You might do well to remember carpet comes in 12 foot rolls. Changing a bedroom from 12.5 x 11 to 12.5 to 13, for example, definitely increases your cost, as you'll be wasting significant cut of carpet.

Also, do you know if this will fit in your budget? You've chosen a plan (and architect) with expensive bumpouts... Maybe it'd be better to simplify your exterior lines...

We are leaving the upstairs unfinished for now so that is how we'll be doing the plan within budget. The downstairs will be plenty of room for the two of us with an extra bedroom to use when needed, and then we'll have the upstairs to finish later when the time is right. Good to know about the carpet! 12x11 just seems really small.

I would switch the location of the pantry and double ovens. I often get items out of my fridge and pantry for a meal; if they were on opposite ends of the kitchen, it would be tedious.

12x14 bedrooms are a good size!

I wouldn't want my bath smack dab in the front window of my house, right by the front door. I would think about flipping the bdrm and bathroom around. I'm not sure where you're building, if in the country it may not be an issue....

I don't really like the little entry by the stairs going down or the walkway to the bedroom/garage/laundry right there in the kitchen. I would add more of a hallway on the garage/kitchen wall to give you more room for furniture to be moved into the downstairs (unless you have a walkout) and also to cut off the traffic through the kitchen.

I forgot about the stairs to the basement shown on the plan! We're not doing that either. Just crawlspace. That door will probably be for a coat/vacuum closet. Pantry is definitely something to think about..I can see what you're saying! Thanks for the input.

I can't tell how much room you have between island and wall, but it looks like you might be bumping butts if one person is at the stove and another at the sink. Can you offset these a bit?

And maybe swap the pantry with the fridge - I'm betting you will eat more meals in the breakfast nook than in the dining room, so you'd want the fridge handy. It would also be closer to the back door, for kids running in to get a snack (or adults coming in for a beer).

Do you have venting for a range hood?

I don't know what kind of budget was too much for your first house plan, but I see lots of expensive-but-little-benefit items in this plan. For example, the complicated perimeter and roofline and the fact that the plumbing's strung from one end of the house to the other. You could get essentially this square footage /number of rooms in a simpler plan and slash the budget significantly.

I like the kitchen. It's simple and functional.

I do like the idea of switching the pantry and the ovens -- another reason that hasn't been mentioned: When you come in with groceries, you'll put them away RIGHT THERE instead of weaving your way through whoever's in the kitchen.

However, still on the subject of ovens, since budget matters, consider going with a simple range instead of a separate cooktop /ovens. The range and the cooktop will cost about the same thing . . . but with the cooktop, you still have to buy the oven.

I'd consider reconfiguring the kitchen/garage/entryway spot a bit so that the garage door could enter through the entry-entry rather than that little back hallway. This eliminates the need for everyone to trapise through the kitchen, AND it means that the drivers of both cars can exit their vehicles and walk straight to a door. As it's arranged now, the driver of the car on the right must walk all the way around the car on the left to get to the door. A small annoyance, yes, but aren't you building to avoid small things like this?

The bedrooms are already a comfortable size. No need to increase them. My kids have 12x12' bedrooms, and they're fine. One has a full bed, the other a twin, but they both have space for a dresser, a large nightstand, and a desk. Both have plenty of floor space.

I would not go 19x19' in the family room. Instead, smooth out that "indentation" on the back wall, which would be more like 16x23'. This will be a less dramatic adjustment to the floorplan, which will save money. You could go with a direct-vent fireplace instead of a masonry chimney, which would save money AND give you about a foot more space (in the direction that you need it).

Where I would make some big adjustments is the master bath. Square baths do not work. You have a bunch of expensive, wasted space in the middle of this bathroom. I wouldn't discount it because of the bathtub-visible-to-the-world issue, but I would go ahead and price in the cost of (expensive) plantation shutters. The odd-shaped shower is just odd.

Note that the small hallway to the master bedroom /bath has door issues. You have too many of them, and some open across one another. You could alleviate this, in part, by bumping the bathroom door down to where the bathroom actually starts . . . and let the hallway stay in the hallway.

Finally, if you're doing an all-cash build, you have the option to do the "I'll finish the upstairs when we need the space"; however, if you're borrowing, your bank or mortgage company is going to turn you down flat on that idea. Yes, I know that you're not going to default on your mortgage -- I mean absolutely no insult to you -- but the bank has to think in terms of, "Can I resell this property quickly, if it becomes mine?" And, as such, they will not lend on an incomplete property.

We could offset the sink and stove but I think it would bother me if they didn't line up. If we widen the family room, the island can be pushed a little bit further out though so it wouldn't feel as tight. We do plan to do an oven/range all in one and eliminate the wall oven. It does make sense to move the pantry..but at the same time, the pantry where it is now breaks up the kitchen from breakfast nook area so I'm having trouble picturing it without.

