Not sure if large table is the eating space, seems so -- houzz can type the word banquette for "photos" and there are great ideas:

Efficient Modern Kitchen · More Info

Hanson Kitchen · More Info

If you turn staircase closer to front door... or some way, enter the kitchen through the mudroom? which guests wouldn't do, so would be ok.

This would seem to eliminate short walkway as it is now.

The Aurea · More Info

"I'd love to see some suggestions on how to better utilize the front entry for guests or give it better access to the mudroom."

This is the exact right thing to say to an architect!! Express this thought exactly like this when you meet with him/her again. (I think you might have a draftsperson but no matter).

Our home opens to a 7x9ish front foyer with built in coat closet on the east wall. The foyer has doorways on all four walls: front door to west; south to living room; east down the hall to powder room and master bedroom; north to kitchen, dining, family room, and second floor stairs. It's a great layout that allows separation of kids and adults while entertaining, guests can drop in and stand to chat in the spacious entry or stop for coffee at the island. A backdoor accesses the laundry/mudroom which also connects to the family room. So muddy kids can clean up a bit before entering the house and gross boots stay nicely out of sight. Another backdoor exits from the dining room. We have no attached garage but we don't get much of a winter.

I can express what I prefer and give basic advice based on my experiences but at the end of the day you need a professional who can listen to *your* needs and wants and translate those into a beautiful plan for your home.

You need a design professional -- not you or your builder/architect.

Focus on your wish/needs list and allow them to turn it into a plan.

In the 'filled out' part of kitchen maybe a wall to partly shield this from dressier table. Could extend out from a counter.

"Leverett" Woodale Design · More Info

Putney, Loft Conversion · More Info

Here's a wall idea [between casual and dressy room]

Casa Decor 2017 · More Info

https://www.houzz.com/photos/casa-decor-2017-traditional-dining-room-barcelona-phvw-vp~97136659

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5559475/kitchen-nook-what-table

Ten Broeck Farm - Winter 2013, Ellensberg WA · More Info

Terminology clarification needed. All those windows (e.g. for the living room) are facing north-ish? This is what you're calling the front?

Working with on-the-ground conditions may be way more crucial than symmetry. I can't imagine living in the midwest and having the biggest home exposure facing north-ish. It would feel like blizzard is coming in the windows, cold air blasting on the glass, furnace on full bore to keep that side of the house warm, and that's exactly the side of the house that is unprotected by overhanging porch roof. I'd be terrified of my utility bills every month and scared to sit in the living room during a storm.....

Does the person that did the initial design for your house represent themselves as an “architect”?

Switch the bathroom and the laundry, so you have a window in the bathroom. Since the laundry won't take up that whole bathroom space, add a closet facing the hallway, so your guests have somewhere to plonk stuff out of sight.

I still don't get why there has to be a jog right there so the hallway narrows, and then you have to have a funnel neck to get into the bathroom. Skip the jog.

On the subject of jogs, are you really going to want to vacuum all those corners forever?

Personally, I would be worried about having a young child on a different floor, especially all by him/herself. What do you envision happening if there's an emergency, like flooding or a fire? Asthma attack? Fall? Nightmares? Terrible loneliness?

Did someone say -it seems a shame to have to enter living area if you want to go from one deck to the other... what about re-doing LR and the rest, so you could walk all the way across?

You need to study your exterior elevations and roof plan for improvements. To make improvements, you will have to modify your floor plan. As has been posted many times, design is a simultaneous and coordinated process involving all floor plans, elevations and roof plans, until a strong design emerges for all three elements--floor plans, elevations and roof plan.

It appears your design was a sequential one, focusing entirely on the floor plan until it was "perfect", and thereafter simply adding a roof, letting the elevations be whatever they were.

This is the initial sketch we received from the architect/builder

An architect/builder is generally a builder with a graph paper pad, or a draftsman/builder. You need an actual architect with design talent. Someone who can design -- at the same time -- the interior and exterior. Designing either one in a vacuum leads to a variety of problems.

Read if you want about Frank Lloyd Wright - his efficient built-ins are just fine even today, esp. if you have the luxury to build as you want. Nothing wrong with cavernous open spaces, but consider 1 cozy area [like the booth/ banquettes in casual eating/ morning room] that is walled off a bit, even 1 wall like I posted above.

We live on a farm too, in western Canada (and our daughter, now in her early 20s and no longer living at home, took herself off to a bedroom in the basement at the age of 4 when her younger brothers kept invading her room and destroying her carefully laid out toy farms like the mini Godzillas they were).

For our new house, I would have liked to have rooms laid out on the main floor with enfilades, from the front hall to the back porch, or from the side (front hall, living room, dining room) with long views lined up through the doorways, but we had to go with what would be most practical for a working farm, and the people who live here (and keep it clean lol). It ended up being a combination of form and function, but function definitely led the way, with how we live in the house mostly determining the layout. For us more important than an elegant progression is the practicality of a well-thought out mudroom area, a nearby full bathroom (instead of half bath), a pantry near the mudroom entry.

