Custom -- unique -- those can be euphemisms for weird and bad. While this house contains some nice features, it also contains some bad ideas that will not live comfortably -- things no one's going to like in real life. And it is expensive in ways that don't help the looks or efficiency of the house. - The entryway has a barrel vault that leads into an arch . . . and beyond that is a coffered ceiling . . . and then you have another arch off to the left. These are all expensive, showy ceiling features -- but having all of them within arms' length means they will "compete" with one another. One feature of good design is that it contains "enough" . . . without going overboard. Note that your inspiration plan contains multiple coffered ceilings, but it doesn't mix and match ceiling features. Repetition in design creates a sense of harmony. - On the subject of arches -- I love them and wonder why people aren't building them anymore. But they're an expensive feature, and I would never spend the money to build one between the kitchen and the mudroom, especially since it's tucked behind the kitchen cabinets and would literally only be seen as people come /go from the house. Unless your budget is genuinely unlimited, put your resources in spots where they're going to show. - I agree with the poster who mentioned the difficult turns necessary to enter either of the secondary bedrooms. If the aforementioned elderly relative needs a walker or a wheelchair, this will be difficult. It would be easy to move the door to the smaller bedroom to an easier-to-access spot. Will this relative live with you all the time? If so, he or she will probably need more than an 11x11 room with a small closet -- could you happily move all your personal effects into this room permanently? I ask because this was a MAJOR FIGHT with my easy-going grandmother only a few years ago, and she NEVER got over having to get rid of so much stuff. I agree with the poster who suggested making the larger office room a bedroom for the elderly relative. - An ADA bath in a 9x9 space. Is that possible? Okay, it's possible, but I mean, is it possible to do it well? - The master bath is large but contains SIX DOORS. Stop and visualize six doors in this space. The master bath is also laid out poorly: When you walk in, your sightline is the corner of the shower. And the toilet closet is tiny and cramped -- backing into a 6' deep closet and scootching over to the side so you can close the door (plunging yourself into darkness) won't be comfortable. Why plan two sinks in such a small vanity? It means you'll have no drawer space. What is the dry area in the shower? What is keeping it dry? Note that when you walk into the bathroom, you'll have to close those double doors and reach behind them to turn on the light switch. With all this space allotted to the master bath, you can absolutely have something better than this. - The great room is a positive ray of sunshine in an otherwise chaotic plan. Ditto for the foyer. - The odd extra hallway (containing a butler's pantry?) near the dining area is wasted space. Why would anyone walk through this hallway when the foyer is literally two steps farther away? - The kitchen doesn't work on any level. It's huge, but everything is so far apart! Your "major players" -- the sink and the stove and your prep space -- are all disconnected from one another. Why would you want your ovens in the dining room? Look at the floor plan and imagine yourself going through the motions of preparing one of your favorite meals. Likely it's going to include too many "walk across the kitchen" trips. I think you're falling for the oh-so-common idea that a BIG kitchen = a GOOD kitchen, and that is axiomatically false. An EFFICIENT kitchen = a GOOD kitchen. - What you're calling the Hearth Room could be an incredible dining room, and it's completely wasted as a sitting area. Because it is connected to the great room, it has no privacy and serves no purpose as a separate room. - The table, in its current position, is blocking access to the kitchen and the Hearth Room. Imagine squeezing by either end once chairs are in place. - If you move the sink in the mudroom to the same wall as the washer/dryer, you will save significant money. Why? Because you'll limit your water needs to one wall. That means only one wall needs to be thick enough to run water, and the plumber only has to work on one wall. I don't love the island in the middle of this room. This is a storage room / a pass-through room. The island actually creates a barrier. - I personally dislike the "friends' entrance" concept. I'm making the front door nice. I'm arranging guest parking to encourage people to see /enter through the front door. I'm setting up a table for purses/keys, etc. I don't want people traipsing in through the back door where I'm storing plastic bags, recycling, and dog food. And if this is a "friends' entrance", for whom is the front door? Enemies? I don't invite them over. - I agree with the posters who say most rooms are over-sized. You could easily reduce most rooms by 25% and still have comfortable spaces. The exceptions are the two secondary bedrooms, which don't seem to fit in with the rest of the sizing. - The hallways could be vastly reduced, and that could make up the price difference you mentioned -- you need the foyer hall and the two small halls to reach the bedrooms, but the giant freeway running through the middle is just expensive wasted space. I do like the inspiration plan's connection between the mud room and the hallway -- it promotes good flow in two directions, without being over-sized. Were you the poster from a couple months ago who loved hallways because of a wall treatment you saw in a model home's hallways? - A garage sticking out on the front doesn't make for a very attractive exterior. - You're going with a basement AND a bonus room over the garage? I'd pick one or the other, which would eliminate one staircase -- do not underestimate the cost of a staircase. Actually, staircases cost in both money and square footage. Either a basement OR a bonus room will give you a secondary living space. Again, this house has some redeeming features, but they are so buried under the oddities and mistakes that it's hard to find them. I vote for a fresh start. This post was edited by MrsPete on Thu, Sep 11, 14 at 18:21

