Meeting designer in three weeks - feedback on our brief/plan please!
2 years ago
last modified: 2 years ago
Located in Atlantic Canada. New construction on a lot we own outright is set to start Spring 2023. We're a childfree couple in our 30s, with two cats and hopefully a dog once we're settled in the new place!
We're meeting with an architectural designer in July to have the building plans drawn up. They've asked us to bring any plans we like as a starting point, so we compiled our desired elements into the following layout in a free software program for reference. We of course expect things to change & evolve throughout the process, but would you say this is a good foundation? Is there anything that immediately jumps out to you as needing to be completely overhauled or scrapped? Any and all input is appreciated!
Parameters:
- lot is 75ft W x 250ft D; road runs east-west on the north side of the lot
- 6ft setbacks either side mean a max building width of 63ft; we would prefer slightly wider side yards so they don't feel cramped, but we also want to maximize the southern exposure on the back of the home
- affordable, efficient, modest space (~1500sq ft)
- 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and 1.5 car garage all on one level
- bright & airy feel (lots of windows, 9ft ceilings)
- direct access to the back yard from the mudroom, laundry, and living room
- master bedroom facing the back yard
[The grey X is a switchback staircase leading to the basement, which will be unfinished aside from a media room & workout area.]
We'll be sure to follow-up with the actual plans once we get their first draft back! This community has been so helpful already. Thanks in advance!
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- 2 years ago
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Floor plan enthusiasts please take a look, feedback appreciated!
Comments (17)Instead of having a small separate dining area in its own nook, have it continuous with the living area - no pinch points. That way if you have guests you can turn the table or extend the table into the living area - flexible space. In some of your plans you'll never sit more than six comfortably. Our dining room is 10'x11' and it seats eight with the table turned on the diagonal. We have to squeeze in eleven or twelve for Thanksgiving dinner. There's a nice big breakfast area in the kitchen, but there's a pinch point -can't join the spaces at all. And the LR is in an L-shape to the DR - but the LR is up three steps - arrgh! No flexibility! Which is what you NEED in a small space. You don't want this order of connection DR-K-LR but K-DR-LR. You could save a lot of space by having a much smaller, more efficient U-shaped kitchen. Save a lot on cabinetry and counters too. How many people will work in it at once? I'm the primary cook in my house; 8x11 workspace is plenty big enough for me. Your kitchen corridor eats a lot of space and those islands are really bulky - how about just having people sit at the table to socialize? I'd put the kitchen in one of those dining nooks in the plans and give myself a view while I worked. Your wanting a one-level house, and maybe having your parents live with you, maybe adopting or fostering children, makes me think you ought to consider an accessible bathroom. All your bathrooms look big enough if the layout is right. Look at roll-in showers. At least put in the blocking in the walls for handrails before the drywall/tile goes up. You and I have a lot in common with what we want in a house. Same size, passive solar, low energy use, healthy living conditions - I even want to move back to Western NC which is where my family is from. I just started sketching my plans - a two story, 40'x22' rectangular layout - the minimum number of expensive corners. I'm thinking of it in modular terms - on the west side, a 14x22 great room with dining area. In the 12x22 center module, foyer, stairs, and kitchen. On the east side, 14x14 study or ground floor bedroom, with an 8x14 area behind for accessible bath and laundry. Double pocket doors between great room and foyer and foyer and study - more flex space. Maybe have panels to close off the kitchen for more formal dining. Maybe a masonry heater in the GR? I know the interior walls will shorten the spaces - and maybe I can shave a couple feet off the edges. I've read though that you should build in 2' increments - eliminate some waste. Upstairs, master bedroom and bath over the study. Two more bedrooms over the great room. Window seat, gallery, bath in center module. Walls line up; the plumbing lines up. Strong enough joists and steep enough roof that I can finish a couple rooms in the attic if need or desire arises. So a really boring rectangular layout. Small by today's standards. I figure beauty will have to come from harmony of proportion, materials, colors. No mean, stingy narrow trim, doors or hallways. Actually there isn't much at all in the way of hallways. The foyer is a SPACE, not a passageway, same for upstairs landing....See MoreFeedback needed for our Floor Plan :)
