What part of the country are you in? What direction will the house face? What is the lot like? How many children do you have?

What do you like best about these plans?

I'm not a big fan of either one. The great room isn't so great when you allow for walkways, and the giant fireplace. How would you arrange furniture? The great room will also be dark in both plans, with the screen porch and front porch (or dining room) blocking natural light.

I don't think I've ever seen a plan with a 2-story kitchen - much less one with a stove in the island. The kitchen is also full of walkways - the path to the office really cuts into the breakfast nook in plan 2.

It's a long trek from all of the bedrooms to the laundry room.

I do NOT like windows from the porch looking into toilets!

The house has very little storage space. The bedroom closets are small (or, in the case of the master, inefficient); kitchen storage isn't terrific (no pantry); the mud room would have to increase a lot to accommodate laundry in progress, sporting equipment, coats and shoes, umbrellas, and everything else that accumulates near the family entrance.

I will be the first (and likely not the last) to suggest you find a good architect to help you design a home that will meet all your family's needs, in harmony with your lot. Stock plans rarely do that.

These are excellent questions!! We live in Mississippi on 45 acres and the house will face southwest. We have 4 young kiddos. I've always dreamt of a farmhouse, even before they became popular. I was especially smitten by the real-life photos of this home that were posted in Southern Living magazine. I love all the windows and the two story kitchen. I like a cozy simple farm life feel. I so appreciate your thoughts/questions. Bigger closets and a pantry are a must- thank you for pointing that out! In the original photos, it seems like there is a pantry off of the kitchen. I've attached the photos from the article.

The vintage low country and new vintage low country plans are for southern living. They are inspired from a 4000+ sq ft house designed by Group 3 Designs. The original floorplan is very different. The pictures above are from the inside of the original house. Not from one built from the plans they show. Which is why you see a pantry. If you look closely you can find other things that don't match up.

@AnnKH, GREAT points! The kitchen is really our "hub," so we'd want it to be conducive for lots of people to maneuver. Sadness. @gpeach1 - yes! I am having a hard time finding someone that has built these plans which do differ from the original. I know you were considering building this at one point- what did you decide?

These may be great inspiration photos that can convey the FEEL - but you'd HATE that kitchen. (note that there appears to be NO ventilation - even a crappy downdraft for the island cooktop! think grease and cooking fumes EVERYWHERE - including those tall windows!)

That house is "overdesigned" but not livable. It's be super expensive to build and finish like that on a sq foot basis - which may be find for you, but just know that going in. There is a LOT of roof covering only one story

I would continue looking at that for exterior FEEL and interior "finishings" ideas, but the floor plan is totally unfriendly for a family (which you kinda already know based on your extensive list of things you saw lacking pretty quickly.)

An architect or person of design talent should be in your future.

@jannicone thank you so much for your insight! Y'all's advice is exactly what I need!!

I've seen that house in the SL magazine, and was smitten by it as well! I loved the conservatory feel of those high ceilings in the kitchen. I don't know how practical it is, especially for cleaning. But, it is beautiful.

It's a shame you can't find the house plans for it, cause I remember it was a new build made to feel old.

First good sideways rainstorm and those windows will be filthy! Who's going to go up on such a high ladder to clean them? :)

I second jannicone's advice.

My husband and I love this floor plan but I also had the concerns these people have been stating about the kitchen I have three young kiddos so I know I will need a playroom downstairs I love windows and this one definitely had me for that. I hate how there are walkways in the living room but I love how open and cozy it feels... but not too much. I've looked at soooo many plans and I think getting an architect is the best bet. The things I love are the kitchen how airy and the entry.

Hey guys! As much as I'd love to hire an architect to design a custom home for us, I just don't think we have the budget for it. So! I've been searching for something that might work for us and keep coming back to this plan. I've never heard of this architect before, and I'd love y'all's opinions on the plan. It doesn't have the high/vaulted ceilings that I love so much- not sure if we could figure out a way to do that. Anyway! Let me know what you think! http://www.tmvavra.com/the-maple.html

This is better than your first plan - it certainly has more storage! - but there are still issues. I love all the windows, and that many rooms have windows on two (or more) walls.

How would you arrange furniture in the living room? There is a walkway right past the fireplace, and another from the foyer. I don't see a place to put a TV in this room.

I don't like the location of the laundry room - I often throw in a load before bed, and wouldn't want that right next to my bedroom. The dryer would have to vent right outside the back door. With your large family, I'd want a bigger mudroom. Perhaps you could expand the mud room all the way to the left (losing some covered porch), and move the laundry to the outside wall.

There is a lot of wasted space in the master closets and bath.

Upstairs - the walk in closets, especially in BR2, take up more space than they need to, and steal space from the bathrooms. I'm not a big fan of Jack and Jill baths, and the 4 doors in this example would drive me nuts. I would eliminate the door from the bathroom to BR3 - but I would also give that BR a reach-in closet on the bottom wall, and reconfigure the bath.

