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ray72

Floor plan-Round 2

Ray72
11 years ago

We got the floor plan back from the designer/builder. We've made a lot of changes. Would appreciate any input.

Notes:

1) We are building in NW FL on acreage.

2) There is no place for coats. We'll use a coat rack in the entry.

3) Yes, that's a shower in the laundry area. Our labs love to swim and get dirty.

4) The MBR is missing a window on the west side and we'll like center french doors on the back wall.

5) Great room is missing the fireplace.

Let me know what you think. Any inputs appreciated!

Ray

Here is a link that might be useful:

Comments (6)

  • kirkhall
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    This is kind of hard to see, small on my computer but 2 things I notice right off:
    The bedroom adjacent to the dining room is likely going to be louder ... It isn't really insulated from great room/kitchen sounds.

    And, you have no prep space between the sink/stovetop. That is a big no-no in my book. (your largest prep needs are usually right between the sink and stove). You will definitely want to share your kitchen section with the kitchen board when you are closer to the final layout.

    Otherwise, I really can't see details well enough to comment.

  • User
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Here's the image in-line. It's really small--Ray72 can you provide a larger version?

  • done_again_2
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Kitchen - I agree with kirkhall about the prep space between the sink and stovetop. The island may not be very functional and in the way more than anything. With the kitchen in the middle of the house it'll likely be dark unless you use lighter finishes and/or put in good lighting. My kitchen is similarly placed and is naturally darker. Path from garage to kitchen could be more direct for ease of hauling groceries.

    Great Room - Placing furniture in the great room may be challenging when you put a fireplace in, account for the window/door wall, and walkway to master and breakfast room.

    Laundry - I like the idea of a shower in the laundry room for the dogs. Mine are smaller so a large utility sink would work for me but I can see the need for it. The door outside is good too so you don't have to go through the house first.

    Exterior - The window over the master bath tub looks too small for the elevation compared to the other windows. It may need enlarged or dressed up with shutters like the rest.

    I also see a lot of straight/hard lines in the house. It's nice when the corners are angled at 45 rather than 90 to soften it.

  • bevangel_i_h8_h0uzz
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    As a shutter "purist", I hate seeing shutters that are sized for single wide windows being attached to the sides of double-ganged windows. Shutters should at least LOOK like they would close over the windows! I would recommend either getting rid of the shutters on those double-ganged windows entirely or unganging those windows in the dining room and study and separating them enough so that each single-wide window can have properly fitted shutters attached to it.

    As for the master bath, I'd consider rotating the entire bathroom and master closets by 90 degrees so that the tub is on the side wall. It never makes sense to me why designers put garden tubs on walls facing the front street. Doing so pretty much forces you to use opaque glass (for privacy) which ruins the whole effect of the garden tub. With a garden tub, you OUGHT to be able to sit in the tub and look out at the garden... hence the name! Much better to move the tub to the side wall where you can look out of a clear glass window at a pretty little private side garden. And, if the tub faced the side, you wouldn't need to worry about putting improperly fitted shutters around the wide garden tub window. Instead you could have a single wide window in the bathroom facing the front of the house.

    I agree about potential noise issues with having the master bedroom right up against the great room. If you go with this design do make sure that your plans specify SOMETHING to block sound transfer. I would recommend something like the "isoTRAX Soundproofing System" but you could specify "double wall construction" for that wall or a "staggered stud wall" or fill the wall with recycled cotton batting. Just don't let your builder say he'll fill the wall with spray foam insulation b/c that could actually make sound transfer worse. Do your homework on mechanisms to limit sound transfer between rooms and decide what you can live with and then include specifications for that in your plans. If you don't specify what you want, you'll get single wall construction with nothing done to limit the sound transfer between the two rooms.

    You may have a similar problem with the common wall between the breakfast nook and bedroom #2, especially if whoever uses bedroom #2 isn't the first person out of bed every morning.

    I notice that from the kitchen bar, you can look down the hallway right into the bathroom. This for me is something of a no-no and I'd suggest flipping the bathroom so that the door into the bathroom is across from the stair case instead of straight down the hallway from the kitchen... except that doing so would put the toilet, sinks, and shower plumbing into the wall shared by bedroom #3 which again would raise possible noise issues. So, I'm not sure what the solution would be.

    I assume the staircase goes UP to a bonus room over the garage and not down to a basement. If so, this design wastes a lot of useable space under the landing. With a typical staircase, you have enough headroom starting under about the 13th step to stand upright. I'd probably move my pantry into the space under the landing and the first three steps next to the landing. Have the pantry door off the hallway and you won't have to carry groceries quite so far from the garage. Note that the headroom might be a little bit low under the lowest step but you would want shelving there anyway so the lowered headroom wouldn't matter.

    Then I'd make the current pantry into additional garage storage. And, I'd turn the current section of garage storage that is partially under the staircase into some "mud room" space with storage cubbies instead of a closet. Storage cubbies tend to get used more than a closet will. You could also tuck some cubbyholes for shoes or maybe create an alcove for the dog's bed under about the 4th thru 10th step. No point in wasting that space!

    With the pantry opening out into the hallway, you are free to wrap your kitchen counter clear around the corner instead of having a "break" between the countertop beside the fridge and the oven counter top. That gives you more counter top and, because it isn't broken into sections it is more useful.

    I'd definitely get rid of that "barrier island." Instead, move the kitchen peninsula toward the front of the house by about 2 feet so that you don't have too much space between the sink and oven. Move the stove down so you have more room between it and the sink or move the stove to the wall with the oven.

    Moving the peninsula would make the breakfast nook enough larger that you could move the patio doors from the great room to the breakfast nook and still have plenty of room for a breakfast table and chairs. I think that short nook wall that faces the covered porch is just long enough for those double patio doors.

    Then, my great room would just have a gorgeous wall of windows looking out on the covered porch with no patio doors making furniture arrangement difficult. Also, having the patio doors open into the breakfast nook at one end of your covered porch would give you more options for arranging furniture on the porch itself.

    At only about 6 ft deep, the covered porch (and also the screened porch) are awfully shallow to do much with. But, at least if you didn't have to work around double patio doors along the long side of the porch, you would probably be able to fit a small wicker patio "conversation set" out there.

    I'm guessing the screened porch is just meant to be a sitting area for the master bedroom so that maybe all you'll want there are a couple of cushioned patio chairs, a small table and room for some house plants. If you're envisioning much more than that, the screened porch will need to be larger.

    Just my 2 cents. Hope some of it is helpful.

  • Ray72
    Original Author
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Hey-thanks for the input! The idea of using the space under the landing is great.

    @minneapolisite-Thanks for posting the picture. Just can't seem to figure out how to do that. I have the plan as a PDF that I can enlarge on my computer, but I don't know how to post it to make it more visible for you folks. Any advice would be appreciated. I'm sure we'll have more pics to post in the next 6-7 months!

    Barrier island, love it especially since we have them where the house is to be built. I really want an island. It isn't perfect, but we envision a dark island surrounded by linen/cream colored cabinets. Any ideas to make the island more useful?

    The stairwell has moved twice. It goes up to an unfinished bonus room. I'm not 100% happy with the location. We had two more closets before moving it to the current location but we didn't have the hallway to the bedrooms...you had to go through kit or dining to get to them.

    Thanks again all!

  • dekeoboe
    11 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Have you thought about having a grooming tub rather than a shower in the laundry room? Groomers use a raised tub because it is much easier on the back than having to lean over in a shower. If you tend to dry your clothes on hangers, you can put a clothes rod over the tub for those items you drip dry.