I really like your plan but if I might suggest a couple of minor tweaks... 1) Flip the entry door to the masterbedroom so that it opens against the powderroom wall instead of against the masterbath wall. That way, when the bedroom door is open it won't partially block the entry to the bathroom. 2) Then, after doing the above, you can move the the opening to the masterbath toward the front of the house so that it starts about 1 ft from the wall separating the toilet room from the rest of the bath. This would allow you to put in a swinging door that opens toward the toilet room wall. Because this door would open more than 90 degrees, when fully open it should not block the entry to the toilet area. 3) The space between the shower and tub in the master bath looks like it is too narrow to be of any particular use. Have you considered just incorporating it into the shower area thereby making a large "neo-angle" shower instead of a rectangular one? 4) In the pantry, if you swap sides with the narrow and deeper cabinets so that, as you come into the pantry you are facing the narrow shelves instead of the deeper ones, it would help alleviate the sense that one was "walking into shelves." You could also angle off a couple of inches of the corner of the shelf is closest to the pantry door so there is no corner sticking out to accidentally walk into. If you don't need or want enough deep cabinetry to cover the entire right hand wall, you could use narrow shelving or cabinets for the 4 or 5 feet closet to the pantry window. (I don't agree about getting rid of the pantry window. That window is on the front of your house and, while you didn't post your front elevation, I suspect you need the pantry window to maintain the "rythm" of the repeating windows across the front of the house.) Across the end of the pantry (under the window), I'd put in a base cabinet to provide another work surface. I might even put another sink in under the pantry window thereby convert the entire pantry into a working "butler's pantry". 5) It isn't totally clear to me where that mountain view is in relation to your house but if by "to the right" you meant toward the northeast, I would want a window on the northeast wall of the study to capture that view. You might also consider windows on the NE and SW exterior walls of the girls' rooms upstairs. Although they already have lovely large windows, light from two directions is always nice - especially if the view in those directions is good. 6) In the kitchen, I would center the sink in the center of the curving bulkhead. Aesthetically, I just think having the sink centered would be more pleasing. You might want to move the dishwasher to the other side of the sink but this shouldn't be a problem if your aisleways are wide enough. (I'm guessing you'll have 42" or more.) Is that HP/OVEN a wall oven? I hope not because you really should have at least 12" of free counter top on either side of your stove to set things down if you need to. 18" would be better. But a wall oven right next to the stove would mean you would have no free countertop space on that side. Not good. If you are planning a fancy hood over your stove, I would also love to see some way to line the stove and hood up with your island but with the current size kitchen, I see no way to do that. I'm not understanding exactly what you meant by moving a kitchen wall by 18 inches to make room for trim around the office door... but you do need to figure out a way to gain a few inches there. Is your intention to move the counter with the sink 18" into the dining room area? If so, then I would consider flipping the (undercounter???) oven and stove because, with the wider kitchen, I think that might allow you to line up the stove and hood with the island and still have 12" or so of counter space to the right of your stove. which might allow you to line up the stove and it's hood with the island. Note however that your sink is already a good long distance from your fridge. If you move it 18" further away, I would put the prep sink on the side of the island closet to the fridge. That would give you a prep zone on the front side of your island and a clean up zone on the backside. Be aware that you'll have traffic through your kitchen prep zone so you'll want that aisle to be nice and wide. 4 ft minimum, 4.5 ft would be better. 7) Do make absolutely sure how deep an alcove you will need for your refrigerator/freezer. Better to lose a couple of inches more pantry space now than wind up with your built-ins not fitting! 8) Upstairs, I don't know about your daughters but my experience with teenaged girls is that there are certain times of the month when they might want a hot soaking bath instead of a shower. Plus, bathtubs in some of the secondary bedrooms would give the house more resale value since families with small children want tubs. So, instead of the small showers, I would consider putting in a tub/shower combo up against the front (windowed) wall in each of those upper bathrooms. Move the toilets where the vanities currently are and the vanities where the showers currently are. If I'm reading the dimensions correctly, those windows are only 24 inches (600 mm) tall anyway - so the bottom of the window is probably 4.5 to 5 ft from the floor. That means that if someone were showering right in front of the window, only their head would be visible from the street. So privacy isn't really an issue. But, even if it is, you can use glue-chip glass in the windows. To protect the windows from moisture while showering, you can either slope the inner window sill slightly and tile it, or hang a second shower curtain (cut short) where it can be pulled across the windows. 9) Also, be very careful when planning to put pocket doors in closets. Remember that your clothes hanging rod has to be supported by solid bracing... not just sheetrock. There may not be enough room in a standard thickness wall for both a pocket door and that necessary bracing to support a clothes hanging rod. 10) I definitely agree about insetting the laundry room door and was going to suggest that until I saw that you had already intended to do it. 11) I'm not sure what you mean by dryers in Australia not being vented to the outside. Dryers put out a tremendous amount of lint. If they are not properly vented, where does the lint go? Into a wall cavity? Or is it just dumped in the space between the dryer and the wall? I can't imagine having to pull my dryer away from the wall constantly to clean behind it! And if the lint is just dumped into the the space between walls (vented into the walls), it is going to build up and, combined heat from the dryer, become a huge fire hazard. So, even if nobody else vents their dryers to the outside in Australia, I strongly encourage you to insist on properly venting yours. It can be vented through your roof if you don't want the vent on the front of your house. Just my ideas on how to make a lovely plan just tiny bit better! I do hope you'll post the elevation drawings because it is a great plan. And, when you start building, [pst some pics of the property and views. It sounds beautiful!

