The kitchen looks good, but there are several things to consider on the island layout: You need some landing spaced to the right of the prep sink--maybe 12".

Since your family is tall you should consider a drawer model MW, rather than a MW in a cubby, although the taller height for the island would help.

And if you make the island smaller (note to shrink to 36"), keep in mind that you need a minimum of 15" seating overhang for comfort at counter height, and since you are tall, even with a higher counter you'll need at least that much. With a front overhang of at least 1", and a back cover panel of up to 3/4", depending on whether you use a cabinet skin or decorative panels, the island minimum depth will be 40-41".

Great idea to make the counters on the fridge wall deeper!

As you have choice in bunk sizes - go double/queen on the bottom with twin/lx twin tops. You and stand on the bottom bunk to make the top ones. Sure makes it easier. Though I'd still separate the kids, or plan for that to be the case. My 2 shared till the older was about 12 - and it was their choice to do that even though they had their own rooms...

Ive circled an area of your floorplan that consists of more hallway/walking space than anything else:

It seems like you could redistribute some of that hall area to either make rooms/closets larger, or just decrease square footage overall?

Its hard for me to guess your prioroties here, but as one example here I’ve moved the bathroom door to the main hall, moved the guest room door to the end of the main hall. This eliminates the extra hall to the guest room, and gives you room for the guest closet against the bathroom instead of against the master bath.

I made your boys closet larger, so it’s effectivelt side by side with the small master closet instead of back to back. I like how this gives an extra buffer between their room and your bed area... plus they’ll have no problem filling a larger closet with something, right?

This changes the proportions of the master, but if anything should make it larger, or the guest larger depending on your preference. Maybe the closet/office becomes more rectangular, and you rearrange the master bath to absorb what had been the guest closet space and some of that “hall” space right inside the master entrances?

As well as decreasing some hall, I like that It’s now less of a maze to find that bathroom from, say the living room.

The main downside I see is that some people are against doors at the end of a hall? Or maybe I’ve missing some important reason for that short hall area. That’s certainly possible!

I haven't had time to read the comments in both of your threads but noting their shear length, the best advice I can give you, is just keep in mind that no house is perfect. The end result is an assortment of compromises in which hopefully the tradeoffs result in a better design but it still won't be a perfect one.

But the best of luck in your build. Exciting times ahead!

Well why not...

In this latest iteration, the bunk room is 9' wide and is sandwiched between the TV wall of the great room and the headboard of the master bedroom with windows available on only one 9' wall (think fire egress). They will also quickly be on varying sleep schedules and have different needs for study and privacy. There's a lot to unpack in the preceding statements.

It's one thing to share rooms when space is an issue - growing up my Irish Catholic best friend's house has 8 people in a fairly small split level - EVERYONE buddied up - and my friend was in the serious basement with her sister. There were no spare rooms, no guest rooms - everyone pitched in and made do because they HAD TO.

This house, and the use of space for it's inhabitants feels incongruous to the family narrative. I looks like you are going to spend about $800K-$1M and house them way differently than the rest of the house presents itself.

I do think that it's a good idea to finish all the basement space in the event that the bunk room doesn't pan out like you envisioned (and really - after insulating, electrical, HVAC and drywall - all that's left is the cheap stuff...)

@mama goose_gw zn6OH thank you for chiming in! Honestly, I'd prefer the microwave at counter height somewhere -do you have a suggestion as to where? Seemed like the only spot it could go was the corner and I wasn't sure how functional that was or which way it would point. Also need a place for coffee making.

We had 26" deep drawer bases along our range wall in our last house and it was so nice, really makes a difference in usability of everything over there plus all my pots and pans fit in those massive drawers (3" extra depth over standard) with room to spare. And it helps hide a standard size fridge.

How big is a useful prep sink? They seem to come in every size.

Based on the feedback here I would consider changing the bunk room to add another 2ft in width to it. This makes it a decent size bedroom and if you ever need to sell and you haven't finished the basement yet then this won't be a detriment to being able to sell the house. Most do not value bedrooms in the basement the same as a bedroom on the main level.

