Second Floor

Elevation

I'm looking at the master bath and space for a linen closet. What's that tiny little box at the very top end of the vanity? Is that supposed to be for linen storage? Maybe it's intended to be ceiling height.

The entry hall looks like it has a lot of wasted space. And I agree that the plan is pretty open - great room, kitchen, breakfast, hearth. Do you really need 3 eating spaces (dining, breakfast, and bar)?

It's a confused mass of builder cliche juts and gables and hips with no central mass to unify the concept. When you choose a garage in front of the house like that, it dominates the look of the home and the whole front of the house is paved, not the straight drive with no turnaround space that you show. You'll need pavement all the way to the end of the left side of the house if you are to have a turnaround space. You need to look at this in perspective, not elevation. All you will see in perspectives will be roof and garage. Not the most attractive look.

The kitchen is dysfunctional but trendy. It will not work well at all, and in fact is much too large to function as a working kitchen without doing a lot of hard work to create separate work stations in it with water sources and mis en place storage at those stations.

Too many duplicated and redundant functions (Hearth room, library, great room, and dining room, breakfast room and two (badly designed) islands), and just a lot of wasted space in the home as a whole (Halls, foyers, windows in closets, and 1/4 of the entire build is the master) . The double height rooms will be noisy and difficult to HVAC.

I agree that the entry contains a great deal of wasted space, and you don't really have a space to place a table or anything else -- that is, no place for guests to set their keys and purses.

I agree that the great room and the hearth room are awfully close. You'll have physical separation but not acoustic separation. How do you envision using the two rooms?

Do you actually need a great room, a hearth room, and a library?

What's the pantry-looking room between the pantry and the laundry? I'm guessing just more storage, which is always welcome -- but, if that's it, I'd suggest opening up the wall between it and the pantry and letting them flow together as one big room. That means that when you enter the house with groceries, you're a few steps closer to the pantry door.

The kitchen is too large and too spread out for my taste -- you'll find yourself taking extra steps constantly. It'll be lovely but not practical for actual cooking. For example, the sink and the range are pretty far apart, and they're separated by the pantry door. And is that the refrigerator over by the stairs? Separated from the rest of the kitchen by the first island?

Also, if you're going to have that much exterior wall space in the kitchen, I'd want more than the one window over the sink -- open it up with at least a double window!

The dining room is "open" on two sides, has a large window on the third side, and is that a large door on the fourth side? If so, you'll have no wall left for a china hutch or a buffet. Are you okay with this?

The least convenient thing in the house is the laundry room. Really, this would have to change, if it were my house! Imagine you've got a load of clean laundry: You carry it down the little hallway, through the entryway, down the twisty bedroom hallway, through the master bath, and you finally reach the closet. Too far, too many twists and turns while carrying a large laundry basket.

You could do a smmmmaaaaaalllll laundry room in what is the half-bath . . . and move the half-bath to the laundry room area. But I don't love that idea.

Slightly better: You could move the half-bath to the unidentified storage area near the back door, then place a door to the closet in what's now the half-bath. This would cut out half the trip to the laundry room. I don't love that idea either.

I'd also move the washer/dryer to the exterior wall so the dryer could vent directly outside -- not a big thing, but nice.

You could easily get a linen closet into the master bath by downsizing the extra-long vanity a bit. Storage really matters more than extra-extra elbow room at the sink.

The walk-in closet is a nice size already, but I'd take it forward another 2' or so to "match" the library wall. By cutting out the jig-jog exterior, it will probably cost no more to have that extra 2' in the closet.

The three-car garage really sticks out in the front. It looks nice in the elevation, but that's because it's a straight-on picture. In real life, it's going to dominate the house.

Overall, it'll be an attractive house, but the functional portions (kitchen, laundry, bath) are where the changes need to be made. I don't think it'll "live comfortably".

littlebug5 - Thanks for the comments. I agree it looks like little box may be a linen tower, haven't spoken to the architect since receiving the draft. Don't think that is enough space for us though. Probably don't need to the formal dining but it's still in nearly all houses in our area so we kept it in.

live wire oak - we have gone back and forth with a courtyard or side entry garage. With side entry the house had to be around 55' wide. With the garage still protruding 25' the house looked a bit narrow. We opted to try the courtyard since it let us go to a width of 70' with the garage protruding 35'. We were planning on a 30' turn-around pad leaving 17' of house to the left. When looking at houses in our area with courtyards entries it seemed like ones with the garage roof hipped back had good curb appeal. Also thought the setback would even out the look a bit.
Do you not like two islands or just these islands?

