Help finding traditional ranch floor plan
Em
4 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
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4 years agoRelated Discussions
Help finding a small, simple floor plan and I need your advice!
Comments (29)Thanks for the great information ...patches I'll take a look at your plans...mightyanvil..thanks for taking the time to provide such great advice. This will be our "vacation" home..but it will really be a weekend get away place, that is if we can pull it off. The home will oriented so that the front of the home is north, the back south. We want views to the south and west. I was avoiding a second level because of cost, although considering a loft, but it sounds as though the rule of "cheaper to build up rather than out" applies. It's just DH, myself, and our chocolate lab. Originally we thought everything on one level but are now considering living room, kitchen, mudroom/bath on main level and bed and bath on above. We also considered a basement, as my DH wants the extra storage, but costs vs. it and just a slab foundation..not sure of the differences although there are those that say "might as well put in a basement while you're at it" We're not worried about excavation as we have a friend who'll do the job for us. We love open floor plan because we anticipate small footprint, we want back deck (but plan to build it on later) so outdoor spaces are important. We definitely want a mudroom...area to keep coats, boots, and area to rinse off dog after a run in the mud! We don't really need a garage..again, something we can add later... We live in Western Pa and do want a weather tight home, as we get more cold rainy weather than hot sunny...but want overhangs to keep direct sun out in summer, but still allow sun in winter (passive solar?)... Views to south (back) include woods and stream..views to west include woods and field. Weather hits us from north west...lots of wind from time to time. Why not a screened in porch? I love to sit out but hate the bugs! Ideally, we'd like to contract to get a "shell" built and finish the home ourselves as time/$ allow. Not sure what our options are there... I had to laugh about the home you'd described above with the various levels ..we currently have that set up...and have 5 levels and 4 sets of stairs and it drives me crazy! I can handle one set, but am a bit tired of 4. ;-)...See MoreFinding a Charming yet traditional floor plan-what have you built
Comments (22)Stacey, We started with a William Poole design but ended up changing the plan so much it no longer resembles the original version at all. Our house will be a sort of Southern Craftsman with 2162 sq. ft. downstairs and about 600 sq. ft. upstairs. I haven't updated my blog for a while, but here is the link to the downstairs plan. I'm waiting on the prints of the final version so I can post those. Here is a link that might be useful: Unofficial last version of house plan...See MoreOpinions on this basic and traditional floor plan?
Comments (27)Overall, it's nicely done -- as you said, basic and traditional. A couple things I'd want to tweak: - You said you want to cut down on square footage. The foyer seems very large in proportion to the rooms -- it's only a hallway, but it's larger than the den or the dining room. - The problem with changing the foyer, of course, is that while your front rooms seem to be a comfortable width, and the master and kitchen seem to be a comfortable width, the Great Room and the breakfast spot are none too wide, and you cannot afford to give up space there . . . thus, you really can't cut down the foyer without making major changes in those other rooms. - Up above the foyer, I wonder if that smallest bedroom could be made "equal" to the others by closing in that open space a bit? That might be impossible. - Or, better yet, switch the bedroom to the back of the house and bring the -- what's it called? Loft? Rec space? Whatever, to the front of the house. This'd give you a smaller open area and a larger bedroom. - Bathrooms upstairs were discussed. How many people will share this upstairs? Three bedrooms. If it's three people, I'd cut out one bathroom and save massive amounts of money. Three is a fine number to share one bathroom. - I see that you don't care for island seating (and I'm with you on that), but you will have room only for a small, small table here. I find the "table against island" concept a little "busy". How would this do: Remove the doors in the nook area (move the doors to the great room). Bump a four-person table way back near the window -- wait, make it a bay window. This will allow you walking space in the middle of the room right in front of the island. - I like the layout of the great room - nook - kitchen, but not the photograph. Carpet on one side and hardwood on the other makes the room look choppy, but that's a super-easy fix. And that fire place looks like some pre-fab something stuck into the wall. Yuck. I'd absolutely want a fireplace, but you can absolutely do better. - I don't think the kitchen is as bad as some other posters think. I would have to get the sink out of the corner, of course. And the refrigerator is too far from the action; if you move it out into the main kitchen area, your pantry could be large enough for shelves on both sides. - I like the beverage center on the way to the dining room and the location of the pantry. This is very practical and will be great for parties -- I'm imagining food on the island, drinks in the butler's pantry. - Master bath: I do not like all those doors. They're constantly going to be in the way. I'd eliminate the one for the toilet; it's kind of silly to hide the toilet in a closet -- it's claustrophobic, it's difficult to clean behind the toilet, and it's a nightmare for an elderly person who needs a walker (and although you're probably not an elderly person today, you probably will be eventually). Then I'd make the closet doors into pocket doors. - OR at least make the doors both bump "into" the closets instead of having one in /one out. Since both closets have a wasted "blank wall" inside, there's no reason both doors couldn't open "in" without blocking storage. - I would flip-flop the whole bathroom so you'd have a window over the toilet. It would make no difference in function. And I'd get rid of one sink. No one actually uses sinks at the same time anyway, and this would give you better storage by the sink area as well as saving money. I think it's an okay plan. I like traditional, and this one could be very nice....See MoreAwkward 60's ranch floor plan, HELP!
Comments (16)Agree that the "official" names of,the rooms mean nothing, notice how the PO used the first room as a home office! We rarely see people want to gather in a formal LR, but in the cozier room. You could do as I have seen done by many families: the dining room becomes a playroom (handy to the kitchen, toddlers love to watch the cars and bikes and dog walkers go by, and look at that wonderful windowseat you have, just toddler-height!). Then the room to the left of your front door is the dining room. Between playroom and dining you could put in a door or, more easily, hang a curtain (I'm picturing a drop-cloth curtain). As baby gets older, like school and teen years, you might even turn this into your own sitting room/mom central/"butler pantry". The cozy room is for family tv and reading time. I'd put the TV next to the fireplace so you can see it from the kitchen. And the sunroom is for everything, reading, gathering, playing. My friends' boys had all their Lego bricks in the sunroom, they loved the light, and there was no furniture to get in their way! The flat floor was good for building, spilling, rolling trucks. And when moms gathered, the kids played happily in the sunroom while we chatted in the connecting family room. I,really expect that even if you want to entertain in the LR, you will be shooing people out of the FR and kitchen, so why fight it?...See Morecpartist
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