I can't enlarge the print well enough to review, but from my experience I would drop the master bath tub and have 2 seperate vanieties.

I can see the rooms, but I can't read the words. If some of my comments are misplaced, that's why.

Since you have only one child left at home, I'm assuming this is a retirement house? Are you concerned about aging in place /universal or handicapped design? If so, I see a number of things that'll be problematic, especially in the master suite area:

- A toilet in a closet is difficult for an elderly person, and a "back in" type is the most difficult. My grandmother couldn't manage them at all without help -- and that meant a loss of dignity for her. I didn't mind helping her in and out, but SHE minded.
- Too many doors in the master bath. Doors can be tough for elderly people.
- On the positive side, I like what I think is a no-door shower. That's a plus for an elderly person, and you can have your towels hanging in the "dry entry area".
- No linen closet in the master bath. I'd give up one of the sinks to get convenient storage.
- The sharp turn to enter the master bedroom would be just about impossible in a wheelchair.
- The laundry isn't far from the master closet, but by switching it and the room next to it (bedroom? study?), you could have it closer still, and -- if that room's a study -- you could open it towards the entryway and make the entry feel more spacious.

Also on the positive side, I like that the far bedroom (with its own bath and walk-in closet) would be good for a child who might return home to care for you in the future. Or a paid caregiver. It's a bit private and is "more than" a typical child's bedroom.

I don't care for the sight lines are you enter the house. When you walk in the house's main entrance, something nice should be straight ahead of you -- you have half a wall and half of the great room entrance ahead of you. You can easily fix this by shifting the entry a bit to the left so that you see the great room entrance clearly.

I assume coat closets aren't a big deal where you live? They aren't in my area either.

The kitchen is a poor design; as it's drawn, it's not big enough to support the island, but if you remove the island the counters are too far apart and you'll be taking extra steps constantly. However, that could easily be reworked. I'd lean towards doing an L-shape with the L "backed up towards" the front of the house . . . and then I'd put in a good-sized island to divide the kitchen from the dining area.

Why two garage door entrances? Exterior doors are expensive, and every one of them provides yet another point of entry for a thief. If you install a home security system, they will charge you extra for extra exterior doors.

I don't like the secondary bath at all. It's so long. I'd think it'd be cold. It could easily be half this size and still functional. I wonder about bringing all the "pieces" near the door . . .and then bumping that small linen closet to the back, but make it into a big, walk-in linen closet.

Since your guests will have access to the secondary bathroom, why go to the expense of the powder room? It's small and cramped, and it's very near the eating area. I'd rather walk around and use the more private bathroom. And you don't have a pantry now -- removing this tiny powder room would free up space for a small pantry.

What is the long, thin room between the two bedrooms? (bedrooms?) I'm guessing it's a closet.

You say the plan is losing its pizzazz for you? It's an okay plan, but it doesn't look special -- not special enough to go to the trouble of building.

Thanks for the detailed response. I wish I could get the plan to upload in a way that you could enlarge it so you could really see the plan. The reason we are going to the trouble to custom build is for the huge garage as my husband rebuilds cars and needs all that room in there and that and the pretty lot we bought are the only reasons. We really seem to run into trouble when we try to customize things. I feel like by the time my husband and I both compromise on what we REALLY want to have it comes out a mess. Here are things I do like about the plan:

Big enough living, wide entry area, separate master bedroom, laundry by master, master closet opening to my exercise room which will be next to laundry, and the guest bedroom waaaay far away.

What I don't like:

Too small of dining room and the opening from the garage/hall room area runs straight into the tiny dining room. The kitchen is too small for that island but too big without it, like you said. I want to make it u-shaped with the sides of the u being very short and the bottom of the u being very wide and then put an island that houses the sink and dishwasher at the opening of the u in the kitchen and between the dinning room. Make sense? I think it would free up that walkway area a little better. The bath by the guest room is horribly laid out and there is no way I would leave that toilet just sitting in the middle of the room like that. I HATE to see the side of a toilet when I enter a room. I'd rather see it head on if I have to.

I never thought about how hard it would be to use a "toilet closet" as you age. Bad idea. I'm getting rid of that because we are planning to age in this home. I didn't want a tub at all but my husband thought we needed one.

Although the powder room is small we are use to one being in that same location in our current home and I would miss it terribly. We all use that one when we are coming/going, cooking, working in the yard, etc. My builder wants it gone too but we are still insisting it stay for the moment.

I think there is enough room in the corner in the kitchen to make a nice walk-in pantry that extends into that dead space in the garage. Still working on that with the builder.

What looks like a 2nd opening from the garage to the hallway is actually just a little mop closet that I said I wanted that the builder just plopped there on the plans. These are his drawings not an architect’s.

The room in the middle of the 2 rooms is actually going to be a small office area for my husband’s stuff. The room it's attached to what will be a media room. If we ever have to sell we will make the office area an awesome closet and the builder is going to make a header in the hallway side so that we can change the location of the doorway without too much hassle. I'd just put it there in the first place but my husband wants it angled like this. My husband also wants to put the opening into the living room all the way to one side or the other so you can't see into the living room at all from the entry and then on that wall that is straight ahead when you enter the house put a little sitting area like a waiting room or something. Our house now has a similar entry and opens straight into the great room and looks all the way into the backyard. Very pretty but he thinks it is a security issue and hates that people coming to your door can see all the way in your house. Our builder said we could make these decisions once the walls are up and we can really tell what's going on.

I'll try and reload this picture so you can actually see the dimensions. It is useless as it is now. Sorry about that.