There are several things I see that would bother me. But, The biggest thing I see is the location of the covered patio. It appears the views for the home are all at the top? The location of the patio just seems out of the way. The 2 ways to get to it seem very different. I would put the kitchen where the patio is, the dining where the kitchen is, and the patio where the dining is.

For upstairs, you said you are building this for you..do you need 4 bedrooms? Turning the bedroom 2 space into more of an open "play" area may make the whole plan nicer. You could make that space a little smaller and make the other 3 bedrooms a little bigger.

What room(s) are you in most of the day while you are awake?

No privacy between bedrooms and no furniture will ever make it into the master suite without a crane and big windows.

The problem is the designer.

B Mac - The width of the closet is just over 5', about 1/2 as wide as the room. Bedroom 3 according to the drawing is 10.5' by 11'.

B Carey - the house will be located on a sloped lot, entrance is looking to the north, garage wall to the east, with a retaining wall of around 5' tall on the east side of the house. I'll give it a thought on the re-arrangement of the kitchen / dining / patio. No, I do not need 4 bedrooms, I actually would entertain the idea to shrink what is now bedroom 2 and turn it into a play area. Yes, the house would be for myself.

Mark Bischak - most of the day is spent downstairs, in great room / kitchen (weekday evenings / most of the day weekends).

Sophie Wheeler - may I ask what your suggestion would be please?

There are two theories in locating laundry rooms; 1) Where most of the dirty clothes are generated so it is easier to transport those clothes, and 2) Where the person(s) are most of the day so that it is easier to switch loads of laundry around. If the laundry room is upstairs, you have to go upstairs to take care of the laundry. If the laundry room is downstairs, the laundry has to be carried up the stairs.

Sometimes there is more 'program' on the first floor than on the second floor and, if the site is tight, every space that can be located upstairs goes upstairs.

I agree, that moving furniture into the master will be close to impossible. Are you in a cold weather area? If so most of the bedroom area is above UN-heated space. Even with good insulation the floors will be cold in the winter unless you use carpet. Plus two of the bedrooms are above the garage. You are going to hear everytime a car comes and goes. Personally I would get rid of the two story living room and reworked the whole second floor.

For the downstairs, the coat closet is a ways from the front door and is mall if it is the only one.

There should be some type of coat closet or mud room by the garage entrance.

The great room is a nice size, but how is anyone going to watch TV with the current furniture setup around the media cabinet?

The second floor overall isn’t the best layout for space, instead of staring at what you have, start over with just the external walls and any utilities you must have.

You need to give us more info.

Where are you located?

What is the lot size?

Is it only yourself living here?

What are your actual needs?

One thing right off the bat is you do not have enough closet space downstairs

Start over. Not with this drafter. She isn’t the person of talent that you need.

I can't tell how large your great room is, but I, too, would forego the 2 story part in order to have more breathing room upstairs. Your Master is directly next to a bedroom with no buffer. You'll hear things. People in the next bedroom over will hear things.

The 2 story great room is stealing valuable outside corners for bedrooms to have 2 windows on different walls (cross ventilation if you are an open window person)

Your master closet will be tight when you start hanging clothes as you lose all the space in the corners. Your master water closet will be impossible to get into and close the door unless you stand on the toilet. And yes - imagine getting a dresser upstairs - or a box spring.........

Again - I don't know what the overall square footage is - the plans are really hard to read any dimensions - but pushing all the bedrooms (do you really need 4? - you haven't provided anything about how you live - kids? work from home? etc) and the laundry you are compromising a lot. (including overall storage space)

Edited - to explain I was not recommending to forego the great room itself! d'oh!

Unless you have an existing foundation, I see no reason to keep the shape to the back and front, which is limiting the upstairs. The two story space is creating a problem here. And the garage.

You probably do not need to increase the first floor s. footage, but if the reason is the setbacks, well you have a dining that bumps out. You could extend the back wall all the way to align with the dining.

Forget everything you have read in this forum, push the garage forward a bit. Your elevation will not be significantly better if you do not, and it is more important to get a house suited to your everyday living.
Basically, you need to start over.

functionthenlook - The house location is in Portland, Oregon. So not in a cold climate; I appreciate the comment, I'll look into re-designing the second floor.

richfield95 - Thanks for the comment, I'll have the second floor re-designed.

cpartist - House will be for myself, I am planning to start a family in the near future. Location is Portland, Oregon; Lot size is 8235sf; I can not cover more than 2650sf, current floor plan coverage is 2645sf. Actual needs - open dining / kitchen / great room area, study / office room, sufficient sized bathroom on main floor; decent sized master bedroom / master bath / closet, sufficient sized bathroom upstairs, sufficient sized laundry, 2 car garage, ability to work from home. I want to make sure the house fits into neighborhood, and most of my neighbors have 3 - 4 bedrooms.

jannicone - The great room dimensions are roughly 24.5' by 18.5'; Overall square footage is about 3000sf; For now no kids, but will be starting family in the near future. I will need the ability to work from home.

Naf_Naf - I am limited with setbacks on the width of the house, basically cannot increase the depth either because of impervious surface area coverage limit.

Would a first floor like this work for you?

Added cabinets to kitchen and the porch can go to either side.
Of course it could be adjusted to your needs, there are limitations when using "paint" but it gives you an idea. I converted all the corridor space to useable space.

Naf_Naf that looks much better

Agreed, Naf_Naf plan is better, especially because of mudroom & expectation of having children. Could it be bigger & have a back door through the mechanical area to the backyard? Especially if that backyard could be fenced for little kids or their dogs. &/Or explore possibilities of switching covered porch to the other side of dining area so more light in great room. I do especially like the office/bath design...it would actually work as a generous & comfortable office. Too many plans make low priority of home office space, which is fine for bill paying but makes no sense to me for 40+ hours a week work-at-home. Depending on choice of front door, the long wall in foyer could be a row of bookshelves...for actual old fashioned books...perhaps they could be 48" or so tall, so gallery above? That would be especially nice transition if sometimes business people need to visit.

Naf_Naf - thanks for your floor plan modification!

Dim,

You are welcome! If the first floor I posted works for you, here it is a sketch of the second floor View PDF of second floor

So so much better Naf_Naf

Thank you, cpartist!

I brought the wall a little closer to the open area. how is this

Naf_Naf - I really liked the layout you did for the 2nd floor! Thank you!

Claire Larece - Thanks for taking the time to look into it. I appreciate it! I think the hallway to the master bedroom is kind of wasted space and irregularly shaped though; bedroom 4 would be fairly small and without any windows.