Where is this house being built?

What direction is north?

What is your family makeup like?

Where are the elevations for this house?

How does this house sit on the lot?

The plans are too small to see measurements. Post larger plans

Why is the garage on the oppose side of the house from the kitchen and the only way to get into the house from the garage is to go out the large doors and walk up to the entry?

cpartist we are rebuilding our house from a tornado, we are constrained by the existing foundation conditions.

North is the front of the house facing the laundry room.

How scary and what a horrible experience that must have been. I like it. I like the kitchen and the way the master bath is so private. Is there room for a dining table?

One other thought is that you have both a mud room and a laundry room. I imagine that dog bath is 8mportant to you. But I wonder if it is taking up valuable real estate. The study is pretty tight.

auntthelma yes it has been scary every step of the way but happy to be moving forward.

we are thinking of putting a round 60" dining table.

removing the dog wash could add space to the laundry if needed, when framed we can get a better sense of the space. I think the study area is a good size for our family and what we need it for (paying bills and homework) dont need to spend too much time in there.

I like the way the front and side doors both access the same hallway, but...since you live where it rains (besides tornadoes, yikes!) would you want the garage to have protected access to the house? Either a door to the house, or continue a porch roof over the front of the garage?

Your bathroom has 5 windows, and the kids' bathroom has one. And that one is right next to the showerhead, a mold and ice situation waiting to happen. In your bathroom, I think I'd put the closets on the right-hand wall, and the door to the bathroom up closer to the bedroom door. That gives you more closet, a space for a stool at the end, and a shorter walk into the bathroom.

love

I would think about putting a closet at the entry for visitors costs, etc. also, your dining room is essentially located in a hallway in this plan...

I like the entry and mud area. Lots of good storage there. But with a full office upstairs do you think you’ll really use the study? I wouldn’t want to be in isolation and like to keep an eye on kiddos doing homework/on computer.

Are you building in a safe room in case of another tornado?

*coats

I don't think you have room for a 60" round dining table without squishing furniture in the living room area. I can't read the dimensions, but you need to consider the amount of walking space you need to have around the furniture as well in an open plan.

You would need a minimum of 4ft (that is minimum and will be tight - 5 ft would be better) between dining chairs and the bar stools, then 3ft minimum (4ft better) - again very tight to get past when somebody sits there between the dining table and any furniture in the living room.

I would suggest you draw out furniture to scale and see how much moving around space you have to actually access things. Have you considered the lower plan into the right side next to the garage having the mudroom/laundry etc. and then make an L that keeps the kitchen where it is at and has the dining in front and the living shifted over some to make space for the dining. Then you can enter into the house from the garage. Also laundry would be near the bottom of the stairs so less schlepping once you get it downstairs.

Pretty house!

How do you get into the house from the garage? Have you considered flipping the house so your kitchen, mudroom, laundry are not completely across the house from the garage? Now your kitchen and entry would be by the garage.

That's in interesting idea, and I like the side entry being next to the garage. But the kitchen really isn't any closer because you are walking around the pantry and bath (if the bathroom can bve moved without blocking the basement stairs, you gain closer access to the kitchen but lose the nice + of the plan). And the stairs are now on the opposite side of the house.

I think a lot depends on the site, and how they use the yard, how they typically come and go, which door they use and how.

cpartist we can't provide access to the house through the garage due to elevation, adding a door would require steps in the garage which would prevent us from parking in the garage. I like having the kitchen in the back corner because it is south east facing allowing lots of natural light during the day and at night if we are cooking or entertaining the noise would not travel up the stairs if our children are sleeping.

The house is high on the "cute factor", and low on actual functional, furnishable space.

Do you believe you can fit your actual and/or needed furnishings in all of the spaces?

Are you prepared to live with the poor design issues, such as

no direct entry from garage into house?

Where will you shelter when the next tornado warning is given?

Mark, given that they've just been through a tornado, that might not have been the best image to share.

Having that setup right now, where to get into my house I drive into the garage, walk out of the garage door then into the house, it's certainly not that much of an inconvenience. The one difference that our garage has though is the man door faces out the front and is immediately adjacent to the house door, so in the case of a heavy rain, or if we are just running into the garage to get something we can just use that. But if you have multiple vehicles with your single stall garage, someone is going to be parking outside anyway.

I also like the idea that yours would be one of those few houses where you and your guests actually get to use the front door. So many houses with snout garages have made it so inconvenient to even get to the front door that no one actually uses it or even sees it.

But I do wonder what is driving some of the layout of this plan. How or when do you envision using the door off your mudroom? This is an ideal entrance for coming in from yard work, etc and needing a place to drop the boots without messing up the foyer, but this door seems like it faces away from the logical path to it. Is there something off in this direction on the site that we do not know about? Similarly, what is driving having the kitchen on the east versus on the west end of the Great Room?

I think it may be worthwhile trying a few alternate configurations within your given footprint. If you were to flip the floor plans except for the garage you might find that you can give access to the garage (a non-attached attached garage could be seen as a negative if you ever go to sell), get the kitchen and mud room closer to the garage and open up the living room to a more expansive corner view.

One other thing to think about: for a modest sized house the master bedroom and closet are wasting a ton of floor space. By this I particularly mean the hallway that wraps around the single loaded closet to the bathroom. If the closet could have storage on both sides it would at least give all of that space some purpose.

