The living room only has approximately 12-feet of width for furnishings. At least 3-feet will have to be left of clearance for passage to and from the garage area.

You should carefully check your furnishings plan to ensure your desired furnishings and arrangement will actually fit.

And speaking of small, at 21 x 21', the garage is small and likely won't hold two vehicles, especially a large SUV or pick up.

You really need to closely check and verify you can live in this house.

Good luck!

Ok - thank you! I didn’t even realize that was a smaller than normal garage! I also didn’t realize the living room would have a size issue. Does the size of the kitchen and dining areas also look too small to be functional? I know we aren’t looking at a huge house, but I don’t want it to feel cramped or dysfunctional either.

Agree with the statements above to watch the sizing. I think the plan is a bit misleading because the doors aren't drawn in, and the door swings will take away usable floor space. (For example, in the dining nook, is that gap in the wall for an in-swing door?) I tried to add some below, sized to the openings, so you can see what I mean.

Be aware that many drafters of online plans aren't great at designing kitchens. Examples:

- Many people are getting away from angled islands, tiered islands, and cooktops in the island.

- How will you vent the cooktop?

- Watch out for the fridge placement next to the wall like that. you won't be able to open the door all the way, so you won't be able to pull out bins and shelves for cleaning.

Google sizing for garages, as Virgil mentions above. Better yet, park your car with the doors open so that you and a passenger can comfortably get in and out. Leave the doors open and measure how much space you need between the car and a wall or another vehicle.

Dining space: depends on the size of your table, how many chairs you need, whether that door swings in, and if you plan to have other furniture in there like a china cabinet. Figure out your usable floor space (accounting for any door swing) and leave room for people to move behind someone seated at the table. You can find guidelines online; most of what I've seen is a minimum 3' between table and wall, with 4' being more comfortable, and a minimum of 2' wide table space for each diner, with 30" being more comfortable.

Good points raised above by chicagoans

Some other things to think about:

- Where will you keep your coats and shoes by the garage entrance? And will you be tripping over them when you try to get to the laundry room?

- Do you need three small-ish/chopped up seating areas (dining, island, breakfast nook), any preference on having i.e. a bedroom suite (master) on the main floor? Are you comfortable having a toilet share a wall with the dining room?

- Do you need a closet by the front door for your guests jackets? Given the size of your lot, could you possibly have a plan where the garage isn't front & center?

- Have you considered working with someone to create a plan that works for your family and for the plot of land that you have? (i.e. maybe you have a nice view you want to try to maximize. It does sound like the back of your house would face south? If that's true, maybe it's better to try and plan for having the garage on the other side of the house (west) to help block those late afternoon sun rays.)

The size of the dining room makes it virtually unusable. My own DR is not quite 13' square, and it's very tight with a table and chairs and a sideboard. I wish it were 15' square!

You have 3 eating areas. Perhaps you should combine them into one nice sized area or only 2.

As others have said, your tape measure will quickly become your best friend. Use it!

The toilet in the powder room is up against the wall between it and the dining room. Makes for great entertainment when folks are sitting down to a lovely meal and someone uses the powder room. At the very least, the powder room should be reversed so that the sink and toilet are against the wall between the powder room and the kitchen. The kitchen cabinets and their contents will muffle the sound for the benefit of anyone in the kitchen.

You might want a room, or just space, for a home office where you can pay bills, review proposals, keep kid records, etc, and I don’t see room for that here unless in a basement. And, the kids’ bath has no storage. What about their hair/makeup/orthodontia/contact lens/skin care/etc?

It‘s a really cute exterior (especially when they color it yellow!) but you have room on an acre for a house that works better for your family, and still be affordable.

I just want to add a reminder to Lori's good advice above - when you're measuring everything, don't forget to measure it in the way you'll use it! That is, when you measure your car for the garage, measure with the car doors open. When you measure the dining room tables and chairs, leave a few chairs pulled out. And so on.

Think about how much space something is going to need during normal use, not as it might sit in a showroom.

