OK... first time all day that someone is not screaming or crying in my house. Crazy day today. Lavender- I wish I could see more pics of that kitchen. It's great. It even has the same cabinet style/color, island color, and flooring that we are planning to have in our kitchen. The 1 car garage is 15'10" wide. Is that big enough to steal space from it? I'm pretty sure we are limited by the property line restriction on the sides of the house. Our lot is 110' wide and 235' deep with untouchable natural green space in the back 1/3 of it. (100'x235' treed natural green space on the west side that is owned by the development.) Bump outs are a bit tricky because of our lot limitations. We hesitated to bump the kitchen out too much because it will limit our backyard patio and landscaping space. A lot of the odd bumps in the floorplan is because during the design process we did a 1' bump out of the kitchen, and several feet to the music room. Both rooms used to be even with the rest of the house. Lyfia- we put the master in that location of the house because of the view. :) Plus, I've never liked the idea of the master bedroom or bath being on the front of the house. Peytonroad- Thanks! Someone else pointed out the wasted space in the mudroom/powder room area. I'll have to keep thinking about that one. You all have given such great ideas and things to think about! I'm not sure if I mentioned this on this thread, but we've hired an independent architect to oversee the build. I'm meeting with her soon so that we can go over any of my concerns. This thread has been wonderful to collect ideas and issues to bring to her. Would love to hear any other ideas if you think of more. You all have been wonderful! Thanks so much!

I like that the house is going to have a simple roof line. It presents nicely to the front. I've been enough homes without foyers that not having one doesn't worry me -- if it were a large home, that would be different. I like that there are no internal rooms that get no light (but the place does need more windows... especially the master bedroom, and bedrooms 3 and 4, which are on corners of the building and could easily have windows on two different walls. I'm not crazy about the door from the living room to the master, some privacy would be nice. I do like that you only have two interior eating places rather than three. A coat closet is lacking. The kitchen has enough problems that a trip to the Kitchen Forum is advised... I mean, if you really do decide to go ahead with this plan. Bedroom 3, if you remove the closet, could be sufficient for the man cave. If it is for TV in a darkened room, you could consider Bedroom 2, which really can only get light from one side, again no closet if the man wants to have a maximal man space. Bath 2 - when you open the door to the toilet/tub area, you will have to get up, jump off to the side or into the tub, so that the door doesn't bang you on your way out. I am not a fan of a master bath containing closets for clothing at all. I do think you can do better, but I will note this is an improvement on many of the stock plans out there. A lot of the design for your place will depend on topography, where any views are, and what you intend for the balance of your land. So, often a stock build will not help you address these things. And as Mushcreek noted, your lay of land may indicate your master works best in the front, but this is not usual. If you are far enough off the road, you get more flexibility, certainly. And, as Mrs Pete and CP noted, you can do a lot of things if you are skilled in photographic principles. How many are there of you? PS: Crawl space... really HARD to access if you need to go down and repair things. Back when I was house hunting in 1991, and I was young and physically ready for most anything, I knew enough not to consider something with a crawl space. (Wish I'd been smart enough then about kitchens, too...) PPS: If you do have a crawl space or a basement, where are the stairs to it going to go?