One thing to consider too is how much space to devote to a front entry if most people you know will be coming through the mudroom. As one well-known poster here, Magnaverde, used to say, Live for the life you have, not the life you wish you had.

I've always found that to be very good advice : ) .

runnem, good luck with your project! We spent 10 years thinking about what we wanted, and of course the more time we had, the more things we thought of : ) . Our old house was a sort of suburban style bungalow, rather out of place on a farm, so for the new house we tried to come up with a design similar to what would have been built here in the twenties or thirties, and then updated in the last while.

ditto what Lisa said.

Mark.....can you not post EVERY comment promoting architects? It's getting really old!

I decided to look again for the special elements/ details: staircase can "show off" a nice chandelier.... I notice you have an entry console already....and the hallway connects bedroom to kitchen, so that's good! then the hallway can have great lighting and have large canvas art, etc...

I live on a farm (horses) in the muddy Pac NW. I didn't read through all the responses or study your plans in depth, but was caught by your using the garage as a mudroom. Our home is a ranch style, there is an entrance foyer (which faces living room/fireplace) that goes off to the left (past the dining room - it's a semi-open floor plan) to the kitchen. It creates an "L" shape. The kitchen has the backdoor entrance. There is also a very short hallway off the kitchen which goes to the garage. The entry foyer is ceramic tile which extends to the kitchen (ceramic "L") and then down that very short hallway which contains the garage door. Although there are double doors off the dining room (carpet), the 3 main entries to the house (front/back/garage) all have tile flooring. I wouldn't wish for anything else in this type of setting. It's easy to clean and pretty indestructible = highly recommended in whatever configuration works in your space.

Thank you all for your feedback. Sorry that I'm not always quick to respond, but time with the family is taking priority, especially over the holidays :)

grewa002, robin0919, and lisa:

If you have any suggestions for how to rearrange the footprint so that the garage is more integrated into the house, I would love to see some ideas. It does stick out further than I care for. I'd like to keep it front load as side load is impractical for the layout of the property.

everdebz:

You've given me several things to think about, and I just realized that I haven't responded to you. Sorry! Thank you for noticing that I've tried to incorporate those special elements. I do envision the items you've detailed in the entry as well as the function of the hallway to connect the kitchen and bedrooms.

Laura:

Thanks for your feedback! I'm sure you can relate to the mud that can come in! I have a designated mudroom between the garage and the kitchen, but as many posters brought to my attention, it is not very accessible to anyone entering through the front door. I do plan to have tile in the mudroom and hard surfaces on most of the main level.

I would also add that we don't wear shoes in the house, so that helps a lot. But outdoor "stuff", including fine sawdust can accumulate around the doors from clothing. It's easy to clean with the floors. Merry Christmas to you and your family! Live your dream!

I didn't think I was "promoting" architects. I was just suggesting to Stacy to seek the help of a local (licensed) architect in a way that I thought was politer than come out and say, "Your plan sucks". After seeing the graph paper sketch provided by Stacy's "architect" I can tell that either someone is misleading her or she does not know what an architect is, or both.

I'm sorry Robin missed the first comment of the thread, I thought it gave some good direction (without promotion). But I am sure she will see the error in her observation and make appropriate vindication.

Stacy, I have designed a few farm house in my time, and I mean houses on farms for farmers and nothing to do with an architectural style; and they are far too practical to spend years designing a home. It is of course your choice if you want to ask a bunch of strangers to you and your site to help you design a house, but there are better ways to get what your family needs.

And Merry Christmas everyone!

Folks who do not wear shoes or clothes in the house should not stand in front of the picture windows after dark...just sayin'

I suspect there may be better ways to design a house and keep it relatively clean, but one's choice of wearing apparel (or not) is not a subject covered (or uncovered) in architecture school...

This is a bit of an odd plan, and I think you might be wise to check how much of the space is devoted to circulation/walkways vs. actual living space. Unfortunately, CPArtist isn't around to do it with her graphics program, anymore. But I'm thinking rather a lot.

The entire kitchen area seems to waste space and just be difficult to use. You'll constantly be stepping around - what is that, a washer island? - to get to the other island. Is that a working island, or meant more as a dining area? And having the powder room and pantry room doors facing each other seems... suboptimal.

The stairs also dump into one of the main traffic paths, which could be an issue.

I think you might be best to start with a clean sheet of paper and build a bubble diagram. Search the forums, you'll find a post on them. Then take the bubble diagram and your list of wants and needs to someone who's got some creative talent. I think your guy is competent, but might lack vision.

@ Virgil Carter - It's quite common in the Pac NW to leave one's shoes at the door, perhaps due to the strong Asian influence on the west coast. It would be bad manners to not offer to take your shoes off when entering a home as a guest.

One would assume the individual client takes their own life style in to account when directing the architect to their needs. . . . . .

