Here are some photos showing finished pocket sliders:

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CPA, tell me in your photo of your pocket door that the deflection "bend"s in the center of the beam above fixed opening and above the door opening are just the parallax distortion of your camera lens, and not distortion of the two beams...:-)

LOL Virgil. They are just the camera distortion. Here's another pic taken

Cpartist, that's a beautiful place you've got there. After being thrilled about the pocket door options, just realized that in our plan, there's no possibility in either side of the walls to place the "pockets". We may just have to bite the bullet and shell out $14,000 for that Nano doors since that space is 14 feet wide. Or just give up that beautiful open wall.

That is a lot of dedicated circulation space (hallway) inside the master bedroom.

The Nana Doors seem to open dining area to a narrow deck area. Any door solution like that is going to cost a lot of money. If it were me I would want to spend the money to have one space open to a grander space to get the bang out of my buck.

Is there a good reason for the bi-level effect?

I like sunken living rooms, but I am glad I didn't have one when I was confined to a wheelchair.

Look closer at the master closet layouts, hanging clothes do not turn corners nicely.

There are some doorway congestion in the master bedroom suite.

Is the dumbwaiter located in its optimal location?

What does the dashed lines represent?

What part of the country will this be built in?

The lot is sloped descending towards to South. The house will be 4250 square feet, and the living room area is towards South. I agree with Mark, the architect, that the hallway in the master bedroom space needs to be readdressed, so my current architect is going to edit it. She's also going to redo the master bed/bath area. We definitely need to do some revisions in the master bed/bath area.

Cpartist, that's a beautiful place you've got there

Thank you.

Here is the space devoted to hallways. (see red)

One thought. With a 3 story house, would you possibly need to consider an elevator for the future? That of course depends on your ages now and how long you intend to live in the house. It doesn't mean you need to put one in now, but plan for it with closets on all floors that could be turned into an elevator in the future.

Also you have lots of levels on even this main floor. I know that would be an immediate no for me if I was looking to buy a house. Just something to think about. I don't mind the 3 levels, but I don't want to be constantly changing levels within each level. Sunken living rooms are nice in theory and make for great architecture, until your guest trips down or up the stair.

The kitchen does need some help in that you have an oven cabinet blocking part of your L shaped counter. Plus you have your completely across from your prep sink. What's the point of a prep sink if you have to constantly be carrying things from the fridge across the whole kitchen? The prep sink should be near the fridge.

I'm glad you are relooking at that master hallway.

Are you sure you want to use Nana doors or something similar to open the space up to the outdoors? I thought I wanted that also so I had two 8 foot wide glass door panels that meet in the middle installed. I thought it would be great to open the whole 16 foot space up. The doors are very heavy, but that is not why I dont open them. It is because of the bugs. Also, in the summer here, you have to keep things closed because of the heat. I have also since discovered that reptiles (and even birds) will take any opportunity they can to come into the house (for water). For these reasons, I do not use the doors at all. Just something to keep in mind.

Can you do an 8 foot slider and an 8 foot fixed panel? Or something similar to below but with a smaller door, so not so heavy. The two 8 foot doors meet behind the credenza:

I love this house, and the suggestions made look very do-able (door, hallway). I will note that sunken rooms make my inner klutz cringe. Your place would be just as wonderful without. (I've been temporarily disabled twice in my tenancy of my current home.)

The kitchen looks good, but it can be worth your while to run it past the folks in the Kitchen Forum.

I wouldn't spend the money on the Nana Wall with this current design. Usually you use that to do a couple things - allow multiple people to pass through at the same time, or open up a room to expand the space (literally or visually). And really - neither one is happening here.

If several people want to enter / exit at the same time, they will bottleneck on the deck walkway / balcony. And you are not enlarging the room to include the deck because it's not directly behind the Nana Wall - it's not like you will have furniture out on the walkway area to make it possible to have conversation between folks inside and outside. Actually if you use the nana, you may find that folks simply hang out on the walkway area and never make it to the deck.

I'd go with a couple decent sized sliders with fixed windows on either side. Or - asymmetrically, one large slider that routes people through the opening closer to the kitchen.

IF you extended the walkway portion of the deck OUT to align with the stairs - THEN it would make sense to use the nana wall. You may want to think about that anyway - because that corner near the kitchen is a pinch point for traffic flow in and out of the house anyway.

Like your deck off the master - but I'd also stick with a slider there. I just hate double doors. ;-) YMMV

In the current configuration - a sliding window set in the kitchen might be cool since that counter is looking like it's set up for a station / passthrough.

Would love to see the rest of the house - it could look very cool as a palm springs modern...

Thank you everyone. I really appreciate it. Mark Bischak, Architect, Najeebah, the house is in the Pacific Northwest, and the garage will be attached. After your thoughtful inputs, and some more research, I've decided to forgo the sunken living room. Unfortunately, it'd be hard to forgo the steps near the entryway due to the level of the floor. We are trying to elevate it as much as possible for the city view. Mark's point about the sharp corners in the closet is noteworthy. So we decided to merge the closet into one instead of the current his/her version. Also, we are considering adding a door that connects the Office to the Master Bedroom. This is purely for functionality reasons, as the extra door may not be very aesthetic. Does anyone else have this situation?

Rockybird, Jannicone, thank you for saving us money. Per your advice, we decided to forget about the Nana door to the deck.

Now I have another design dilemma. What would be the best way to add a staircase/ship ladder to the roof deck from the master suite balcony?

Initially we considered adding the staircase to the roof deck from inside the house, but it was taking up too much space, and decided that it's better to do it from the master balcony.

Maybe you could make the dumbwaiter a little bigger??

Agree with Mark Bischak -- I think an elevator would be an excellent investment for this house.