AnnKH, you are awesome! Thank you for your wonderful advice!! I agree with every suggestion you made! Hooray! I feel like i'm making some progress! Keep the advice coming!

I agree with the washer/dryer being noisy next to your bedroom. In any case, it would be nice to have a laundry chute from the upstairs to the laundry room instead of carrying things down all the time.

If you do the Jack and Jill baths, perhaps you could alleviate some of the doors with pocket doors.

The biggest issue for me would be the living room traffic pattern. Ordinarily you would have the furniture facing the fireplace. Unfortunately, the narrow width is where all the furniture would go which is right by the study entry and you would have to have a good amount of space around it for traffic flow to the kitchen and bedroom area. In theory, the best place in this room for the fireplace would be on a long wall, but you don't really have one and if you did, you'd still be walking in front of it to the bedroom.

All in all, it's much better than the last house layout. I really do like the kitchen/dining.

Hey guys! As much as I'd love to hire an architect to design a custom home for us, I just don't think we have the budget for it.

How do you know you don't have the budget for an architect? Have you looked into it?

If you buy a plan off the net, you'll have to pay for the plans and then most likely get a draftsman or an engineer to reconfigure the plans to meet your local codes. Then if your land has any problems, like not being level land, for example, that will have to be reconfigured too.

Many single practitioner architects who do residential are quite reasonable.

I will point you to a few threads regarding architects in the morning. I'm off to bed now.

Thanks guys!! Keep these comments coming! I really appreciate them all!

In this latest plan, there is no flow. Nice big front porch, but the only way to use it is from the front door. Every room seems to be by itself, and doesn't invite you to go anywhere else. If you want to go out back, you have to know to go through the kitchen. There's only one way to get anywhere. (If you're trying to keep track of the kids, I suppose that's good lol)

I can't imagine how you would lay out furniture in the LR and study. The LR seems to lend itself to two conversation areas divided by the walk-through from the front door, but one of them is also the walk-through from all the bedrooms to the kitchen and back door.

In general, the living area of the house reads like a small house, though the LR is a nice size.

BPathome, yes!! I was struggling with the flow as well! Especially since we are conastantly in and out and I've been used to our house now having 5 doors leading to the outside just within the kitchen, dining, living areas. Definitely something to think about! Thank you so much!

Threads:

We fit an architect into our budget

Hiring an architect

House Design-Good info

Did you hire an architect?

Designing a Custom Home

Book Suggestions

How to Design Your Own Home

What Makes a House Have Good Design?

5 Rules of Thumb for Better Home Design

Changing a floor plan

House Plans Using Bubbles

I Just Read This On Sarah Susanka's Blog

Here is what we ended up changing in the downstairs to make it work for us. We will be moving in a week or two....

We got rid of the tall kitchen part, added pantry, larger office and laundry/mud. Two main regrets are not doing detached front loading garage and not having an additional window between the other two on the middle section. Had we done a normal fridge vs the side by side ones we could have had an additional window. And the detached garage think would have looked better.

Although... I agree if you can go the architect route you should. The amount of time and energy it took to get it there with just a draftsman was stressful and it was missing some of the special things in translation that I wanted.

Cpartist, this is awesome! Thank you so much! Can't wait to get reading!

Gpeach1 - thank you so much for sharing this!! It is so helpful!! I'd love to see photos once you're all moved in, if you're willing!

Agundy, this is so funny another floor plan I've been looking at also. The living room flow is what gets me and the upstairs all the walls it's not really a good flow. Have you looked at the Aiken ridge plan as well?

Hannahburr we must be kindred spirits!! Yes! I sure have! My head is swimming with all the different plans. :/ i loved the Aiken ridge! I think there were quite a few changes that I would need to make to it, so now i'm just trying to weigh the option of getting it changed by Moser or going from scratch with a local architect. Decisions decisions! ☺️

The Aiken Ridge is cute, but I think it would be dark. The dining room is interior, the living room is under the porch roof. The sunroom is sunny, but small. I'd almost want to orient the house sideways and take out the wall between the fireplace and the kitchen (maybe make it a two-way fireplace?), so that the LR has a view to the back through the sunroom, and the kitchen overlooks the back garden.

But mainly I'm not a fan of master bedrooms where you walk out of the bedroom to the mudroom (especially MY mudroom, yikes), see the laundry room, then the kitchen with someone's late-night cereal snack bowl and spoon still one counter. At least give me a buffer space first lol!

Hahaha I know don't worry! I haven't found one where I am totally sold I LKve the look of the four gables too but the floor plan isn't what I'd expect. Especially the master bathroom and pantry! I agree with Bpathome hah, you need a buffer with a master bedroom.

bpathome and bannahburr, yes! I totally agree! And I MUST have light- a dark house would depress me! I'm used to floor to ceiling windows! I hate to throw another one to the mix, but what do you think about this plan from Allison Ramsey? The only things I'd add is a bigger mudroom area and somehow make the bedrooms upstairs bigger with one more bathroom...I think! Thoughts? http://www.allisonramseyarchitect.com/plan-details.cfm?planNumber=163211

Now that i'm looking at it, i'm not sure a 10-12ft farm table would fit this plan...it's so hard to picture everything on paper!

