Give advice/critiques on my home plan please
Miranda Xnunya
4 years ago
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Comments (132)
Virgil Carter Fine Art
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoUser
4 years agoRelated Discussions
Please critique my house plans!
Comments (9)Only a single car garage? A 20x24 2 car garage is pretty standard, and even then, it's usually not enough room for the needed storage and cars. Especially when the occupants of those bedrooms start to drive. The kitchen layout can be much better. Angles look interesting but they waste a LOT of space. If you keep the angles, you need to have a cabinet between the sink and DW if you want to be able to stand at your sink and load or unload it. Personally, I'd square it up and have a single large square island instead. A refrigerator in a corner like that usually has a clearance issue with opening against the side wall. You'll get better sundry storage with a pull out pantry over a step in pantry like that. However, if you can juggle things a bit to take away some of the wasted space elsewhere and come up with a walk in pantry, those are the most useful and least expensive choice. And you'll need the storage if you are planning on windows on either side of the range (which you *should* be planning to get some natural light into the interior space). Upstairs, your closet should go between the master and other bedroom to keep sound transmission between them to a minimum and to allow the master to have light from windows in two directions. The closet would actually work better as a reach in than a walk in (with more actual hanging space), and you could give over some of that square footage to the small bedroom and loft area. If you took the suggestion to even up the wall, you could probably even work in another bathroom with a shower, as the master also wastes space and most homeowners with children could really use another bathroom upstairs where the bedrooms are....See MorePlease critique my small 1.5 story island house plans
Comments (8)Renovator8/kirkall - The plans are a little rough, but the scale and dimensions are accurate. The stairs admittedly are still a bit sketchy at this point. I intend to have only a fairly narrow staircase, and may in fact put in a spiral one instead of an L or U shaped one, if it gives me a bit more space downstairs. The upstairs I really see longer term as just kids rooms...the master bedroom (+ guest bedroom) will end up in a future extension to the house. I'm just after a critique of the general layout of the house, or whether you think the whole thing is terrible and I'd be better off with some other design entirely (e.g. 1 story)....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 MorePlease critique my house plan!
Comments (38)Thank you for the reply cpartist, I value your input and you have a lovely home and are so talented! Thank you. I hope you can get the house you need and deserve. The projected cost did factor in 15% for any overages. Good because it's rare the budget is under. Do yourself a favor and no matter what you decide, choose every single thing before. Don't work with allowances because allowances will mostly come back to bite you, you know where. We had allowances, but it was AFTER I spent many a day shopping with our builder's designer pricing out appliances, floors, tile, etc that I liked. I had almost no surprises with things like that because we had enough in the budget for them. The room labelled “Office“ is actually going to be the dining room, they forgot to change the label. It is 15’7” by 11’7”. The room off the kitchen labeled dinette will actually function as a sunroom, but looking at the yellow space perhaps we need more windows. I think that's going to be an issue. Do yourself a favor and draw the path from the kitchen cooktop to the dining room. Now imagine carrying full platters of turkey, or casseroles, or whatever other hot stuff you serve. See where the problem will lie? I’d love advice on how to make the kitchen more efficient. we will have a pot filler on the stove, so that will help. The plans don’t show it but the sink will be a large farmhouse sink with two separate faucets. A large farmhouse sink still means two butts right next to one another with not enough space to prep. If you do go with this house plan, bring your kitchen over to the kitchen forum for better advice. Your needs are unique and a cookie cutter house is not going to be functional for you. The garages are positioned as they are to cut down on the cost of the concrete apron, concrete work is very expensive in our area, Many builders this far north position garages like this to act as a buffer for the prevailing western winds in the winter and cut down on heating costs. But I know this isn’t the only way to accomplish this. We also like having the two distinct garage areas as one will be a workshop with storage. Building a seperate workshop would be much more expensive. But sunlight is also a big an issue here as you point out. The foyer and living room do have higher ceilings and windows to let in more light, but it seems like it won’t be enough. I’ll have to think about this. You need to have your house oriented so the main windows are on the south side. The north side is probably the second worst in terms of passive solar heating/cooling especially as far north as you will be. My beef with the garages are not that they're positioned on the west. That's a positive. It's the garages on the south that are the issue. The pantry does include a washer and dryer and freezer fridge. we currently have an extra freezer and fridge in our garage, and I’m tired of leaving the house to fetch items. I didn’t factor in the added humidity, I will have to see what solutions might be available. Our current laundry room is doubling as a pantry, and it doesn’t seem to have any moisture issues. We also have a washer and dryer upstairs, so the washer and dryer in the pantry will by be used for everything. Your needs are different than mine. I personally prefer my washer and dryer closer to my master bedroom since most of my laundry is generated there. You have an upstairs washer/dryer for those living upstairs, so the question then becomes where is most of the downstairs laundry generated? Some people say they prefer it by the kitchen since they spend more time there, but personally I'd rather walk back and forth to the laundry by my bedroom without carrying baskets of laundry, than having laundry by my kitchen and having to carry loads of laundry, sheets, towels, etc. I agree about the upstairs layout, it seems poorly designed to me and I’m at a loss for how to improve it. This is what is bothering me. You're choosing a house only because it's larger and not to enhance the way you live. It could be so much more and I do realize that you have a tight budget. Sigh. I don't know what the answer is. The basement is not a walkout, but it is a ”daylight” basement, and so the elevation slopes down to the back allowing for daylight windows. The bedroom in the front of the basement is the only window with a window well, the others are at ground level. How will you feel about one of your children being in a bedroom where if there was an emergency they'd have to climb out up through a window well? We blew our “design budget” hiring a designer last fall who created a custom design for us we could never afford to build. He was a friend of a friend who came highly recommended and he did very good work, but it did not work out for us. That is why we’re exploring other options. Talk to architectrunnerguy. We might be able to afford to go through the custom design process again if we wait couple of years and start again. But we are anxious to sell our current home while the market is still “hot.” I can't disagree with you on this one except by the time your house is built, the market may not be so hot anymore. Thank you again for your time and attention, it is an amazing privilege to be able to solicit advice from such a smart and talented pool of people! Even if you decide not to take our advice, it's still a pleasure to help those like yourself who are willing to truly listen. :) While still on paper, it's so good to really think through all comments, even if you ultimately disagree....See MoreVirgil Carter Fine Art
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