It's a great style...I love those New Orleans homes!

My only suggestions would be to move the washer and dryer away from the window...this whole section looks like it could be tweaked and improved. If Summerfield looks at your plan, that would be great :)

The other thing...do you really want two bars looking into the family room? Maybe switch Mike's Den and Mom's Bedroom? That would let you redesign the bathroom/laundry/office area. I think that could have a better flow...and maybe direct access from the master closet into the laundry area.

The other option might be to open the kitchen to the dining room, and put a wall between the kitchen and living room...so there's only one bar area in each space.

Is Mom's bedroom going to be an office for you, when you're not having guests? If not, maybe some sheers on the inside of the doors or mirrored doors would give a little more privacy.

Do you have any elevation drawings? Are you doing a garden out back? Best of luck with your plan!

Hey! No elevations yet. We are just in schematics phase right now. Normally this would have been a sketch for us to look at so that he could take our thoughts and make changes to get to the elevations/plans phase. He just was trying to see if he was even close to keeping it within the range of the size we wanted so he went ahead and put it on paper.

Your comments are great. I didn't even notice the w/d by the window yet. I will make a note. I want cabinets there so that would be out. You're correct. I will look at that laundry/office area.

There is only one "bar". It will be an actual wet bar with a sink and ice maker used for drinks, wine, glasses for parties, etc. It might be more of a regional thing b/c of where we're located. DH has always wanted one. His uncle & my SIL have one and they're wonderful to have a dedicated area for all of these items. Right now we have some things in our hutch, some in our kitchen,etc. And when we have parties or even just a few people over, there's no dedicated spot to have the drink stuff. It's also nice to be able to store it in one area.

The other "bar" is an island in the kitchen used to eat and prep on. So the two will serve totally different functions and have different looks. One will be part of the kitchen and the other will meld into the living room.

Having the kitchen and living area is a MUST for us. But we'd love to think of a way to have the dining/breakfast area open as well. That's where I'm stumped!

re: Mom's room/guest room. I haven't determined what doors to use there. But yes the room will have to have privacy. I'm with you on that one.

I'm glad you like it overall!

I hope Summerfield comes to check it out too.

Very nice! I did notice that your kitchen/pantry is a room or two away from your carport/entry, so lugging groceries would be a little trek, but I can't really figure out a way to change that, without changing the entire plans.

Maybe instead of Family room - kitchen - DR, you could change it to Kitchen - DR - Family room, and then the FR would double as the LR when guest come in the front entry? And your groceries would land right in the Kitchen when you walk into the rear entry? Best of luck!

Junior, I want to make sure I'm hearing you correctly...you're saying to put the kitchen, dining, family/living room in that order from the left side of the house. So the kitchen is what would be in the back of the house instead of the living room. Right? That's interesting. I hadn't thought to do that. I'll think on that!

Hi. Nice to see someone else with a city sized lot. The typical hunk of property here in Burnaby BC is 50x120 as well.

Plan is very cool with purpose built spaces that are well integrated. Our home is spread on 3 levels (fairly deep cellar which of course doesn't work in N.O.) but one thing we can't live without is a mudroom at the rear entryway and a closet near the front door.

Love the man-cave though.

Babs- I love the bar! My husband wants one in his 'room' too :)

What if you switched the range location, to overlook the family room, maybe with posts on either side, if necessary. The stools could flip to the 'dining side' of the kitchen...maybe with a prep sink? The fridge could go on the back wall, with your hutch area. (Much of this is from your post on the kitchen forum.)

I know you wanted to open up the stairs, so why not have an open railing at least part of the way up? One idea, to give you more space, is a corner banquette with large table and four chairs. You still have the stools, but now there's (hopefully) more room to move around :)

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Your designer has eliminated all fussiness and wasted space. It would be very economical to build. I like shotgun-type houses, even though yours is a "double-barrel".
I would recommend placing a pocket door at the opening to the front hall; then when you leave your bedroom in the morning, you aren't spotted from the front door. It could even be a glass door with obscure glass to let light through but give perfect privacy.
Casey

sombreuil_mongrel, I specifically asked for that. We live in 2400 sq. ft. now and have space we don't use because of the layout and it drives me NUTS. I told him I'm OVER unused space and want to USE our space and have it be very family friendly, warm and open.

That's a GREAT idea about the pocket door and the master bedroom! I NEVER would have thought about that! But if I'm leaving my bedroom in my pj's to go get coffee, or whatever, I might not want to be spotted by the neighbors!

dyno, I actually have on my list "CLOSET ????" written down. Where is it??

Lavender_Lass, I like that option you posted. DH would much prefer the stools on the other side of the island. I don't think it would matter to have stuff on that bottom wall if the rooms were totally open like that, do you? I really don't think I can do a cooktop in an island though. I'd put that on the top wall and replace that with a sink. But that does give me a whole other option! I hadn't thought of that. However, what about storage in that scenario? I'm worried about lack of upper cabinetry. Thoughts?

Babs- It doesn't look like you have a basement...so I'm guessing your entry closet is where your access to the basement stairs would be, with mom's bedroom's closet behind it?

Are any of the walls between the kitchen and dining/living rooms load bearing? Can you open up the whole space, or do you need to keep the walls there?

I saw on the kitchen forum that you're thinking about switching the kitchen and dining room. That could really work well...and if you used a banquette, the table wouldn't be such an obstacle to get around.

