Place furniture to scale in every room. I think you will see a lot of inefficient spaces. In fixing the inefficiencies the fireplace location may be resolved.

One example is the laundry room. Why do the top layout when you can have the bottom layout. With a little wall movement it can work even better.

I definitely like that laundry layout more. I'm using an architect so not sure why he didn't mention it.

Agree with Mark. Lots of unusable space in your plan.

I actually you'd be better off switching the laundry room & bath locations so you can vent the dryer to an outside wall - and use Mark's layout.

You'll lose natural light with the red one and symmetry with the blue one. Which are you willing to sacrifice?

I don't like either option. I'd either forget the fireplace or rework the plans so that it can be put in a proper spot.

Ppf...he is an architect.

Deco...I would rather lose the natural light.

Really rough, and I'd suggest plenty of other changes, but here is a start.

Thank you!

Marjorie, go through Houzz looking for asymmetrical fireplace walls. What you want is balance. Symmetry is the easiest way to achieve balance, but not the only way and asymmetry with balance is often more interesting.

How do you get from the inside of the house out to the rear porch?

. . . and get rid of the barn doors.

Mark, can you fix the master suite for them, too? So much shower, so little counter space and storage, so much walking around the bed.

Is the safe room for weaponry, or for tornadoes? If the latter, why is it so hard for everyone else to get there?

We already asked him to add a door leading directly from the garage (not pictured). The outside room is a mudroom for our dogs. He thought we wanted to cut through their space. We don't. I want the barn doors because that room is going to be a playroom for my toddler. I want lots of visible access from the kitchen while she is playing, but want to close off the toys when we have guests. The hidden space is for the gun safe. It will have Murphy access from our closet as well as my toddlers room.

Access to the rear porch would be to the right of the fireplace (if we put it there). I also want to add doors to access it from the master bedroom.

I'd have to see furniture and possibly TV.

Yes I can, but that is what I do for a living.

IMO with the original plan options, the "blue" fireplace marries you to a specific/centered layout that might be difficult. Personally I'd go with the "red" location, then plan to hang TV (options) over the "red" fireplace but also plan media center in "blue" location to give you a big L-shaped couch layout if you want it.

With fireplace on the back wall I'd flank it with the widest glass french doors that fit, with transom windows above (or taller doors, depends on the rest of your window sizing layout).

Running with this, you could do a 2-way glass fireplace (a little more light), or piggypack an outdoor fireplace with a masonry chimney going up - I assume you'll want a vertical chimney here so you're not just dumping a hot b-vent out the side wall onto a covered porch?

Yes, we would love to do a double sided fireplace, if budget allows. I really appreciate your feedback and suggestions.

I put one in one of my commercial buildings and love it. Puts out a surprising amount of heat