It does not blow up large enough to make out dimensions. Do you have elevations? Do you really want your kitchen on the second floor?

Yes, we live in a hurricane area...first floor is mainly carport and rec area. Livable space is on second and third floor. Pretty standard where we live.

IMO a bhuge waste of space and heating and cooling to have the double height ceiling in the living space, the issues are many first to much money spent for no good reason on heating and coolong, sound travel sup so poor choice with bedrooms above, lightinf is a huge deal in theat void too.The actul layout of the spaces is a bit confusing IMO since getting groceries into the kitchen from the car is hassleat the best of times to get them to the 2nd floor makes no practical sense at all. 3 floors with so much wasted space really says more money than thought goes into this plan. A whole floor for a master suite and a tiny master closet makes no sense. I certainly would not want to run up and down to the 3rd floor to do laundry unless of course you love the work out. I do need to see the exterior elevations for sure. You start picking out finishes once you have the plan that works and IMO this is a far cry from that.I assume the LR on the ground floor is a media space and maybe games room and that makes no sense off the main entry and if it is your main LR the run up and down for drinks food anything you need for entertaining is another workout. You never put a bathrom off a kichen and IMO never next to a LR or DR. Get an architect that actully speaks up when you just are going in the wrong direction .

Just some initial thoughts.

1. Do you really want 3 floors? Who is hauling the groceries up to the kitchen on the 2nd floor? You may want to think about adding an elevator.

2. How do you get furniture up all those stairs?

3. The aisles in your kitchen are too narrow.

4. I would not want a powder room directly off the kitchen.

Thanks for your feedback. We live in the Florida Keys and all homes are built up for hurricanes/flood levels. It is very common to have main living spaces on 2nd and 3rd floor. What size isle do you recommend for kitchen? I have a jack and jill bathroom and an en suite in the bedrooms. Do I need a powder room? We are considering an elevator. Fortunately, we only need to move furniture in and will hire professionals for that! :)

Kitchen is on the first floor over a raised basement- it is hurricane country. The 'first floor' is just utility space and spaces that could be sacrificed in a storm. I agree with Jan re the two story living room. Reduce the footprint slightly, raise the ceilings on the main (second) floor to nine feet, and skip the double height space. If this is oceanfront (I see master is on top floor so maybe?) than keep the double height space... Back porch is super shallow- 5-6'? No way to arrange furniture on that. At least push it out to the face of the building.

Re choosing materials etc- hire someone if this isn't in your wheelhouse. It will save you money to have a professional guide you. Money AND stress

Thank you for your feedback. Yes, the home is located on the water and we will have double windows over lofted area to bring in natural light and views. We liked the idea of having a double floor open living/dining room to be dramatic and keep it nice and open/airy. I am surprised to hear so many people say to close it up and add sq footage. I agree 100% on balcony! I want to extend those out to have seating and dining outside with sliders that open completely. What do you think would be an ideal size for the balconies? 9ft? Bigger?

In the master bath, there is no door to the bathroom, but also as you walk in the toilet it the only thing you see, until you are all the way in. I don’t think I’d like that view!

Bedroom 3, not much privacy from the public living spaces. Do they need an en-suite? If a hall bath could accommodate all three, then Bedroom 3 could have more private access via the same hall as the other bedrooms. I’d keep the option for a door to the dining room, so that when that child moves out the bedroom will be a nice den.

Double doors, into the house and into the master bedroom, are a bother. Among other issues, where is the light switch?

On the ground floor, do you think you’d like a door from the foyer to the carport? might be nice when it rains. Also, it’s a tight turn to come in the front door, into the foyer, and make a sharp U-turn to go upstairs.

The thing that I immediately noticed was the laundry on the third floor with only 1 bedroom. With 3 bedrooms on the 2nd floor I'd try to find space there for the laundry (maybe replace the powder room with a basic laundry room). It would be a real pain to have to bring the laundry up/down for 3 people versus the convenience of having it close to a single bedroom.

