I don't want to walk through a closet to a bathroom; through a bedroom to a closet; through a bathroom to a closet. Solution for us was a long rectangle with a short hallway between MRB and MBA with two flanking closets with pocket doors. Closet, hallway and MB are 14 X 20. No biggie to clean a large bathroom with a tile floor. Biggie to clean an oversized *shower*; don't go there! I love having his and her sinks. I need a basement to hold mechanicals and to raise the house off the ground. I have asthma. I don't want living space IN a basement though, and Old People don't 'do' stairs if they can avoid them.

Ya'll give awesome advice - so many "Why didn't I think of that?" moments while reading your tips. Incorporated them into the updated version below. cp, loved reading about your house. I've been a longtime lurker on the forum, so between reading all the GW posts and Pattern Language, I've had it drilled into my head to orient the house this way and one-room deep in main living areas. Thrilled to make it a reality. Moved the W/D thanks to you... shaved off the shower size to make a space for stacked units in the "bunk room", which is a much better place as we can close the sliding door on laundry days. If we ever add on to the house, it would be by extending the hallway through the "bunk room" so the closet and bunk space become hall closets, so having the W/D here instead makes much better sense. An interior designer had recommended putting it in the master as then we wouldn't have to carry clothes elsewhere, but this way I can forgo the kitchen bump outs on the south side (resolves those circles) and we now have one long Master closet instead of two smaller ones. The room and closet size is actually bigger than what we have now, so even though smaller-than-normal, it will work great for us. Someday if we move out, it would convert to a vacation rental, so the lack of a large master closet would be okay. The street-side master orientation is only because DH spends 50+ hours a week working from home, so we'd rather have the water view from the work space. That said, if we do add-on someday then we'd add a master on the other side of the office. And loved your door change on the second full bath - thank you! Master bath is 9-ft wide. Re: west porch... we are so far up north into Florida that we actually get down to 30-40s lows in the winter, so we should be able to use it 9 months out of the year. A friend has one and it's my favorite place to be - though I'm admittedly cold natured so love the afternoon heat! It's weird, I know... Greenacres, you solved my ladder mystery. Storing it in the 2.5' space I wasn't sure about next to the bunk room means that we can have it on a slider to come into the hallway and access the attic above when needed. Thanks! Good toilet tip too. Virgil, when we asked our architect where to cut, he said to adopt PB&J and build his original drawing of nearly 2000 square feet. :) However, because we are in an area with a construction boom where we have been told people are having to pay $200-$500/sq foot (variance due to finishes), there probably isn't enough PB&J in the world for us to be able to swallow an extra 400-500 square feet, so he sent us home with the drawing to mull over cuts and report back. Thankfully this is now down to 1542, which we can live with... Still open to advice on this version too... (And any thoughts re: making island 12-feet long instead of 10?)

If you're thinking of this as investment, that looks different. The answer to your "which is better" question is "probably neither." If you build new, I can almost guarantee that you'll lose money on the resale. If you buy existing and renovate, you'll be lucky to break even. And don't forget that every renovation you spend your cash on represents cash you can't invest somewhere else. I'm not an expert on this, but based on what I've seen friends succeed and fail at, there are two ways I know of (there are no doubt others I don't) to make a profit on your personal home. 1. Ideally in a cool market, buy an existing, well maintained home with desirable design in a desirable neighborhood where homes are appreciating. Live in it and maintain it well. Don't attempt any renovations whatsoever. When values are approaching your profit goal and the market is hot, but before the decor and design you bought would be considered "dated," clean it, paint it, buy a new range and a big refrigerator, and sell it. Repeat. 2. Buy a distressed property (foreclosure, estate sale, similar) with fundamentally desirable design in a desirable neighborhood where homes are appreciating. Repair what's broken. Live in the home and maintain it well. When home values in the area are approaching your goal, no sooner, decorate and update based on what's then popular and what's selling. No layout changes, no wall teardowns, no major renovations. Sell when the market is hot. Repeat. Either way, if profit is your main motive, or even a significant one -- from the second you start house hunting, your house is never your home. It's always your potential buyer's home. Don't buy a house because you like it, buy it because your buyer will. Don't change things because you want them that way, change them because your buyer will. If you're thinking in terms of what you need or want in a house (main level bedroom/bath, open floor plan, brick facing, and so on), you're already on the wrong track. I watched that happen to a friend some years ago. She had loads of fun renovating her house, but she got almost none of her costs back when she sold it. She would've been better off to have spent the renovation money on a couple of fun vacations.

It's more appropriate in comparison to the neighborhood he wants to build in. Average home age is 60 to 70 years old and average sq. footage is around 1400 sq. ft. Millworkman brought up a good point about the green new deal stuff. A new proposed bill would incentivize foresters to turn their tree stands ear marked for harvest into carbon storage banks and sell carbon credits to the evil carbon producers(everyone), instead of turning those trees into lumber to build houses. Be prepared to live in concrete boxes built by 3d printers which will cost America millions of jobs, but I hate to admit it and pains me to say this, but I kind of like the idea. It's coming and can't be stopped so prepare for the future comrades. I've always liked trees so can someone be an conservative bible thumping gun toting environmentalist?