Why did I say based on the feedback here. Sounds like a lot of people wouldn't like the bunk room feature for daily living - you do, but it is just as likely buyers don't and having a 9ft wide bedroom is something that is generally only seen in older homes so buyers would consider it less than appealing and it could make it hard to sell if you ever needed to. I don't think the extra 2ft of width will be a huge amount extra to build, but it could make a huge difference in the price of the house when you go to sell.

The kitchen looks so much more functional now for a large family. You have several spaces for people to work. I think doing a taller island to work for you guys would be fine as it is a small adjustment to make for a future buyer, however if you do remember stools are not built for the extra height so if a lot of your height is in the legs (my torso is normal and legs pushed my height up) then normal stools would need to be height adjusted and especially true for guests who don't share your family's height.

Could the garage be shifted so it sticks out on the back instead of the front? Meaning it looks a little setback from the house and not as it is the main feature of the house.

I do think you ended up with a lot of hallway in the current version and the path to the bathroom for guests will be a bit like a maze since they won't be using the mudroom bath. Also the boys and especially the little ones will likely have more accidents trying to make it there at night or when potty training or even later. Ours always turned into emergencies during that time and we had a short straight path to the bathroom from the playroom. Still at double digit age it can be an issue due to too busy doing things and wait too long.

For a hall laundry see about making it a little extra deep so you can have some space in front of the washer/dryer to work and people walk (run) by.

@Sara S That's an awesome redistribution of hallway space for sure, thank you for commenting! That really reduced the hallway space. If these were both just kids' rooms that would be way better than what we have. One of our priorities was keeping the guest room private and originally we wanted a direct door into the bathroom. When two bathroom doors seemed like it was going to be a bad idea we still wanted to keep it private. Here, it's almost like its own suite and if you stuck a door on the end it would be. I figured the kids would just use our bathroom, the mudroom bathroom, and the downstairs bathroom when we had grandparents visiting. Once they're so big/smelly/in need of privacy I assume they'll be in their own rooms downstairs. We all share one bathroom now and it's fine.

My husband thought having the door be visible from the living area would make guests less comfortable. The window in the hallway was a bonus that will make that spot a nice place to walk through at least.

But like @Architectrunnerguy said, there are a lot of competing priorities and no house is perfect so we should think about what we're willing to give up. I'm sure the architect we talk to this week will have an opinion.

@lhmarmot Good point - we'll likely end up with a queen or at least a double on the bottom of the back bunk so I'm glad that will help with bed-making!

And that is what I'm thinking - my kids will share for as long as it's working for them. Once someone wants to have their own room they'll have it, or what I kind of expect will be more likely, they'll convince one of their siblings to move in to a new room with them. I was assuming it would be around 12 but I suppose it could be earlier or later than that depending on the kids. My middle kiddo said he'd sleep in his own room in the new house but only if there were a secret door to his brother's room in the closet and his father slept with him, too :).

Check with the city zoning department to see if your site can be considered to have a front yard setback and two side yard setbacks without a rear yard setback. This could pick you up another ten feet along your north property line to plan the house.

@just_janni

"This house, and the use of space for it's inhabitants feels incongruous to the family narrative. I looks like you are going to spend about $800K-$1M and house them way differently than the rest of the house presents itself."

So that's an interesting thought. I'm going to think about that for a while. Honestly that's sort of one of the reasons we didn't buy anything. We would have spent $500-800k on a home that needed $100k worth of work bare minimum in pre-covid numbers. I couldn't fathom doing that and ending up with something that still wasn't appropriate for us (7' tall basements, itty bitty attic rooms with sloping ceilings and split entry stairs are a big thing here, for example - literally the worst possible and completely unfixable entryway situation).

