One of the better new plans I've seen all week. :) I can see what you are trying to do with the mudroom/garage entry area and pantry. But, I am not sure it is working as efficiently as it could. However, I do not have a good work-around atm, so I will need to think on it some more. What I don't like, are all the kinks and wasted space due to "hallway". I am also not sure that it will function the way you think it will to walk from garage to pantry with groceries with the current garage door swing (the door is a larger door and will obstruct the pantry door when open. So, functionally, you'll have to come into the mudroom, closet the garage door, then proceed into the pantry. It might work better to reverse the garage door swing. But, then it may bump into the closet door...) In the same way, you have extra, unusable space in the laundry room with the jog in the room. It ends up just being more "hall". I *think* your laundry could be wide enough to not have the jog just for door swing. Then, you could use that door swing square footage for a closet--either bathroom, or closer to the entry. At the very least, make it less of a jog in the wall separating the bath and laundry. Then, you can still have a nice shallow depth (right size) linen cabinet in the bathroom beside the tub, and have "extra space" in the laundry without using it all up with just empty space. The dimensions are too small for me to see any of them, but the layout appears to function well. (For example, I can't see the foyer dimensions, which might assist me/others in figuring out a better garage entry layout). For the kitchen, you might consider how you can get the fridge on the other side of the room. As it is, your children will likely cut through your work zone when setting the table, refilling cups, etc because the fridge is at the opposite end of the space from the dining area. I would potentially switch the location of the range and fridge walls and possibly recess a standard depth fridge into the garage space to that it won't intrude on my kitchen space. Definitely, as you get closer, take your kitchen design to the kitchen forum. They are amazing. I've learned a ton from them. Are there any plans for a second laundry downstairs? When your children are bigger, are they likely to wash their clothes themselves? Are they likely to remember to bring dirty laundry up? (in general though, I like your placement of laundry; and you do not mention any of your family characteristics/size/age of children, etc). In the upstairs hall bath, if you only plan on 1 sink, potentially consider not centering it to give you a little more room on one side or the other for different vanity "storage" and also for future conversion to double sink. Finally, do not discount a good connection to your backyard. I do not see anyway to get from inside the house out the back except through a window in the event of a fire. Maybe that is just due to the pictures, but if you don't have a door somewhere, you need one. Somewhere.

I refer to our two hundred year old home as a white elephant. I am in the greenhouse business and my husband is a rabid gardener, so the grounds are planted with rare trees and flower gardens and go on for acres. Over the years we have added a large gazebo and a spring fed pond. yadayadayada. Only a person who knows old homes first hand, and has the time or money to hire a professional full-time gardener, should ever buy it. There'll be lots of people to come look when it goes up for sale, but it would not be for the weak of heart. Heating bills. Put that at the top of your list. Even if you let the house fall down around you, they'll just keep coming. We've installed new double-paned energy efficient windows. Caulked. Weather stripped. Built a solarium across 2/3 of the northern exposure of the home for solar gain, replaced the roof, put in a new boiler, converted from electric to gas heat (yes we had to pay to have lines ran), and placed gas grates in strategic spots to take off chill or use when it wasn't too cold. Use reversing ceiling fans to distribute the heat. We've cut our heating bill IN HALF as far as energy consumption. But, rates rise and will keep rising. We still have six hundred dollar a month heating bills in winter. And this is an old farmhouse. It does not have fourteen foot ceilings. It also is nowhere near 6,000k square feet. And, until we put a small fortune in the energy efficiency items, a draft from a window on one side of the room could blow out a candle on the other. It's comfy now, and even cool in summer so we don't need air conditioning, but for the first fifteen years of my marriage you needed a wet suit to take a bath. Think also about the bones of the house. Redecorating is great, but get somebody in there who knows construction really well to look at the skeleton of the house before you even consider buying it. The last two winters, we replaced the beams and joists under our kitchen and dining room. They were logs with the bark still on them, or logs cut on site and hand hewn to nearly square. They were ENORMOUS,and likely dragged into place by teams of horses. We needed to chain saw them to even think about getting them out. We had to gut these rooms clean down to the dirt underneath and after we got new joists up then replaced floors. Moolah. BTW, we never thought about replacing joists and floor beams in this house. After all, they'd withstood two centuries before us. Then termites happened. LOL. The roofer left about a hundred bats homeless when we replaced the slate for modern shingles. We've put in a new entrance box and had to rewire the whole house and it has solid brick interior walls. The logistics of running electricals, and the plumbing for the boiler system were staggering. If you see fuse boxes that should send up a red flag to check out the electricals for modern wiring. Moolah. We had to restucco over the seventy five year old stucco over the bricks. (major, major moolah) We've had to repair or renovate chimneys and it's hard to find brickmasons here who are familiar with the old craftsmanship. That's another thing about very old houses. Nearly everything in seriously old house is done by methods not common to craftsmen anymore and that includes materials. If you have to replace parts of woodwork it's going to be something like oak or mahogany and large. Not box store kickplates. My walls are so old, it's not even plaster on most of them, it's a sandy almost concrete covering. If we put together all the money we have spent in the last two and a half decades breathing life back into our wonderful old home, we could be living in a really fancy new one. We don't want to. We love our old home and pretty much know it inside and out by now. But, it's like a marriage and yes.............we are the volunteer caretakers to an historic old building we couldn't see being left to ruin. But, it's going to take a very special person to want the job after us. Now, ask me about the plastering schedule where the doors and windows are. LOL. Old houses just keep settling. Not a door in this house even resembles a rectangle. They all have been trimmed or had wood added to them to fit the openings. Every window was custom made and no two are the same size. The house is nearly regained its integrity now, and I can see the end in sight of the major issues. But, if we had been forced to sell this at any point along our long path of renovation, and somebody else had to pick up where we'd left off, if they knew up from down, you can take it to the bank our money and sweat wouldn't have left much room for profit. There'd have been no quick sells. The end results perfect for us. It's rustic yet and even has a pitcher pump in the kitchen to pull up the spring water for the house. But you always live with a foot in the past where people lived simpler and made do in some respects. Some people can do that. Some people can't. It fits our lifestyle well.........simple and hard working. But, it was purchased because my husband wanted an old large home in a rural setting. If he'd just wanted "room" it wouldn't have even been in the game. Good luck whatever you decide.

