Layout to scale furniture in all the rooms and hanging clothes in all the closets to help you evaluate the plan.

If the laundry room door moves to the right where the closet is, so it leads to that central area/foyer, people won’t always be walking through the working part of the kitchen with their laundry, backpacks, luggage, sports gear. And it’s convenient to hava a connection to the foyer. If you move the kitchen counter over to the left, making an L kitchen, you can maybe shorten the wall to collect some more light from the foyer, since the kitchen, the one area where you really want good natural light, is interior with no windows.

Edit to add, you could then also turn the island, so that it creates a natural hallway from foyer to deck. But, then you walk out of the master bedroom right into the kitchen with the island in from of you, not good.

Downstairs, rearrange the shared bath and closets. Rotate the bath so that it has a window, and make the two bedroom closets reach-ins alongside the bath. Good sound-insulation between bath and bedrooms, more efficient closets, and light in the bathroom, all good things.

I can’t red the measurements, but your Den seems tiny in comparison to the mud room/laundry. Its location is awkward, crowding the front door. I think that a more efficient reconfiguration of the mud/den areas is critical.

I’d almost want to swap the den and powder room. It makes the foyer more linear right to left.

Random thoughts:

- I don't like the foyer at all. People will enter the rather large foyer, then walk through a bit of a maze to reach the living spaces.

- I agree with those who question the large size of the mudroom ... not that it's bad, but compared to the rest of the spaces, it seems like overkill. I think someone else said this same thing: I'd give some of this space to the den.

- Since this mudroom is completely enclosed, I'd want automatic lights that'd come on as you enter. And venting the dryer from an interior wall isn't ideal ... you can make it a little better by placing the washer/dryer on the wall shared with the garage.

- What are the garage dimensions? I'm fearful that you have a 2-car garage with 3 doors.

- I like that the kitchen has a "secondary cabinet run" against the wall, where you can keep the coffee pot, a cake under a dome, a bowl of fruit.

- The living room is going to be adorable ... the open staircase on one side, lots of light, but it is small. Really small. Smaller than the dining room.

- Perhaps move the fireplace to the dining room /to the wall shared with the master bedroom. This would free up space in the living room.

- Notice that you must pass through 5 doorways to bring clean laundry from the laundry to the master closet.

- Notice that part of your clothes in the master will be covered by the door's swing ... you get rid of this problem with a pocket door ... or you could opt to use this space for seldom-used items like dressy-clothes or suitcases. But know this problem exists.

- Is that an empty, dead space between the master vanity and the kitchen cabinets? If so, you could have some custom-made "coffin shelves" that would store seldom-used items (punch bowl, Christmas dishes) in the way-back part. My mom has something like this, and it gives some great storage ... but you'll pay for it.

- All the bedrooms have nice closets.

- The gym will be dark, but I don't see any fix for that.

- With your bedroom upstairs, I'd want an alarm of some sort on the basement doors so you'd know who's in /out of your house.

- Consider this for Bedroom 1 & 2: It gives the bathroom natural light ... it allows for a walk-in linen closet ... and it gives each of the two bedrooms a really huge closet .

How do you define "bungalow"?

I define a Bungalow as a one story home

That’s for the thoughtful suggestions everyone. I think I covered everything below:

• garage dimensions are typical 3 car size

• I was wondering if we should extend the living room by a foot or two and reduce the dining room by a foot or two. We did lay out our furniture and it fits. The living room is bigger than what we have now.

• we like having a separate foyer but agree the hallway could be improved

• I really wanted the island facing the way it is - we will have huge windows in the dining room and sn amazing view that I want to see from the kitchen. There will be lots of light in the kitchen from this dining windows.

I’d appreciate any other thoughts on the den. We reduced the size to allow a bigger mud room - we like a large mud room! The den has been measured abc will fit our office furniture, we wanted a mudroom big enough for cubbies, washer/dryer, and a laundry sink.

Thanks everyone!

Also will take your basement bathroom suggestions back. We don’t want/need bigger closets down there but there may be some other configurations that work better.

Glad you agree the foyer/hallway could be improved. I try to set things up where the first view upon going through the front door is clear through the house to the outside. It not only makes for a great first impression which is critical, it makes any house feel a bigger and brighter.

Also, set up the circulation with as straight as possible paths and design around those, not the other way around as appears to be done in your case. I actually draw in those circulation lines on my conceptuals. Your setup has everyone looking at a wall upon entry and then some hard turns to get into the house....not good.

And it'd help if you showed the house sitting on the lot.

We don’t like looking into the living area from the foyer but I agree that the hard turn to get into the house is problematic. Just haven’t been able to identify a solution yet that still gives us our other wants.

What about eliminating the linen closet by the powder room? It won't block the sight line as much without the wall there? It would feel more open, depending on how the stair railing is done, though will still have a bit of a pinch point.

Ok, from reading your replies, it sounds like you're pretty much set on your plan. Not a thing in the world wrong with that of course but in all design, everything is a tradeoff. Probably be a waste of time to explore other options further.

But exciting times ahead! Good luck with your build.

Would this make the entry any better? It gets the powder room away from the kitchen, too. You still have to make a turn from the front door, but it seems more natural to me. It also allows for a larger coat closet. But, I’d really like to see the laundry room exit to the right instead of into the kitchen.