At the very least, frame out an area for a future elevator. While you might not think that you want it now....you might install one later.

You should definitely budget for an elevator with this style house or you just narrow your resale to young/healthy/mobile people! Even young people can get injured and need crutches. How would you or your husband get up to your own bed ... 2 whole flights of steps.

If you don't want to spend for the elevator now, then design a closet that would fit it in the future. Make sure to have the pit/recess poured into the slab and all the necessary electrical in place.

If you decide that you need a powder room, I'd move the toilet so that it isn't backed up to the pantry. My family lived in a rental that had this arrangement, and one time, the toilet backed up pretty bad. We had to completely evacuate the pantry and throw away a ton of food because of the sewage. :-O

If it were me, and if no other children were planned for the household, I'd skip the powder if the only place for it is the current location. :-D

If you have a budget and want to know how much the house is going to cost, you should familiarize yourself with at least the general price range of the higher cost material items. You could start with windows, flooring, kitchen, bathrooms and lighting. I imagine I was not the only person surprised by the quality - and price - differential of essential materials. Go look at them. If many aspects of the construction are not determined in advance, you will be constantly bombarded with hundreds of decisions that increase cost every single time you choose a higher quality item. And pressured to do it quickly to keep construction on schedule. It doesn’t seem possible, but those dollars add up so quickly it will make your head spin. 500 decisions times an extra $200 per decision equals $100,000. Crown molding? Coffered ceiling? Kitchen faucet with the functions you want? Entry and dining room lighting? Better than basic stair railings? You will be making decisions you never even realized existed. It also helps to get on the same page as your spouse regarding major decisions/high cost items early on. If he doesn’t want to compromise on high end windows and tile floors and you don’t want to compromise on custom kitchen cabinets and high end appliances, it can be more challenging to control costs. It is tough to “save” money by choosing lower cost/quality items and very easy to “increase” costs by choosing more expensive, higher quality items. At this stage, you still have the option to make basic plan and design choices that will help minimize overall construction and operating costs. Starting here with your plan is a good first step.

Even if you want to keep the two story living room, you could at least reclaim the space from the lawyer foyer that is now 7 feet wide and three stories tall. That will feel like the bottom of an elevator shaft and presumably the view is not on that side of the house?

That is very true! I wish I could see a rendering of this area...it is really hard to picture what it would look like from a architectural view. Would it add interest or just feel like wasted space.

Lisa, you must be young and healthy! Suggesting something isn't the same as demanding!

Are you a light traveler? If you aren't you would need to carry those heavy suitcases all the way from the master bedroom two flight down to the ground floor and then back up after your trip.

This is also market dependent. The OP lives in FL, where two or three story houses don't sell as well as single story homes, so elevators are an "investment" that usually pays off in actually being able to resell the house to buyers of all ages. FL has the highest percentage of people over 65 in the US, so they are a significant part of the RE market.

I used to ski a lot in my younger years and rented ski house that were set up like this with multiple levels. No elevators, but in those areas you assume that your market for buyers/renters are able bodied people who came there to ski. It was still a pain to have to carry all the bags 2, 3 or 4 stories up to the bedrooms.

I am 52 and fabulous! I grew up in a 1000 sf row home with 3 stories and my 80 year old parents still live there today. I live in a 3000 sf 3 story home, run 20 miles a week and handle stairs fine. I guess I'm just surprised to throw out getting an elevator as a must. We have a large volume of 55+ here in my area and no one has an elevator and 3 story houses are everywhere.

My only experience in the Keys (which was AMAZING -- we went in February, and, as it turned out, managed to squeeze in the trip just before everything shut down) -- was with a 3-story house like this, and yes, it had an elevator. The kids loved it, of course (we're a CA family and they are not used to multi-level houses! haha) -- but hauling our suitcases up to the third floor bedrooms would have been a serious drag. The layout of the house we rented actually had some similarities to this one, and I thought it worked well. The vaulted ceiling is between the 2nd and 3rd floor, not all the way up from the ground floor, right? Or am I reading these plans incorrectly? In any case, that's how it was in our rental and I really liked it. I'd swap the dining room and living room.

