like it in general.
The biggest flaw is the possibility of a dark family room.
Why a corner fireplece? You have the room. Place it centered at the master wall and add more windows, maybe you can shorten the patio on the right (add that area to the back, and the patio fireplace to the back or centered on the left) so you have natural direct light.

I' suggest a double door for the media room.

And you will hear about some other flaws.

This post was edited by naf_naf on Wed, Feb 19, 14 at 22:27

Have you figured out how you will lay out your furniture in the breakfast room? It looks like it has a path right through it from the covered patio to the bedroom hallway.

naf's other little flaw is the inswing door on the master toilet room... Too tiny of a "room" to have an in-swing door (for ease of use, but also, and primarily for safety).

Hi, Nice plan, but lots of exterior jogs (so many I can't count them). You may want to straighten out the house to save money, unless the budget is unlimited.

The dining room is too narrow at 10ft 2" to be useful... unless you plan on one of those dining rooms that is just for show. If you plan on using it, maybe get rid of the butlers pantry- I can't see it being effective since its so far from the kitchen. I think butlers pantrys are great when they are located directly between the kitchen and dining room because you can us them for day to day storage (wine fridge, glasses, dishes, etc.. ) not just for special events. I think that other little room is a Wine room, right? Again, so tucked away from the 'center' of the home to be used on a regular basis.

I would widen the dining room into the butlers pantry/wine room, shrink the mudroom hall by a few feet, and put the butlers pantry across from the pantry (maybe?).

Your master bath seems almost as large as the master bedroom.....

how many people will be living in the house?

I agree on the dark family room- there is not a single exterior window directly in that room (covered porch will cover a lot of the light). This may be fine if you live in Arizona or Texas :)

Think about a door for the back hall, so jackets and shoes aren't visible to guests in the public areas. And, that entry is quite narrow. Ours is like that, and we are falling over each other if we are carrying things or shedding shoes.

Looks like you're in an enviable climate, but No guest closet? Guests never arrive with hats or umbrellas?

Could you expand the dining room a bit, make it maybe 12' wide? Even if you keep most things in the butler pantry during a dinner, it's nice to have the wine, water, and extra rolls right at hand.

Are you planning on the window seat for breakfast table seating? Nice!

Nepool is right about smoothing the exterior a bit. Like, what is that little water-heater-looking thing above the master bath?

I like the general layout.

I don't care for either of the dining areas. The formal is way too narrow, it will be difficult to entertain. The breakfast room is a pass through area. Not nearly enough room there either.

In the foyer, I personally would like space to put an entry table. Somewhere where a visitor could set something down while removing a coat. Also, there isn't a coat closet in that area. In a house this large, I would think you could squeeze one in.

In the master bath, I would like to see the tub on an exterior wall if you have a good view.

Bedroom 3 needs a reach in closet, not the proposed "walk-in".

I would move the fireplace out of the corner and onto the master bedroom wall.

Is the master tub in front of the shower? While the "beauty" of it might appeal, the practicality of it, in my opinion, is none. Same with what appears to be windows in the shower. Even with glass block windows I would be very uncomfortable in that shower.

There seems to be a lack of storage space. I don't see a single linen closet and just one relatively small coat closet or "lockers" in the mud room.

Given the size and complexity of the exterior, I would expect to see more.

How big is the closet in bedroom 3? It doesn't look like a very useable space. Might be better to convert it to a non-walkin.

Also, in my climate (OK), the living room would get plenty of natural light! That part is probably dependent on where you live.

I wonder if, instead of two sinks in the kids' bath, one sink and more drawer storage and counter space would be useful? My two boys are never in the bathroom at the same time, but they both have "stuff" to store, not to mention extra TP and cleaning stuff for that bath. They have two sinks, and one just gets dusty.

Thanks for all of the feedback!

Let's see:

Corner fireplace--mostly because we don't like having to put the TV over the fireplace. And, of course, it's cheaper to combine the outside/inside into the same chimney.

Double door on media room--why do you suggest the double door? I was thinking that double doors (interiors anyway) do not close as tightly as single ones and there would be noise bleed.

Breakfast room layout--I almost thought of moving the door to the patio into the great room, but the builder and designer think that would interrupt the flow of the room. The pathway's not really intended to go from the patio to the secondary bedrooms, but into the main part of the house. Our breakfast table is a small square table, which currently is in a breakfast area about 4 feet narrower than this one.

Master bath toilet--I agree with the inswing...our current one is swing out, which I like better, but we've rearranged the bathroom a bunch of times and I don't know where else to put the toilet! And an outswing door won't work there and there's no wall for a pocket door. Altho if there was a pocket door that was slatted and could turn a corner...

