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stephanie_langner

Plan critique please

Hi all,

I received the "final" plans today. Can you please take a look and give me your thoughts? Likes/dislikes, changes to make it more livable, etc.

I made some changes to the lot plan (using GIMP), so it looks a little strange. I moved the pool and then changed the location of the pool bath. If we keep the one I added to the house (to the right of the guest suite), we'll delete the one at the back of the detached garage.

Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks!

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to Floor Plans

This post was edited by slangner on Sun, Jan 25, 15 at 17:04

Comments (4)

  • mrspete
    9 years ago

    Why so many doors out the back? I mean, two separate doors exiting from the master bedroom to the back yard . . . same thing in the casual dining area -- two separate doors.

    Note that you have a total of 8 exterior doors. Exterior doors and locks are expensive, and that many doors increases the chances that you'll leave a door open. Also, if you plan to install a security system, more doors will cost you more money each month. If they were necessary, that'd be one thing, but I don't see why you'd need two doors leaving the same garage . . . or five doors leading from the back of the house to the backyard.

    On the subject of the casual dining area, given that this is a pathway to the outside, I'm not sure it's big enough. Once you place a table in it, those doors will be essentially inaccessible. I think it'll be easier to walk through the great room to the outside rather than squeeze around the table.

    This leads to another thing: I'd consider moving the outdoor kitchen to a spot closer to the accessible door.

    Again with doors: The kids' jack-and-jill bathroom is overly compartmentalized. Why place every item in a separate room? The doors'll just get in the way.

    I'd bump the washer/dryer to the back wall. This would allow the dryer to vent directly to the outside, which is cheaper and safer.

    I'd flip the guest room and the bathroom. This would allow you to consolidate the plumbing so it'd be closer together (cheaper, reduces the chances of leaks). It would also allow the guest room to move to the corner /have windows on two sides, which is always nicer.

    Last thought: I think the kitchen could use some big changes. It's a large kitchen, but it's poorly laid out. Your sink and main prep area seems to be the island . . . so you'd want your most important items to be right there handy . . . but instead, you have the pantry door right there in the middle interrupting the flow of the room. You have plenty of space to make this a much more functional room.

  • thebobo
    9 years ago

    The flows through the area adjacent to the garage all seem weird. Long way from the bedrooms to the laundry room. Long windy way from garage to pantry. Dark long hallways with multiple turns. Oddly split mudrooms making it a task to keep track of who's storing what in which one. If you have guests up in the theater they'll have to walk through a bunch of private utility space before making it up there. When you're walking down those hallways, the focal points aren't nice. You'll be looking at a solid door, a blank wall that could be a nice art niche, or a stub of a wall that you can't dress up. You have a nice symmetry going on in the master suite spaces, between the foyer and family room and between family room and kitchen, but it all goes to mish mash on the right side of the house.

  • Naf_Naf
    9 years ago

    I hesitated to comment on your plans, as you say they are final.

    There are many nice things that I like (as personal preference), things that I thing are plain wrong, and there are also many things that I do not like and you probably will not like once is built.

    Lets start with the bunch of solar tubes. Why do you need to use so many? Probably because there is something wrong with the design. Solar tubes provide light but they do not provide a view.

    I'd hate that living room with no view. And the dark kitchen.
    In general I like the left area, the master bathroom is ok which is a big plus, I also like the bedrooms.
    I do not like the back.

    I would not place the pantry door where you have it. I'd place it at the current freezer location off the hall as it is more important and more comfortable to use a continuous countertop (and it will look a lot better) than taking a few steps to the pantry

    There is no need for that complicated roof, is also bulky and to fix that I'd rework the storage, hallways, guest suite and garage area and the porches at the back.
    It looks like you will put quite a bit of money in this house. Why not getting it right?

  • Oaktown
    9 years ago

    I also found the right side of the plan confusing, and think you could do better.

    As someone with lots of exterior doors, we like them :-) I think that payment structure must vary depending on what security company you use, since our monthly fees are not at all tied to the number of doors. For installation where we did pay per opening, but then there is a flat monitoring fee per address, same as what we paid at our old house. Our security system will indicate if any doors are open; unfortunately it won't confirm whether or not they are locked.

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