Comments (23)Would you actually use two living rooms as drawn on your last revision? Most people tend to use one room, whether it is called a living room, great room, family room, or whatever. I feel that every square inch of a home should actually be used. I would make one nice living room area, with either french doors or a sliding glass door onto the porch. As far as the stair placement goes, could you have a nice open foyer where they could be placed on one wall, and then continue on it the living room area from there. It would be nice and open, while allowing for furniture placement in the living room area. The stair placement drives the loft design though, so you may not like what it does. I like kitchens that open into a living area. In your first drawing the main thing I see is that the space between the island and kitchen table is way too tight, and I would not like the door placement to the porch from the kitchen. It's "off" and doesn't flow right. The porch can be easily used from the kitchen through doors from the living room. We are designing a floor plan right now ourselves, and it is amazing what changes we have made over the past several months. It is just my husband and I now, so I can build my home without a bunch of bedrooms. We are building it the way that WE want. We are basically going to have the master and a large sewing studio. If we do get a guest they can sleep in the sewing studio. I want larger rooms, and less of them. We are also keeping the square footage down to around 1700 sq. ft. I've decided against a loft, because I have found I never really liked living with huge vaulted ceilings. Wherever the loft isn't, the ceiling is a monster. The solution is to flat ceiling most of the house with the loft above it, but I didn't want that either. I do love being up in lofts though. The other thing I have had to let go of is my desire to have a built in island. I've wanted an island as long as I can remember. I just couldn't make it work with the clearances and flow I wanted. I think I can have a nice portable one made though that can either store when not needed on a wall, and/or do double duty as a cutting table in my sewing room. I usually only want an island when doing lots of baking or cooking for company. My changes in thinking about our house are not meant to imply that you should think and do as I am. I only mentioned them because frustration sets in while designing a home, and an evolvement process happens as a result. If you are stuck on a certain aspect and can't get past it, it means that something isn't quite right...for you. Sometimes it takes a while to figure it out. What figured out the loft/no loft thing for me was taking the time to go through a few model log homes. I'll always love the sewing loft idea, but for me, and me only, the tradeoff wasn't worth it. We are middle aged now and I want to keep the home manageable for when we are old. Oh, and be sure to put plenty of dish storage near your dishwasher and to the table. The dishwasher should go next to the sink for ease of use. Good luck. I know you are doing lots of head banging right now. It's easier to erase lines on paper than move it while under construction. You'll eventually get it. Sandy...See More1st attempt at design plan - please give feedback
Comments (18)Marcolo and Blfenton, the box thing in the southeast corner is just that, a box constructed out of drywall to take up the corner. I hate blind corner cabinets, so I would rather "waste" the corner entirely rather than spending money on corner cabinetry I hate, especially since it lets me put more efficient drawer storage on each side of the corner. It also allows me to have tall cabinetry on the east wall and uppers and lowers on the south wall, without having an issue where they meet in the corner. I might put a door in the guest room wall to utilize the 27" x 27" space from the other side to store items we do not need to get to often, like luggage. I agree that having the wall ovens 4' away from the nearest landing spot on the island is not ideal, but it is a big improvement over the 7' walk between wall ovens and counters in our current kitchen. If we move the wall ovens to the east wall, there is still at least a 4' walk to the island. Amanda, the trash pullout and dishwasher are on opposite sides of the sink cabinet. I will also have storage for dishes, Rubbermaid containers, plastic wrap, etc. on the south wall. That way, after meals, the plates and pots all go to the counter next to the sink, leftovers can be packaged, dishes can be scraped into the trash and then go into the dishwasher. When I empty