Here's one possibility, with an L-shaped banquette. The back of the banquette (facing the family room) could have bookcases, if you like. Something like this, maybe? You can still get light and air through the room (and see into the family room) but it makes the dining area much more cozy...less of a walk though space :)

There's also the back wall, for dish storage, extra pantry, maybe even a baking center, if you decide on a wall oven.

Also, I don't know how much side yard you have, but with the windows over the banquette and a big window over the sink...it would be beautiful to have a trellis or narrow arbor out there, with climbing roses or wisteria...maybe even star jasmine. You have so many possibilites, living in a warmer climate :)

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Hi Babs,
Yes, I was thinking about your kitchen being as close to the garage as possible. Biggest reason would be that, from what I can see, your only way into the kitchen with groceries would be through your family room, which currently looks like your primary 'entertainment' room for guests. It'd be a good way to get help when you unload the car! I'm a Costco kind of girl, so my weekly trips are literally part of my work-out routine!

Also, if you DO entertain guests, they'd basically walk through your dining room and kitchen to get to the family room. We only entertain infrequently and casually (we have a desk and a piano in the living room. The couches are all in the family room, and that's where guests automatically go), but it's still something to consider.

This is all so hard!!

Lavender-Lass,

I'm drawing out your first idea to scale on top of what is currently there and while it's better with the banquette, I'm worried about storage. The only upper cabinetry I'd have is the limited amount on that top wall of the plans. And I'm concerned about having the fridge and hutch on that bottom wall b/c it does affect a main pathway. *sigh*.

No basements in New Orleans! Nothing underground here...not even caskets! The dotted lines in his rendering were to show what we could do with ceiling detail visually with beams, etc so it wouldn't be one big flat ceiling in such an open space. The only wall he had was the one dividing off the dining and it is not load bearing. We can always do beam action if we need to. We have 10 foot ceilings so I'm OK with that. Yes, all three can be WIDE open to each other.

I like what you did with the banquette in the middle of the room. I wouldn't have thought of that either! I'll mess around with that too!

juniork,

I did try rearranging to put the kitchen where the living room is. But I think it blows having the bar area (gathering spot) in the living room. That just didn't "feel" right having it off the kitchen instead. In the previous layout, we had the breakfast area where Mike's Den is and the kitchen to the right of it and the living room where it is. Things have been moved around quite a bit. I actually like what he did re: Mike's Den and the bar and patio with the living area. That flows nicely with our lifestyle. But you're right about the access. I'll have to mull that over too...

I think the dining room in the middle, gives you SO much more storage, in the kitchen! That back wall will also give you a ton of space :)

Here's another banquette picture...I've been looking through them this week, for my own space. This one is from BH&G.

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I love this picture, too, which I found this morning...just in case you can use it in the kids' area.

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The more I think about it, I'm wondering is it odd to walk from the entry through the breakfast/kitchen to get to the living space? What about switching the living to where the dining is and putting the dining/kitchen in the back. It was suggested above but I dismissed it originally b/c of the bar. But I don't know now. Thoughts?

My thought process in this has evolved:
1) Make kitchen/dining one to have it be an eat-in area and make kitchen area bigger.

2) Then I went to flip dining to between the living/kitchen and move kitchen by stairs. Then I thought it might be strange to have people walk through that first??

3) Flip EVERYTHING and put living by stairs and kitchen/dining where kitchen/living are now. But this blows my original image of having a view of the backyard while sitting in the living room, etc. which leads me to...

4) Our architect can kill me (just kidding...we are still in the first phase) and I can tell him to scrap this and go back to putting the breakfast nook where Mike's Den is and the kitchen next to it and leaving the living room where it is b/c it just WORKS there. There HAS to be a way to keep the MBR where it is and fitting the pantry between it and possibly the laundry or the pocket office between the closet and the hallway. Or even reshaping the MBR closet/bath area to do this? Then the bar and half-bath could go UP by the family room with Mike's Den to the right of them against the stairs? Could that work at all?

I'm just so much more comfortable with the whole back being open like that. Plus, it's easier to come in and out with groceries, etc. I still don't know what to do about a drop zone though with kids stuff. That's really my only other issue. I can have him do a coat closet up front.

Any feedback would be welcome (again! Ha!) Thanks guys!

Babs- Do you have the older plan, with Mike's den and the dining area flipped? This might give us an idea of what you'd like the kitchen/dining area to look like :)

If it were me, I would want the best view, from the kitchen/dining area. It's nice to have a view from the family room, if you entertain a lot, but if you mostly watch TV...then you're really not enjoying the view.

I also like a lot of light in the kitchen/dining area...and I like to see the garden. Mike's den could probably have the least light, since it sounds like a bit of a man cave! LOL The bar will be very nice, but again, probably don't need an outside view from there, either.

If it were me, I'd be tempted to put the kitchen/dining area, where the family room and kitchen are now. Then, I'd switch your bedroom with mom's and use the area behind the stairs for access to closets/bath. The laundry and pantry could be between the kitchen and bedroom.

On the other side of the house, I'd have the family room by the garage (open to the kitchen/dining area) with Mike's den and the bar next to it, and put mom's room in the front, with a bathroom in between her room and Mike's den. Maybe have the office area (and laundry if it didn't fit on the other side) between mom's room and Mike's den.

Now, if this fit, you'd have great access to the deck and views from your everyday spaces, you could 'sneak' into the kitchen (from the master bedroom) without being visible to the street, and you would have easier access from the carport into the kitchen. What do you think?

If you know how you want your spaces, in relation to each other, I'm sure Summerfield will do a wonderful job putting it on paper for you, when time allows :)