If any of you have ideas about re-arranging the master so we can have a corner tub, I'd love to hear them! I had picked out the perfect one before, but with that window being right in the middle... I'm not sure how we could move around the vanities to make it work.

Luckily we are paying cash so no issues with getting permission from a bank.

What part of the country are you building in? If you need coats, jackets, boots, etc., there is no place to store them, except the teensy weensy closet near the front entry, which looks like it could store maybe 2 coats and 1 pair of boots.

There is NO place at the garage entry (where my family does 99% of its entering into our house) to put all that stuff.

I'd have to agree on all the bump-outs. They're really pricey. And the master bath looks ridiculously expensive.

My Mom has a desk area like yours. Because the desktop is lower than the kitchen countertop, there is a distinction.

"the pantry where it is now breaks up the kitchen from breakfast nook area so I'm having trouble picturing it without"

I'd swap the refrigerator and pantry. If anyone in the breakfast nook wants a drink, or salad dressing, or whatever from the refrigerator, they won't have to walk past the island (and possibly thru the work zone) to get it.

I'd post on the kitchens forum for feedback.

If you are skipping the double ovens, consider whether you would really use that desk area. With the desk/desk chair accounted for along with the door to the patio, that space isn't very big for a table. I'd put the pantry where the double ovens are and remove the desk/pantry entirely. That would leave a lot more open, flexible space for a breakfast table.

RE: snackers, since you appear to have seating at the island, odds are people will snack or drink there instead. It's closer to the action and refills.

This is what someone did with the plan so it's more of a hutch than a desk. I like that, but another option might be to put built in seating instead. Decisions decisions! Either one would work I suppose. Switching the fridge and pantry sounds good so we would still have a break in cabinets. But then, would you make that whole entire area (where the ovens/fridge currently are) into one big pantry? That would be a good sized pantry but then we've removed a good chunk of counter space. Hmm..

As far as the bump outs in the plan, which ones would you adjust and how? I do want to save money but at the same time, I'm not sure it would look right completely flat all the way around...

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[Traditional Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by Flemington Architect Pickell Architecture

I would make it all pantry, personally. Just using the oven space would be a very small pantry. That space looks like it has 2' of counter space and in a closed in spot. I wouldn't consider it very functional counter space.

I think someone else said it, but you can post this part of your plan on the kitchen forum. You'll get lots of opinions (and lots of people telling you to move the sink so it doesn't line up w/ the oven. Just a warning. :))

I would remove the master bathtub bumpout and make that wall flat. Then I would EXTEND the master bath wall where the right-side vanity sink is to square your corner.

Then you could put your corner tub there and move that vanity to the front wall.

I would also shave off the garage bumpout and EXTEND the family room wall out to make it even with the master bedroom wall.

Thank you for the advice! I am worried that removing all of the bumpouts will make it look too flat all around, but I think removing the tub bumpout will give us the opportunity to rearrange the whole bathroom to make more sense.

this is just a personal comment
I have a 16x21 ft "greatroom" now and I really really do not like arranging furniture in it when we have a house full of
adults you are craning your neck to converse with one another and placing the much maligned tv is difficult
I've had a 20x20 great room and I loved it so easy to work with
my houseplan due to arrive any day has a 20x24 great room and i'm looking forward to putting furniture in it

I wanted to mention that if you choose a 3 bedroom/2 bath+ home with unfinished upstairs, it will be much easier to get financing than on a 2 bedroom home, which as mentioned above, will be harder to sell. However, if the unfinished upstairs is taking up a lot of the building costs NOW, that may be difficult to do, as well.

We built 2,000 square feet, 3 bedroom/2 bath on first floor with an additional 700 square feet of unfinished space (with only one small bump out). As such, the unfinished portion did not eat up a lot of the budget, so getting a loan was not difficult.

I wanted to mention that if you choose a 3 bedroom/2 bath+ home with unfinished upstairs, it will be much easier to get financing than on a 2 bedroom home, which as mentioned above, will be harder to sell. However, if the unfinished upstairs is taking up a lot of the building costs NOW, that may be difficult to do, as well.

We built 2,000 square feet, 3 bedroom/2 bath on first floor with an additional 700 square feet of unfinished space (with only one small bump out). As such, the unfinished portion did not eat up a lot of the budget, so getting a loan was not difficult.

Thanks for the advice! We will not need financing so luckily that won't be an issue.

Another thing I'm wondering about is the exterior. Below is a picture of this plan that has been built recently in our area (aside from the extra garage they added to the left). I definitely do not want stucco but I'm having trouble figuring out what kind of exterior options would work with this plan. The facade is very flat so I don't know how we could do any type of lap siding like hardie board...seems like brick and stone is the only thing that would look right but it may not be in our budget. Opinions?