Thank you so much for all the comments. I really appreciate you guys taking the time to respond. Lindybarts- I agree with you about the a mud room. We moved the garage wall so it is 3 feet wider and plan on having a landing into the garage as a mudroom. Thank you for posting the plan. Froghopper- I am not in love with the sink in the corner. My GC said it shouldn't be a problem moving it as we get closer to ordering cabinets. I'm not worried about it being dark because we took out the fireplace and instead we are going to have a wall of windows that overlook the valley below. The back of the home is what you will see as you drive in. We changed the rear elevation on the back so it will match the front of the home. Also we plan on having a double slider X00X so we can have that outdoor indoor feeling in the living room. We also wanted to have guest walk into the home and see all the way through to the back and the city view below. We did add skylights in the foyer. Chisue- We took out the tub but left a shower. With 3 young kids I would love to have a showroom for a living area but that will never happen. LOL. We currently do not have a room designated a play area and it hasn't been a problem. They go outside with their friends or they play in the house. I've never really understood having a designated are for kids. My DH and I grew up on farms (different towns) and our designated area was whatever sounded like an adventure. The kids will have plenty of goats, sheep and whatever else they can find to play with. Also, we moved the toilet in the master to the other side and elongated the laundry room and set it back a little so it's not so visible. I would love to post our plan. Does anybody know how? I don't have a scanner. Again, than you for all the wonderful comments. Amy

Hi Everyone! We have been working on our plan with our architect, but it still bugs me that we have to have wasted space at the front door. We don't really have people enter our front door unless we are having a gathering. I just posted earlier today about our most current house plans, see my post in the stream requesting reviews. However, going back over my files today, I came across this picture. This is a hodge-podge of features that we like. I still am holding out that we can make it work in some fashion. I really do not want to pay for a large home, nor do I want to clean it. :) Looking at this image, I would make the most interior Family or Dining Room the actual Family Room and the exterior room at the back of the kitchen the Dining Room. The actual Den on the picture I was hoping could be a scissored stair and the room to the right, near the stairs, just off the foyer could be the Den. The actual stairs on this picture could be a hidden pantry entered from the kitchen. We would have a door from the back yard into the mudroom near the half-bath that is on the picture. Have I lost my mind? I really want a well-designed plan and I keep second-guessing myself!! I like the kitchen and master bathroom that I have in my most recent plan. See here. However, I am not unwilling to listen to suggestions. I am a planner by nature and I like to know where everything will be before executing my plan. By that, I mean even the kitty litter and dog/cat food and bowls! :) I have even planned out my kitchen in terms of storage of items in what drawers/cabinets. Please help me if you can! :)

I wouldn't call this a real Tudor, more a mish-mosh with some Tudor trim. That is why it doesn't look "right" to you (or me). Half-hearted gables, the door is wrong and lacks importance, it altogther seems not graceful. If you don't want to pull off the faux half-timbers, you could paint them out -- make them fade into the overall siding. You need to decide which direction you want to go -- I think there might be things you could do to "fix" the Tudor look to an extent -- changing the dark paint in the gables would be a start, maybe adding another texure (stone or brick) around the door area. As many have mentioned above, the right color scheme can make a huge difference. My inclination would to go in a direction that might suit the overall shape of the house a bit better though. Your roof's shade of brown is not a bad one and can work with several greens, blues, reds and, of course, neutrals including a few grays. You are lucky that you can paint which gives you infinite color choices. If you don't want the color to pop too much because you are close to the street, choose a muted tone. There are lots of gray- blues, blue-grays, green-grays that would lighten up the house but not be too strong.