Hi Lexmomof3--so glad you like our plan. It was a custom plan that was a combination of a plan we had to downsize + lots of ideas & help from Summerfield and many others here on GW. We took all of that to a very talented designer who put it all together for us. Summerfield is actually the one who came up with the elevation to get us started. I have looked and looked through the GW postings and can't find the threads where the plans were posted. Unfortunately, the hard drive on my computer died and I lost a lot of what I had stored there including the plans :-(. I have a backup somewhere, but I can't lay my hands on it right this moment. What I can do, is give you the dimensions I do recall for sure... Dining Room & Front Bedroom: 12'x14' Foyer: 7'x14' Family Room: 19'8" x 21' Kitchen: 12'4" x 21' Master Bedroom: 14'x15' Laundry: 8'x 8'9" Mudroom: 8' x 9' Powder Room: 3'x7' Back Bedroom: 12'x15' Front Porch Depth: 8' except under gable which measures 10' deep Back Porch Depth: 12'on the skinny end & 16' behind the family room Staircase width: 48" All doors with exception of pantry, master bath toilet room, coat closet, and back bedroom closet are 36" wide. Front door is 5'6" wide. 9' ceilings with 6'8" doors. Upstairs unfinished with no set floorplan yet. Considering different layouts to include a game room, theater room, bedroom, 2 baths and a small office up there. Hope this helps! Feel free to email me if you would like the designer's info--they were knowledgeable, talented, quick and reasonably priced.

OH HI TMJ!! So glad to see you back. I know I have been gone a lot myself but did miss seeing you post when I would pop in. Your yard pretties sound like a great plan C to me!!! I am so bad I never even got all mine out from their winter storage this year. Now I think why bother since in a couple of months they have to go back. On the brighter side they will just last me another year this way. Hehehehe Sorry about your trees and like every one else I can't wait to see the new yard pictures. And your mannequin picture after grouting?? Chris

My tape measure is with me everywhere nowadays. I was even in our favorite restaurant and they had the old craftsman moldings (it was originally an old craftsman house), and once the couple who were sitting at the next table left, I whipped out my tape measure and measured the width of the window frames and door frames. The waitress got a big kick out of that. I measure step depth, risers, you name it. Once you start measuring you'll start to get an idea of what works and what doesn't. Also as bp suggested, go to open houses to see how other houses feel.

While it is certainly a more practical and affordable plan than the first one, there are some things you might consider changing. Except perhaps for the master bedroom on the back left and the garage on the front left, try to make the other three walls -- back and right and front -- as straight as possible. Not a fan of the two story looking entry. You might consider creating a deep front porch, perhaps with skylights to let in more light for the front of the house and a shed roof dormer for the attic that has the same number of windows as the row of windows you end up with across the front living area ... which certainly needs more than one window as adjustments are made to the floor plan. First, consider whether you want to add a several feet to both the front and back children's bedrooms. This would enable you to put two twin beds in each room and not just in case you have more children but for sleepovers and for having room to add a large toy chest and/or toy cabinet and enough space to utilize each bedroom as a playroom -- no need for a separate room. Also, making the two wings of the home more equal width will both give the house more symmetry and enable you to have your entry more forward -- closer to the front exterior wall of the garage and more of the focal point of the home. Would rather have a larger master bedroom the full width of that wing, straightening the left exterior wall of the house except for the garage. Would NOT want a ceiling curb. There is a long interior wall along the back bedroom on the right (children's side of the house) behind the foyer and still would be with the above changes. If you put your kitchen on that right side of the house and the dining area where the kitchen is now located -- with its back wall also even with the back wall of the kitchen and back bedroom -- then the hall to the master would be off the dining area -- which would mean the entire front of the great room could be the living room and foyer.. If you move the front wall of the foyer and living room out at least even with the front wall of the front children's bedroom (several feet in front of where it now is after increasing the size of the room) , you'll make room for a pantry between the kitchen on the right and the foyer AND your foyer and living area will be closer to the front exterior wall of the garage ... making it more the focal point of the front of your home. After you move the front wall of the front bedroom and entry and what was the to have been the dining room out several feet, also Increase the depth of the garage by four feet so you can extend the width of the living and foyer area so the left wall of it is where the left wall of the pantry is now. Doing that will not only enlarge and square the left front corner of the living room, it could enable you to increase the storage in the back left corner of the garage and/or alter the steps to the ?study? in the attic above the garage to have any headroom affected by the steps be in the storage area rather than in the garage itself. Another garage option you might consider, in addition to making it deeper front to back so you can cut the back right corner of the garage short for part of the living area, might be to off set the garage. You could move the garage so no part of it is behind any part of the living room -- the right exterior wall of the garage would be in line with the left exterior wall of what is now the pantry -- what would be the left wall of the living room -- and have the left wall of the garage extend beyond the left wall of the master suite that eight feet or so, creating a privacy area behind the garage for a private side porch for the master bedroom suite. With these changes, your door from garage to house would be entering into a hall way left of the living area with steps to the attic ?study" over the garage and still enable you to access the master bath via the mudroom. If you off set the garage to create the private porch on the left side for the master bedroom suite, you could add a door from the garage to that side porch.