The foyer and great room are 12' otherwise it is all 9' or 10'. We did not two-story rooms for the reasons you mention.

MrsPete -
Hadn't thought about a table in the entry area. Not sure how we could change it but worth discussing with the architect.

We were hoping to have two spaces that could be used as one if needed for entertaining but mostly as separate gathering areas. Cartoons in the hearth room, parent time in the great room. I agree we probably don't have enough acoustical separation but haven't found a solution. Maybe french doors or something similar between great and breakfast.

Extra storage for kids sports equipment, coats, shoes etc. The mudroom also has 6' of lockers and two small coat closets. I kinda like the idea of opening it to the pantry.

The fridge would be by stairs and we'd probably put a prep sink in the island by the cooktop. Our thinking was the island by the cooktop would be used for food prep and the second island for gathering/serving etc.

Agree with the additional windows.

The fourth side of the dining room is actually a wall with mudroom lockers on the other side. It's set in about 12" for a buffet.

Good point on the walk from the laundry. I guess we didn't consider that as these days it mostly kids laundry. Like you say not sure there is a good fix. Moving the washer/dryer to the outside wall makes sense.

The closet is about 12x11 now. Would always welcome a bigger closet but thought it may take away from the front elevation.

Commented on the garage in an earlier post. Hoping the width would offset the garage.

Appreciate the feedback!

Just my personal preference but I would prefer just one longer island (maybe turned to be parallel to the sink run) over the two islands. And you need a sink closer to the cooktop. Good luck!

(Not previously mentioned... the master toilet door leaves no room for you to stand in the "room" and close the door let alone be safe in an emergency. It definitely needs to be an outswing door (or a much larger room)).

I don't see French doors between the great room and the kitchen area working out. It just seems . . . cumbersome. I don't dislike the two areas -- but if one room is loud, the other will be loud too, so I question their usefulness.

I think your plans for entertaining will work out well -- the two islands and so forth. BUT the kitchen is too spread out to work well for preparing a family meal. Test this in two ways: 1) Look at the floor plan and imagine yourself walking through the steps of preparing a meal. Where do you walk to get your casserole dishes? Then how many steps to the refrigerator to get fresh ingredients, then how many steps back to the pantry, how many more steps to the sink, where are your spices? It's too spread out, and the first island is blocking your work triangle. 2) Take it over to the kitchen thread and ask advice in that area. People there are much better with kitchen details, whereas this page is more about general layout.

As for not thinking about the laundry -- that's the kind of thing you came here to learn! I know that I stared at my house plans for a year . . . didn't realize my master bath had no place for a hamper. That's a pretty important part of a bathroom's functionality.

I see I mistook the "back wall" of the dining room! These pictures aren't always easy to read.

You might want to give the garage stall closest to the house a little more space. Think of backing out with the front entry right there.

kirkhall,
good catch on the toilet room. will discuss with the architect.

MrsPete,
Thanks for all the help. Agree the doors probably won't work well. My parents saw something on Million Dollar Contractor about a huge pocket door to separate spaces like this. I missed it, but going to try and catch a rerun.

On next draft I am going to solicit input from the kitchen forum.

Just realized the master bath doesn't have a place for towel bars. I was looking on Houzz last night and many of the bathrooms don't include towel bars. Is this a new trend or something. To me a couple towel bars are a must.

pumpkinhouse,
So the garage door closet to the house would be inset a couple feet into the garage to provide additional space?

In the master bath, I think it would be better to swap the toilet with the shower, so shower can be closer to the closet and toilet to the bedroom.

In the kitchen, I'd move the fridge closer to the prep island and maybe add an utc beverage fridge near the eating area.

Maybe you can have a stacked W/D in the master closet.(I guess there's a chute to laundry upstairs) .