Get rid of the TV.

I love prairie style and this one looks to be an excellent version of prairie style. I hope your interior will mirror the style somewhat too?

I know you insist on the front facing garage. No comment. LOL.

Agree that if you're aging in place, you probably want the W/D closer to where most of the laundry is generated.

I like the porch as is, and think that if you "bring it forward" it might ruin the lines of the house although maybe Doug has a good solution.

I assume when you say you want to rotate the bed, it's to the side where the door entering the bedroom is? If so, I agree.

I don't dare comment on swapping the kitchen and dining room. I only have to make a mistake like that one time. ;)

Is there a need for a powder room for guests to use and/or for someone to wash up after working in the garage?

I must admit, I have a strong preference for ARG's preliminary design. :-) He also did very well, with the second attempt, given the design constraints.

Hope you add more windows on the left side of the house!!!

I have a crazy hatred for laundry closets, and I'd rather walk all the way across the house for a real laundry room, than have a laundry closet. Perhaps totally irrational, lol. BUT I have a boatload of kiddos... If I had an empty nest (not looking likely for me personally, but that's okay!), it probably wouldn't bother me as much to have a closet.

I like the idea of making the secondary bathroom full width, so you can add a window.

Fully understanding that most folks prefer a dining room in front of the house, I actually really like the idea of a kitchen in front. And my husband likes looking out onto the backyard from the dining table... Much more relaxing than gazing out the front and seeing the house across the street. :-) (My family has more introverts than extroverts -- as well as quite a few nonverbal people -- so mealtimes are a bit on the quiet side, lol.)

Hey Beth.... Nice write-up. And for the folks here, Beth and her DH first thought of coming down here to Annapolis from Ohio for a "face to face" but we figured to try a remote first as we could always go the "face to face" route later at any time so I'm glad it went well.

They're big on books and have a very large library so that's why all the shelving with the rolling ladder (which to be honest, I thought was pretty cool.....OUCH.....I just threw my arm out patting myself on the back!!).

Mark has a good point about the TV. Maybe we just don't have one, prewire for a possible future one if desired, and put more book shelves there.

The garage, sure, I'd like the side load but we don't have it the closest wall to the street. And for the lurkers out there, another factor often overlooked with a large front load garage is to pay attention to the direction most of the arrivals will likely come from. Here, we're fortunate as it's a dead end street but even for most through streets, most folks arriving come from generally one direction (because that's where the larger roads are, neighborhood entrance is, etc.) and the garage can be away from that with the house forward.

Fun project. And fun folks to work with!

Nice work. When the kids are gone you will watch TV to replace the chaos. At least put one in the MBR.

Garage feedback

Depending on what kind of car work hubby does, consider walling off his portion from the daily driver area. We used to be "cleaner" car work when we built the existing house. After moving from show and shine to race cars, that went to hell, and instead of some waxing / polishing, we were tearing out fuel cells and changing differential fluid. Keeping that mess and SMELL separate, as well as having more ventilation will be helpful. It might even save you some steel / engineered lumber. Also - assuming you want a lift - consider beefing up the concrete in the shop area. I would go for a 2 post lift instead of a 4 if you are working a lot, or - getting the jack attachments for the 4 post to get the car up by the frame and not the wheels. Planning ahead of a 2 post (even if you don't do it immediately) is super cheap in the building stage.

I also agree about having a bath either IN the garage / shop or VERY NEAR the shop. You won't want someone potentially that grubby traipsing through your entire house to pee.

Love your recycling area - we have the same. Those damn rolling bins only keep betting bigger as the frequency of pickup decreases.

Love this overall style - you are going to love it!!!!

Just want to say that I love my front-facing kitchen. I've had one a few times, and it is now on my must-have list.

The front-facing garage is handled very well. I wonder...would you like a deeper overhang over the garage doors? It can minimize the appearance of the doors and protect the inside from weather. I can't believe how much snow and rain fall into the garage from the door itself as it opens.

i like how the "virtual hallways" guide you through the living areas without having to dodge furniture and islands, and proper hallways transition you to the private rooms.

I love it. I would put a couple of windows in the laundry room.

Love the house, well done. Remote plan design do work well, we thoroughly enjoyed the process. Do you have a draftsman to do the construction drawings? That will be our next challenge.

Wow! Thanks for everyone's comments--I'm enjoying read them and my mind is swirling!

Windows: Since we're still working on a draft of a conceptual diagram, the windows aren't all in place yet. I don't think ARG will make us sit in the dark :-). Until we have configuration for the utility/mud room, it doesn't make sense to figure out where the windows are going to go!

