broston -
I used to post on here daily while I was building...our house was completed in November so it's been a while since I posted.

Congrats! To be 20's somethings and building a house is an accomplishment!

I am not a designer, but I must say that I love the fact that you took the time to have furniture drawn onto your plan. That is great because you can see the traffic flow, space planning etc...

Is the room between the master and the other 2 bedrooms a bathroom or storage?

Your garage is very generous in size.

I love the fact that you can seat 8 people at that big table with nice windows.

Is there a pantry or is that part of your cabinetry?

Best of luck...the designer folks will be around to critique.

Pam

Thank you! We have been very frugal and make do without most things so we can be completely debt free from everything very soon! The room between master and bedrooms is a small office. The pantry cabinets are in the mudroom area by the garage.

You have a view of the... toilet!... from your kitchen. ;)

Might want to change the location of the door to the bathroom or flip flop a fixture or 2.

What direction does the house face?

My first thought is that you don't have nearly enough windows. No window in MB; windows on only one wall in MB and Bed 2. If you are in the middle of nowhere, you don't have to worry about nosy neighbors. Especially in the MB, with the window essentially recessed between two closets, you could use more natural light in there.

I think the entry is pretty tight, and will be very dark. My Mom's house has a recessed entry, and even with a big sidelight, it always feels dark. A solar tube would help a lot. Where will guests hang their coats? I see a little closet by the bedrooms, but since you don't have a lot of storage space in the bathroom, I think you'll need that for linens.

Is that a stove on the island? Are you planning a big range hood? If not, I would try really hard to move the range so it can be vented to the outside. Put the range where the sink is, with windows on each side, and put the sink on the island. Or put the range on the current fridge wall, and put the fridge on the end of the sink run, closer to the dining room.

Overall, I like your plan - you've made very good use of space.

Overall I like it: It's simple and flows well. Since you're looking at 2000 sf, your rooms must be decent sized.

Things that I'd want to tweak:

- The garage poked out in front of the house. If you have so much space, why put the house's worst feature forward?

- I agree that the mudroom-bathroom could be better located -- perhaps swap it with the laundry room? But I'm also wondering why you need this bath at all? You have a secondary bath with access from the hall, and it's only steps away from this bathroom. 2 adults and 2 children sharing 2 bathrooms isn't a bad ratio. You could consider leaving this as a storage space for the moment, and it could be turned into a full-fledged bathroom at some point in the future (if you ever need it); this also means it wouldn't be financed in with your mortgage, so it would cost less in the long run.

- If you keep that mudroom-bathroom, I'd definitely extend the shower to the wall to make it larger and more comfortable.

- You say the mudroom is also the pantry? Sounds practical, and it's big enough. I'd consider adding a cabinet or table of some sort; when you bring in groceries, you're going to want to stop in the pantry and put them away, and you're going to have no place to set down your bags.

- I'd consider losing the doors on that in-mudroom/pantry closet. This room is already a storage space -- make it easier to access the items by omitting the doors.

- Kitchen and dining room look good. I like that you have good access to the table from two sides; this is so much better than dining rooms with skimpy door access, which means people have to scoootch around the table and then are trapped.

- Do you have a door to the back yard? I'm guessing it's in the living room, but I'm not sure.

- I love the window seat /closets to the sides in the master bedroom. Your closets aren't luxurious in size, but they're also not horrible.

- I don't like the odd extra-space by the door in the master bedroom. It's kind of odd. I'd consider another closet there, or perhaps bookshelves and a desk.

- I'd consider turning the linen closet "in" to the secondary bath. It's so much more convenient to have access to towels and toilet paper INSIDE the bathroom. It would also eliminate a door from what appears to be the Hall O'ManyDoors.

- Is the little room between the bedrooms a small office? It's pretty tight, but if you're just looking for a small private alcove, it'll be adequate. However, I think I personally would make this into the laundry room . . . and include a desk in the mudroom area. A completely different thought: Consider flipping the "L" and include a door into the master bedroom. It'll be convenient if either of you works from home, and when the kids are older you'll be able to monitor their computer usage more easily -- and that is something you'll want to do when they're older.

- The wall between the living room /basement stairs and the wall between the kids' bedrooms /hallway aren't "square" with the corner where they all meet the foyer. This is always going to feel "a little off". You need to make them "even", even if it means bumping the bedrooms out towards the back just a bit.

Also will you have a door to your mudroom? As is, you'll see the cubbies/lockers from the living area. Which side of the mudroom do you think will be kept tidier?

Hate the laundry room. You couldn't have put it any further away from the bedrooms! There's no space for folding or hanging clothes, either. There's barely enough room in there to stand, let alone anything else.

I agree with someone above who suggested putting it where the tiny office is.

I'd swap the sink and toilet in the master bath so that the toilet isn't right in front of the door.

I think the master bathroom is too small. It is the same size as the hall bathroom and not much larger than the mudroom bathroom. Also, none of the bathrooms have windows in them.

Thanks for so much input! I'm so impressed!

-The front door faces west. I know that it is ideal to have most windows facing south, but that doesn't really work with where the house sits.

-I don't like windows on the sides of the bed since lamps will be in front of them and then depending on the bed, they may or may not be symmetrical (if that makes sense) Our bed also has very large cornerposts so a window above doesn't work either. So, this is personal preference. We have 2 windows in our master bedroom now and I NEVER open up the curtains because I don't spend time in there. So, windows aren't huge for me in the bedroom.

