2nd Floor

Front elevation

This post was edited by MsFuqua7634 on Thu, May 8, 14 at 3:54

Front Elevation

Rear elevation

I like your plan a lot. The only thing I wouldn't like is walking straight into the staircase. Moving the front door would change your elevation though. I just prefer not to have a staircase right in front of the door.

How often will the side door be used? It looks like it will be used pretty often because that is where the mud room is located. All traffic coming in from that door has to walk through the middle of the kitchen. That is not ideal.

The front door and stair location is also problematic. Someone coming in could smack someone coming down the stairs when they open the door.

The kitchen could be dark since there is a covered porch off the dining room.

You might want to consider a solar tube for the upstairs bathroom since it has no window.

Can you post a link to the plans?
Dimensions and details are unreadable in most of your pics.

Ooh, a porte-cochere, love it. The side entrance will be used a lot and right now sends everyone straight into the kitchen, and I like circulation in living spaces, so I did a little flip of the right side and added a door to the LR. I also moved the laundry, so you cant hear it in the kitchen but now they're in the powder room, but that could be tweaked, too. What do you think for starters?

The plan is labeled "glass door" off the deck - looking straight at your toilet.

That room is also big to be just a powder room. It's labeled mud room. But not sure you would want your mud room down the hall from your side entrance in a space shared with a bathroom.

I've never been a fan of walking through the bathroom to get to the closet. Maybe flip those 2 spaces?

pixie_lou- one of the small changes we made is we moved the window and the toilet to the right of that wall where the sink is now. The sink is now in the middle and we are installing a small shower next to that. My husband who works outside all day will come in that room from the outside and shower before he enters. Right now he has to do this in our garage and he is tired of stripping down before he can come into the house. The door will most likely not be glass.

bpathhome- I do love your suggestions. But I want to come in straight from the carport to the kitchen- especially when I have 10 bags of groceries. And my husband and son will shower in the mudroom before entering the house if they are dirty from working outside, so I don't care if everyone comes through the kitchen. If they aren't dirty, I'm sure they will use the entrance through the pack porch into the dining area. I do love the thought of the washer and dryer on that wall though. A lot. That is where husband wants a shower though. I will have to give that some thought.
The closet (or lockers) will be used by us when we are coming though the carport door. Anything coming through the mudroom door will be put in a big hamper or hung up on the wall in there. I'm trying to keep separate the work clothes from everyday clothes/shoes.

dekeoboe- Thank you for your suggestions. We are not going to move the staircase. I can guarantee that the front door might get used once or twice a year, so I'm not going to worry about it.
I also have worried about the kitchen being too dark. We will have either a half lite or full light side door with the transom above should bring in some light, but it is something we are concerned about. And I do agree about a solar tube upstairs. It needs some natural light in that bathroom. Thank you.
melsouth - I can't actually post the links to these plans but I will post photos of the original layout before we changed the mudroom.
Thanks everyone. Overall, do all of you think this will be a simple home to build? We have only built one home and it is a simple single story ranch. I never thought my last home would be a two story, but for some reason I just kept coming back to this one. It also isn't a typical home you find in the Pacific Northwest, but I looked for nine months trying to find a plan that worked for our life, and this one was it. Thanks again

This was the plan before we purchased it. We incorporated the outside storage into the mudroom, so we could have room for inside storage/shower.

It is a very charming home! To me it looks like a "southern" home in that most of the home is oriented to protection from the sun. There aren't many windows and what is there is all under porches. I live in a cloudy climate and this kind of house would feel very dark in the winter for me. I know windows are a big cost in a low cost build so don't have anything really constructive to add, but this may explain why you don't see many of this type of house in your area.

Overall I like it. Yes, it is a very "Southern" house. I know a number of people who have similar houses, and they seem to be comfortable to live in and affordable to build.

I like the exterior.

Things I'd consider:

- I definitely like the little hall straight into the family room that another poster drew. It will save a bunch of traffic through the kitchen.

- I would move the sink to the back wall so it could have a window over it.

- This is going to sound crazy, but I'd consider making the kitchen more narrow. Your counters will be about 7' apart, which is too far apart for efficiency. My own kitchen counters are 6' apart, and it's just a little too far for comfort. I end up ignoring one side of the kitchen completely. If you go with a more narrow galley kitchen, you'll lose the corner (which isn't much of a loss), but you'll still have almost as much counterspace . . . and you could gain a couple extra feet in the family room. OR consider going with an extra-deep cabinet in that space, which could give you deep drawers for better storage.

- Given that the dining room is also the hallway to the bedroom and the back yard -- oh, and the desk -- I'd be concerned that it isn't big enough -- unless you're going to use a small table.

- The master bedroom door and the under-stair closet door are going to be a problem. I'd fix it by moving the bedroom door so that it's next to the desk . . . then you'd have a little hallway in the bedroom. And I'd consider going with shelves instead of a closet under those stairs. OR put a desk in that space, facing into the bedroom -- though a person sitting in a chair would block the doorway for another person entering the bedroom.

- I'd move the master bath sink to the middle of the vanity. My daughters' sink is scooted right up to the door like your plan . . . and she hates it.

- In a house this size, I'd definitely give up the separate shower in the master bath . . . so I could have a linen closet. A separate shower really is a nice thing, but a linen closet is a necessity! If you just can't do this, I'd at least put up some shelves above the toilet.

- I'd consider flipping the master closet and the bathroom. This would allow you more natural light in the bathroom. I hate to see a precious corner wasted on a closet.

- Still on the natural light topic, I'd add windows on the other wall of the master bedroom . . . and perhaps short, fat windows above the bookshelves on each side of the fireplace.

- Finally, I'd consider bumping the family room "out" just a bit to match the utility room's width. This would allow you to have a "hallway" between the stairs and the sofa in the living room. This will mean a person going to the stairs won't walk through the middle of the living room.

- I've seen this stair-straight-in-front-of-the-door, and although it's not ideal, it's not an awful thing. I've seen people put hooks on the...

What is the bathroom you posted? If it is meant to handle all the dirt/grime of the son/spouse from the farm... the shower is much too small (in my experience growing up on a farm in central WA).

MrsPete, thank you for all your suggestions. We definitely have been thinking about more windows -especially in the areas you mentioned. I'm sure we will add some. I have two large dormers now that add a lot of natural light, and I don't plan on going back into the dark.
I don't know about the door into the family room. I think I am going to need all the wall space I can get in there. And I swear I don't have a problem with anyone going through the kitchen.
The one thing you did mention is the dining room. I think we will try to make it work, but I might have to buy a smaller table. We have spent so much on this Tennessee plan meeting our local codes, I think my husband might not be too happy if I start talking about moving walls, etc.
I do agree that a linen closet is a necessity in the master bath. Instead of getting rid of the shower, I've attached a drawing I came up with. The plan called out for a vanity with a make-up table and the sink at the end. It is 72" long total. I got rid of the table, changed the vanity size from 72" long to 54" long, moved the sink in the middle and added an 18" wide linen closet on the end. What do you think? I don't know what the height is on it, but we have 9' ceilings. I also added a - we call them "toilet toppers" that will give us some more storage above the toilet. We will also purchase a smaller bathtub then the plan calls for so we don't have to have the shower bump into the closet, so it will be one width straight across. I also plan to absorb that small pantry closet into the utility room and have another linen closet in there. That is two more than I have now, so I'm sure it will be enough. Thank you for all your suggestions!

kirkhall- I did that rendering of the mudroom shower quickly - we will install a shower that they can get around in. Thanks.