As to your non sequitur about clothes and windows., etc. . . GADS. Or is that just humor?

Laura, save your GADS. It's just a joke.

As someone who's spend considerable time on the U.S. west coast, various parts of Asia and elsewhere in the world, I understand about taking one's shoes off at the door.

There comes a time in many of these threads where the degree of earnest seriousness needs relief. This thread has exceeded that point.

Take Nick's greatly improved design, turn the garage so it's a side entry garage (from one side or the other), and call it quits. :-)

A floor plan with rhyme and reason, who would have thunk it?

Nick:

I'm blown away by your design. There is so much function, that I couldn't figure out how to piece together on my own. The only thing I would want to change is to add closet access directly from the master. BTW, I really like the location of the stairs! Seriously, WOW! Thank you!!!

I took amateur glance at Nick's plan... wow... but if mine, I might have a library / craft room off kitchen, to which I'd go with my snack / coffee!

I showed the plan to my husband. He has always insisted on having access to the master closet without going through the bathroom. Even he looked at Nick's plan and said he could easily live with it as drawn. I think the reason is that the closet is so large, it is more of a dressing room.

I really like the flow of Nick's plan and the clever nesting of rooms in the bedroom wing — and both bedrooms have windows on more than one wall, hallelujah! Since this is on a farm, I wonder if a second washer and dryer could perhaps fit somewhere in the mud entry/bathroom?

As for it being rude not to offer to remove one's shoes in the northwest...thankfully this is not that common (at least not in Oregon). I'll bring indoor shoes, but I cannot go about stocking-footed for health reasons. I would never dream of expecting it of my guests, even though I live on a country property with horses, gardens, and forest. (I'd much prefer dirty shoes to smelly socks!)

Here in Nebraska, or at least in our family, we typically don't remove shoes unless we'll be staying a while and relaxing OR if our boots have mud (or worse) or them.

Honestly I really like the layout you’ve come up with. It would work well for my family, and the depth of the rooms compared to the windows feels really balanced, which is a pet peeve of mine.

Thinge could certainly be tightened up with turning the stairs and possibly looking at some built in nightstand-headboard solutions in the master and other bedrooms to tighten up the square footage and lose some excess.

As for the kitchen triangle layout, I’d take that to a kitchen designer and consult them. They may have some additional cabinet layout solutions that maximize your storage but allow less distance between appliances and sink. Doing a kitchen efficiently and handsomely is really its own specialty so go to a specialist for it :)

runnem:

On a normal day, I put my shoes on shortly before leaving the house. I will leave them on when I get home and spend most of my evening in the kitchen. I take them off when I get ready to shower and go to bed. I may go into and out of the bedroom briefly, but I don't spend much time in there with shoes on. If I'm going to spend time in our current carpeted living room, I will usually take my shoes off. When my shoes are dirty, I will of course take them off at the door if needed. I guess we see a little bit of dirt as part of farm life and good for building immune systems :)

dsnine:

Which plan are you referring to, my original plan or Nick's? I have every intention of using a kitchen designer to maximize every inch of my new kitchen.

runnem:

Rest assured, I work full time in an office setting, so my shoes aren't usually that filthy. My husband is another story...

I'm in Seattle and the removal of shoes before entering the home is not uncommon here. Our farm is outside of town, I was a commuter to downtown Seattle. Regardless of the custom, with the farm life, there were no barn clothes or barn shoes in the house. Not negotiable! Ditto the vehicles, the farm truck was separate from our personal vehicles. We wear either socks, house slippers, or "flip flops" in the house. The hardwood floors don't complain either. I would occasionally wear work shoes back to the dressing area, but given I worked in the biotech industry, that could have been even worse. LOL.

@Stacy I liked your original but hadnt seen Nick’s plan when I commented. His reworking of the layout and moving the stairs is awesome, though I personally prefer slightly more defined foyers for guests.

I also agree with the comment about turning the garage entrance 90 degrees if you can. A side entry garage, if the lot can manage it, is much easier on the eye that a snout garage :)

The living/kitchen/dining locations are what I am planning for my Nebraska acreage. Like you, I didn't want the island facing the living room TV..lol. I do love that I will be able to stand at the island and have a view out the dining windows and also still see into the living room some. My dining space including the "hallway" between dining/kitchen is only about 13 ft deep. Still a large space at 20/21 ft long! I am planning a bench on one side of my long rectangular table though (I've had and loved my bench previously) so this allows me a little extra circulation space than you. My deck is also off the kitchen/dining but my garage has to be on the other side of the house. I like how Nick set up your pantry/mudroom space.

My stairs are between the kitchen/entry...but I had to give up the nice enclosed porch you have. I have a long covered porch, but really loved the idea of it enclosed on 3 sides. I see potential in Nick's plan to still put the stairs in the entry, but his location is really nice. I like the hallway Nick created to give you an entry into the MB and bathroom space.