Houseplan ideas...
KP
3 years ago
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Mark Bischak, Architect
3 years agobpath
3 years agoRelated Discussions
Floor Plan Review
Comments (20)Upstairs loft: People who are saying it will be loud do have a valid point. I used to love the look of an open loft . . . 'til we rented a lake cabin that had this type of floorplan. It only took me one day to realize I don't like it. Similar story: After staying in a hotel room with a jetted tub, I no longer want that either. Big point: Anytime you can "try before you buy", it's a good thing. Many things like this are OPINIONS. You may love it, while I hate it. However, I do really like the picture of the rustic beams and iron railings. As for children upstairs /master bedroom downstairs, I don't get the argument. You can keep a baby in a bassinette in your room for a while. Anyway, you don't plan your house for that short period of your life. There's no reason a one-year old can't be upstairs. Some people make it sound like the child'd be in a separate zip code. The one thing I'd change is the kitchen layout. Having cabinets on BOTH the left and the right wall is forcing you to have a piddly short island. I'd move the mudroom door to the left so you could have an L-shaped kitchen with a bigger island. Overall, I like the house . . . but don't love it. The rooms are a nice size, and it's nicely laid out, but it doesn't make me say, "I'd be willing to put myself through the effort of building and the uncertainty of the cost to have this house!"...See MoreDerbyville Houseplan
Comments (5)We'd rather try to keep the mudroom off of the garage...since that is the entrance we would probably use the most (as a family). The two little closets will most likely be combined into one larger one. The bedroom will be a study and the bathroom is going to be a 1/2 bath. I do like your idea of the front access to the pantry though....See MoreVENT: What people really want (and need) in a houseplan
Comments (46)Sorry for the confusion mel- My cost to build comment was more referring to macv's photos and other photos of houses. I was simply saying I could in no way see a photo of a random house online and tell you what I think that house would cost to build in my particular area. Obviously that is something best left to professionals. It is not in reference to our particular project. We have determined our budget, and will have 25% of that in cash. My builder had given me a ballpark figure based on a larger houseplan we had considered building, but we scrapped the plan for various reasons including the garage layout, the bedroom schematics, and upon closer inspection felt like a lot of wasted space. Our situation has been a little stressful for another big reason- Within a span of a few weeks a couple events transpired that changed our circumstances. My parents bought 74 acres of land (40 tillable, the rest very hilly and wooded) within city limits. Its property boundaries are defined by the main highway running through town, and a gravel road that leads to a development. We contemplated buying 10 acres from my parents and building on that land so we could be 1 minute from town vs. 10 minutes. We then got a cash offer we couldn't refuse for the 14 acres we owned that we had originally intended to build on. So now we have a new build site. Now I am sitting here weighing the pros and cons of this change in build site. My parents are also building at the same time as us, so we are sharing a well. In addition, they are covering the cost for our soon-to-be shared driveways- a blacktop drive accessible from the highway that is about a half mile, and an access drive cutting across the ridge of our build sites that will be graveled. This alone will save us a minimum $50,000 once you factor in blacktop and the well. The bad: Our acreage will border their acreage, we will have easements for the driveways instead of owning the land adjacent to the highway, and my father will probably develop the other large chunk within a few years (the 74 acres is literally bordered by 2 different developments, so it is ripe for that type of endeavor). I guess in the end we figured the shared benefits were too great to pass up. So yeah, we will be living next door to my parents. I know this may sound like a nightmare to some people but my parents are awesome, and this will not be their full-time residence so I think it will be okay....See MoreHouseplan review.
Comments (17)With its simple style, it'll be an economical build, but I don't see this ranch house looking farm-housey. Windows on the back of the garage? I wouldn't -- it's an unnecessary expense, and it'd cut down on wall space for hanging tools, etc. I'd only put windows into a garage if they were necessary to balance out the front of the house. The laundry room is functional, but rather narrow. I'd try hard to add another 2' to the width, which would allow you to use the machines in comfort AND would allow you to have a wall of shelves -- no one ever says, "Oh, no, too much storage!" The toilet closet in the secondary bath is completely un-usable. Picture yourself walking into that room -- how are you going to close the door? You'd have to stand on the toilet to do it. Plus, imagine toilet training a child in this room -- no space for you. You have plenty of space here, but you need to go with a simple all-in-one-room bath and a door opening straight into the hallway; you don't have enough space here to get creative with separate bath fixture rooms. About the three secondary bedrooms: Typically bedroom doors are placed "together" -- I'd flip-flop the closets so this could happen. It'd allow you to check on multiple children without walking to the end of the house, and it'd place both bedroom doors nearer the bathroom door -- it'd allow the bathroom light to shine into the kids' rooms slightly /act as a night light. Moving the door would also eliminate the problem of door-right-on-top-of-the-entrance-door, and it would allow you a bit of space for coat hooks on the wall by the door. The Bedroom 4 doesn't have convenient access to the bathroom -- a person'd have to walk through the main living space and around a corner to reach the bathroom. You can't completely fix this ... but you can make it better by moving this door to the garage hall / scooting the door over to the area that's now a storage closet. How many children do you anticipate? If the answer is a standard "probably two", I'd consider flipping Bedroom 4 and the home theater. This would make no difference whatsoever to the home theater ... but it would allow you to make Bedroom 4 a nicer nursery /closer to the master ... and in the future, it would allow you to open Bedroom 4 off the master, making it a more private office, sitting room, exercise room, whatever might appeal to you. I think it'd be a more flexible arrangement for the future, as your family grows and your needs change. However, this flip would make Bedroom 4 less attractive as a standard kid's bedroom because it would place it too far from the bathroom. As it's drawn now, you have to walk the length of the kitchen with groceries to reach the pantry. Consider opening a door between the hall and the pantry -- many steps saved, and you don't have to interrupt the cook to reach the pantry. I agree that the entryway's a bit of a bowling alley. I'd consider breaking it up with a niche or alcove, or making it a bit wider and lining it with bookshelves. Another option is to place the theater doors on the entryway wall. In the master bedroom, the closet is poorly placed. If you move it to the interior of the house, two good things happen: The closet acts as a sound barrier between the bedroom and the rest of the house AND you can have windows on two sides of the bedroom, which is always a good thing. Note, too that the current closet is massively inefficient: It's deep ... but it provides only the storage of a 2' reach-in. Finally, the master bath is kind of weird, and it's a big space waster -- all that walkway space. I'd look at placing the shower against the wall shared with the living room, which would allow you a monster-sized shower ... and then the sink dead ahead of the door ... and the toilet on the right hand side. You'd still have space left for a linen closet, which would be a positive....See MorePatrick A
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