ETA: OH I just saw the column that goes from ground-3rd floor. Could that be an elevator placeholder?

I would rather have the master bedroom and laundry room on the main floor and the kids’ bedrooms upstairs. At some point, you’ll have an empty nest and then you won’t have to go up and down so much. And if you have people over, it’s less likely to disturb the kids (or eventual guests to give them more privacy). With only one door near the foyer, it would be much easier to make a master site quite private on the main floor instead of three separate rooms that need their own entrance.

If you really want the kid rooms on the main floor, that 3rd bedroom with the entrance right off the main room will not be private at all.

And the powder room is a little close to the kitchen. Guests will not want to use that if people are milling about nearby.

I am befuddled over the demands for an elevator. I'd put my money elsewhere.

It's a 3 story house with the main floor being the second floor and the third floor the master bedroom and the laundry area. What is so befuddling about that?

I would absolutely put in an elevator. I'm in SW FL and we have a two story and put one in. If you're building on the water in the keys, it most likely means your building a higher end home and an elevator would be expected.

What do the elevations look like?

Who designed this?

I would not want to be staying in bedroom 3 with everyone able to view from the dining and living room area.

Boy do I feel sorry for whoever is in bedroom 2. Anytime someone in the middle of the night from bedroom 1 or 3 goes to the bathroom, person in bedroom 2 will hear the flush.

Why would the pantry get a window but there is no window in the kitchen?

Are you planning on having a tv in the living room? If so where the heck will you put it?

You walk up to the third floor and turn left and you enter double doors that open to a wall and a closet? Why would you want double doors to the bedroom? So you can't find the light switch?

If you walk up to the third floor and turn right, your view is a storage closet.

I agree with everything else said.

I am 52 and fabulous! I grew up in a 1000 sf row home with 3 stories and my 80 year old parents still live there today. I live in a 3000 sf 3 story home, run 20 miles a week and handle stairs fine. I guess I'm just surprised to throw out getting an elevator as a must. We have a large volume of 55+ here in my area and no one has an elevator and 3 story houses are everywhere.

Isn't that special that you're so healthy. My Mom was just as healthy as you were. Went to the gym 5x a week and those times she didn't, she had her treadmill to walk on. Oh and she didn't just walk on it, she climbed hills on it while walking quickly.

Even after she was diagnosed with Parkinson's she still continued going to the gym, etc until she could no longer do so. By that time even the 6" step into the shower was more like Mt Everest to her, so you never know what might befall you. My wish of course is that you stay healthy well into your 80's.

I have an elevator. It is used to carry up the vacuum, travel bags, boxes, etc. I always take the stairs but in case I need it, it's there for that day.

And yes being here in FL, it's considered a positive. Houses with elevators and more than 1 story sell much faster than those without and for a lot more money.

I’m building in Summerland Key right now so I can share some of our issues - message me please! Or email me “GW handle”@hotmail

Please do seriously consider an elevator. We are perfectly healthy 55+ yo but making the 1st floor (2nd level) accessible for my friends in wheelchairs, and maybe us one day. Retrofitting always looks and fits awful. Just do it now. Our 1st floor is 14’4” above grade.

Also, keep all the balconies! Our home will have 900sqft of balcony! There are nearly identical floor plans in the neighborhood and they’ve enclosed them - but I plan to spend a lot of time out there!

Are you ROGO ready? Permitted yet?

thank you for your input! I think we want to extend main balconies to 10ft to give us more room to entertain outside. Going to screen them in too! We are not permitted yet...hope to get on bpass list soon!!