To me, we're building a 5 bedroom home with a bonus anything room. Two main floor "grown up" rooms, a bunk/bedroom for little kids, and two bedrooms in the lower level for older kids. We have three children. Even if we add a fourth, every single child could have their own room without using the guest room. Yes they would still be sharing two bathrooms between the four of them but there would be our bathroom and the mudroom bathroom for added flexibility. And by the time the youngest two are separating the oldest might even be out of the house. The price the 4th child in the pecking order would pay (maybe the "home from college" child) would be the weird door into the living area in exchange for the biggest, sunniest room in the house.

I definitely agree the bed against their room is less than ideal, we like the nook-ish-ness of the bed against that wall but someone else could put it against the north wall instead.

We won't have a TV in the great room. If someone else wanted one there over all the other options and didn't want beds behind it, I would guess that bedroom could be an office or an occasional guest room (or a guest bunkroom) or a den or a playroom or a really cool study/homework room with a long desk instead of bunks for that family since there are *3* more bedrooms plus the bonus space available for that future family's children.

A bunkroom is not a weird thing here and not all 5 person families want to live in a 6 bed/5 bath/2 office 4000+ sqft 3 story house. As truly lovely as the home of @A S sounds, I don't think that can/should be considered normal.

@Mark Bischak, Architectr omg if that's true that could literally change everything. Do you think because it's almost a corner lot they'd go for that? None of the builders or architects who walked the lot mentioned that. I'm going to not get my hopes up and call today. Thank you!

I'd recommend at least 18" for a prep sink, but with the 8' island you could go up to 24", put the MW to the right of the sink, for landing space, and still have 4' to the left, for prep. Coffee maker could go to the right of the fridge or in the corner to the right of the clean-up sink, whichever seems more convenient to the traffic path and work flow.

Most MW's open right-to-left, so keep that in mind for a countertop model, if you don't keep the MW on the island. I have mine in the 36" between the fridge and range, concealed in a box, and even though my counters are 28" deep on that run, it doesn't leave much landing space in the front. The cabinet door on my MW box drops down to provide a deeper landing space, and it's also lined with sheet metal so I can use it for hot pans from the range burners or oven. That, in itself, has been as convenient as the added landing space. I'll try to find a pic to add.

ETA, a pic taken during a marathon production of party mix. Note the hi-tech use of thumb tacks to affix the sheet metal to the cabinet door. ;)

@lyfia just seeing your comment now, thank you!

I'm leaning toward making the room 10' wide, either by adding length to the whole house or stealing 6" from my room and 6" from the living room.

And you're right, it's not because I think it's necessary for us but because if 10' is some magic minimum dimension for someone else to think it's a useful room then maybe I need to build to that.

You actually just gave me a good idea - I should post this in the local mom's forum and see their feedback. I'm having a hard time reconciling some of this feedback with the advice we've already gotten from local professionals (realtor, builders, architect).

We'll revisit the guest room privacy with the "bathroom is hidden" problem and see what we want to prioritize, definitely going to ask our realtor and the architect about that one.

We could make the garage flush but it would be really shallow if we push it back at all we encroach on the protected backyard and possible covered patio area. I wanted a side-entry garage but the lot doesn't really allow for it. Unless @Mark Bischak, Architect is right and we have 10 more feet of depth...

It all depends on the zoning administrator. It may or may not be addressed in the zoning ordinance itself, but there may be a way to show a hardship that you may be able to get a variance at the very least. Run it by the architect or designer that have worked on the house to get their input.

You may be able to say when you approach the zoning administrator, "An architect friend of mine looked at the survey of our site and suggested, because of the triangular site shape and site topography, that the front yard setback be applied along the road side property line and side yard setbacks be applied to the two property lines that project from the front property line and road."

Ask in the morning and bring coffee and doughnuts (just kidding).

Finishing the basement now eliminates some of the issues, I think, with the viability of the bunk room for any extended period. and maybe I'd get behind the bunk room CONCEPT if he actual space seemed welcoming and designed for a cool cohabitation experience - you know what I mean?

