I am trying to post a better picture. it's not much better, so I'll attempt a closeup next. sorry that i'm not good at this. windows 8 was just installed and I don't know how to use it

this is a close up of the front floor plan. next i'll post the exterior elevation so you can see why if we cut one foot in the guest room then we have to cut a foot all the way across

here's the front. you can see how it's 3 little wings so if I cut one, I have to cut all 3

I'm not sure why the windows are black on the left side. they are actually 4 lites over 4. we are going to flip the shutters so that they angle in towards the windows and I think we will have some glass in the front door to let light in the foyer. there will be a lantern on the right side of the entrance too.

i'm also trying to figure out the front materials. right now the architect has stucco, stucco, brick painted cream with the garage wing hardiboard

I want bricks painted cream, stucco, bricks painted cream with garage hardi

what say you?

Mine is 12.5x13 and it will fit a king size bed (we have a queen in there now). There is a nice discussion of room sizes (and master bedroom sizes) on the smaller homes forum. You have a sizable closet, so there shouldn't be a need for a lot of dresser storage in the bedroom proper.

btw--what is the square footage of this house?

thanks for your input!!! I'm so glad that we can get away with cutting it. I've been looking at other plans online and there are many master bedrooms with 13 feet being one of the dimensions, so I think we will go ahead and cut it.

The house right now is 1990 living downstairs and 690 living upstairs (3 SMALL kid rooms, a small landing, and a full bathroom)

porches are 460sf and garage with storage is 720

I am thrilled to have come up with a plan that got the garage tucked behind the house. It was like working with a rubix cube on such a narrow lot and my absolute must of putting the garage tucked in back. I am very pleased that we were able to make it happen!!

If you push the entrance into the foyer, how will you enter the guest room?

Our previous house had a master bedroom of 12 x 16...we had a queen sized bed, and it was fine. That house was 2600sq ft, so similar to yours in size. When we sold it, we didn't get any comments about it being too small. It was a four bedroom house, so if the room was much bigger, something else would have been sacrificed. I think you will be fine. Honestly, our new house has a 17 x 16 master and I think it is a bit too large. The space could have been used elsewhere more efficiently.

My current master is 13'6 x 14'6. We have a king in there and there is plenty of room. It's roomy without wasting a lot of space. Even in our build, which is around 3500 sq ft, our master is 14x16.

Thanks everyone. I feel much better and very sure that cutting a foot across is the right thing to do. We went into this shooting for 2600sf, so I really want to trim it.

Pps7, good point about the door to guest room/study. Anyone have ideas in this? Maybe if we cut the entrance a foot rather than push it in a foot? Would that work? I'm not in front of the plans, but ill look at them tomorrow to see. I'm sure the architect can figure something out if we can't. I hope!

You mentioned there are tiny bedrooms upstairs... How does cutting a foot in front affect the upstairs?

oh shoot! I didn't even think about that! that's a very good point! Rooflines and stairs totally confuse me, so I don't know how that will pan out. I know that we can make those rooms bigger by going into the "knee wall" area and attic space, so I think it will be ok. we meet with the architect again on Tuesday. I'm hoping he can make this all work

You never mentioned why you need to cut a foot. Are you trying to cut square footage for cost reasons or do you need to cut a foot for setbacks?

My master's going to be more like 12x15, and I'm not a bit concerned about it. My husband and I talked about what matters to us and what doesn't matter -- in fact, we made a list of things in priority order, and what major room was at the bottom of the list? The master bedroom. Only the foyer was less important to us, though I don't consider that a major room at all. We care about space for a bed and two nightstands . . . and that's it. We are going to have windows on three sides, so that'll prevent it from feeling overly small.

If I were trying to cut out square footage from this house, I'd downsize to ONE nice eating area. Either lose the dining room OR the breakfast room, and you'll be just where you need to be in terms of square footage.

I'd cut that wierd breakfast room before I'd chop of the nose of the house. And cutting one foot isn't going to greatly reduce any of your costs. It could make it more expensive because you might have to do additional dormers in the second floor bedrooms in order to have enough legal floor space to count as a bedroom.

"rooflines confuse me"
But, you know what a knee wall is, right? (I'm asking honestly, and am not trying to be mean, so please read this informational post in that way)

A kneewall is a short wall. In my house, 2 of the upstairs bedrooms have kneewalls of 5 feet. While it is true you can make a room "larger" (on paper) by "going into the kneewall space", you don't actually make the room that much larger--just larger floor space--more carpet to buy, etc. But the HEAD ROOM is what is required for legal size determinations. The ceiling at a 5 foot kneewall is 5 feet. In one of our upstairs bedrooms, one portion of the room is bumped into the kneewall for a kneewall/ceiling height of about 3.5 feet. We have a 12/12 pitch roof/ceiling, so that little extra floor area is good for a little reading area, or some toy storage/shelving, or maybe a short closet section. But, it isn't livable space. Yes, it was carpeted, so that was an expense. And, yes, the room visually seems larger...until you put the bed in.

