The knowledge and experience of the members here varies greatly and that is what makes it so useful to those who ask questions. The use of multiple posts, casual jargon, incomplete/cryptic descriptions, and URL's without Links tends to limit the kinds of responses you will get to casual "chatroom" anecdotal discussions. If you want more specific, detailed and/or professional advice it is best to ask your question in one post in a more specific and thorough manner. Even if I had understood the meaning of 3/3 the program you have outlined is too incomplete for me to be of much help. For me the design of a house starts with assembling the relevant needs, wishes, restrictions, and limitations instead of searching for designs published by others. If 3/3 hadn't been so puzzling I probably wouldn't have bothered to comment. If you took all of your needs and site features and sketched a rough bubble diagram of how your house might work that would be something I would find find worth discussing.

This is why I love these boards, THANK YOU pps7, I never would have thought of switching the stairs for the office. It's really something I am going to give some thought to. Pros: - it really takes a bite out of that loooonnng upstairs hallway and it would provide 2 walls for windows in an office Cons - on resale, if it is converted back to a dining room, it makes it far from the kitchen area if it is moved to the far end of the house. And also, I like the central location of the office as I work from home and I go from the kitchen to my office, back to the kitchen, back to office, to the great room, to the bathroom, back to office, etc etc all day long. You get the idea. I will also have frosted french doors facing the south great room side of the house, so even if closed, I will get some light from 2 sides. It won't be a bright room though, as there is a covered porch in the plan in front of that north window. That makes me want to move it to the corner of the house hmmm... I will mention that to my architect. As for the full vs half bathroom, you are right also, and I know it, but I really struggled to get the room to put in a powder room there, as the plan called for just a closet. Adding an extra 30 or so inches for a bath just takes more space and $$. But, you are right, DH's cousin just had to move her elderly mother into her house and she had to gut half her garage to make a shower area on the main level for her because she only had a powder room and the lady can't climb stairs. 30" doesn't seem that bad compared to what she had to do. And my DH was in a wheelchair for a YEAR because of an extremely badly broken leg about 10 years ago, and we were young couple with a baby at the time, not elderly at all. Luckily our house was/is a bungalow, we would have really been in a pinch. Very much food for thought. As for point #3, I actually like NOT having the master bedroom in the corner. I don't want more windows in the bedroom. It's bad enough the master faces the south side of the house and calls for big windows. I own a rental cottage which has an almost identical master bedroom and bathroom and corners on the south and east side of the house with a 9 ft patio door facing south. We stay there in the summer and my face is about 3 ft from this huge patio window. Even with drapes, it is just soooo sunny and bright in my face, I keep waking up from 6 am onward grrr. I have pictured it below just for fun. Also, coincidentally, the master bath is almost identical too to this house plan. I designed this cottage master bedroom and bathroom 3 years ago as an addition, and I guess that's why I like this plan I found, reminds me of my cottage!

May I make a suggestion? Before you get too excited about the ideas for future expansion of the walls, go talk to a local design/build firm who has worked IN YOUR CITY recently. Pay them for an hour of time, bring your plan along with the lot drawing you got with your loan papers. Ask how your city is currently viewing additions, even modest ones. There is a state limit in CA on how much of your lot you can cover. Any time you are going outside your current four walls, btw, most cities require you notify all your neighbors within a specified area, usually anywhere from 3 blocks to half a mile or more. Any of them can raise objections to your plans. Those objections must be acknowledged and settled. Almost everywhere in CA it is extremely difficult "to go upwards". You look to have a slab below and probably pre-fab roof trusses. Trust me, you will not believe how much a staircase costs to build, and how much room it takes to comply with current tread space and riser requirements! Ask the design/build firm how your city handles engineering issues. In Oakland, for example, it's a waste of time hiring an engineer to approve any plans, because the city has its own engineers and you will be charged anyway for their input as it's part of the permit process. Remember that if you do plumbing and electrical you will be required to bring everything up to current code. This may, depending on your plans, include changing to the new LED fixtures with LEED "green" certification. From the looks of your home you're not in SF, which is fortunate. In the City ANYONE can join a neighborhood panel, even if they don't live in that specific neighborhood, and stop any project dead in the water with objections. That includes any objections DURING construction, meaning your project can grind to halt until you satisfy those objections or the majority of the panel approves a continuance. I don't mean to sound so discouraging! We've remodeled three times in 25 yrs, the first one a complete gut. But there are real issues to remodeling in CA, that should not be under-estimated. They increase cost and take time, and I only wish someone had give us this kind of advice before we embarked on major projects.

jdez you have good ideas but I would hate for guest to use my kids bathroom. We wanted them to have their own private space. That's the reason for two separate toilets. LOL Thank you for loving the layout. I give credit to our inspiration plan! Karenseb- the safe room is actually to conceal my husband gun safe and amno. We don't really have tornado's down here but hurricanes are a different story. Also the stairs go up to the bonus room over the garage. That will be the kids game/ tv space.