stuck! floor clashes with fireplace -help please!
kilkennyc
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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 More3rd Time's the Charm? Please review floor plan
Comments (38)Your cabin is charming! I wouldn't change a thing in the original living/dining room and loft. I would take out the kitchen and square off the space...or add french doors and make that the play room. Since the driveway is on the right side of the house...have you considered 'flipping' the kitchen/family area and master bedroom? I'd rather have the driveway off the closet/bath and the view off the kitchen/family room. Then, you could put the screened porch on the left side and have easy access to the kitchen...and great views out the back of the house. As for the kids' rooms, I think they work well as is, but if you need a bedroom closer to the master...then I'd put it in between the living/dining and master area (as you have it now) but eventually turn that into a guest room/study. Can the kids go upstairs, eventually? That loft would make a great bedroom or playroom area :)...See MoreI screwed up - kitchen floor and cabinets clash - island
Comments (25)"I'm starting to think that color/tone of the tiles have changed over time - maybe because of a seal or wash or something? The first picture above taken several weeks before the herringbone fully installed is a lot more muted without the orange tone so much. Wonder if there is something that could "mute it back" to how it looks in the first picture? Yet, this could also be a result of more lights. A large window was installed since the floor tile and cabinets were purchased. " Yes, the difference that you see is because of the lighting. When I was looking at the pictures earlier, would venture that your first photo was taken with lighting from inside, likely a warm white incandescent (or it could be another type of bulb that is made to "read" as a warm white incandescent.) Your second photo shows as more of a natural light or possibly with flash...regardless, the light is coming more from the front in the second photo than in the first and the direction of where light hits will change coloration as well. Anyway, I think that the dark IKEA cabinet fronts are a great idea. I think they will work well with the flooring since it's not very likely that you'll want to change that....See MoreShould I remove this huge 8' x 3' fireplace or just the hearth?
Comments (12)I have huge FP that separates my kitchen from my LR it did have a wall on one side when we started but my openings now on each side are large. I need to see an actual to scale floor plan of your space . This is mine, I love the separation but my FP is much larger 10x8 x4 and so are the openings on either side. I think yours will need to be at least slimmed down . BTW ours is part of the actual support of the house so not easily removed you will have to check about that with yours...See MoreCate
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