I am continually amazed that people attempt to judge the design of a house from a floor plan intended for construction produced with a CAD program. I would never show such a drawing to a client.

Make sure you have a very strong toilet seat in the master gas chamber because you are going to have to stand on it to close the door, if you can get through the door opening. Many of the spaces seem smaller that comfort.

A site plan and exterior elevation would help in evaluating the exterior design.

I think many designers have done their clients a great injustice in the way they use Computer Aided Design (along with their inability to visualize space). The technical drawings have no place in schematic designs. The intent of "home" is lost to a cold expression.

On the elevator question: as others have said, no one is disputing that you're active and healthy today, and you may stay that way for a long time. On the other hand, active healthy people get injured too. My very active 60-something mother was hiking, started to lose her balance on uneven terrain, and stepped hard into what turned out to be a series of hidden mole tunnels. She broke her ankle in four places, requiring surgery, a veritable tool chest worth of metal plates and screws to rebuild it (seriously - the x-rays look like someone just dumped a pile of scrap metal and screws into her ankle), and a long recovery, first in a wheel chair, then a knee scooter, and eventually crutches. Fortunately my parents had built their house for aging in place (including an elevator), so all that was required was to get ramps to get over the small step into the door threshold. In a house like you show she would have likely had a long stay in a rehab facility (since there are steps even to the main level) followed my months confined to the lowest level once she could get there.

Switching topics, I would absolutely replace the lawyer foyer with useable space. On the second level it could be a playroom or homework area for the kids, and on the master level an office or sitting room. Or it could be where an elevator goes. So many better ways to make that space add value to your home.

1. Your builder may have an interior designer on staff that will help with all of the interior decisions. This, of course, comes with a pricetag (maybe not a line item, but it would be included). If your builder doesn't have one on staff, your best bet would be to hire someone. When we got bids on our house, we spec'd out generals: windows, floor type, cabinet type, shower material, counter material, etc. We didn't pick the EXACT material - those were included in an allowance. When it actually came to picking WHAT floor or cabinet style, we would have used the interior designer.

2. Your stairs are narrow. 3'0" is code minimum, but that is not comfortable, especially for stairs that will be used all the time. Ours are 40" and widen to 44". You'll be going up and down them a lot so you may want something a bit roomier.

3. I agree with others about all the 2 level rooms. I would close that up in an instant.

4. You walk into your master straight into a wall. Or a closet. Consider if that's the look you want. Plus I am not a fan of double doors. One will never get used. Where is your light switch?

5. You don't have room for a freestanding tub in your master bath. Toilet room is too small for an inswing door. 10' is a HUGE vanity.

6. You'll be hauling 3 kids' laundry upstairs to do it. Consider either adding a 2nd laundry space on the main level - and teaching your kids how to share laundry machines - and/or putting in an elevator. You will not have an entirely private level unless you plan on doing all of your kids' laundry forever.

7. Having the powder room right off the kitchen may make that bath really uncomfortable for guests to use.

8. Get rid of the pocket door into the shared bath and flip that bath around so the toilet is up against the closet. That bathroom is just about the worst of a jack and jill. Consider adding a tub/shower combo in that room for resale (anyone with kids under 5 or planned kids won't want to buy your house because they'll have to have their kids bathe in the master bath and truck up and down stairs with all that goes with that).

9. Any deck that you want to use for anything other than a couple chairs needs to be at least 10'. For dining, you need at least that width for a dining table. For comfortable living room type seating, 12'-14'.

10. Do you plan to watch TV in your living room? If so, consider flipping the living and dining room, and put the TV on the bar wall. And insulate that wall.

11. Kid in the middle bedroom gets screwed. Smallest room, no direct bathroom access, and toilets on both shared walls.

12. Reconsider pantry window. Typically food should be stored in a dark place.

13. Consider having seating on the edges of your island as well - this will make for easier conversation if you actually plan on eating there.