-I plan on putting coat storage along the entry wall in a decorative way (hooks) I don't feel like I want to use my space for that, I guess I could take part of the bathroom and make access to a closet there?

-I have very strong opinions on the kitchen layout (sink, stove placement) I hate facing the wall when I'm cooking and i'd rather be a part of the family in the living room. I also don't want my island full of dirty dishes. I plan on getting a vent in the stove. I don't want a hood.

-I am more concerned about the interior than the shape of the exterior. I have to have a window in the kitchen, therefore the garage is on the front.

-The mudroom bath is important due to the fact that my husband gets very dirty at his job/hobbies, so shower/laundry located at the garage entry is actually important.

-I changed the pantry area into a large closet due to cost. We just place groceries on the floor before we put them away, I don't think I want to take up space with a table. This is why I have that area as you walk in as a drop area.

-I don't want to have open shelving in the pantry due to people seeing all of our things. It will be visible from the living room, so I'd like it contained by doors. Also, answers the question of which area would be kept more tidy. The closet will, with 2 messy boys and their shoes :)

-I had accidently deleted the door to the backyard. It is by the dining area.

-We don't own very many clothes, so I feel like these closets are adequate.

-I agree about the odd space at the master entrance, but I feel its too small to make into any sort of closet. Possibly shelving?

-I don't feel like the walls not lining up would bother me, but it does make me think about that. Making them line up would add/subtract quite a bit of square footage

-We run our washer/dryer a lot at night, so I want it far from the bedrooms. We don't stand in the laundry room to do laundry, we take loads to the bedroom or living room to fold. So this layout works well for us. Also close to the dirty people that will come in through the garage.

-I swapped the sink with toilet in master, thanks!

-Master bath is perfect size for us, since we wont be spending much time there. I'd rather have my living/kitchen larger.

-I did add a small window in master bath.

Adding photos of mudroom bath from kitchen. I feel like that door will most likely stay closed, but I did swap toilet and sink.

Wow, if you read all that you're a saint :)

other view with swapped bathroom things

different storage for pantry

modified plan

Just a few ideas...I don't know if moving the stairs would be possible, but it would give you more space for the bathrooms. And moving the bathroom to the end of the mudroom will give you more open laundry area, a small pantry and front closet.

I do think the kitchen might work nicely this way...but again, totally up to you and what you want in the space!

Have fun with the planning and best of luck with your new home :) {{gwi:1433579}}From Kitchen plans

I like your changed back entry/bath. I think you will like that better too, for tidiness and for sight lines from the living areas of the house. If you plan to have a pocket door on that backhall bath, it will need to open the other way. :) You might also just consider centering it, and opening it against the bathtub, since most people would choose to close the door before starting bath water anyway.

Sounds like you have thought through a lot of your commentable items. When you are happy after everyone has commented, it means you are ready to go and you did the best you can with what you wanted!

I do like some of the suggested changes, though, above, by LL. :) She is always so good to do photoshops of several different ideas.

I love the master bedroom window seat-cozy. :). I was going to suggest a transom window above the bed for light. We put one in that is fixed just for light and it still provides privacy.

Best wishes. :)

Thanks so much for that modification idea! That took some time! I'm not sure how much square footage that will add..We are really trying to stay at 2000 and my plan was around 2050 I believe. I'm going to stare at that one awhile and see how my brain likes it. Thanks so much again!

You can have the kitchen window AND get the garage off the front of the house: Just put it to the side, but jutted forward a bit. Make your casual entrance through the END of the mudroom.

The front door facing West isn't a bad thing. The hot, Western sun makes your rooms hot in the afternoons, so that'll be true of your kids' rooms -- but I'd think that afternoons would be family time, and they're not so likely to be in their rooms at that point. (Some point in your house is going to get the less desirable light -- you can't help it.) You'll have the lovely morning light pouring into your main rooms early in the day. What IS a bummer is that you're never going to get the ideal Southern sun . . . ever. Could you consider flipping the house over so that you'd get that southern sun through the kitchen and dining room most of the day? Then your no-windows wall would be facing North, which is the least desireable direction. Keep in mind that this advice comes from a Southerner; other parts of the country may vary in their mileage.

I don't agree with your stance on bedroom windows, kitchen sink/stove layouts, and laundry far from the bedrooms . . . but your ideas are well-reasoned, and it sounds like they'll work for you.

I also don't care about a coat closet for guests. It's not something important in the South, and hooks would be more than enough for us.

Now that I can see the mudroom layout "close up", I would make some moves: I still vote for removing the doors to the coat closet (because the kids will end up leaving their stuff in front of the door rather than opening it), and I'd move the bench so it'd be opposite the coat closet. Placing these things opposite one another just makes practical sense. Then I'd put the pantry things on two walls opposite one another -- I'd have a door to the pantry itself (which could be closed when it suits you), but NOT a door to the pantry shelves themselves. Why would you want to hide away your things? It'll only add time to the sorting and putting away, and then time to the finding them.

I think the walls not lining up will bother you once they're built.

Can you rotate the whole house 45 degrees, so the front faces NW instead of straight west? That gives you at least SE exposure in your living areas. Obviously it depends on how the house sits on the hill, but on a large lot you have more flexibility than in town.