ok, this is a rather old post and Emmhip got wonderful advice and probably has it all under control by now, but since laundry is discussed, I just wanted to add how great a satisfaction I feel when I'm caught up with it. Here it takes a bit more time, especially in winter when a load may take up to 3 days to air-dry my drying racks and clothes pegs are enough for up to 2 1/2 loads. (Yesterday the built-in hamper was overflowing, so I did 2 1/2 loads and that emptied it. This morning the clothes hanging outside were still wet and it is snowing so no chance of them drying today. But, since it's so cold and snows they keep the heating on, so the whole morning I keep bringing them in and draping them over radiators and chairs. It is noon now and half is done. I think I can get it all dry and folded by the time DH comes home if they keep the heating on.) When the house is messy it feels great getting a load in the washer, like something is getting done while I am free to work on other things. We also unpack right into the washer the minute we get home from a vacation. DH is to thank for that. My natural tendency is to lounge a bit, have a bite, a shower, a nap - in that order - and then begin to unpack. DH unpacks fisrt thing, cleans the suitcases and puts them away, and then has a shower and orders a pizza. Coming back from our last vacation we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner on the road a bit before entering the city and this was the best for me, since upon arrival I could take care of everything without feeling hungry. In fact, I can do nothing when I'm hungry, while DH can't do anything after he has his dinner! Maria

Funny: I had a somewhat similar layout: narrow kitchen area attached to familyroom/garage/porch etc. In one of my many many iterations, I had a design similar to this, but I kept tweaking, and I'm very glad/happy with my final design. Maybe we should take this offline. Or follow my journey. My starting point: I have a similar layout, minus the front hallway. After about 73 iterations (thank goodness for GW and their patience): 1. I have a 12ft long dining room table, so the living room became the dining room (only room left that could fit something that long). 2. I Love my keeping room, because everyone hangs out in the kitchen, so my dining room became the keeping room, right next to kitchen. 3. I know you have to go through the familyroom to get to the deck, but we have kitchen windows going all the way down to the countertop, so we use the windows like a drive-through window. DH would put his hamburger/tongs stuff on the counter, go outside, open the window and reach for his stuff. or when he's done grilling, he puts the stuff on the countertop for me to serve. or kids ring the bell and I hand out water, wipes, ice cream. It's been working nicely for 2 years. kitchen: familyroom/mudroom: My lovely kitchen: My point is: don't give up. You will find what fits your family/house. ask any questions. Amanda Found this layout: see, I told you one of the iterations had the dining table where the kitchen was: Q? How do you get into the house via the garage? Is there a way through the 1/2 bath/laundry area? We have the same 2 front doors deal. The front formal door is used about 1-2x a year. We mainly use the door from the garage (where your laundry is) through the new much love mudroom. Friends and UPS guys use the porch door. This post was edited by huango on Fri, Feb 6, 15 at 9:52