UGH! No there is not 3 dishwashers! Sorry! At one point when trying to be practical and when worried about our unconventional dining room idea, I asked the KD to try to squeeze in a 2nd dishwasher on the crowded sink wall to see if it was an option - and I didn�t realize the elevations still shows that version. Sorry! One dishwasher to left of sink and trash on the right. (wanted to replace the picture link but not sure if I can do that after posting w/o messing up the original message) Thanks to everyone for their comments � greatly appreciated! Couple of responses/comments/questions: To be clear, I would use the DW in the kitchen if we have company. The dining room one would be for everyday use for us and like-family neighbors (and holiday overflow when needed) but if we are entertaining I would certainly pull the dirty dishes back into the kitchen. I don�t need to use the DR DW just because it is there ;) We would have a quiet garbage disposal and a under the sink trash can as to not give up a cabinet for trash. While I whole-heartedly agree with bmorepanic about moving the margarita ingredients closer to the booze! We were also concerned about the fridge being so far away from the dining area (although we will use the island seating a lot!) The thought process was not to have something so massive in that corner, the first thing you see as you enter the house. The currently planned glass from cabinets are to soften the transition (I hope). And to put it there would require making the entrance to the dining room smaller - we want to promote the flow into the dining room and to utilize that sliding door to the much-used screened in porch, since we are closing off the 2nd existing door from the kitchen. Also when people are "living" in sunroom/brick room before a meal, they may also be invited to cut through work zone to the fridge from that direction. There seems no perfect answer. That corner location was considered for wall ovens, but we felt it distracted from the focal point of the range � which we wanted to look nice from the octagon/sun room and brick room family room. The post is structural and cannot be moved. The aisle widths are 45" between range and island and I believe 48"-50" between sink and island. The 40" sink base is pulled forward. The island is already 48" wide to reach the post.with the 12" overhang for seating. I love the idea of more space in corner, which I guess I could easily have with a smaller range � but then no oven and half � or extend the wall and make the entrance to dining room smaller as discussed above. They are just opening that wall into the dining room today and field measure is Thursday, so I will see if we can move everything down a bit. I really would like to have a prep sink � for all the reasons everyone mentioned � can anyone suggested another location? As DesertSteph metions it is close to the seating area (that may already be a little tight) and I feel it is in a prime serving location. As for windows on either side the range, a nice idea but we are already limited in upper cabinets give the open flow of the room (we actually closed in a 6 foot sliding door to porch to allow for the range) so hopefully the light from the adjacent octagon/sun room will be enough. Any thoughts on a walk in pantry? What is the smallest width to make it worth while? If not add more 16" deep pantry cabinets? Thanks everyone.

Below is an illustration of an exercise I sometimes go through on a project to point out the efficiency of the layout, how much of the house is dedicated to circulation space and how much room there is for furniture. Circulation space is unavoidable but the less there is the more efficient the layout is.This just addresses efficiency. Other design flaws I see are how insect screens are handled at the double doors in the dining and guest bedroom? Why are there doors there and not windows? Where will a guest entering from the front have their coat hung? If the door from the guest bath to the family room survives, where will the light switch go? Why such a big work triangle in the kitchen? Work triangles work best when they are a triangle. And the list is longer but I have to get back to work.

This is the kitchen our architect has come up with for our house design. Fire him or her. so the sink and counter was added in after the initial design. What I don't like about the sink area: The sink is the most-used item in the kitchen, yet it's set apart from the main work area -- this will add many steps to every meal. Also, the person working at the sink will have to stand in the walkway between the kitchen /pantry /dining area. This'll be a constant irritation. We also want the cook top to be on the island. I'm kinda ambivalent about this, but it's a generally disliked thing on this board. What are your reasons for wanting your cooktop on the island? If you keep it here, do consider you'll need to consider to add a vent hood. For example the dishwasher and refrigerator is in the pantry. Yes, I'd hate-hate-hate this. Does anyone have any suggestions for the set up? Should we have the fridge, dishwasher and ovens in the main kitchen and only use the pantry for; coffee, appliances, etc.? I think you need to define your wants /your kitchen habits. With a big pantry (more of a scullery), do you see yourself doing most of the dirty work of cooking in this pantry and then serving in the front-half? That's kinda what I see from this design ... though if that's the case, I don't see why the dining room is on the right side; it'd make more sense to be able to serve from the scullery straight to the dining room. the architect has only put the appliances in those places as a potential example. Nooooo, without the appliances you don't know if the kitchen is an appropriate size /don't know how many cabinets you'll have. Appliances aren't something to pop in at the last minute. @traci_from_seattle Thank you for your help. The reasoning for the butler's pantry is extra space/storage and was potentially meant to be a clean up area No, it works for storage but not as a clean-up area; you'd have to carry things a long way to the pantry /then clean them. That's not functional. This arrangement places the dining room far from the kitchen, meaning that many steps will be required to get the food to the table. If you're going with a loooong pantry, I'd consider opening it on both ends. It would make picking up an item from the faaaaar end more convenient. That's a monster-sized wine fridge. Do you really need that much? I'd consider placing the wine fridge IN the pantry. Patricia, why would the toaster, and for that matter the coffee maker, go in the butler pantry? I like the idea of the toaster and other small appliances being stored in the pantry. Depending upon how you use your microwave, I'd consider putting it in there too. It'd keep those "always outs" away from view. The coffee maker is especially well placed in the pantry because it means that one person could make coffee without interrupting the cook's space. how does thi kitchen relate to the other spaces surrounding it? Yes this kitchen is dysfunctional as you realized but if you want our help we need to see how it relates to the surrounding spaces. Yes, please. Of all the rooms in a house, the kitchen needs to be placed conveniently to other parts of the house. People are using the term "butler's panty" to sound "special". GRRR..... We also see the term "butler's pantry" used to mean "walk in pantry", which is not correct. That wasn't necessary. The OP is here asking for help and is probably repeating what she has heard from the architect. That sounds likely.