Our new house have a 3 stall garage. But it may as well be just 2. My husbands Chevy xtra cab with grill guard just barely fits so he parks outside. I think our garage measures 22x32. I really think 24x24 should be minimum. Our kitchen is in the center between the breakfast area and dining room too. Dining room is 11x12. Breakfast 11x11 but with a bay. I would much rather have just 1 larger room the the 2 almost too small ones. We also eat in the breakfast nook. We never use the dining room. I do like that we can look out into the back yard from the sink. The kitchen layout is basically 2 Ls

A few more comments. I think the living room size is good. Not too small at all. I really prefer that the pantry and kitchen are close to the garage for easy unloading groceries. A half bath near the garage is also nice for those times you need to use it when you first get home. I also like a mudroom with hooks and cubbies off the garage rather than a closet. We come in through our garage 95% of the time. But it is nice to have a closet close to the front entry for guests. As others have said measure your current space to help decide the size of rooms that you really need for your family. Hallways are dark wasted spaces, make them as short as possible.

If you have budget issues, why build a 2 story living room? And 2 story foyer. The railing isn't free not to mention the extra volume you are paying for and heating and cooling.

The master bath is so tight - crams in all the modern must haves - for a larger home.

A rear covered porch costs serious money - and it is long and narrow which looks cute and all but isn't very practical for conversation outside.

I had a house with a very similar plan and nearly the exact same sitting room off the master - wasted space. It was my first house build (1999) and I feel especially qualified to point out its many many faults.

Had the same master bedroom over the garage - was great when I head to go off to work early.

The temperature stratification with that 2 story area is also great to live with (/s). We had the upstairs thermostat just outside the master and it had to be adjusted constantly to keep the upstairs comfortable.

What's funny is I just noticed the copyright date. The exact year I built a very similar house. Don't live starting out with a 20 year old plan. When you go to sell in 10 years, it will be a 30 year old plan......And it isn't like people in 2029 will be craving the brilliant 1999 floor plans.

Have a budget - skip the garage, skip the porches, skip the 2 story rooms. Give yourself functional spaces first and foremost. Build for the life of the house and energy use will become much more important than 1999.

The small dimension of the living room will be approximately 12'.

If one has little in the way of furnishings it may be workable.

Otherwise, 12' is a small dimension for a living room for many folks. Certainly wouldn't work for me.

On the other hand, my current living room is 11.5' x 9' (plus about a 4' walkway across the back - so total dimensions 11.5' x 13'), and is plenty of space for me.

Really just have to measure your stuff, and see what you need. Everyone is different. There's no way I could host more than a couple people at my place at a time, but I don't have the need to do so. For others, that might be something they do regularly, or they might have a large family that takes up that space.

One can certainly layout living room furniture in 12': 42" for chairs or sofas on each side leaves 5' for some ottomans and a small table, or an L shaped seating area leaves space something larger in the center, but it could look tight unless you specifically pick out small scaled furniture. What makes the living room extra challenging though is that the only clear wall is where the circulation path is. With this plan I would absolutely delete the living room and breakfast room doors to the back porch and replace them with a single door in the living room lined up with the front door. This will vastly improve furniture arrangement and circulation in both spaces.

In general I would print out these plans at a scale and start drawing in or placing cut out furniture, because many of these spaces seem potentially challenging as doors, openings, and dimensions are currently laid out. For instance other than the sitting area, I don't see any place in the master bedroom that a wide 6-9 drawer dresser would logically be placed.

Thanks so much for all of the input. I think this might not be the best plan for us and we will have to keep looking!

Marie

"Thanks so much for all of the input. I think this might not be the best plan for us and we will have to keep looking!"

I am reminded of a story I heard as a child

https://www.kidsgen.com/moral_stories/you_cannot_please_everyone.htm

Stop looking for plans online, and start looking for an architect. They can design exactly what fits your family's needs and your location. They can be quite reasonably price , not a whole lot more online plans (which includes not only the initial price, but also the cost of modifying it to work on your site, and any changes you want). The result is almost always far better.

At least talk to a couple architects and find out what they can offer you. That part doesn't cost you anything except a bit of your time.

I am reminded of a story I heard as a child

https://www.kidsgen.com/moral_stories/you_cannot_please_everyone.htm

I did listen to what others suggested and my house is 1000x better than what it might have been if I had just listened to my builder and the draftsman.

Unlike you, not all of us think we know better than anyone else.

This house is designed to fit on a narrow semi-urban lot and therefore every space in the house including the garage must give up something. The central organizing feature of the house is the garage which is not even a living space.

If you have an acre lot you should be looking for an entirely different kind of house. Unfortunately, efficient designs with a side loaded garage attached by a mudroom is rare on internet design sites but I wish you luck.