the dishwasher, the dish storage is on uppers on that wall. It sounds like cooktops on islands are not popular. I agree it is not ideal, but it was the only way to get the entire wall of tall cabinets on the east side. My DH loves the look of that wall, and that wall will be highly visible from our kitchen and dining room. I would prefer a real hood to a downdraft vent, but, then again, I have lived without a proper hood for 10 years. Mahlgold, I am having trouble balancing the look we want with function. We plan to do prep on the island and the counter to the left of the sink. Those 2 areas give us more counter space than we have had in any prior kitchen. We do not own a coffee maker or toaster oven. Our only countertop appliances are a KA mixer, small toaster and blender. The mixer and blender will go under the uppers to the left of the sink (mixer in far left corner on an angle). The toaster could also go on that counter, or maybe behind the lift door on the left side of the east wall along with bread storage. We only do breakfast and lunch at home 1 or 2 days per week. I am not sure how many or how deep of drawers to put in the tall cabinets. I drew each side with 5, but it could be 3 or 4. This kitchen has so many more lower cabinets than we have ever had before, that I am not sure what to put in all of them. On the right side tall cabinet, I thought I would want a couple of shallow drawers at the top to store extra trays for the Advantium, pot holders (those will be kept in 3 different locations near all the hot appliances) and wine tools like the opener, Vacu-vin, etc. Maybe a drawer for DH's vast tea bag and leaf collection and related tools. We could put all the empty baby bottles and plastic plates for the kids in a drawer in that tower or on the south wall. On the left side tall cabinet, I could use the drawers to store pyrex, roasting pans, pie tins and other baking dishes that might not fit in the drawers below the wall oven. My stove top pots and pans and utensils will go in drawers below or next to the cooktop on the island, as I have several feet of drawers on the south side of the island. The wall ovens were put on the north wall (where they are in the current kitchen) because they are less attractive to look at. Also, if we get the side opening Gagg ovens, they would be difficult to place in the east wall because they need at least 8" between the hinge side of the oven and an adjacent wall, so we could not put them at the very end of a cabinet run. It is also tricky because we are trying to find space for 3 wall ovens: standard 30" convection oven, speedoven/microwave, and steam oven. They are too tall to stack all together in one column and still have at useful heights. I will use the speedoven/microwave more than once a day, so I would be miserable having that oven below countertop height. I also hope to use the combi-steam oven regularly. I feel like we should have 1 full size oven, but that one will get the least use (I very rarely bake or cook large meals), so I could buy the Thermador wall oven with the standard door and put it under the counter somewhere and stack the other 2 together on a wall. The problem with swapping all the cooling appliances to the north wall and the pantry to the east wall as was suggested is that the pantry is only 16-18" deep and the appliances are 24" deep, which would prevent us from having a 24" deep coat closet on the hall side of that space. (We really need a coat closet because the house does not have one now.) I will think about whether we can steal coat space from another room, like the guest room. I am debating the idea of a prep sink on the island. DH looked at me like I was crazy when I suggested a second sink 5' away from the main sink. We do not use the sink a lot for prep. We rinse the veggies, but then put them on a cutting board and move it to where we want to work. We use a large bowl to collect veggie or meat waste when we peel, chop and trim. Sadly, we do not have any family in this state, so no one brings us food to prepare. It is just DH and I in the kitchen now, although we hope our two daughters will like to cook as they get older....See MoreFeedback on Kitchen Plans (please, please)
