ditch the brick bases on the tapered columns and make them full height. You can buy them already made. Same with the odd windows in the gable pediment. In general, it is a good idea when combining windows to pull them apart 4 to 6 inches so they look more like traditional wood windows. Tall windows are great but a little useless under a porch roof. If you want them tall I suggest doing so without the transoms.

Artemis_ma,

Yes, I think I may have to reconsider breakfast area.

One thought I had about bedroom 3 and 4 was to only have the one entrance (near the front) and make a hallway behind the living room/fireplace. This helps for furniture arrangement in the living room, and yes, I would remove the third bathroom. Would love a half bath somewhere but don't know where.

Thank you for suggestions on the window above the garage. I think the window above the porch bothers me the most. Huge expanse of siding, etc.

Again, thank you.

JDS,

do you mean the columns all brick (or stone which we really like) or make columns all wood? Tapered or not?

It is not only an odd window on the gable pediment, but one I do not like.

Would you clarify what you mean, "general, it is a good idea when combining windows to pul them apart 4 to 6 inches so they look more like traditional wood windows". Also, I think different windows than the tall with transom may be better As well. Any photos of ones that may look good?

IMO tapered columns are quite elegant but putting them on brick pedestals makes them short and inelegant. Here is a full height tapered Craftsman column.

Traditional windows had sash weight pockets so the frames had to be at least 6 inches apart. Modern windows can be pushed together so there is no space between the frames. IMO this looks strange on a traditional house. So does ransom mixing different exterior finishes. Look at old houses if you need inspiration. But not online; go walk through old neighborhoods. If there are none in your area take a road trip. Don't let anyone tell you it is illegal to take a photo of their house. Just stay on public property.