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ohkim

Floor plans - please give your feedback!

OHKim
11 years ago

My husband and I are getting ready to build and would love some feedback on the houseplan we've come up with. We have a 28 acre piece of land, and hope to have horses someday. We don't plan to have children, other than our two large dogs. I will post the second floor plan in a following post. Thank you for your suggestions!

Comments (12)

  • OHKim
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Here is the plan for the second floor. Thanks!

  • lolauren
    11 years ago

    I would live in this house! :) I can't see the dimensions in any of your rooms.. so it is hard to give advice on that aspect.

    We have a master floor plan similar to yours... our large closet also opens up to the mudroom/laundry room attached to garage. We adore this feature for a multitude of reasons.

    Like your plan, one of our master bedroom walls is shared with a great area space. Unfortunately, this does cause noise issues. I would suggest you do everything possible to reduce noise transfer if either of you are light sleepers (insulation, thick sheet rock or two layers of sheet rock, solid core door, etc.) I would do the same for the wall next to the master bathroom.

    We also are child-less with two large dogs. So, do your dogs sleep inside or outside? If inside, do they get to run all over?

    What I don't like or would change:
    * I would put the master toilet in an enclosed, private room... You have two entrances into your master bathroom... I wouldn't want to worry about DH running in on me (on the toilet) if I didn't lock both those doors (which would never happen.) With the ability to enter your master suite from two directions, you won't always be able to keep track of when your spouse is going to enter that bathroom!
    * I wouldn't do double doors into the master bathroom....it eats up space, increases the bathroom noise you hear and I don't think a bathroom needs double doors to show it off.
    * I would switch the fridge and double ovens. I often need food items out of the pantry and fridge..... but yours are on opposite ends. That would get annoying. I would also not be too keen on the corner cooktop....

  • chicagoans
    11 years ago

    There are many nice things about your plan.

    However, for the size of your house the kitchen seems cramped with appliances close together and little counter space between them. I'd highly recommend posting your first floor plan on the Kitchens Forum, and include a close up of the kitchen area with aisle sizes and other dimensions noted. They'll help you get the most out of your new kitchen!

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    11 years ago

    I agree about the kitchen.

    Also, since you have so much land, is there any reason you can't change the location of the garage? I don't like garages, and plans that put them front and center from a massing point of view always bother me. Also, I would prefer my garage entry and mudroom to be nearer where I live than where I sleep. One important feature for us was how far the garage was to the kitchen and pantry as that's what you need to do every time you go food shopping.

    We leave our windows open as much of the year as possible, so cross vent in the bedrooms was really important to us, but your master has windows only on one side. And while it's popular to put the window over the tub, again as we use our windows all the time, how do you open them without stepping in and out of the tub all the time? We also put a steam shower in our shower which they recommend reside on an inside wall for best effect.

    It looks like you could move the opening to the MBR down some so when the door is open, it is still in the hallway area and not interfering with where furniture might be placed in the room.

    DH has a thing about getting hit in the butt with a door when he's at the sink, so you may want to reconfigure the powder room so that's not an issue.

  • OHKim
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Lolauren - thanks for the advice on the soundproofing. Our two dogs live inside, and yes, they have the run of the house! I agree on the double doors into the bath, we will definately change that.
    chicagoans - I have posted the kitchen plan on the Kitchens forum, thank you for the suggestion.
    AnnieDeighnaugh - I agree on the powder room door, we want to change that up so it does not open into the hallway of the great room - not sure how to accomplish that with the current layout of the lsundry/mudroom.

  • renovator8
    11 years ago

    What's in the lower level?

  • angela12345
    11 years ago

    Pocket door into half bath would fix that.

    Agree with moving the wall/door entering the master more towards the Garage so door when open is contained within the BR entry. What are the size of the doors into the bedrooms ? You have plenty of room for each one, so go with at least 32" into each bedroom ... 36" would be even better. Good for possible future accessibility for wheelchair or crutches. Also makes moving furniture SO much easier.

    Where do the stairs in the garage go ?

    Agree with needing privacy for toilet. How do you plan on laying out the furniture for the master ? I would move door into bath all the way to the left and reconfigure the bath sinks and toilet area. This would allow the bed headboard to be against the bath wall. I wouldn't want the headboard on the fireplace wall and wouldn't want it on the window wall.

    I like the curved seating at the island which allows ease of seeing each other and conversation when several people are seated there. Agree with swapping fridge and ovens. I like to unpack my groceries all to one area. Or gather the ingredients for a meal all from one area. It does separate the cooktop from the ovens, but normally you put a dish in the oven then walk area from it until it is done so this might be ok. Also, recess the fridge box into the pantry by 6-8" to allow for the look of a cabinet depth built in fridge for the MUCH cheaper standard fridge price.

    I would move the door onto the sunroom toward the covered porch so it's easier to get out there without bumping into a table in the dinette. Without the door in the middle of the wall, it also makes furniture grouping easier in that room.

    Upstairs left (top) bedroom ... move the closet to square up the bedroom with the wall of the bathroom and move door into bedroom down accordingly, leaving a short hallway upstairs before you enter bedroom. Change bath door to enter from the end so closet door and bath door are side by side. Use space where bedroom closet was for a closet that opens from the hall. There is no such thing as too much storage !! I cannot imagine any use for the notched area as it was before. You could also have a door right across from this new closet into the attic space above the garage. Walk in attics rock.

    All in all, very nice plans !!

  • DreamHomeDreamer
    11 years ago

    Have you thought about furniture placement in the master? It appears that the best wall for a bed will be the fireplace wall. That means from the bed, you are looking directly into the bathroom. Also, walking into the house from the garage you would have a direct sightline to the bed. IMO, not preferable. Would you not rather have the master bedroom on that corner wall(where the bath currently is)? Then you could have two walls of windows in your master. And you would have some sort of buffer between the master and the great room.

    In the den/office - do you want a closet? A space for office supplies, extra printer paper, filing storage, etc.

    How deep is your covered porch?

    Your kitchen made me think of these two inspiration photos that I found on houzz.com for my in-laws. I love the L-shaped kitchen with islands in great room set-ups like what you have. Just thought I would include the photos - I don't know what your ideal kitchen is but IMO these are pretty kitchens. (I'll attach the next pic in another post... still have not figured out how to post two pics in one post.)

  • DreamHomeDreamer
    11 years ago

    Another inspiration photo.

  • lolauren
    11 years ago

    How do you get out to your covered patio? Are a set of windows actually doors?

    I asked about your dogs, because I wish we had a door from our mudroom directly outside... to let ours out easily. If that was my home, I would move the garage man door into the laundry/mud room where you currently have a window. Then, I wouldn't have to walk into the (dirty, cold/hot) garage to let the dogs out. Of course, you might have a different door to the outside I'm overlooking that would be more convenient...

  • OHKim
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    there will be a walk out basement with an entrance from the garage. The center window in the master bedroom is a transom (that will open) above the bed, so the bed will be on the outside wall. There will be little other furniture besides our king sized bed and two dog beds in the master bedroom in the office, there will be built in cabinets on the wall opposite the entrance door. We agree that the doors need to all be 36" wide. The covered porch is 7'4" deep. There is a sliding glass door from the sunroom onto the deck. What do you think about adding a door from the master bedroom onto the deck as well? We originally did not want a deck that would cover up the entrance to the walk out basement, but we think we will use this as we have a beautiful view from there. Thank you all for your feedback - we really appreciate it!

  • OHKim
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Dreamhomedreamer - thank you for posting the pictures! They are both beautiful kitchens!