Comments (13)Thanks buehl, raenjapan, jakabedy and cotehele for your feedback and suggestions. Here are some comments to clarify the design that will hopefully spark further discussion/ideas: We really want to keep the following in place: -the apothecary cabinet on south wall -the dining table parallel to it -fridge in recessed area -west counter -northern cabinets with theater chairs We have mocked up the shown configuration using our old cabinets and plywood and have been living with it like this for a couple weeks. It isn't ideal. We would consider any changes to the island and the peninsula separating the kitchen from the LR that increases functionality. We are just stumped about what else we can do differently. It would be great to see any ideas that incorporate the constraints above while moving towards an ideal work triangle arrangement. Can it be done? Some more details: 1. What we removed: There was a wall separating the dining room from the kitchen and a wall extending from the new fridge location into the dining area, both separated by a doorway into the dining area. 2. What is gained: Openness, unobstructed visibility and connection to the DR, the LR, to anyone sitting on the sofa, and the opportunity to view the plasma TV over the fireplace. The desired openness also speaks to the downdraft issue - while not ideal we realize, the alternatives are 1) not to have one, 2) have a ceiling-mounted vent that obstructs visibility and is a head-knocker for 6'2" husband, or 3) to have one that's powerful enough and raises up 14" to hopefully provide benefit. Note we have 8 foot ceilings. 3. Measurements for current design: Island: 45" wide x 8'9" long Aisles on either side: 42" wide Across kitchen: 12'9" and 14'9" to the sliding door Width: 11' across from North Wall to start of West counter. 4. The "Barrier Island" comment caused quite the chuckle this morning! a) shifting the island seating to the other end by the dining table makes sense as that's where we have been ending up while we test-drive the mock-up. b) We considered breaking up the length of the island into two smaller islands with a pass through to the fridge - intriguing AND we are also drafting this up for consideration. c) Also considered individual Thermadore or Liebherr columns, for freezer and fridge on either side of the chairs on the north wall, but the effect was rather monolithic. FYI, the walking distance to the fridge is actually the same (~10') to the other side of the island or to the north wall. 5. Theater Chairs: these chairs are replacing 2 recliners we've had in this part of the kitchen for the past 7 years. Similar to jakabedy's comment, we love hanging out in this area to relax, watch the garden, hang while the other person is cooking, or just a quiet place to read, etc. Also, there's an 18" LCD TV on a swing-arm located on the wall above the dishwasher, so it's also an alternative TV/movie spot (synchronized signal with main TV). 6. Traffic Flow: two options, first CCW...come in front entry, down hallway, into kitchen (hang/relax in chairs or cook), dining at island or DR table, hang in LR. Secondly CW, come in front entry and hang a left into the LR, go direct to couch and veg! If the DR and theater chairs were swapped we'd loose the existing desirable connection between the DR and LR and we'd loose a more "quiet area" which the current position of the theater chairs provide. 7. Dining Area & Living Room Area: please see attached photo of antique green apothecary cabinet which is a real showpiece and beautiful anchor on the South wall next to the dining table. The Living Room extends off the dining area and a plasma TV is mounted over the fireplace. Part of the openness and placement of the rangetop is to allow the cook to enjoy the FP and TV too. We are planning a long "L-shaped" sofa opposite the TV for hanging out, movie watching, etc., with additional sitting furniture on the opposite wall. Feel free to mark up our sketch with some other suggested geometry, but we're pretty firm on the constraints listed above. Many thanks!! --Maxine...See MoreRelated Professionals
Artondale Home Builders · North Richland Hills Home Builders · De Luz General Contractors · East Riverdale General Contractors · Erlanger General Contractors · Havre de Grace General Contractors · Commerce City Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Franklin Furniture & Accessories · Greer Furniture & Accessories · Hastings Furniture & Accessories · Buena Park General Contractors · Fort Salonga General Contractors · Glenn Dale General Contractors · Modesto General Contractors · University Park General Contractors
2 years ago
PRO2 years ago"They've asked us to bring any plans we like as a starting point."
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Very rough. no halls, doors, furniture, almost a ”bubble diagram”? And nothing to scale, not proportioned. But, nearly every room gets south or east light, maybe even a west window. (living with a north-facing garage in a northern climate, I might even have the garage be another L with side entry facing east, keeps the snow out. Then the house is more of a T. But, keeping snow out of the garage is another concept or ”problem” as Mark says, to bring to the architect to solve.) Btw, that’s a foyer separating bedroom wing from public wing. Walk in the front door to a view of the back yard.
comelyhomely thanked bpath - PRO2 years ago
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Mark Bischak, Architect