If the bunk room was large, maybe enough to have a play / gaming area, or desks, as well as several windows etc. - and the bunks were done to create this kind of "kid heaven" I'd be all for it - but maybe that only works for older kids - and it seems like you are addressing that with the additional bedrooms in the lower level.

My weird self is just envisioning folks coming over to celebrate new house, and the tours being given - here's the finished basement with 2 bedrooms, man cave, storage, main floor guest suite, music room, master suite, (basically 5 bedrooms and 4 full bathrooms, like you said) and here's the kids room now- all three sharing an oddly small room.

As I said in the last thread, it's your own business who sleeps in which bedroom and that will change over time. Honestly I think one of the "mistakes" you made was telling us that 3 children were going to sleep in one bedroom. That's nobody's business and I think it was a distraction.

But I don't think you should build a house with a bedroom that is so much different than most people would want. And a 9 foot wide, L shaped bedroom would fall in to the "odd" category for most people. Make it more generic by widening it. You'll be happy down the road when it comes time to sell, or when you change around the sleeping arrangements.

I'm not reading through all this but will say this is not a livable house. You say you can't afford an architect so you chose a "draftsman" who calls themself a designer. He/she is NO designer. He/she is a draftsman with a CAD program and no sense of good design or they would be pushing back on some of what's here. You need someone who had design skills and not just knows how to push buttons on a CAD program.

PS I worked with a draftsman who called himself a designer. He wasn't but luckily I am so I was able to know when something was wrong, ask advice here and also knew how to show him changes to make it right. However if I had it to do over, I would have hired an architect right from the beginning and saved myself months of grief and problems in the build because I didn't know what I didn't know and neither did the "designer".

Don't be penny wise and pound foolish as my Mom used to say.

@Mark Bischak, Architect haha, perfect, I'll do , thank you for the advice!

@just_janni haha, thanks for the continued conversation here. We can make that room 9.5' or even 10' wide so that someone else doesn't think it's weird, that's fine.

But making the bedroom significantly bigger, with bigger windows and a place for toys or multiple desks or whatever would literally make it a worse bedroom for my kids. For example, if I switched them with the guest room it would an awful spot for them. In our opinion and experience, bedrooms for small kids should be cozy, easily darkened, close to their parents, and the minimum size for sleeping and dressing and reading. The window stays covered 12-16 hours out of the day. The entire rest of the house is for co-habitating. We'll have a dedicated kid heaven room in the sunny corner of the living area of the home.

@partim that was definitely a mistake. I rue the choice, believe me. I should have just said the bunkroom was for the two little guys and sleepovers. Or, heck, just a nursery with the big kids in the lower bedrooms.

It looks like, per the OP's post ^^^^, at least some of the kids are projected to share a room for the next 20 years.

That would mean at least one boy would be 20+. All kinds of no, not least because the bed(s) won't be big enough.

And, the OP might have had 2-3 young kids in a bedroom at once, but 4 teenagers? Nooooooo!

IMO a real architect is needed here, and not a designer who coordinates with a builder. It requires someone who understands how people live, interact, and move through space, not just how to draw and hand instructions to a builder.

[I can't figure out why there's a new thread on the same topic? It's difficult to tell what's been discussed before.]

Partim is right though. A room that shape and size is not good for resale. Making it marginally bigger makes it much more traditional in size as a bedroom. Who you put in said room is your call. But a 9’ room is far from ideal regardless of who is in it.

The room is rectangular. The closet makes it look like an L, but really it’s flush with the wall.

Not a pro; just some thoughts:

If you are building on a small lot rather than large tract of land, a smaller footprint for your home can mean more outdoor space for a swing set and/or patio/BBQ so, before making any decision, consider both present and future ... including that you might want at least a small yard for indoor/outdoor living. Also, adding a home lift -- elevator or seat lift for stairs -- could give you more options with regard to an in-law suite being in the basement but having access to the main floor -- and that could help with laundry day (as could a laundry chute from an attic/penthouse/bunkhouse).