14. 3'-6" is pretty tight between a fridge and island. This probably doesn't include fridge handles or counter overhang, either. We have 4' between ours, and it only works because it's a french door fridge.

Just my 2 cents...

Never install an elevator in a house that you don't need it in. It is OK and maybe even recommended to plan for it. Consider it in your framing plan, especially your floor joist and possibly foundation plans.

When you are 20, don't buy a wheelchair that you might need when you are 60. Elevators are the equivalent of towing packages on cars. Some car salesman would convince you to spend $800 on a towing package just in case you ever needed it and then no one towed anything.

If you don't tow things, then don't install a tow hitch until you need it. If you don't use an elevator, don't install an elevator until you need it.

Bry, this is a 3 story house. Trust me having been in plenty of houses like this in FL, an elevator is an investment even if they're in their 20's because of all the stairs up and down. Think of just carrying bags upstairs.

Plus as others have mentioned, in the Keys the average age of those who might buy in the future is retired.

Jesus, that second bedroom is wicked small. Why not re-arrange for only one full bath for all three bedrooms?

I mean heck you also have a powder room on that floor as well.

I hate cleaning bathrooms, some people must love it.

Bry, this is a 3 story house. Trust me having been in plenty of houses like this in FL, an elevator is an investment even if they're in their 20's because of all the stairs up and down. Think of just carrying bags upstairs.

I have a three story house on Longboat Key that is built along the same lines, and am familiar with similar plans. If your problem is carrying bags upstairs then solve that problem not other problems you don't have. A dumbwaiter system can be professionally installed into a kitchen cabinet and costs between 1/5th and 1/10th the cost of an elevator. I built ours with two pieces of Unistrut, four trolleys, a winch, some pulleys, and a plywood box. The whole thing cost me $450.

Elevators are great but they are an expense and not an investment.

Plus as others have mentioned, in the Keys the average age of those who might buy in the future is retired.

Don't put things in a house to help it sell if you don't have plans to sell it, it is just a waste of money.

Let's assume the OP has no plans to sell the house, but decides to sell it in 12 years. The OP is then going to have a 12 year old elevator. It may sell faster, but it is not going to add any appreciable value to the house. Additionally, if the house will sell for more with an elevator, it will sell higher with a new elevator than a 12 year old elevator. So plan the elevator location now and install it when you are ready to sell. That way you get all the value of a new elevator without spending 12 years paying for something that is going to be worth less when you go to sell it. If, in 12 years, an elevator doesn't have a positive return on investment, then it never did.

Yes. Block out a space that will accommodate an elevator in the future....a storage closet on each floor that can be utilized in the future as a shaft.

Building in Monroe County is like no place else in the US. The first floor (on the second story) is way, way up there. Mine is 14 feet, 4 inches above grade. I’m quite shocked that the OP can even build any living space, such as the bathroom, on their permit, but there are many different zones as well and I suppose it may be allowed on other Keys.

Maybe YOU don’t need a wheelchair, or help climbing 14 feet of stairs, but often grandparents and friends do. I specifically have a quadriplegic friend in mind because I’d like her and her husband to be able to come visit me and stay, so we included an accessible bathroom and hallways. Our elevator will only go up to the first floor, which was difficult enough to incorporate into the design.

Maybe YOU don’t need a wheelchair, or help climbing 14 feet of stairs, but often grandparents and friends do. I specifically have a quadriplegic friend in mind because I’d like her and her husband to be able to come visit me and stay, so we included an accessible bathroom and hallways.

That is quite literally the definition of a need. If you have relatives or friends in mind that you want to come visit who need an elevator, then you have a need an elevator. At that point it becomes a question of the value and cost of satisfying that need. Which is quite different than saying one day you may need an elevator, so put one in now.

Personally, if my mother-in-law couldn't visit me because of stairs, my first house would have been a 10th floor walk-up.

If elevators are common and expected in this type of house where you live, then it should be installed for resale.