The bedrooms are very tiny, especially with the angled walls. And the one with two doors looses about 3 feet due to the pathway between the doors. Try putting some furniture in them and seeing how much space you have.

The family room also ends up about 15 x 15 once you account for the pathway from the outside door. What is the total square footage of the house? To me, it appears too small for a three car garage.

Unless you drive subcompacts, the 21' is tight, especially with the stairs. Stairs are 3' wide. Give yourself an additional 3' so you can walk in front or behind the car to actually get in the house - more if you aren't the best parker - that leaves you with 15' car length.

I think your master bath is huge in comparison to every other space in the house. You have a huge shower plus a tub plus double vanities, plus a toilet nook. The master is a decent size - you can get a king size bed in there. But with all the doors at the top, you really won't be able to have any sitting area.

The laundry is tight. Most washers are 20-24" deep. But you need to add almost 6" behind them to connect dryer vents, washing machine hoses, etc. it would be more comfortable with 3' of space.

Right away, I'd ask why -- if you're looking to stay small -- you're allotting so much space to an over-sized garage, which is not a necessity.

I'm guessing that the bedroom nearest the front door will be used as an office /tv room /away room -- a good idea, given that you've got an open floorplan for your main living area. However, a room this small cannot support a window, two doors and a closet. You have no wall space, no where to place furniture. If my guess is right and this is an office-type room, I say eliminate one door and eliminate the closet doors /make the closet into bookshelves or an entertainment center. Size it like a closet so you could always make it into a bedroom in the future, but leaving off the door will enlarge the room visually.

The other two bedrooms are SMALL. They will do, if you're planning to have minimal furniture. My best suggestion here: Enlarge the closets -- they're only about 4 1/2' wide /less than 10 sf of storage space. You can "make do" with small rooms . . . IF you have enough storage space that the room can be JUST for sleeping and one other piece of furniture. But these rooms cannot support a bed, nightstand, dresser, desk and bookcase as would be expected in a typical kids' bedroom.

Also, the bedroom nearest the master needs to lose the connecting door -- just like the possible office bedroom, the room just isn't big enough to hold that extra door -- you need the wall space for furniture placement. Anyway, the doors are only steps apart -- a connecting doorway is unnecessary.

Where will you place the bed in the master? Will you have room for nightstands? With so many doors in a small space, it's a busy room.

The master bath is overblown for a house of this size. At roughly 126 square feet (not counting the closet), it's as big as the secondary bedrooms. In a house of this size, I'd expect to see a shower-over-tub and a 5' vanity with one sink. Your shower is bigger than your closet, and 4'10" is wider than necessary for the aisle. If you really want to build "as small as possible", this is the place to start cutting.

Also, I'd flip-flop the master bath and the master bedroom. The bedroom will greatly benefit from having windows on two walls -- it will make it appear larger, and it will feel more comfortable. I'd make the master bath shorter and put items on both sides of the aisle (takes less square footage). You'll still have roughly the same sized master bedroom, and you can have a larger closet in the area where the shower/tub are now. And you should never waste a corner on a closet! I think you need more master bedroom closet.

In contrast, the hall bath looks great: Moderate in size, inexpensive to build because all the water is in one wall, it includes storage, and the entrance is private. I'd leave the bottom half of the closet shelf-free so you can place a hamper in it, and this is a good bathroom.

The kitchen is modest in size but looks like it'll work well. I'd add a SMALL island to delineate the edge of the kitchen. The large pantry is the key to making this kitchen work. It's smart: Pantry storage is cheap, whereas cabinets are expensive. However, if you want to make it easy to bring in your groceries, I'd suggest skipping the hallway altogether and entering the house (from the garage) through the pantry.

I think you're right to be concerned about the width of the laundry room -- since the machines never go flat against the wall, I'm figuring that you'll have about 26" in front of the machines.

If I were trying to save space in this dining room, I'd do a built-in bench against the wall shared with the two bathrooms. This is a big space saver, and it'd look great in this area.

Then I'd replace the back doors with a bank of windows . . . and one single glass door scooted up next to the kitchen. This will make it easier to reach the door -- you'll be able to walk straight to the door rather than walking around the table and turning.

Finally, the living room. This is SMALL. Personally, I'd allot more space for it, but if you're sticking with this size, I'd do a built-in window seat -- again, a big space saver -- and then a small sofa and one chair. And the TV is pretty much going to have to go above the fireplace.

If you go with one flooring through out, it will help the space look larger.

Thank you all for the suggestions. Looks like I have a lot of work to do. I live in a small town and there was only one option for an architect. I am concerned that he is not doing as well as I need him to do.

Thank you all for the suggestions. Looks like I have a lot of work to do. I live in a small town and there was only one option for an architect. I am concerned that he is not doing as well as I need him to do.

The stair to the attic should be entered from inside the house instead of from inside the garage in order to avoid the difficulty of providing fire and smoke protection between the attic and the garage. In any case the attic could never be used as a bedroom if it were entered from the garage.