I am a fan of a lot of Allison Ramsey plans. Not so much on this one.

As mentioned a 12' table would not fit in a 15' dining room.

Also, I don't like that to get to the laundry room, you'd have to practically run a slalom course. Plus the fact it gets its own corner. One of the prime spots in a house.

Can't say I'm a fan of the powder room.

Can't say I'm a fan of the master bath, master closet and bedroom 2 closet sticking out like that. That adds extra angles to the exterior but doesn't add to the overall design of the house.

With the covered porch in the back off the living room, it will be dark. You could have a patio out there instead.

I would make the pantry larger as well. Put a pocket or barn door into it to free up wall space. Also, put a pocket door into the den from the Butler's pantry for privacy from kitchen noise and into the master closet so you don't have to go inside and close the door to get what's behind it.

Your kids will be so lucky just to have their own bedroom, so I think the measurements are adequate. Careful interior design will make the most of their space.

I'm also not a fan of the laundry room so far away.

This is great!! I love pocket and barn doors- great ideas!!!

You could move the laundry room to that first floor bedroom. You could straighten out the closet and bathroom, too, at the same time. Then the mudroom can be bigger, the pantry, too. How would you use a butler pantry there?

I don't know what the rear elevation is like, but you could make the LR not double-height and put a bedroom/study/loft up there. Maybe a bathroom, but I'm not sure if that's possible. The left-hand bedroom could have a reach-in closet to make the room a foot bigger.

bpathome- awesome suggestions!! I wrote a super long post and then it got erased. I really love the idea of moving the laundry! I enjoy and desire a two-story living room, so I'd hate to move that bedroom up above the living room. But I'd also really like to have a fourth bedroom. The girls (11 and 10) share a room right now and the boys share a room, but it won't be long and the girls will need their own rooms. And then later on down the road, I definitely want to have enough room for their families/kids to visit. But maybe we can add something when that time comes above the garage for those purposes. Or maybe with 10 ft ceiling height it will feel big enough? I sound so high maintenance- it's hard to know how to balance desires and reality. I really appreciate yalls insight so much!! Keep it coming!

http://www.maxhouseplans.com/home-plans/brick-home-design/

Don't know if you like this style.

The study could be a large laundry room.

The dining room could be a study.

The laundry room could be all mudroom, and entrance from garage closets could be all reach-in pantries.

The kitchen would have to be reconfigured. Who puts the stove all the way over there!!? Either switch stove and frig. areas, or put sink/dw in island and stove where sink is.

It appears this plan has a two story family room, and the keeping room would be plenty big for a large dining table.

I think I would prefer the fireplace in the family room on the left or right long wall and all French doors out the back.

The main drawback is the family room is not open to the kitchen, only to the keeping room.

Just one more to add to the mix that needs changing! Lol.

Haha! I like having options! I haven't seen that plan before, and it has some good elements, but i'm just not quite "feeling it." But keep those suggestions coming!

(That Big Oaks house has a funny feature: the 14x14 breakfast room and the 12x12 keeping room overlap the same space.)

I enjoy and desire a two-story living room, so I'd hate to move that bedroom up above the living room

Assuming that most of the ceilings, even upstairs, are 9 or 10' as many are these days, you could have a raised-height LR, and the. upstairs step up from the landing to the loft/bedroom, which would be a more traditional 8'. But I didn't see the rear elevation, so I don't know if it could be done easily. Is the LR already 2-story?

The only room in Big Oaks that has any natural light is the breakfast/keeping room. The big porches everywhere else keep light from the living room and kitchen, and the master closet has the nicest location in the house.

^^ Plus don't forget that massive roof that will be a fortune to upkeep if it ever needs redoing, including the fact that it appears to have some nice areas for leaves and ice to accumulate.

bpathome - just got off the phone with Allison Ramsey (super nice people, by the way!) and mentioned all the changes you had suggested about moving the laundry room and moving a bedroom upstairs and he said it's totally doable and sound awesome! They're gonna figure something up for us and we'll go from there! I changed the ceiling height on the first floor to 12 feet, so I think that will help a lot! Thank y'all so much for your suggestions!

Can they reconfigure the master suite so the master bath and closet aren't stuck on like a sore thumb too?

That sounds great. Hope it works out well.

In our last house we had a huge screened in porch on the back (north side as well) and it was extremely dark in the living room and kitchen. It was depressing. Hopefully you can reconfigure that as well.

cpartist - yes! That is one of the changes, too! They will extend the master out to be flush with the living room back wall and then reconfigure the bathroom entirely so that there aren't so many exterior corners on that side.

designsaavy - I have really been thinking of doing away with the screened porch totally, and your comment helps solidify that! Thank you soo much!

I noticed that the symmetry in the back isn't the same as in the front. That is, the master bedroom is narrower at the back than at the front. Again, I don't know what the rear elevation is like, but if they widen it to the same as the front, it gives a bit more room to work with on reconfiguring.