If you are willing to consider reserving one full floor as your "bunkhouse", consider the upstairs/attic -- the right roof/dormer/gable design could make the "penthouse"/"attic" the perfect "bunkhouse". While your youngest could be sleeping in a "nursery"/bonus room for a while, you could go ahead and add his (a third) twin bed to the "bunkhouse" floor and put some of his toys/clothes in his closet -- less argument or hard feelings as "turf" disputes later..

Your architect could help you design the RIGHT roof/dormer design -- one over a home without a lot of small McMansion angles in exterior walls or roof line. Perhaps a rectangle with two end gables and three sets of windows in three dormers. Perhaps a Mansard roof or even a Gambrel/barn roof -- designed so you have front and back upstairs exterior walls walls directly over downstairs exterior walls with the sloped roof over a front and back full width 6' deep porch ... enabling bay windows to be covered.

If you're building a "traditional" rectangle house with full walk out basement and full length attic -- but with a roof designed for your "penthouse"/"bunkhouse", against one wall (north/dark/least desirable view), you could locate the stairwell with a half/half Dutch door at the top of the stairs and a full bath and several closets -- two on each side of the centered entry/bath ( one for each son and one that could be shared - bed&bath items and winter coats and a spare vac/cleaning supplies).

With the necessities all along one wall, you could then create a full length "hallway" (walk path to be kept cleared) with windows on each end to let in natural light -- but use only a bookshelf half wall with posts (as needed for roof support) and leave three door sized openings -- all leading to the same single large room on the other side of the upstairs of the house.

In the large room (full length of the house) you might be able to create three wide dormers evenly spaced against the exterior wall to create three distinctly separate spaces - each a niche about 8' wide -- for three twin bed frames for the three boys (no headboard or foot board. The right cushions could make the bed usable as a day bed for seating. Creating each bed frame on wheels and with storage space below could help keep toys/clutter in check. (A place for everything and everything in its place can be a good habit to teach small children.)

Later, as the boys grow up ( if needed for privacy/to keep the peace), you could add room dividing furnishings or actually add divider walls between the three spaces and/or finish the half wall ... or part of it.

Designing your rooms on the other two floor levels -- main floor/basement -- so the "bedrooms" could be used for other purposes as your family's needs change is worth considering.

On the main floor, the master bedroom suite could share a bath&half with a bonus room that could begin as a nursery but become a guest bedroom or an office, etc.

In the basement, a part time use in-law suite could share a bath&half with an office -- more privacy most of the time. A common sitting room could serve as a family room/game room later if the office is moved to the room no longer needed as a nursery.

You might consider using three small adjoining rooms for a bath&half on each of the three floors -- two separate powder rooms, each with access to a bath/shower combo.

If you put the office in the basement, you can rearrange the floor plan to add that area to the kids room. (You’ve said several times you don’t want a huge house, you don’t want unused space, if you finish the whole basement you’ll have to rent it out)

Twin XL beds are 80” long; if you want to have two along one wall, the space should be 172” long = 14’ 4”. Giving you 12” of room for head/foot boards.

For twin beds, you’d want 75”+75”+12 = 162” = 13’6”

@emilyam819 thanks for that :). Also I meant to follow up on your other comment - I think home office/gym combos are definitely a neat product of this crazy year we're living through. Glad you'll get to go from pretending to take baths to pretending to exercise ;).

Your closet vs bookshelf idea is great - should I just include it in the laundry closet? I was thinking doors that hid away because there isn't space for pocket doors but I could put a triple slider over the whole thing and then still access everything when I needed to. I'd get a whole foot back from not needing the door slots and could just partition off the left side for off season coats and the vacuum or laundry baskets or something.

As long as it was separated from the washer/dryer but behind the same doors do you think it would get grimy?

LOL.
I see the laundry plus closet is 7.5’, so maybe that is too big for one large closet. Good point about getting grimy. I would not want to store clothes amidst laundry dust.

