How can I place reading lamps in an open floor plan?
sharonannroberts
last year
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Floor Plan - tips on aging in place?
Comments (10)The only entrance to the master suite is allll the way at the back of a rather large house. I'd consider a second entrance nearer the closet /bath end. I suspect this would be convenient quite often. Since you're talking about aging in place, a toilet in a closet is impractical. Tuck it behind a door or behind the shower, but allow yourself the space you'll need to navigate the area. I would open up the pantry to be a part of the mudroom. This means that when you enter the house with groceries, you're set to put things away. I don't see laundry anywhere? You have a large, space-hogging set of stairs . . . but they're tucked away. These lovely and expensive stairs make sense, if you're showcasing them in your entry or on the edge of your family room, but if you're tucking the staircase away to the edge, I'd go with the less expensive, less space-hogging straight stairs. Also, if you are going with these stairs, at least harnass the space underneath them. You have probably 4 or 5x8' of half-height space, which could be storage open towards the garage . . . or a built-in desk or shelves open towards the office. I would not block off this space! If you stick with this staircase, definitely add a window on the landing. You don't want people navigating the stairway in the dark. Both of your showers look narrow-skinny. Your kitchen aisle looks rather narrow-skinny too. In the secondary bedroom, if you move the closet to the bathroom wall, you'll insulate that room against bathroom sounds . . . and I think you'll get a larger closet. You'll also have a bit of an "alcove" as you enter the room, which is nice. Reaching this secondary bedroom is a long walk. I'd consider a door near the kitchen. If you (or another owner) ever needed to use the office as a bedroom, this would be a better option. I'm not a fan of over-sized garages, but I see a problem with this one: The opening closest to the house, I'm not sure you can pull into it. I think the front stairs might prevent you from making that turn. Will your middle garage door allow a large vehicle (i.e., handicapped van) to enter?...See Morepaying for architectural plans you can't use - read this!
Comments (7)I think I wrote in an earlier post to you that you need to be careful about the costs of additions -- they are expensive! That was about the construction cost, not the architect's fee. I cannot say how much it should or might be but I can say that we paid $5,000 for just a structural engineer's work and towards the upper end of the range you set out for the architect -- for a 2-story addition. I'm sure there is more than one way to accomplish all of this but here's one way. First, you shop around for an architect, the same way you would for anybody else: interview, check references, look at portfolios. While I personally would not recommend design/build firms you do want to make sure that the architect you hire really has a firm grasp on construction costs. You seek to have something that could be called "phase I" drawings or "conceptual drawings" or something similar to that. These are just the ideas -- more than one but probably less than four -- and that costs you maybe 1-3 thousand. (I'm sure that if my range is wrong someone will correct me.) Once you have that, then you can obtain an estimate on the cost of construction. This is just an estimate, it's not based on what actual ppliances, flooring, etc. you will have. It is not a firm bid. Nobody is promising that this estimate is accurate. This is where things can also go very wrong. The estimate may be way lower than the actual costs will be. This is where you have to throw away your desire to hear Low Numbers and Demand that your architect give you the really bad news. If you read mightyanvil's comments it appears that he is suggesting that you have a GC involved during this whole process whose job it is to keep an eye on the costs on a consulting basis. (I think this is the idea of hiring an expert on costs to be involved which costs you more up front but keeps you out of trouble later. I have no experience with this.) If your architect doesn't know enough about construction costs he or she will be useless to you at this critical stage because this is where you decide whether you want to plunge in and hire the architect to enter the really expensive part and you need to know what the construction costs are going to be before you make this investment. Now, perhaps your addition isn't at all complicated and you just need drawings, not really anything that's the least bit of design work...I have no experience here either but perhaps someone else can advise you....See MoreHelp! How do I make this layout an open floor plan?
Comments (5)Hey Kelly! I'll give you feedback on yours... Please give me feedback also on mine :-) https://www.houzz.com/discussions/4907784/what-do-you-think-of-this-layout-w-in-law-suite#n=2 The obvious choice in your plan is to swap Bedroom 2 with Kitchen. You're trying to get the large living space integrated with the kitchen to achieve "openness". In the words of my realtor (volume: > 90 closings / year), "People hang out in the kitchen these days". If you're doing a remodel, this is probably the cheapest solution. If you are building new... then read on: Once you swap the bedroom with the kitchen, then you have two problems left: - Garage door into the house enters in face of a staircase. This is awkward and uninviting. - Bedroom 2 is now too far from the baths. This is just... awkward. Solution: See attached photo below....See Morehow to make my family room open floor plan cozy and put together
Comments (29)you may want to try sofa on the wall across from the window and love seat on window side. good job not crowding the window, by the way. if you move the sofa, keep the loveseat away from the window (you should be able to walk behind it) more on that later. having the sofas across from each other will open up the room and say "welcome, come on in" when you put a sofa across the room it says, caution keep out. your choice on how you want the room to feel. keep the sofa and loveseat the same distance from the fireplace sides, center them on fireplace not the room. if you want to keep the black footstool, try your red throw folded and draped over it and/or add a woven tray similar to your beautiful basket. (the tray will act as a place for snacks/remotes etc.) A lovely tall/and wide plant would be great behind/and to the side of the furniture on the window wall. (use a quality faux if you aren't a plant person or don't want to maintain it.)...See Moresharonannroberts
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