Laundry: Since it's just the two of us (and we each do our own laundry), a convenient laundry closet will work for us. I currently don't sort or fold in the laundry room--I do it in the bedroom and put the clothes away as I fold. I don't have any objections to laundry rooms--but I'm willing to not have one to keep the laundry convenient.

TV: We currently only have one TV and it's in the basement rec room. It doesn't get much use with the kids all gone. So, we're turning this one around in our heads--would we perhaps watch more movies and such if the TV is in the living room? Would that be desirable? Would we host more movie watching parties? (Those are fun) Our youngest is in her last year of college, so we've been mostly empty nesters for 4 years--and still don't watch TV. We're definitely not putting one in the MBR although we'll probably wire for it.

Half bath near the garage: I'm mulling on this one. We definitely need at least a utility sink in the mud room--we don't necessarily need one by the laundry but I don't want DH bringing things into my kitchen from the garage :-). If we put a powder room by the garage, we don't need one near the bedrooms. I don't like people going through the utility area to get to a bathroom, though--even organized utility rooms are the most cluttered room in the house.

Moving the house forward: Moving the front of the house to increase house size and decrease porch depth a couple of feet won't affect the roof line. (It was ARG's idea)

Kitchen/dining room swap: I realized that in every house I've owned, the kitchen had to be 'discovered' as you walk through the house. This one won't be like that, but I still don't want people to enter right at the point of seeing the cleanup sink. If the kitchen is in the back, then I can use a partially raised island to hide the work areas. I'm not sure how that's going to affect the connection to the utility room and garage though.

Not surprisingly, we're growing above 2500 sqft.....

Kitchen swap: because of how the door opens, and the house will lead people straight back, not to the right towards the cleanup, you should be okay. And with a couple of stellar pendants and a bottle of wine on the island, you can distract them if their eyes do wander that way! You might do a raised edge on the island on the left side anyway, to separate it a bit more.

TV: it's all in how you live. Our TV is in the LR, we watch occasional movies and shows. And if we have company and there is some kind of "event" on TV, we can have it on, maybe at low volume, to keep track of the goings-on. We also have a small one in the kitchen for news while making meals. I'd say, build the space and outlets for it, decide later. You may just want to be able to plug the computer in to it as a big monitor for watching video, streaming, or something.

Re the MBath tub vs. two person shower. We have both in our MBA and also direct access to the hot tub from the Mbath, so its not an either/or, however, I can count on 1 hand the number of times we've used the bathtub in the last 3 years vs. the hot tub a couple of times a week. It takes much less time to heat up the hot tub than to fill the (large) bathroom tub (we keep the hot tub and pool heated because I swim 3-4 times a week, so the hot tub is usually heating from warm). Also, I'm in TX, so I'm sure the viability of using a hot tub year round is different than in Ohio. If you decided to forgo the tub, would you move the shower over to that side of the bathroom? Make a longer vanity area? Or perhaps separate vanities along that wall?

We don't think we'd ever use a tub in the master bathroom--but we use our hot tub several night a week, all winter long (not so much in the summer). We'll use it down to about 20-25 degrees outside--below that, it's just a bit too frosty. We keep it at 103 so it's always ready. I've taken 0 baths in 10 years in the bathtubs in the house.

We would definitely do some rearranging in that corner. I'd like to figure out if more storage space is possible (closet and vanity). I'm not willing to give up floor space to a tub!

We're going to have the TV talk--I spent some time looking at hidden TV options but not sure I care enough to do that. My son asked me how often we watched the TV--and it's <much> less than once a month. DH and I haven't watched it since the last game of the World Series. Perhaps we'll put down some carpet in the basement, even unfinished, so there's a place there to put the entertainment system/sectional/TV for the rare occasions we want it. Someday (if/when there are grandchildren), we'll want some of the basement finished, but it probably won't happen right away. There are some cool hide the TV pieces of furniture, though, where the TV lifts up.

Beth, my mother never watched tv until she hit 70 and then she became a news junkie as well as comedies. How about the area where Doug has the tv making the shelving below have a pop up tv for those rare occasions, and then use the wall for shelves for books.

Here's our story about our architect-designed house that, like yours, has access to the hot tub from the bedroom. My husband uses the hot tub every night, due to back problems (I use it once in a while). Despite the door from our bedroom, we always use the "main" door to our back deck and hot tub, because we get changed, put on swimsuits, then head to the kitchen for some type of drink to take with us out to the hot tub. We could do that in reverse order, and exit through the bedroom, but we never do.

Just goes to show, no matter how much you think things through, and consider how you use a space, it may end up being a little different from the initial idea.