If your upstairs could become an "H" with four gables -- two facing forward and two facing back -- connected by a center ridge in between, perhaps you could have three separate spaces or rooms with the bath and storage over the garage.

following

Perhaps Medicare or Medicaid or other insurance or even a local charity might be able to help you get one of these kinds of lifts for an elderly relative that begins staying with you frequently or permanently and/or have it built in and include it in the cost/value of the house. You might even include a closet to park the lift in when not in use. Or, you could add one later as long as you initially build your steps between the main floor and the basement wide enough to accommodate one -- and do make the steps wide enough to be able to walk beside it, too. It can enable a handicapped person to move between basement and center/main floor -- or even a healthy person to do so more easily with a laundry basket. If you are thinking you might add one later, then don't plan to have a turn in the steps to which you want it added as that likely would increase cost.

https://assisted-lifting.com/products/lifetime-warranty-stair-lift?variant=33692130803848&currency=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&matchtype=&network=g&device=c&adposition=&keyword=&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIieimiO7-7gIVDlNyCh3xOgl4EAQYAiABEgKuZvD_BwE 

One thought -- since there would be no basement beneath the garage and its concrete floor, a good place for steps might be along and against the back wall of the garage with one set of steps atop, going up and another set of steps below, going down. You could still put at least a storage/bonus room over the garage even if you wouldn't want to locate a bedroom there -- an especially good idea if the upstairs is to be the boys' penthouse/bunkhouse.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/476185360588117757/

@Mark Bischak, Architect YOU (and Tara from the city planning office) ARE MY FAVORITE RIGHT NOW, THANK YOU SO MUCH! Just got off the phone and it's definitely a side setback. The rear setback is just 20 feet from a 10' line across our back corner.

It pays to use an experienced architect. Look for a local one to help you with your house design with grey hair, slightly overweight, and looks like an unmade bed.

I think you are better off to stop soliciting advice on this forum.

Your family lifestyle and living habits are so far removed from the general population and you are quite insistent on sticking with controversial design elements.

People here will continue to point out the same changes, and you will continue to stick with what apparently works for your family, until everyone is 'blue in the face.' Just build whatever you think works for your your highly unique family.

No one is going to be convinced that having a "giant shower with a toilet inside" your mudroom is a good idea. Or having a prison cell sized bedroom to house 3-4 kids is a good idea. Or having to pass through closets to get to bathrooms & offices is a good idea.

As many have said, you're building a house for today's needs and not thinking about tomorrow. The emphasis you are putting on accommodating your aging parents for their periodic visits is nuts to me. Insisting they get a master suite with good sized closet on the main floor, while your own kids are shoved in a tiny room with no bathroom, no usable windows, and a closet from 1930 does not make sense. Needing to fit a table for 20 "because that's what your mom did" or a large island because your mom said so, or needing ensuite bathroom or the best windows in the house because that's what your parents are demanding .... Why are these demands going before your own nuclear family's needs?

And not to state the obvious, but if your mom is already so incapacitated that she can't handle stairs, for how many years do you think they'll be coming to visit for these lengthy stays? Why build the house around their today needs when this is not going to be your medium or long term situation?

If you're insistent on accommodating them, what about making the downstairs more of their separate inlaws space/bonus room/kitchenette (to get them out of your hair and your kids' hair) and put an elevator in? Then you aren't designing your whole main floor around the needs of people who will only be there 20% of the time, with likely declining use over time.

Finally, i've said it before.... but you said in the other thread that you guys looked at every house and all the custom build ones and absolutely none of them were usable. Now you know exactly what people will say about your house when you try to sell it!

In our opinion and experience, bedrooms for small kids should be cozy, easily darkened, close to their parents, and the minimum size for sleeping and dressing and reading.

Right, your opinion. And it is definitely an opinion that 99% of people don't share. This sounds like a cell at a juvenile detention center. And you mentioned the Mommy Blogs, why would you take their advice over the advice from an actual Architect? I grew up with kids whose parents had foster kids. Every room was set up like this. Everyone crammed in a tiny room with bunk beds lining the walls. It was horribly depressing. They have no fond memories of sharing rooms with siblings much younger than themselves. Or sharing every last thing they owned in the common spaces. Or getting their clothes from other rooms because there was nowhere for them in their own rooms.

