Please critique my house plan!
Wisco Mama
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
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Bri Bosh
4 years agoPPF.
4 years agoRelated Discussions
Please Critique My House Plans... Help Needed...
Comments (12)The secondary bedrooms seem really cramped, size-wise, but I appreciate the need to control square footage. I wouldn't want guests to have access to my study via that powder bathroom, so I would definitely want a lock on that door between powder and study. Even though I'm not a fan of having my office in my bedroom, I would be tempted to do so vs. leaving passwords, bank info etc. in a room just off the room than any passing person would have access to if they borrowed my powder room. It would be annoying to feel like I had to keep that info continually locked up. The living room....I'm not feeling a good furniture arrangement based on the location of door openings. Maybe four awesome club chairs around a round coffee table? Or am I imagining that those windows to the porch are sliding glass doors? I don't mind the size of the master bathroom at all, and don't see any need to make the master bedroom bigger. Bigger is not always more beautiful. Sometimes it is just awkward, full of space that must be filled. I love closets accessed through the bathroom - all my clothing and laundry mess is confined to the area where I dress, undress, bathe, etc. I do not have any clothing storage in my bedroom at all, and I like it that way. I have shelves with baskets for pre-sorting our laundry right as it comes off of us. Great time-saver. Consider flipping the master bathroom closet area and shower/bath area - and add clerestory windows with opaque glass to get some natural light into the bathroom that way, including another source of air to keep the shower dried out. If you also flip the stairs, you can have a door to dump dirty laundry right into the laundry room from the master bath, a huge work-saver. Especially if you can find a way to also send clean baskets of laundry back through an opening. Sweet. Whether you move the stairs or not, a door to access the under-stair area from the garage would be an extremely practical idea if you don't need climate controlled storage. If you flip your master closet, you can simply open up that whole under-stair area directly to the master closet for additional and more secure semi-hidden storage, possibly put a safe in that area, etc. I don't see hanging space for clothing in the laundry area. I can't do without that, as hanging to dry saves electricity and wear-and-tear on clothing. Create a way to put family member's clean clothing as well as backpacks, etc. in the "locker" area. might even be able to use the space for "hang drying." My mom used plastic dishpans set on shelves to sort our clothing so we could put it away ourselves. Add a closet to the study NOW and you can use it (and resell) the house as a 4 bedroom. And hide ugly file cabinets and office supply storage at the same time. We live in a digital age, and we often do not need as much space as we think for our office needs. Steal a little more space and add a shower to that powder bath, given the number of people you have living at home. And/or fix the J&J bathroom to allow access from the hall. Doing this also keeps guests from having to go through other people's bedrooms when the powder room is busy. I'm living with that challenge right now. People living in the bedrooms do NOT appreciate the through-traffic. There are two other potties in the house should an emergency arise during someone's shower. Also, I despise seeing a sink from the inside of a bedroom with these J&J set ups. So unsightly. Love that you only have one dining area. If it isn't big enough in real life, consider making the LR into a glorious DR-cum-fireplace, and making the area off the kitchen into a cozy lounge somehow. People can visit with you without helping you in the kitchen, and then everyone can retreat to a gloriously big dining area without any dirty dishes in view. Just a thought. Instead of two kitchen islands, how about one rectangular one that invites flow through the kitchen? The end can have space to sit and put your knees under for those who want to eat in the kitchen. Then you can extend the counter or pantry space all the way to the end of the wall where you currently have an empty spot. Expensive mistake: Front entry looks unpleasantly narrow. This is a big "first impressions" error that could cost you tons of potential buyers in the future. An extra foot or two will make a huge difference here. Seriously. So would a niche with an electrical outlet for a little chest, lamp etc. to create a welcoming feel to the space without impinging on a 4-5 foot wide walk space. Use the bump out creatively in the bedroom behind it by tucking in shelves, a little work-station and/or or a shallow closet in the resulting extra niche in that room. Neither the back nor front porches seem big enough to me. Remember, you can multiply your usable space by extending your outdoor surfaces. It is worth it to invest up front in the hard scape that carries you and all wheelbarrows and wheelchairs