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Floor Plan 2nd Draft

2 years ago

We are designing our lake house which we will be renting as a vacation rental property as well. I posted our first draft several weeks back and applied some of the feedback received to come up with our second draft here. Please offer any feedback, suggestions, thoughts or questions as I like to read others ideas good or bad. Thanks in advance.

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Comments (10)

bpath
2 years ago
Can you share with us some of the changes that you made, and why? and why some of the suggestions were not incorporated? Mind you, we are not telling you what you have to do, but some of the suggestions seemed valid and I assume you considered them, but decided they would not improve the plan.
lmckuin
2 years ago
I don’t think you want two doors to that front bathroom. If you want to leave the possibility that people other than who stays in that bedroom will use it, I would put a pocket door that closes off that hallways from the great room so that when it is open, other have access and when it is closed, it makes a little suite. And then get rid of the door from the bedroom to the bathroom. There are two many doors in that small bathroom and zero places to put a towel bar.

Do you need a coat closet near the front door? In general I like the layout.
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It's okay, but not great. The one thing I'd question is the number of bathrooms. You say that you expect you'll be a family of 6 . . . but you'll be down to 2 within a decade. Yet you're building 4 1/2 bathrooms -- your kids will have more bathroom space than you and your spouse. In a decade, you'll have 5 toilets for 2 people -- unless your budget is unlimited, this is an odd allocation of resources. I'd move the hallways a bit so both kids could share one good-sized bath, and I'd make the other space into either a storage closet OR an upstairs laundry. Remember, bathrooms are the most expensive rooms in the house. They also require cleaning, and they offer the potential for expensive plumbing problems. I just saw your downstairs plan, and this makes me realize a mistake: You say you're running two home businesses, but you haven't included a restroom for clients. You really do need that. I'd suggest relocating the back-door half-bath nearer the office (or the office nearer the back door bath).
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Comments (13)
kats - thanks for your suggestions. Nope, we're no where near finalizing anything, unfortunately. I've actually told my designer that I'm taking a break for a few weeks to reconsider everything. This plan just does not wow me at all and if I'm going to spend a bunch of money building my 'dream home' I want to really LOVE it, kwim? I have been rethinking the steps to the master, and I think I am going to nix them. I love the idea of something different like that, but I think it probably should be eliminated for practical reasons (I really hate being practical though!) I don't really care too much about resale at this point, because we plan to be here for at least the next 15ish years. And we're on 10 acres of land where land in our area is a definite premium and highly sought after. But even so, I'm not going to build something totally undesirable for the next person. chisue, we are building in central IL. weedyacres, thanks for your thoughts about the bathroom. I do like your suggestions about rotating the shower. I'm still undecided on a j&j bath. Some people love them and others hate them. So I'm not sure... I definitely agree with you on the storage issue! I need to add LOTS of closets and built-ins. Unfortunately, we can't dig the foundation lower since we're so swampy around here. We're not in flood plain, but our sumps run CONSTANTLY in our current house. So we were thinking of other ideas on how to still have a basement (we need one due to tornadoes) but possibly not going down as far. any other ideas? My dilemma is what to do with the center of the home. Most all plans I've seen have the great room in the middle of the home, but we want ours bumped off the back with lots of windows. We don't need 2 great rooms, so what do we put in the middle? I also need to have my kitchen on an ext. wall because I want lots of windows above my sink. I do agree with you on the choppiness though, so I'm probably going to nix this plan and start over. ugh. the e-space is more of a homework/blogging space for my 3 kiddos and I. I don't want them to have computers in their bedrooms, so I need for this space to be centrally located so I can keep an eye on their computer use :) thanks again for all the input! I keep surfing house plan sites hoping I'll stumble upon the perfect plan, but after 3-4 years of searching I'm not very hopeful...
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Maximizing resale value here is putting away the plans and moving. You are planning a very expensive remodel here that you will NEVER recoup the costs from. Which is OK if you plan to live there long term or are willing to pay for the increased livability as an expense and not an "investment". But, be very very sure you completely internalize that statement before moving forward with your plans.
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What do you have on either side of your house (why no windows on "S" master wall (south, as this is facing)? Can the kids' rooms and your room swap locations? Can you post up just your raw dimensions with the required stair location?
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Ross Derouen
Original Author
2 years ago
The office will serve as a bedroom while renting so the bedroom 3 bathroom will serve the office/bedroom as well. If that becomes a office for us one day bedroom 3 will become a suite. That’s our thinking. We have this same design in our home today. If we have guest over they like the suite aspect of the room and we also use it as an additional bathroom when we have big gatherings.
Ross Derouen
Original Author
2 years ago
Here is the original post to reference our first draft.

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6146532/floor-plan-feedback
bpath
2 years ago
Perhaps you can share your goals for the house, features and connections you wanted to include, and then how the layout meets those needs?
bpath
2 years ago
Have you ever thought of having the living, dining. and kitchen arrayed across the back of the house, for light and views? and the three secondary bedrooms/office all at the front/side?
PRO
Mark Bischak, Architect
2 years ago
If you are going to use an "office" as a bedroom, design it as a bedroom and maybe use it as an office. Two entry doors into a bathroom is not a good idea.
Ross Derouen
Original Author
2 years ago
Mark, I felt like it is designed to be used as a bedroom but could also be a office. Do you have suggestion on a better layout?
PRO
Mark Bischak, Architect
2 years ago
Walking from a bedroom through the main entry of the house to go to the bathroom (or anyplace) makes it a terrible bedroom. The solution is the job of your drafter.
LH CO/FL
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
Agree with most thoughts that the bathroom has too many doors, especially for a rental. Too complicated for people who just showed up to expect them to figure out which doors should be locked, etc.

Please also consider neighbors who will likely hate having a big rental next door. Build fences for privacy and make sure there's room for all the cars. Unless everyone's renting and no one cares about the neighborhood.

TL/DR: It sucks living next to a short term rental.

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