So, make sure you understand what chopping off that foot does to upstairs. Get your architect to show you 3d before you make your final determinations, esp if you aren't the type of person who can look at 2d and see 3d (not many people have that spacial awareness without a lot of practice, and some people never do).

I like your front elevation! Like pps7 mentioned, are you cutting square footage to try and save money? If so, have you checked into what other options you might have to save other than cutting square footage? I know we were surprised at how much money we could save by changing the slope on the roof, dropping the roof heights, or changing some materials. Also, although we're not doing this, changing from 10 foot ceilings to 9 foot ceilings would have saved a nice chunk of change. Just something to consider before you cut square footage.

Ashley

Yes. I understand knee walls. I'm not offended that you asked ;)

but i will need the architect to tell me what exactly we will need to do to the upstairs to keep it "right". The knee wall area is always a good spot to put some drawers, so it saves space by not needing chest of drawers in the normal ceiling height area. I haven't studied the bedrooms upstairs very much. Two of them will have a sloped ceiling on one wall. He talked about pushing those walls into the attic a little if we wanted. The way they are now is 8 feet, so he said we could push them into 6 foot walls if we wanted. I had a 4 foot knee wall growing up and my chest of drawers were built under the slope. I remember thinking sloped ceilings upstairs were cool as a kid.

I'm adamant about having a formal dining room and a breakfast room. The formal for entertaining and for holidays and the breakfast for daily use as a family of 6. We are going to open the breakfast room to the kitchen so its not so "odd" Also, the bench won't be so long. We will figure the bench out after the room is in place.

Yes, we are cutting the square footage to keep costs down. We were hoping to max out at 2500. Across the front will be 40sf i think. The price per sf here runs around 200, so that's a good chunk of change.

I wonder if we should cut a foot or two off the back of the "mud room"??

Well, if you have 8 foot knee walls, I'd go ahead and push those some more. Our 5.5 foot ones are very comfortable to walk near. The 5 foot even one is a little low to walk near (we are 6 foot tall people. ymmv)

Good luck!

Agreed. 8 feet is the ceiling height in many older homes, so i suppose it's not truly a knee wall until it's below 8 feet. We meet with the architect again next week, so he can tell us exactly how it will pan out, but from what I can see on the plans, i think it will be ok.

Everyone has been so helpful!

Weighing in a little late in the game here, but cutting those 40sq ft out will not drop the price of the house $8K. To reduce by a true $200sqft, you'd have to look at cutting out things like entire bathrooms or cutting the kitchen & laundry cabinetry/countertops in the plan in 1/2 to save a nice chunk of change more in line with $200 sqft. Could you pull the kitchen in a little and delete/modify the peninsula? The large hallway there at the end of the kitchen is wasted square footage that could be used more efficiently possibly alowing for a reduction in square footage. Even changing the roofline on the left to a straight line vs a curved line would save a good chunk of change (although I admit that would be a no go for me).

Bathrooms & kitchens make up a huge part of that $200sqft price because of all the extra things that go in them that is not included in bedrooms, family rooms, etc--rough & finish plumbing, electrical (additional outlets, lighting fixtures & GFCIs), cabinetry, countertops. tile, waterproofing, appliances. Because of this, 'price per square foot' is not an exact representation of the cost to build a house--its just the average when you figure in all the components of the plan, specced building materials, specced finishes and site prep. Depending on what finishes you spec, you may be able to reduce the cost of the house such that you don't need to cut square footage. Additionally, by the time you pay the architect to make the changes to the plan, you may have forked out a good portion of the funds you'll save on square footage to him.

Just some things to consider.

Overall, I really like what you've posted of your plan. I love the front elevation! Looking at it, I think you could easily pull the front of the two story wing back so its even with the front edge of the porch, leave the other 2 wings as is and not lose too much architecturally. That would save you ~26 sqft.

I like your thoughts on the exterior materials. Those changes from what is specced by the architect will help save some $$. Stucco is quite expensive so reducing it as much as possible will be a good thing money wise. Painting the brick adds an additional expense. One thought is to not paint the brick right now to reduce the initial cost to build. After you're in the house and you've saved up for it, have the brick painted then.

Just my $0.02. Hope this helps!

This post was edited by mydreamhome on Tue, Jun 18, 13 at 21:40

This obviously needs some massaging, but just to give you another idea and gives your dining a better proximation to the kitchen and still separated and a wall in the livingroom for the TV.

This doesn't have proper clearances in closet etc. and while doing it I noticed you may have issues with your toilet room access there with the shower especially since you for safety reasons should have an outswing door and it looks like it would be tight. I'm thinking you could re-work the bath/closet and get what is needed within the current footprint.

good thinking lyfia!! thanks for this! I will show my husband this tonight.