and whatnot gracefully and easily around all outdoor spaces and entries and exits. Your house seems to be one of those in which the garage is the main entry, because the front door is so darn far away from the driveway. It is important to make that front door entrance wide, generous, inviting. This costs quite a bit, and I'd hate to see that skimped and then ignored for a decade until you could afford to fix it up right. I really like the extra depth you have along-side the car parking area. Bravo. Read Myron Ferguson's Build It Right if you want great tips on avoiding all sorts of user-hostile home building mistakes. I also highly recommend anything by Sarah Susanka. I may not be spelling that right, but she wrote all the "Not so big house" books. Hope this helps!...See MoreCritique my house plan please! :)
Comments (5)Looks like an overall nice plan. I don't know what your lot configuration is like or what your other requirements are, but here are my suggestions. If you have the room, I'd pull the garage out about 4 ft. That way, you can put a door between the bathroom and the garage so that you can have a secondary entrance that leads right into your mud room from the front of the house. If you don't need the shower, I'd get rid of it and make it a walk in closet. I'd make the closets with the bi-fold doors into cubbies. Your covered decks are going to limit light into your great room and kitchen. I'd add windows or transoms above the cabinets if you can't spare the upper cabinet space on the other kitchen wall. In your great room, I'd vault the ceiling and add some kind of dormer windows in the ceiling or other light source. I'd pull the wall that runs along the bottom (south?) of bedroom 2 out about 3 feet. That way you can put closets in your den to make it a bedroom, and you can lengthen the bathroom. I'd add a door between the sink and the toilet. That way, somebody can use the bathroom or shower, while the others can brush their teeth, get ready, etc. I'd add windows in the master bedroom on that long wall. The only windows you have now are covered by the porch. Also, that corner tub wastes a lot of space. Looks like a great start. Good luck!...See MorePlease Critique My House Plan
Comments (5)Is there a particular reason to have a full bath on the hall instead of a powder room? If you do not need that tub/shower, you could use the space to make a small vesibule where the master tub is now with access to the bath and closet from there. Our current house is set up in a similar fashion with a 3 x 3 area off the master with one wall being entrance to our closet, one wall with linen closet (deep enough for hampers) and one wall with door to bath. I am always going between the closet and bath, so I don't think it would be a pain to walk through the bath to get to closet (I am designing our new house this way). But the vestibule idea may solve it altogether. Also, if your master closet and storage laundry area back up to one another, I would make sure there was a way to pass laundry through from one room to another - hampers that roll under the counter and into the closet, laundry drop doors so you could do a very short laundry chute of sorts, etc. If it is just you guys 99% of the laundry will originate in your closet. So you would want a way to pass dirty laundry through and pass clean laundry back easily. Perhaps there is some way to do a "walk-through" linen closet of the vestibule that would go to the laundry room. Then sheets and towels would be easily managed, too. I agree with kirkhall on the entry. You will end up with a ton of room under that stair for the closet and can combine uses with the coat closet as drawn. When you are designing bannisters for your stairs, you may want to make sure you use some design that will accomodate a spring loaded baby-gate so you don't have to install something more permanent. You didn't mention grandkids, but with four kids, they are certain to come. :) Best of luck!...See MorePlease critique my house plan....
Comments (26)Wow. Thank you all for the comments. I feel like I have blinders on and my eyes are suddenly open. How can I not see all these things? I just can't. But, once you point it out to me.....it all looks so obvious. Keep reading here and soon you'll see these things too. Don't rush towards building. I have to say it -- I buck the tide here on front-loading garages and think they generally look fine, and there are always good reasons to have them, even if there's apparently enough property to support not having them. Yeah, I'm fine with front-facing garages, but they aren't all done right. Garages can't just be stuck on -- they take planning just like any other part of the house....See Moreprairiemaiden
4 years agoWisco Mama
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4 years agoWisco Mama
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4 years agoPPF.
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4 years agoWisco Mama
4 years agoMark Bischak, Architect
4 years agoWisco Mama
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4 years agoHolly Stockley
4 years agoWisco Mama
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