How would you handle this floor plan?

3 years ago

In terms of arrangement and room choice, this floor plan is somewhat challenging due to the living room and dining area being a little restricted in size, 4 bedrooms inside ~1400sq. ft., and the fact that the only backyard entrance is in the master suite.

This is my first house, so high probability it will not be my forever home, and I very much do not want to make renovations that would cause it to drop in value. Our barebone arrangement needs is to have one room as my office, and one room for our 4 year old, using a small nook area for my partner's PC workspace.

My partner thinks the best idea is to utilize the master suite as a secondary living space due to it having the backyard door. It's kind of awkward knowing that anyone we invite over will have to go through our bedroom to get to the backyard, and having a television-centered social area, along with a social-centered...social area wouldn't be a bad thing. We also utilize our bedroom basically just for naps and sleeping. And she's right in that the current family room will require some careful arrangement to fit couches around a TV, as well as utilizing the small dining area space.

Arguments against this are that we won't be having social gatherings or guests often(at most a handful of times per year), we've never had the pleasure of an en-suite before, and giving ourselves a larger room, with a bedroom, and outside patio access may bring more reasons to spend more time in a master suite. An obvious easy fix to getting to the backyard would be adding a concrete path coming from the front porch all the way around -- doesn't take any major renovations and adds value.

How would you guys utilize the current floor plan?

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Comments (6)

jck910
3 years ago
How about sliders on the family room wall to the yard?
PRO
User
3 years ago
Great suggestion above!

I would also add an entry door with two side-lites for added curb appeal and allowing natural light into the entry and family room.

I would not convert your m. bedroom into a family room. Like suggested above, adding sliders or a full-lite door to the backyard will work fine for backyard access.

There are plenty of people here on Houzz who can help you with space planning for your family room since that seems to be an issue.
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maddielee
3 years ago
Can you make any changes before it’s built? Do you need 4 bedrooms?

If a change can be made, slide the backdoor over to the other back bedroom. Use that space as a sitting room, mud room or small office. A place where traffic going in and out won’t be a disruption. Think about having a back yard patio with grill, do you want platters of food going through your bedroom?

I would pass on this plan all together if it was me.
PRO
Lampert Dias Architects, Inc.
3 years ago
A simple solution would be to remove the closet to Bedroom 2 and take the hallway to the back of the house and add a french door to the back yard.

Another solution would be to take the walls out to bedroom 2 along with the closet and make this bedroom a den / office/ guest room with large sliding glass doors or french doors to the outside, but lined up with the hallway so that your guests in the front room can see straight through to the back yard which makes it more inviting.........

Your master suite is preserved and you don't have to share it with your guests.
Chris Sjafi
Original Author
3 years ago
@maddielee I cannot make any changes unfortunately. 4 bedrooms is what pulled us in initially, but we can easily manage with 3.

@jck910 Good suggestion. and @User I love the idea of side-lites. Undertaking the task of blowing out a wall, along with the outer brickwall, sounds daunting, though!

@Lampert Dias Architects, Inc. Imo I think this would be fantastic and have a really nice well-lit view down the hallway. I'm going to have to do some research to see how the value of the house would change if we reduced the house to 3bdr with a second living area. I can't imagine it changing that much, but I'm also very new to the home owner world.
PRO
Lampert Dias Architects, Inc.
3 years ago
The first option that I suggested was to extend the hallway to the backyard.......If you remove the closet in that 2nd bedroom you could replace it with an armoire and it would still function as a bedroom or a den........The second option was to blow away the wall to the bedroom and make it a den / office.........You would still have 4 bedrooms with the first option.......

How would you handle this floor plan?

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jck910

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How would you handle this floor plan?

Comments (6)

jck910

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maddielee

Lampert Dias Architects, Inc.

Chris SjafiOriginal Author

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Chris Sjafi
Original Author