I’ll probably post one off ideas as they come to me. First one, add boot warmers/dryers under mudroom bench for warm feet in MT winters. Second, I don’t like prep sink on corner of island closest to mudroom - when you come in with arms full of groceries that is the spot you’d want to drop them, I’m assuming

With the newly discovered extra space available to build the home, I would recommend starting over with a competent local architect.

Hi there, please take a look at this variation of your floor plan.

I moved and rearranged the spaces to fit your goals in a more organic manner. This design increases the footage of the house slightly.

The guest bedroom now has its own bath. It shares pipes with the boys bath, reducing costs. The boy's bath is oversized to accommodate more than one person at a time.

I moved the living room to the side of the garage. This allows for a partially secluded space that fosters relaxion and conversation and is shielded from the main entrance. Visitors at the front door see the dining room (not the living room) which is usually a tidier space.

I would try to place large pane glass windows or floor to ceiling panels on the dining and living room walls facing northeast.

I made the cooking and meal space the center of the home to reflect the reality that this is the core of a home.

I did not include windows. You can do that since you know the site and the impact of the weather patterns in your region.

I will carve some time and make for you a 3D rendition of the spaces so you can see the flow and character of the spaces.

Notice that the front entrance is shielded by side walls and it is close to the mudroom with an aim to promote quick access to supplies and items stored there from both the entrance and the garage.

There is also what seems to be empty space between the dining room and the kitchen. This space is very important for it allows the house and the furniture to breathe.

Also, I gave the stairs a bigger presence in the house. Narrow stairs that are hidden away foster disunity and effectively hamper proper supervision of the basement space.

The area in pink is an additional mudroom that adds storage space to the trimmed down garage, access to the east yard, and evens out the side of the house facing the street. I also added a suggestion of an entryway treatment.

I hope this helps.

KidsinMT, have you had a chance to review the revised floor plan I posted for you?

@Felix Pradasx Thanks so much for taking the time to do that, we're going to move forward in a different direction but I appreciate your input!

Best of luck! I am glad to be of service.

Felix, that was really nice of you to do that! What a nice thing to do to help a complete stranger.

My dear Isabella, come to think about, there are no strangers, just cousins we have not met yet. Cheers!

If you're putting the boys' room(s) adjacent to the master bedroom, make sure the master bedroom is sound proof ... unless you want your pre-teen and teen age boys snickering at every sound. Remember that there are monitors that can be wired in (think office intercom) or wireless ones you could add later if you do decide to make either the basement or the attic the boys' bunkhouse.

if this is to be your forever home, have the main, easily accessible, center floor be what you'd want for retirement for just the two of you after your boys are off to college and lives of their own.

If you have an elderly relative that may be living "with" you, consider creating an efficiency apartment for that relative so you both have independence and privacy ... and you could even re-purpose it later on as an apartment for one of your sons or even yourself a century or so from now.

Good luck with your project. (Do post after pics letting us know how it turns out.)

Forgot to mention.

Before you make a final decision, DO pay close attention to where the north and south and east and west -- direct sunlight or dark wall -- will be so you get enough light into the rooms you want to have light. It will matter much more than you realize if you get it wrong.

[Also, if you do consider adding an efficiency apartment rather than a spare bedroom for an elderly relative, consider creating it so it shares a second (side) entry/foyer that could have a full wall of closets on the side opposite the apartment entrance for a washer and dryer you share -- effectively a back entry hall that serves as your laundry/mudroom, too, without looking like one]

The OP stated " . . . we're going to move forward in a different direction . . . ", which I hope means they find a competent local architect (or Architectrunnerguy) that will design a home that meets their needs (present and future) and fits the site. Sites with out of the ordinary features give opportunity to creative solutions that enhance the lives of those that live there and anyone that sees the home.

Definitely a good discussion thank for the information.