I'd hate that play room where you have it. If kids leave toys out, they (you) will trip on them in the middle of the night. There isn't a lot of wall space there to put built ins either with all the doors and openings.

I think the kids' bedrooms are going to be very dark.

Is the door to the safe room through your closet? You have to be sure and keep the space clear to access it...and in an emergency at night, you have to go all the way across the house, get the kids, and back through your space.

We don't have little kids, so it's more of a kids living room. We will have a futon and a tv. The door to the safe room is through the closet but we don't live in tornado area...so that's not a worry. It's more for storage.

My teenage kids are as bad now as they were when they were little! Rock Band instruments, video game controllers, DVDs, a card table with a board game - it's a good think ours is a dead end.

I agree, Ann. Teenagers make big messes and come with lots of "stuff." We have to walk through the game room to get to the children's bedrooms upstairs, but, at least, the mess is upstairs.

I agree with bpathome that the kids' rooms will probably be very dark. As well as the kids' living area, since it is windowless.

How do you enter the study?

I like the kitchen/LR/dining area, but the rest of the plans seems a bit disjointed and without great flow. Have you been able to work with an architect at all?

Make sure the master closet is 7' wide, minimum. I can't tell from the drawing. Otherwise, there isn't room for clothes on each side, plus people looking through them.

I would never have my closet accessed by going through the bathroom, but that's just me. In our house, we never share the bathroom; it's strictly one person at a time. Thus, if DW were camped out in there, I couldn't get to the closet.

I'd rather have the master BR on the corner instead of the bathroom for more light and windows. The kid's BR's seem to have very small windows, and two of them could have another window on another wall.

Some of it I don't understand. The study/dining, sizes?

I would rework the pantry a bit to have easier access to bring groceries in, rather than pull in the garage, trek around the exterior of the pantry, through the house into the kitchen to enter the pantry. Maybe that's just me, I hate hauling groceries in!

I can't see dimensions, but I like the MB, bath setup. I have my closet in in my bath. I think it just depends on how you live, plus a separate toilet closet helps makes the bathroom multifunctional. You might need to take out the window on the porch to have room for a bed if you have a king. Like I said I can't see the size of the room.

I like the kitchen arrangement from what I can see. I wouldn't want a sink on my bar, but a lot of people do.

The kids wing looks ok. You might want to double check that you have room for furniture placement in those rooms since they have 3 doors each and a window. One is only 11', could get a little tricky.

Good luck!!

I like the kitchen, breakfast room, and great room. Good layout.

I agree that the kids' bedrooms will be dark, but you have enough wall space to add more windows.

I also agree that the playroom -- even for teens -- doesn't work well. Try placing furniture in the room. You'd probably have an entertainment center on the wall shared with the living room . . . and a sofa facing it. But you don't have space for anything else because of all the doors. Like an above poster, my kids also have two video game systems and lots of accessories (rock band is going to have to go into the attic).

I wouldn't like to walk through the dining room to reach the study.

Is the pantry wide enough for storage plus walking area?

Bedroom 4's bathroom is too small -- it has no storage at all, not even space for a hamper. The J&J bath isn't really a comfortable size either.

This is the plan we are working with...

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.korel.com/details.asp?pid=832

I like the covered wrap-around porch. Your setup seems to have a lot of flow and size issues (dining room and study look awkward). I also don't get the study/dining room accessibility and if the safe room was just a way to use the extra space by widening the plan? The playroom is a little bit of wasted space because of the flow with the bedrooms (even though you aren't going to use it, it is nice to have it as useable space).

Take a look at Hajek Associates. They are on my "drool" list with a lot of their plans. They have a great variety of floor plans with cool setups/good flow/useable space. Here's one (The Madley) that kind of reminds me of what you are trying to accomplish (extra bedrooms, master on other side of the house, etc). - link at bottom of my message.

I'm not suggesting you scrap the plan you are working with, just look there for some flow ideas. I am not in Texas (are you? they are), and I am not building one of their plans (instead we used a local architect with one of their existing plans and modified).

Would love to see your sketch turned into a hard design/CAD and how your thoughts are all incorporated. Ultimately it is your house and something you have to live with. I'm sure you'll make it work best for you.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hajek Floorplan - The Madley

This is similar to the Korel plan we had built. The boys' bedrooms are not very dark, they each have one big window and one small window. We also don't have a problem with the closet only being accessible through the master bath.

The garage alterations render it completely useless for it's primary purpose. The kitchen alterations leave a much too narrow pinch point. The pantry isn't shaped correctly to take advantage of it's size, thus wasting space. The play room has already gotten comments, but I'll pile on and agree with all of the negative comments about it expressed.

The changes suggested mostly make the plan worse in space usage and flow. You really should work with an architect to create something that works specifically for your particular building site.

Jrmint - what floor plan is that?

Bridget19 - what drew you to that floor plan and not the smaller S2997L version? The office/study being an extra bedroom or the "playroom" space?

The floor plan is the S2836L with modifications (bigger bedrooms, garage, added shower to secondary bathroom). This plan has a bonus room upstairs that could be used as a playroom.

Remember, I do revisions to my house plans. Jerry Karlovich/Korel Home Designs