I worked a design up that I think meets all your needs & wants except the cozy nook with comfortable chairs. More on that below... A few comments b/f I post my design. Pantry... You want a pullout pantry instead of a built-in pantry. However, a built-in pantry with shallow shelves (12"D) is much more useful -- it's more efficient & flexible storage, holds much more, is much more functional, and is much less expensive to build and maintain. In addition, you have very limited wall space and given all your wants, a pullout pantry would make your Kitchen function worse, not better. I do not know where your front door is (it's not one of the spaces you included in your sketch), but the "Front Closet" doesn't seem to be in a particularly useful location. Plus, with 5 people and the paraphernalia associated with them (especially school-age children!), it seems too small. We have one that's wider than yours (48" vs 40") and it's useless for a family of 4. It's turned into a catch-all for things no one knows where to put away -- something I should have changed when we redid our Kitchen but didn't think about. (I've been debating turning it into an auxiliary pantry instead of the one in the basement.) Based on above, I'm going to suggest that you merge the current Pantry and Front Closet into one Pantry. It could hold both food and small appliances and could also house the printer -- keeping it out of sight but still in the open for ease of use. (With the exception of my toaster oven, all my small appliances fit in my pantry on 12" deep shelves -- blender, breadmaker, coffeemaker, food processors (large & small), toaster, waffle maker, etc.) . Snack/Lunch Center (and Coffee Center)... For the Microwave, I suggest creating a "Snack/Lunch Center" to include either a MW drawer (my preference). a MW hanging from an upper cabinet, or a MW sitting on the counter. In the design below, note the location of this Center. It's located to the left of the Pantry and out of the main part of the Kitchen. This keeps snackers outside of the work area so they do not interfere with the preparing and cooking a meal or cleaning up. The Center is located near the refrigerator where most MW'd food and lunch foods come from and not far from the sinks. There is plenty of storage, both above and below for lunch supplies, perhaps a gluten-free bread drawer, etc. The upper cabinet is only 9"D to open up the area a bit. However, if you hang the MW from the upper cabinets, the one the MW is hanging from should be at least standard depth (12") and maybe even 15" deep. I prefer the MW below the counter so it's not "in your face" when hanging or cluttering the countertop...but I would definitely not put a standard MW below the counter since they are problematical to use in that location...instead, I recommend a MW drawer. There is also a coffeemaker in the Center since it's over 5' wide and plenty big enough for both a Coffee Center and a Snack Center. The "Snack/Lunch Center" also acts as a Tertiary Prep Zone -- it has no direct water access, but water is nearby. . Gluten Center... The "Gluten Center" is located far from the main area of the Kitchen and the Snack/Lunch Center to reduce the chances of cross-contamination. It does sit partly in front of the window to the deck, but I suggest putting in just one cabinet and leaving an open space directly adjacent to the window. It may need a "leg" to help support the countertop, but it doesn't have to be very big. That open space could be for a small trash can or just left open. It shouldn't block too much light. If you like to keep things off the counter, the toaster and other paraphernalia can be stored in the drawers when not in use. . Island... The island holds the Cleanup Zone and the Secondary Prep Zone. It also seats 5. . Cozy Nook... I was not able to put in a couple of chairs and table. The doors being spread out really constrain the space. I know you said no structural changes, but if you were willing to move the french doors from the Kitchen to the Dining Room, it would free up that corner for the cozy little nook you're thinking of. That corner would be a nice place for a couple of chairs and a small table (see the "Nook Option" layout to see what I'm talking about). . ++++++++++ The Layouts ++++++++++ Layout #1: . Layout #1 - Zones: . Layout #1 - Nook Option: . . Layout #2: . Layout #2 - Zones: . +++++ Additional Analysis +++++ The three primary work zones (Primary Prep, Cooking, Cleanup) are separated from each other. This allows several people to work in the Kitchen at the same time -- prepping, cooking, and cleaning up. Each primary zone has it's own "space" so there is no conflict. Prep Zones...There are two Prep Zones with direct water access and one without direct water access. With multiple prep zones, several people can be prepping at the same time (in addition to someone cooking in the Cooking Zone). The Primary Prep Zone is on the perimeter b/w the refrigerator and range and contains a prep sink. While working in this Prep Zone you can easily move from the refrigerator to the sink (for cleaning/rinsing food) to the prep counterspace to the range in the Cooking Zone. There are over 33 inches b/w the sink and the corner and over 30 inches b/w the corner and range for work space...all nice and close to the range. This flow follows the usual Kitchen workflow: Refrigerator --> Prep Zone/Sink --> Prep Zone/Workspace --> Cooking Zone The Secondary Prep Zone is on the island and uses the cleanup sink as its water source. -- In Layout #1, the DW is in the middle of the Secondary Prep Zone. Unfortunately, this means if someone is prepping there, it will be difficult for someone else to clean up. However, the DW is close to the dish storage both next to the range and in the island. -- In Layout #2, the DW is not in the Secondary Prep Zone and there can now be someone prepping and cleaning up at the same time. However, now the DW is now too far from the dish storage next to the range and the island dish storage is in the middle of the Secondary Prep Zone. In addition, the 13" thick wall is somewhat in the way. -- I'm not sure right now which I prefer! I kind of lean toward the 2nd, but if I were cleaning up I wouldn't be very happy about the dish storage being so far away! The Tertiary Prep Zone is in the "Snack/Lunch Center". While it has no direct water access, it does have sufficient counter space to help out with preparing a meal. As the Lunch Center, someone can be making lunches for the next day while others are preparing/cooking a meal and/or cleaning up. The two sinks make it possible for you to have multiple people working in the Kitchen. To work effectively, you need the two sinks to allow people to be able to work at the sink at the same time and have their own counterspace. Sharing a sink doesn't really work that well, even if you have a giant sink -- especially with kids working together! The Cooking Zone...The Cooking Zone contains the range and is next to the Primary Prep Zone and across from the Secondary Prep Zone (whichever option you pick). The Cleanup Zone...The Cleanup Zone contains the sink and DW. Normally, I would move this zone to the perimeter and moved the Primary Prep Zone to the island b/c you spend far more time prepping than you do cleaning up (over 70% prep/20% cleaning up), but two things worked against that... You don't have enough wall space for both the refrigerator/range and the cleanup sink/DW. You stated your preference for it to be in the island. The reality is, though, that you don't actually spend that much time at the sink during cleanup. Cleanup includes clearing/wiping down the table, clearing/wiping down the counters, sweeping, loading/unloading the DW, etc...in addition to hand washing a few dishes at the sink. With only one sink, prepping & cleanup are done at the same sink, so it's understandable that many think they spend a lot of time cleaning up...it's actually the prepping.

This might be no more legible than the original, but using the basic plan, I moved the entry to the kitchen, to avoid funneling traffic through the work zones. I left the cabinets in the entry/mudroom(?) blank--TBD. I can't tell what's below the fridge. MW? Wine cooler? I added an optional prep sink to the island, which would become the primary prep space, with secondary prep space for a helper beside the clean-up sink. Trash pull-out would be to the left of the prep sink, or to the right of the clean-up sink. Dish storage is in drawers on the island, across from the clean-up sink, with easy access to the dining area.