I also agree an elevator would be a good investment. BTW a basic elevator installed in new construction is around $20,000-$25,000.

Here's where you could add one. Of course it would depend on the other floors.

To get to the roof deck, I was thinking you could wrap stairs around the side of the house, but the windows are in the way. So maybe a trampoline to get up and a firepole to come down?

I can't imagine any way to get stairs from the master deck to the rooftop deck that isn't seen from inside. First of all, the deck is all windows into the master. Then there is the two-stack window to the hall. Then there is the bedroom window trio on the side directly under the deck. Can you access it from inside? A spiral stair from inside the bedroom?

Bpathome, you are right that it would be virtually impossible to not see it from the inside. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Najeebah, we would rather look out into the trees rather than a staircase. We considered placing access to the roof deck from inside the house, but couldn't find a good option, other than resorting to a ship ladder and a roof hatch. To incorporate a decent looking stairway, significant addition to the square footage would be necessary. Bpathome, the trampoline idea is not bad. That might be the only viable option. LOL. ;)

We'll see what the architect comes up with.

Unless your view from the roof deck is drop dead spectacular, it may not be worth having.

Mark, the view from the roof deck is really gorgeous. LOL, you folks are right, an elevator is definitely something to consider, but something we likely will never use, (fingers crossed.)

Jannicone, may I ask why you hate double doors? Are you referring to French doors?

Have your architect look into an "alternating tread stair" for access to the roof deck. Perhaps some space could be carved out of the office.

Mark, the view from the roof deck is really gorgeous. LOL, you folks are right, an elevator is definitely something to consider, but something we likely will never use, (fingers crossed.)

CJS, I'm putting in an elevator and I'm slightly claustrophobic so hopefully will never have to use it, but since my studio is on the second floor, I'm glad it will be there "just in case".

Most here have heard the story about my Mother. She was as healthy as they came. Ate well. Exercised at the gym 5x a week, didn't smoke, etc. At the age of 72 she developed Parkinson's disease.

She continued going to the gym 5x a week, eating well, etc and probably would have continued but had an issue with a sore on her foot. During that time she had to give up exercising to get rid of the infection and that was the start of her downward trend. Towards the end of her life, lifting her foot over the shower ledge might as well have been like climbing Mt Everest for her.

My point being that hopefully we never have a health issue that means we can't climb stairs. No heart trouble, no broken legs, etc. However with an elevator, it would mean you can still stay in the house you will most likely love and still be able to enjoy those spectacular views. Because my Mom's house was mostly handicap accessible, she was able to live in her beloved home until the last few months of her life.

We have a fair number of family and guests who are older and use the elevator because they have difficulty with stairs, it allows our entire house to be accessible to them. I have also been happy with the elevator insofar it allows me to get large heavy objects between floors by myself rather than having to wait for help. Maybe think about the size of the dumbwaiter you are planning and keep that in mind when considering an elevator.

When I read "roof deck" I was thinking of a furnished area where you might entertain guests, so that you would want to make it easy to bring up extra seating, refreshments, etc. Perhaps your intent is different.

Good luck!

Double doors / french doors.... they eat floor space - so on your master deck, you are eating 2x the space by having both operable doors - since you can't place anything in the way of the door. If you do - then why bother having 2 operable doors?

After the initial opening "flourish" will you ever have both doors open again? Maybe you will as you sleep? or you'll fling them open all day? (do you not have bugs?)

they are usually inherently difficult to secure, and not particularly energy efficient.

So - trying to determine the upsides.... ???? Unless they are a tall and narrow and in NOLA opening to a southern front porch, or a balcony - I don't see the appeal

I'm having french doors on my balcony. However my doors open out (because of the possibility of hurricanes) and I won't have anything on my balcony. It's being used to photograph still life setups and my finished artwork only.

If you plan to use the full space, I would definitely reconsider french doors as Janni said.

cpartist, thank you for sharing the story of your mom. That must've been extremely hard. . .

Mark, we will definitely investigate the alternating tread stair. Googled it myself, and it looks really cool. Thanks.

Najeebah, thank you for all your useful tips. It would be nice to have an entryway that doesn't have steps, I will ask our architect, but cost might be an issue. I never thought of adding a door from closet to the office, but it's definitely worth considering. That's a real clever suggestion! BTW, from the plans that I posted, I don't believe you could see the garage. The 3 car garage is on the north side of the house.

Ah, thought the garage was on the southern elevation. all right

I might choose a dumbwaiter/ trampoline on a daily basis over an alternating-tread staircase.
Not that I've had the need to use one, it seems normal foot placement would be awkwardly in the corners of each step, almost off it, and if I walked up placing my feet on the middle of each step, I'd be tempted to growl 'Fee fie fo fum!'

There are better designs among them, though, like the ones with each step full length, and differing widths at each end.

Have you ever used one CJS?

The alternating tread stair does take some getting use to. Check local building codes to make sure they are allowed for your use. This one is a little rustic but it works well.

What about a Bessler stair? It could go in the hall, pulled down only when you are heading up to the deck. Just don't let anybody close it while you are up there. That's where a firepole comes in handy for emergency escape lol

Trampoline up and fire pole or slide down?

^^^ never read about the fecal content of those ball pits...

Yeah, but if it's your own ball pit I think you're okay. What about a pool? I occasionally drive by a house that has a second floor deck and a huge tube slide down to the pool!

Nana Doors: From on initial concept of a high curtain wall I changed to two 16x8 4 panel doors and one 12x8 3 panel fixed door, all with transom windows above. I looked at Nana doors then have quotes from Panoromic doors and waiting for a quote from yet another manufacturer who recently added the type of doors to their collection. I love Parnaromic doors since they are in line with our needs and at a much better price. They also have an option of a full size screen. Check them out; they are in CA.