Lastly, don't put that tall narrow window in the second floor bath inside the combo shower/tub, especially right next to the plumbing wall. Note that the plumbing wall should be avoided on the an exterior wall if you are in a colder climate anyway. Having a big window in such a vulnerable location is asking for water problems. Plus you will have to figure out how to provide privacy, which probably means frosting the glass. Aside from the fact that frosted glass is still slightly see through, then you defeated the purpose of balancing out the front of the house. I would recommend rearranging that bathroom so it can have a window that is not in a shower.

cpartist we can't provide access to the house through the garage due to elevation, adding a door would require steps in the garage which would prevent us from parking in the garage.

No one said to add a door from the garage but having the kitchen and mud room next to the garage makes it more convenient especially when bringing packages in or needing to bring kids stuff in and dumping it. The way the house is as you have it is backwards.

I like having the kitchen in the back corner because it is south east facing allowing lots of natural light during the day and at night if we are cooking or entertaining the noise would not travel up the stairs if our children are sleeping.

You'd still be facing south which means you'd still have lots of natural light so I don't understand this comment.

And in case you didn't notice, I flipped the whole house so if noise wouldn't travel with the kitchen on the southeast corner, it won't travel now with it flipped to the southwest corner. Your comments make no sense at all.

I literally flipped the whole house both downstairs and upstairs. No other changes!

Cpartist....if the house is flipped, op would lose the two windows on the stove wall, which is a major drawback if the light is very important to the them. If it was me, I wouldn’t want to lose those windows and would rather deal with the garage entrance inconvenience. Flipping will leave them with only windows on the back of the house and not on the east side for morning sun.

Since the house shape is not symmetrical and it requires use of the existing foundation the plan can't just be flipped. It would need to be re-designed to work with the existing foundation.

I think I was the one asking about a door from the garage, but a nice overhang would work, too.

I wasn't completely clear if they are working with the current foundation itself, or current foundation conditions. Are those the same thing?

Elegant confident approach to a small existing footprint. Its interesting to imagine what the ideas were that shaped it.

Cpartist....if the house is flipped, op would lose the two windows on the stove wall, which is a major drawback if the light is very important to the them. If it was me, I wouldn’t want to lose those windows and would rather deal with the garage entrance inconvenience. Flipping will leave them with only windows on the back of the house and not on the east side for morning sun.

Flipping will allow for windows on either side of the fireplace wall. And the back wall of the kitchen which faces south can have a full wall of windows.

Those east windows that the OP has now are good only early in the morning. (Ask me how I know.)

I can’t really make out what’s on the family room wall....there may be built ins flanking the fireplace...hard to see. Looks like something solid there.

If that is a freestanding tub in the master bath, I foresee a struggle cleaning that back corner.

Here's an idea for the master suite.

You might like a pocket door for the bathroom. Now, pocket doors aren't usually the door of choice for a bathroom, but this application is different. You'd probably usually close only the door to the whole area, but when you want a tad more privacy you could use the pocket door.

The nook at the end of the dressing room could accommodate a small dresser or builtins, or a hamper, or you could move the front window to the left as I show here (end of the "hall") and extend the closets all the way down.

Have you had a combo shower and separate tub before? I always wonder how those work out in real life.

Here's how the front could look; I moved the study window to the right to be under the upstairs bath window (which I also moved), and this gives you a straight view from the house to out front.

I also wonder, what if the pantry were a reach-in, and open to the front hallway? It would certainly be convenient (and in incentive to keep the bench area clean). I tried playing with that here. (and you can ignore the stair turn, I was playing with it, trying to separate the living room a bit more from the front, but now I don't know if it makes the front entry feel too cramped.)

Hmm, you could maybe fill in the space between half-bath and the closet (the one by the stairs) with a closet to replace the lost storage from the left, or built-ins, or a built-in base cabinet , then uppers, and open in-between? and the base and uppers could open from both sides? And maybe glass-door uppers? Like one of these two? One is very traditional, the other more contemporary:

(not double, of course, just the one on the right)

And, do you need an island? It may be cliché, but perhaps a farm table would work well here. I'd extend the counter beside the dishwasher to the right, with cabinets above, for the dish storage.

I apologize to anyone that found my previous comment offensive, it was not intended to be.

Do you plan on making the new home tornado proof? Is the existing foundation to be reused or is a new foundation to be made within the same footprint?

I just saw this thread over in both Cleaning Tips and Bathrooms. Something to think about for your tub in the shower.

Tub in the Shower

following

Love the kitchen/dining room/living room combo. Porch is very inviting . Had you considered an upstairs laundry room since your bedrooms are upstairs?

We really like the main level laundry For many reasons mostly central access and room maximizing, I also See it if it leaks it’s only going damage infinished basement area .

The thing to consider is that we had lived 8 years in the space already the changes and discussions we made about layout were chosen based on need, the want was adding a 4th bedroom which we accomplished. The mudroom door leads to the side yard which is how you can get to the front or back with easy.

It looks like there's a lot of floor space in the master bath, but no storage. I'd try to rearrange it, including replacing the double sinks with one sink and a stack of drawers. Same for the second upstairs bath.