Floorplan / layout critiques & suggestions for new country home
the_real_dock
5 years ago
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shead
4 years agothe_real_dock
4 years agoRelated Discussions
Critique my floor plan - small, budget house with a view!
Comments (23)If you do two stories (walk out basement plus main floor) and have master bedroom up and other two bedrooms down, I would think you would want two bathrooms (or at least two WCs). People sleeping downstairs who wake in the middle of the night needing to use the toilet should not have to climb a set of stairs to get to one. If you want the master upstairs, consider putting the laundry room down next to a downstairs WC and cluster both directly beneath the upstairs bath and WC. That will allow you to cluster the plumbing which helps keep costs down. With a second WC and the cost of building stairs, it might or might not be more economical to build two stories than to spread the whole house out on a single floor. But, given your sloping property and your desire to maximize views, I'd go with two stories anyway. Having a second WC or even a second full bath won't cost THAT much more if you can cluster the plumbing. As for critiques of your latest posted plan. I would agree with previous comments that your living room/dining room area won't work very well. With three bedrooms, one assumes that at least occasionally you will have 3 to 6 people staying at the house. The living room would not be at all comfortable for that many people. Plus, do you expect to watch TV, or converse in the living room. No place for a TV and no room to create a conversation area where people sit so that they can look at one another. As designed, you don't really have a LIVING ROOM. You have a dining room with a sofa off to one side. The trip from the master bedroom to the WC requires you to walk thru your closet (wardrobe), out into the dining area, and then turn back down a hallway. Not a trip I would want to navigate during the middle of the night...especially since I have to admit that I often leave my shoes scattered about in my closet and I'd be tripping over them in the dark. Maybe you're a neat-nick and ALWAYS put shoes away exactly where they belong. But, do you really want the only path to your master bedroom to be thru your closet??? Also, you show no closets except the Master bedroom closet and a very small broom closet. Most of us have tons more stuff that needs to be stored away than will possibly fit into those two small closets. Eg, X-mas decorations, extra blankets, towels, and pillows, off-season clothing, the big bag of dogfood, the vacuum cleaner, the ironing board, board games, umbrellas, recycling bins, etc. With no garage, any of that stuff that you own is going to have to be stored somewhere inside your house. The biggest complaint I hear about new homes when people move in is that they don't have enough storage space...and that is often from folks who have a two or three car garage!. And, the space you have allotted a staircase isn't nearly long enough. Even in Australia, I suspect there are building codes that restrict just how steep a staircase can be. Here in the U.S, for a house with eight foot (2.44 m) ceilings and 1 ft thick joists between floors, you would need a staircase run about 13 ft long (3.96 m). Anything less will result in a staircase that is too steep to meet code. Plus, even if you're not restricted by a building code, if you make the staircase steeper than about 40 degrees, it is VERY uncomfortable to use and pretty dangerous. Definitely NOT something you want to deal with in the middle of the night when trying to get the the WC! Suggest you look up the building codes in your jurisdiction and find out exactly what the staircase requirements are. Then you can do a bit of trigonometry to figure out how much linear space you need to devote to your staircase...assuming it is a straight line staircase. (BTW, please don't think that if you design a bent staircase - a U or an L or some other shape) that you can squeeze it into less space. Every bend makes the staircase take up even more room. You need to understand staircase requirements before you begin trying to design two stories and then block out the necessary staircase space first on both floors. Trying to design any two story space without knowing up front how much space must be dedicated to the staircase is an exercise in frustration....See MorePlease review/critique my new house floorplan
Comments (1)Congrats and good luck on your build! I too am an engineer and we're just finishing up the build of our custom home (close on Dec-2!). I can tell you that from an engineering standpoint your drawing is very thorough but from a garden web standpoint it is very busy and difficult to read! We're building a two story so I can't comment on much of your layout, but I would consider knocking down the seperation between the kitchen and the living area. Take functionality over symmetry. As the designated cook, I like my time in the kitchen much more when I'm not seperated from friends and family and football. I love the mudroom, keeps the clutter and mess out of the rest of the house. I also love the 3 car garage. That is, unless you have 3 cars, then you need a 4 car garage....See MoreCritique my lighting layout for open floor plan kitchen
Comments (17)The Cree 5" retrofit is already out. I've been using it with my customers. It's not inexpensive, but it really is great. I did get my hands on an LED module for low voltage halogen cans. It's bigger than an MR16, but that's fine, as there is room in the can. This one puts out about 60 lumens per watts- with a total of 8 watts of LED. So that's only 480 watts. The next generation, sometime in November, will be putting out at least 80 lumens per watt. If not 100 lumens per watt. Color temperature will affect the light output. But that's all you'll need for a normal kitchen. The only drawback is the does CRI. I'm not sure what the module will ultimately be. But I know it's not as good as Cree's. As for where to get a housing, go to a local lighting store. They should be able to take care of you better than any warehouse store....See MoreNew Home Floorplan - Help with kitchen layout
Comments (2)You seem to have reservations about the layout--with good reason. 1) It's not a good layout. The fridge is stuck in the corner and anyone who wants to access it will have to walk though one of the work zones. It takes valuable prep space to the left of the sink. The fridge needs to be back in the original space, on the perimeter of the kitchen, where it's convenient for others, but part of the prep triangle. That leaves space for dish storage to the left of the sink. 2) You don't need workspace next to the cooktop. You need a prep sink on the island, where you can work facing the living areas, in a compact triangle. 3) Use a range, rather than cooktop and wall oven, and you'll have space for a bar area with a wind cooler or beverage fridge. The MW can go in a drawer across from the fridge. Most MW'd items come from the fridge--leftovers, frozen snacks, butter for melting. 4) Too much wasted space in the pantry. I adjusted the pantry and powder room spaces. They are shorter and the pantry is wider, so the door can move down a few inches. Of course, that might affect the second floor layout. Compare the original to the following two layouts: Fridge on range wall, island in original orientation, bar on clean-up sink wall: Fridge and bar switched, island turned and reconfigured:...See Morecpartist
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