I like the idea of swapping the powder room and the office if we can make that work. Thanks

Do you think having the powder room door in the foyer is odd? I don’t know if I’ve seen that before.

I like the idea of a hallway between the front door and the mudroom. But I also like the idea of going from the mudroom to the kitchen with groceries, etc. hmmm

Powder room off the foyer was pretty common for decades. I like it, as the foyer is separate enough from the entertaining areas that guests can escape to it, and if they need something from their coat pocket or purse in the closet it's handy.

Someone asked for the plot plan - here it is.

We are not set on this floor plan- I’m sorry that’s coming across. Just answering why things were placed where they are in this draft (this is the second draft).

Both the dining and living room are approx the same size (almost 200 sq ft). This photo shows the living room size (in red) placed over the dining room to compare sizes. The dining room needs to include a hallway between the island and the dining table, and room for island stools. Do you think it makes sense to make the dining room a couple feet smaller and the living room a couple feet bigger? This would be an easy swap on the floor plan.

Some of the other suggestions are not as easy so will take some time to figure out :-)

Remember that the dining room as shown is really only 7x16. You have to subtract passageway to the bedroom and for space, maybe stools, behind the island.

garage dimensions are typical 3 car size

What is that dimension?

I was wondering if we should extend the living room by a foot or two and reduce the dining room by a foot or two. We did lay out our furniture and it fits. The living room is bigger than what we have now.

My first reaction is, Yes, do that.

Where do you anticipate doing most of your "living"? I see that you have a larger space down in the basement ... but that is away from the kitchen, etc. Bigger than what you have now is irrelevant; you don't want better than you have now ... not when you have the opportunity to build a space that's ideally proportioned.

Also will take your basement bathroom suggestions back. We don’t want/need bigger closets down there but there may be some other configurations that work better.

Yes to other configurations ... getting natural light into the bathroom would be a big plus.

I would make the powder room access from the foyer instead of the kitchen.

Yes, this is a good idea.

Glad you agree the foyer/hallway could be improved. I try to set things up where the first view upon going through the front door is clear through the house to the outside.

Yes, this is a big improvement ... unless you really love acting like PacMan.

I feel like there's a better orientation on your lot that would give you a better house and more yard. If you align the house to the left lot line you might have more options.

Ok, I was busy yesterday doing real stuff but here's a suggestion to fix the foyer. AND it gets a BIGGER study, BIGGER pantry and BIGGER master closet all without increasing the size of the house. A bunch of stuff not the best there either but in order to keep focus on what I want to keep focus on I like to not change too much. It distracts the owner.

Back to the foyer fix....we're looking through the house AND, by getting a lot of glass along the stair wall we get light not only into the kitchen but downstairs so it feels less like "going down to the basement". You'll have to get your guy/girl to reconfigure the basement of course. A 3'x10" wide knee wall is at the back of the stairs. It can be taller (would not recommend but what do I know) but NOT to the ceiling.

For this I kept the house footprint the same.

I know I know, you don't want to look through the house but this solution presents a welcoming feel to the house. A trade off well worth it.

As always, I love your arrangement, ARG. The only thing is ... the kids (and I’m assuming there are kids) go through the main parts of the kitchen as they come and go from the laundry and garage. I winder if there’s a way to lead the laundry behind the kitchen so it exits on the right, without losing the den’s window and without changing the square footage too much?

Edit to notice the stairs: you have the top of the stairs by the living room? That makes it much better, though the basement would have to be rearranged. It also works make a nice cross-path from master bedroom to the lower level.

As always, I love your arrangement, ARG.

Thanks.

I winder if there’s a way to lead the laundry behind the kitchen so it exits on the right,

I thought of that but I like to keep as much other "stuff" the same and I definitely don't want anything to get smaller so as not to confuse the owner. The mud room is the same size as the original.

THANK YOU!!!

I dared to make a change to ARG’s plan by moving the top of the stairs to near the living room, it seems to make more sense to the flow of traffic, and people aren’t making a sharp U-turn at the top of the stairs. I wonder if that top landing could be a step or two down, but I don’t think space allows. I assume the lower level ceilings are 9’ or 10’, and if so hopefully the last couple of steps can turn toward the middle of the space, so that a bedroom suite can still be about where it is.

(Oh, I also dared to shift the den door so that it opens to the stairwell window instead of the bathroom. It can still be a double door, and solid or glass; depending on the how the room is used, one door might tend to stay closed, anyway. Shifting the door up also allows for a shallow console or shelf, or art, to the left of the front door,)

I am just a brazen amateur, in case you hadn’t noticed!

I held the study door off the corner to keep the possibility of built-ins, lateral files or furniture along that back wall.

The stairs where set up going down to the rear so they could possibly dump directly into any rec. room space (if the current designer knows what he/she is doing), which presumably has windows opposite the stair at the exterior wall. Again, minimizing the "going down to the basement" feeling. There's going to be a U turn somewhere and I'd rather have it at the top than at the bottom at the rear of a basement. Also, with the windows above and the stair going down the way I have it, it's a natural funnel for light into any public spaces downstairs. And of course if grade allows, and it likely will in this walkout, windows can be at the BOTTOM of the stairs

There were reasons I set it up like I did. It works well as is.

I like your floorplan. I also like the changes to the powder room suggested. I do prefer the powder room door to open to the hall and not the foyer

ARG, and that’s why you’re the architect and I am the brazen rank amateur. :)