My youngest's toys are still in her room. My oldest (7) had his toys in his room until he turned 4. Then they went to a dedicated playroom. (It's also a library and office, so not dedicated to JUST being a playroom.) Until then, he took out individual toys and mostly played in whatever room I was in, but since we moved to where he has tons of friends, he's matured more, and his sister has gotten old enough to really play with, he's really benefited from the larger space. Only fragile toys stay in the bedroom now. The playroom's nice because there are frequently up to 5 kids in it. They play, in order of frequency: 1) Outside; 2) Playroom; 3) Basement ballroom, which is treated by them as a kind of gym, too; 4) His bedroom Inside toys are NOT allowed to be taken outside. When his friends sneak them out, I have them doing push ups and laps around the house in punishment, as they always ruin or lose his toys. He's learned to say "no " firmly, finally. The last place is my least favorite place, since the other kids have a tendency to break things. :-( My son builds models, etc., so someone can wreak a lot of havoc in a short period of time, and not all children are very well behaved. Plus, with the books, there really isn't room for all the toys even in a fairly large room--it's floorspace more than wall space that's the problem, because by the time the 4th kid gets in there, they're hanging from the bunks. A LOW bin system has been the most effective here--two bins high is as high as littles can reach. My eldest could now reach to 3 bins, if he need to. We used to use open baskets for storage, but as he got more dexterous and the youngest got more troublesome, we switched to modular plastic containers that work very well. They also do not collect dust the way open baskets, even ones that fit pretty well into a case, do. Colleen--"not a good idea in this day and age" as opposed to WHEN, exactly? Do you have any idea what the rate of non-familial abductions actually is? You are exposing her to thousands of times the risk with every car ride. And childhood obesity will kill hundreds of thousands more kids prematurely as they age, and it's rooted in the sedentary lifestyles of the new "outside is a SCARY PLACE, children!" generation. (As an amusing aside.... What's the chance that a child could get injured at home unsupervised versus injured or killed in a car accident? Looking at it from a simple standpoint of risk calculation, it'd be safer to leave a *TWO-year-old* locked in a childproofed bedroom than to take him anywhere in a car. The real basis for these kinds of laws isn't to make people safe but to make them FEEL safe, which are two very, very different things. I may follow such laws, but it's with a knowledge that they are stupid.)

I LOVE that you're dumping both the front door and the family entry into the same space! One of my pet peeves is front doors that are never (or rarely) used. I dream of building a house where the main entry and the family entry essentially dump into the same space. But my mud room is a MESS (we're a family of four, with 2 boys, ages 11 and 14). I don't want the few guests who do come to walk into that mess, so I'd like to see a little separation between them - maybe swap the closet and the powder room, so the closet runs out perpendicular from the front wall and provides a separate alcove for the mud room? I also agree with Samarnn about incorporating a space for backpacks - and also mail, gym bags, ski helmets, and all the other miscellaneous STUFF that comes in the door and needs a home. I think you lead a very casual lifestyle and want a home to match. As such, I don't think having the kitchen visible from the entry is necessarily a bad thing. Think about how you live, how tidy you keep your kitchen, how often you have guests, and how that space will feel, and go with what feels right to you. I agree that the dining room as drawn feels a little tight. I'm not usually a fan of built-in banquette-style seating - but this space is perfect for it! That would allow you to push your table far enough from the back wall to accommodate a door out to your outdoor spaces. I live in New Hampshire now, but grew up in central Maine. Mosquitoes are the state bird (and lets not even talk about about black fly season!). If it was up to me, I'd go with larger screened spaces and skip the covered spaces - a big screen room gives you cover and shade, opening onto a nice patio for afternoon BBQs and such when the bugs aren't so bad. Playrooms are messy places long before you get to the effervescent teen years. Then, if you later choose to repurpose that space into a craft room, that's also a messy place. Or a home gym. Do you want to have to walk through a space like that every time you want to go in and out of your own bedroom - or, if you have a guest, do you want your guest stepping on lego bricks in the middle of the night to get to the bathroom? I understand wanting to keep Conner's play space central - both the rooms our younger son spent most of his time playing in open off our kitchen, if not within direct line of sight of the prep space, then within a step or two (we were in a different house when our older son was a toddler). But I think dedicating such a large and central portion of your house to that is somewhat short-sighted. By the time my kids were 4 or 5, they could play independently, without needing constant eyes-on supervision. You're dedicating a large and central portion of your house to an issue that will only exist for another year or two by the time you move in. Let him play in the living room for now, and create a flex space a little LESS central to the main rooms, maybe? Either that's a really large garage, or those are some very oddly scaled vehicles. Given your husband's potential mobility issues, perhaps consider a large walk-in (doorless) shower? Something without a threshold would make life a lot easier down the road, and might feel like a nice touch of luxury now. :-) And finally, revisiting that mudroom - try to keep it set up so you do not need to step through/around the puddles of melting snow to get to your powder room (one of my regrets about my current house!). And if you squeeze out space for a dryer for boots, hats, and mittens, that'd be great, too! (our heat runs in our mudroom and powder room spend the whole winter acting as hat/mitten dryers). Have fun! --Quinn

Hi there, please take a look at this variation of your floor plan. I moved and rearranged the spaces to fit your goals in a more organic manner. This design increases the footage of the house slightly. The guest bedroom now has its own bath. It shares pipes with the boys bath, reducing costs. The boy's bath is oversized to accommodate more than one person at a time. I moved the living room to the side of the garage. This allows for a partially secluded space that fosters relaxion and conversation and is shielded from the main entrance. Visitors at the front door see the dining room (not the living room) which is usually a tidier space. I would try to place large pane glass windows or floor to ceiling panels on the dining and living room walls facing northeast. I made the cooking and meal space the center of the home to reflect the reality that this is the core of a home. I did not include windows. You can do that since you know the site and the impact of the weather patterns in your region. I will carve some time and make for you a 3D rendition of the spaces so you can see the flow and character of the spaces. Notice that the front entrance is shielded by side walls and it is close to the mudroom with an aim to promote quick access to supplies and items stored there from both the entrance and the garage. There is also what seems to be empty space between the dining room and the kitchen. This space is very important for it allows the house and the furniture to breathe. Also, I gave the stairs a bigger presence in the house. Narrow stairs that are hidden away foster disunity and effectively hamper proper supervision of the basement space. The area in pink is an additional mudroom that adds storage space to the trimmed down garage, access to the east yard, and evens out the side of the house facing the street. I also added a suggestion of an entryway treatment. I hope this helps.

Unfortunately the office in the bedroom is for my husband as he is currently working from home indefinitely and needs the privacy for phone calls and Zoom/Skype meetings. I was planning to have my desk somewhere in the main part of the house as I work at home occasionally, I still go in the office. Our house is 3 Bedrooms, Kitchen, small Casual Family Room in front of kitchen, and large open room (formal dining/living room) in the front entrance that is open concept. unfortunately there are no nooks, basement, or attics in the house which is why our space is limited. Each of the 3 bedrooms has a purpose: Master Bedroom that has limited space, Husbands office and he needs the privacy for phone calls, and the current guest room which will be utilized as a nursery/kids room in near future. The garage has both our cars already and we live in the desert where it gets over 100 degrees. So a gym in the garage is not an option.