I was not aware of the attic ladder issue. I plan on using it for attic space for now, but who knows what it could be in the future, and I want to leave my options open.

I am going to make changes based on all the great advice. I already had an island put in the kitchen.

I am concerned about the size of the living room.

I like the idea of a three car garage. Most families with kids will eventually have more than two cars. This is why I thought about keeping it a 3 car garage.

I love the idea of having a drop zone area and a large pantry.

I do think the attic stairs inside the house will open up options for you in the future. I wonder if those stairs could be incorporated into the laundry room . . . and tuck the machines /dog crates under the stairs.

Do you feel strongly that children's cars should be provided a garage space? I don't. I'd rather see the children have an adequate bedroom with good storage.

We are a 3-car family with a 2-car garage. Our kids drive a 1996 Jeep. Would the Jeep be happy inside? Sure, but it works just fine sitting outside, even with our North Dakota winters. Where I live, a 3-car garage is almost always the sign of a higher-end home, which yours is not. The extra corners created by the garage bigger than that part of the house also add a lot to your cost. Line up the garage with either the pantry wall or laundry wall.

MrsPete is exactly right about the master bath. And the hallway to the other bedrooms takes up a lot more space than necessary. If you reconfigure the master to give more space to the other bedrooms on the same wall, you can eliminate the angled doors - even 2 feet would make a huge difference. The door to the office/bedroom will be at the end of the hall; the door to the left bedroom will be about where the closet is, and I'd move the door to the middle bedroom close to the master. Ideally, the two smaller bedrooms would have closets back to back, so each is twice as big as it is now (left bedroom closet would be a little smaller, if you put the door there). With the door from master to middle bedroom, I assume this is a nursery? Moving the nursery door to the end closest to the master keeps them close, but not attached. Baby won't be a baby forever.

I get the sense that your architect is used to designing large, expensive homes, and isn't thinking in terms of making the best use of space, or getting the most out of your budget. Hopefully he can reset his thoughts and help you make a great house for your family.

If you build a full sized stair to an attic and the attic is large enough for habitation, you have created an egress path.

In all building codes I have used, an egress path cannot pass through a garage so you should check the experience and credentials of the architect.

I am rethinking my entire home plan now and my architect. He is used to building much larger homes.

I am a single mother with one small child. I have asked my architect to schedule a one on one meeting to go over the entire plan again.

I have been saving for this since my divorce two years ago and have been living with family to help save.

I have paid for my land in cash. I am working to make sure my credit is a good as possible.

I want my son close to me so I think the door being close in the hall would work.

Maybe I could make the house a 3 bedroom with a two car garage and make it to where if I ever get remarried I could have open attic space that is unfinished but could be used. The full ladder was my idea, and I do to think he know you cannot do that and in the future use the attic space as heated sq ft.

I appreciate everyone's suggestions so much.

If it's just you and your son, I would definitely switch to a 2 car garage and change to 3 bedrooms. Your son would have a decent size bedroom and you would have a decent size guest room. Or you could even take some of the space from the bedroom adjacent to the main entry and make yourself an office/den/quiet space.

I like the idea of moving the door on your sons bedroom. He may be little now and the 2 of you want to be near each other. But very soon he will be older and will despise having a room connected with mommy.

I know you are trying to be flexible about the what if of being married again. But unless you already have that partner picked out and are soliciting input from him, then just plan this house for you and your son.

I personally think it is a nice, efficient plan, even as is. The master bath needs some windows.

I don't think that in a house of this size the fourth bedroom would be necessary for resale, if that is a concern.

Could you put dormers in your attic and enough headroom so that it could be finished later?

Wishing you the very best of luck :)

My old laundry room was 6 ft wide and it was pretty tight. I wouldn't want it any narrower than that. Good luck!

With this family information in mind, I'd definitely make some changes:

- Downgrade to a 2-car garage. As someone else said, a 3-car garage is in no way an expectation for a house of this size, and if money's tight, there's no reason you need to have an oversized garage.

- You're talking about two bedrooms each! I'd go with three bedrooms (for resale) and make them each a little larger and more comfortable . . . and you'd still have an extra bedroom to act as an office or guest room.

- Those bedroom doors are all plenty close together. If your son cried in the night, you'd be only steps away.

- My advice on the master bath remains unchanged, except that I'd downsize to a one-sink vanity. Two sinks are not necessary in any circumstances, and to put in an extra for a person who doesn't yet exist -- while keeping the house minimal -- is kind of silly.

As for a future marriage, I'd say build your house for you and your son FOR NOW. If you get married again, you don't have any idea whether that future spouse would come alone or with three children. You don't know what kind of house he might already own. If that ever happens. Build what you want, build with an eye towards resale, and if circumstances change, go elsewhere.

Completely agree with MrsPete's advice.