From a guy's perspective, a house should be designed around the garage--and this one has a really great one. I love the shop area. Put a TV and beverage center in this garage and a guy could live there for days at a time...which makes the half bath near the garage discussion especially relevant.

Another great ARG design.

Charless Ross Homes--I like my husband. I don't want him to live in the garage. I'm keeping the beverages in the house so he has to come inside to get them :-).

Beth -I like my husband. I don't want him to live in the garage. I'm keeping the beverages in the house so he has to come inside to get them :-).

Awe how sweet...(:

I’ve been following your houseplan threads as we are also working
with ARG and I love seeing the evolution of other people’s plans. Congratulations on reaching a preliminary plan--and a fantastic one at that! I must say one of the things I've been most impressed about with Doug (besides his obvious skill) is his openness to posting plans on the forum. It’s a rare architect
who has enough humility and confidence to handle scrutiny with grace and to
not only tolerate, but welcome, constructive suggestions! So here are my two cents to the items you're deliberating over:

-Bedroom: I wouldn’t rotate the bed (keeps line of sight towards your huge windows, not your closet) but I would increase the dimension from 12 to 14’ feet—that will
give you the perfect amount of breathing room on either side of the bed.

-I’d prefer access to the spa from the bathroom.

-Laundry: I’d either
put in the game closet location or (my preference) in your master closet
(enlarge it)— it’s so easy to undress and throw clothes in the bins right there, and
when you launder, you take them right out of the dryer and into your closet
shelves/hangers—no carting any laundry around! I have a sis-n-law with four W/D
(yes 4—she has ten kids) in her house and the one she uses hands-down the most
is the set in her master closet.

-I’m a sucker for front porches that are deep enough to be
functional (furniture wise... less than 7' deep gets tough)—huge for resale.

-I’d choose a huge walk-in shower over tub & medium-size
shower ANY DAY (I take a bath about 4
times a year, so give me a rockstar shower for the other 361 days of the year!)

-A kitchen on the back feels more intuitive to
me, and I like the shortest route possible from garage to kitchen when carting
in groceries. And if it’s on the back, you have more flexibility to configure
a walk-in pantry out of the utility area (I am a kitchen and pantry hog
though….so pantry space may not be as big a priority to you). That said,
putting it on the front, hides it from view at the entryway. Tough call.
Either way, I love that you have a great view out both the front and
back of the house from your kitchen!

Hooray for such a well thought-out plan. My favorite parts are the two studies that communicate with each other and your huge family room—17x23 is my dream size (even love the furniture configuration sketched in! Love the dining window seat too!

Kawerkamp. Said "I 've been most impressed about with Doug (besides his obvious skill) is his openness to posting plans on the forum. "

Couldn't agree more. Can't wait to see your plan as well. Just curious, where are you located? Cheers

PG, we are in Idaho Falls. We'll be building a home for our little hobby farm on the outskirts of town.

Hi kawerkamp Idaho falls, We know that area very well, as we once lived in meridian Idaho, just on the outskirts of Boise. We loved Idaho it's a beautiful and peaceful state. We enjoyed the outdoor activities, especially camping and Silver city. It's hotel is amazing, built in the 1860's still standing or almost, it's been kept like the day it was built, with little or no structural repairs...hey architects, now there's a project for one and all.! Cheers

Charles Ross Homes - you need to update your 'male manual' - men spend their time in other places in the homestead just as much these days. (Or at least the good ones do! ;) )

Some of us have, shall I say, more "retro" manuals and manage to have great menfolk all the same. :-)

Love this! I would personally keep the kitchen in the front of the house because I'm usually working in the kitchen when people/packages are arriving, and I like to see them approaching. There's rarely any action in the driveway/porch while we are seated at the dining table. We have GORGEOUS views from our dining table, but in all honesty, we're not gazing out those windows while eating, as we're always focused on the food and conversation (and on asking our son to stop rattling his silverware on the furniture, which I had to do AGAIN in the middle of writing this post!)

Like you, I also don't understand the appeal of a hot bath for cleaning purposes -- it never feels clean and I always take a shower afterwards. An outdoor hot tub is on my wish list for "someday." We made sure to design our deck space large enough for a hot tub so we can add one in the future. Your design looks perfect to me! I personally wouldn't have access directly from the master bath -- we debated the same option and decided against it because it added "one more point of entry" for intruders, and one more door to worry "did we lock that?" as we're laying in bed at night! :) vwtyler's point about detouring through the kitchen to grab a cold beverage on the way out to the tub makes sense to me!