Dining room--I'm torn here...it was originally a foot wider, but the designer hadn't left enough room for a 6' double door. Rather than make a lot more square footage by just pushing the walls apart, we shrunk the dining room to make room for it. I don't have a dining room now (technically I do, but it's a library for us), but wanted one for when we have guests. But we really want the butler's pantry and wine room. The butler's pantry is going to be where we store alcohol, fancy glasses and platters, etc. Our number of kitchen cabinets is going to shrink going to an open floor plan so the butler's pantry is helping to save cabinet space for us.

nepool--really only 2 of us living in the house--at least once the boomerang child leaves--so the secondary bedrooms are really guest rooms. And as for light, yes, we live in San Antonio. Light is not going to be a problem! Even on a gloomy day, this layout has lots of light (we visited a similar home to check it out as I was worried too!).

bpathome--We (and esp. the dh) are probably the neatest, cleanest people we know. lol, dh cannot stand clutter, nothing is EVER laying around! The coat closet is actually off near the garage. It was originally by the master, which we really didn't like. Without drastic changes, over by the garage was the only place the designer could figure to move it. The window seat is for me to sit in the morning with my coffee and look out at the view. I don't think the water heater closet will be there as the master will have an on demand water heater instead. Oh, I like the idea of taking the 2nd sink out. You don't know what we had to go thru to get them to stop putting a jack and jill bathroom in!

lmccarly--I'm not sure what to do about the breakfast area other than relocate the patio door. For the dining, not sure either. For the master bath, I really don't like windows over the bathtub. We like the walkin shower as both of us can shower without having to walk past each other--each have our own entrance, really. The only windows are small, high transom windows that will be obscure glass.

rrah--there are two linen closets, one in the hall between the secondary bedrooms and one in the master bath. They're just not well marked on the plan.

oh, might indeed convert the one closet to a non walk-in.

I don't like that your nice wine room will be tucked away and not visible from the home. Can't you just straighten out that laundry room wall (instead of having the wine room bump out) giving you a few feet in the laundry depth, so you can steel a few feet from the laundry width for a wider dining room? That dining room at 10ft will be uncomfortable. Again, if its just for a fancy table and you don't plan on using it, then its no problem.

Congrats on getting started and I love your plan.

If you are concerned about the master toilet door you might could put in a swinging saloon door. I only mention it because we recently rented a lake house and that's what they had. I thought it was a good idea because of the layout. I'm actually leaving the door off of mine but it's located on the back wall facing sideways so you don't see in it without walking around it. Not sure if that makes since.

Also, how wide is the hall to the master bedroom and the door. Just make sure if you have any large furniture that it can make the turn. DH is in charge of making sure of that in our build.

Good luck

Maybe consider swapping the locations of the study bookcase door and the current WC in the master bath.

Oaktown--oh, that's an awesome idea!

/darleneac59-- thanks, we are pretty happy with it. All of the hallways are 42", is that wide enough?

Nepool--I'll look at that and see. Yeah, we talked about opening the wine room into the dining, but we would lose the only wall...and have a gorgeous antique curio cabinet we don't have a wall for in the living room.

To widen the dining room, couldn't you scoot the laundry room into the bump in the garage? If you're planning a workbench there, could that go in the third bay?

I didn't notice that was a bookcase door, cool! Your grandkids (when the boomerang comes through for ya lol) will work it!

Is that stage you're planning for the media room? Nice.

I would look to rearrange things so that the media room has an exterior wall. As it is, it will feel like a big closet. I don't think you'd necessarily want to put in a skylight, if you want to be able to control the light levels for movies, but as it is,it's not going to be a comfortable room.

bpathome--we were looking at the plan last night (in light of all of the great feedback here!) and were thinking the same thing. There was some dead space there (and why have dead space?) so we thought we'd bump the laundry room wall out to take out the dead space. I'm not sure that's going to help with the DR tho as we still need space for the entry from the butler's pantry. And dh doesn't want to give up his garage space--he already complained about my coat closet getting rid of some of them.The media room has a riser in the back so you can put rows of seating in and see over the one in front. It's our media/library room. ;) And the bookcase door was previously labeled "secret door". We have 2 granddaughters already, I'm sure they'll love it! lol

zone4newby: Apparently I like totally dark rooms. :) Every media room we went into in model homes, I just loved sitting in there--quiet, peaceful, and dark. I love it!

So, I think you need to know about these doors:
Ergon Doors

(here is a you tube link too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN6Zd3ieSNg )

Or, a pivot door (that swings either/both directions)

Here is a link that might be useful: pivot hinge door

This post was edited by kirkhall on Sat, Feb 22, 14 at 1:35

kirkhall--those are very cool! My dh wants them!

They aren't inexpensive, but well worth it for one or 2 doors, in my opinion, when you have a special constraint for a space... (They aren't ridiculous in price either... but, you do have a secret door, so you can probably also afford an ergon...)

They are SO cool. I learned about them a few years ago on GW. :)