Four kids and no place for them to play indoors except their bedrooms or in the smallish living room??? And while you may not feel the need for privacy outside of your bedroom, when your kids get to be teenagers, they probably will. There is no place in your house where a teen could entertain a friend and not be right under Mom and Dad's nose EXCEPT to take the friend to their bedroom...which they might have to be sharing with a sibling. I know I'm old-fashioned but I'm still uncomfortable with the idea of tee- aged boys/girls taking friends of the opposite sex into their bedrooms - but I'm smart enough to know that teens need to feel like they can at least have a private conversation with their latest crush or even just work on homework and complain about their teachers without Mom and Dad automatically hearing every word. When I was a kid, I took my friends into the kitchen if Mom wasn't cooking or if she was getting a meal together and I had a friend over, she and Dad would retire to the kitchen together and let me and my friend have the use of the living room. With today's open floor plans, that doesn't work too well. So, IMHO, families with kids need some sort of secondary "living area" - whether that is a den or a library or a play room or an "owner's retreat" in the master bedroom, there needs to be some place where kids and adults can each have a little bit of privacy. I understand that you're on a budget so I'm hard pressed to understand why you would decide to have that two story living room. That second story space would be very cheap useable living space if you gave up the idea of a vaulting ceiling in the living room. Besides, having a two story ceiling in such a small room is probably going to turn it into echo chamber anyway. The vaulted ceiling is going to make the room taller than it is wide or long. It is probably going to wind up feel like you're sitting at the bottom of a well in there. Plus there are all the problems with keeping a two-story room at a comfortable temperature etc. If you want a somewhat higher ceiling in the living room, consider raising the roof in that room by 12 inches then put two step going up from the upstairs hallway into the room over the living room. Even if the main part of the ceiling in room upstairs room is just 7 ft high, it will still serve quite nicely as play space for the kiddos and could even be pressed into service as an extra bedroom if 4 kids should someday become 5...or if grandparents come to visit. While you may not like reach-in closets, they are MUCH more space efficient than walk-in closets. Especially given that the corners of walk in closets (where two bars meet at an L) are pretty much useless. You can only hang things on one of the two bars and those items hung in the corners are hidden by things hanging on the other bar and therefore seldom get found to be worn. When one is on a tight budget and building a smaller home, one NEEDS to be space efficient. In the same space where you have two "walk-in" closets upstairs (each with probably less than 6 linear feet of truly useable space each) you could have two back to back reach-in closets with 7 ft of useable space each PLUS a reasonably nice-sized 2 ft deep hallway linen closet. Doing that would then also allow you to basically flip the bathroom horizontally so that the closet space that now serves the bedroom in the back right side of the house could be used for a closet for the office instead. That way it really can BE a bedroom and you wouldn't have to cheat and call it an office because it has no closet. You could then rearrange the upstairs bathroom to make it more user friendly for 4 kids. Right now, if someone is in the tub (which is typically the bathroom function that takes the longest amount of time) and wants any privacy, no one else can use any other portion of the bathroom. With 4 kids, it would be GREAT if you could have separate rooms for bathtub, toilet, and sinks but I don't think you have the room for that. However, I do think you have room to create a larger more user friendly sink area and a separate room for the tub and toilet. Lots of kids are willing to share the bathroom while they brush teeth, comb hair, etc - but even then, they need room around the sinks for their toothbrushes, hair curlers, etc. The sketch below is rough because your images are too small to see the dimensions and when I magnify them to maximum extent, they're a bit fuzzy when translated to my paint program. But I think if you did something like shown, one child could be bathing and/or using the toilet while two others are using the sinks. Note that I recommend pocket doors for the kid's bath because that way you don't have to deal with swinging doors. Having vanities on two sides of the bathroom gives everybody a bit more space around his/her sink. Depending on the genders of your 4, girls could have one side and boys the other. As for downstairs, I agree that the master closet and masterbath need major reworking. YOU and your spouse may be perfectly satisfied with 3 feet of useable closet space each but if/when you want to sell this house, no potential buyer is going to be satisfied with that! That master closet would be a total deal breaker for me...and I'm not even a huge clothes horse. But I do want more space than THAT! Also, as another poster has already pointed out, there isn't enough space in front of the toilet and the two vanity sinks are too close together leaving you no room for storing anything. In fact, hardly room enough to set an electric toothbrush and a razor. And, that back "hallway" is a disaster. Too many doors opening into way too little space. The laundry room size is fine as is the powder room...but getting to/from them is not. I would shrink the master bedroom and start over on designing that space. Wish I had suggestions for making it all fit, but I really don't. Maybe someone else can chime in. I'm just afraid that if you build this house as it is currently designed you are going to be very unhappy with the results.

Thanks J, I will pick up a copy of that book. In the meantimeâ¦I got into a slight panic when trying to book rooms for the whole trip. It seems nearly everything in Scotland, Wales and the Cornwall areas I wanted to go are almost 80% booked all ready. I had to make a decision on the Scotland stay so picked Kirkcudbright. Although everything but a small B&B showed sold out I decided to email the Selkirk Arms directly and was lucky to get a small suite room. We will be there for three nights so your book recommendation will help with the day trips from there. My husband is happy because his breakfast is included and there is a bar lol. It should be fun getting info on his surname that could possibly be a link to his linage in the areas between and around Drummore, Kircudbright and later mirgration⦠Dumfries. I will spend some time on Ancestry dot com before for more clues.

thats great, I am sure it will be a lot less stressfull from here on out withe everything spelled out... IMO I think your DH should tell BM that SS will call ever night before bed, and that if SS asks to call any other time you certainly will make sure he does, and that is how it will be when it is DH's time. Then, I flat out wouldn't answer the phone when she calls. Have SS call her bfore bed, and if he asks to call during the day fine too. She sounds really controlling, and it is not fair that you all have to interrupt your time together because she wan't to make her son feel guilty for being with you all.......

I have to say - we are in a new build with the 'fabulous open plan' and there are parts of it that aren't so fabulous. ;) I personally would prefer the somewhat separate spaces by a land slide. What's with the 'but then you aren't segregated and you can be together'. Are your truly together when you are banging pans and washing dishes and the other person is trying to watch TV? How is that 'together'? I miss having my radio on in the kitchen. I miss being able to say - 'go in the other room with that please'. They ARE in the other room! Ha! Or if someone stops by and you want to chat while the fam is doing something else there really is no place for that. I call the open floor plan 'all for 1 and 1 for all' living. Dh still loves it though.... Anyhow, I know many people love them but I was leery to start and after living here not so much a fan. I wouldn't do it again. Kitchen open to dining I can totally handle, kitchen open to family room I'll pass. Sorry I stepped onto that soap box so easily. :O What I really wanted to say was oh I am glad you like it because I like it for those reasons too and I really love the privacy it affords the master.