Plans for your review!!

11 years ago

Hello all! I posted a plan a while back but we got stopped in our tracks - my husband became very ill and was in the hospital most of the summer AND my architect was diagnosed with cancer and is dealing with very aggressive treatments.

Husband is much better (thank God) and architect is expected to be fine (again, Thank God!) so we are starting to get back on track. I took what the architect had done for us and entered it all into Chief Architect Home Designer, and then have spent countless hours playing and changing.

A little about ourselves. We are in our early 40s and have two boys, 9 and 5. My spry 82 year old father will also be moving in with us and will have the first floor suite.

We live a casual life. We like to cook and convene in the kitchen. I know I want the open concept to the family room as we have it in a vacation house we rent out and I love it so much more than the closed upone we have in our current house.

We are on a corner lot, and the house will be facing south, with it as far south and west on the lot as allowed by the village. We will have a large sideyard to the east. (lot is approx 185x125 - large for this area, south suburb of Chicago)

In the first floor master we added the reach in closet because my dad wants to use the walk in as a little office. If we move downstairs eventually, that closet will be taken out.

We work out of the house, so a large office/den is important.

I know the dining room is a bit of a hike from the kitchen, and I don't care. In 11 years we have used ours 3 times. I wouldn't have one at all but DH is insistent.

I like the kitchen layout, and will tweak it some in general.

We originally had 2 stairs - one in foyer. Decided that our lifestyle didn't warrant it. We are not "grand" people, so a grand foyer stair that would rarely get used was a wasted space for us.

Weird thing in family room is a fireplace. Computer thing.

The space behind the entry closet will house a baby grand piano. Also, that area will be framed for an elevator shaft, should we ever need one.

Screened porch is mostly for the cat (yes, don't laugh) and maybe occasional casual dining, but my allergic family doesn't tend to dine alfresco much so I'm not worried about size.

Center hallway on second floor will have a skylight or sun tunnel for added light.

I welcome your comments! I'd like to get this as done as possible for the architect.

Comments (6)

vbensley
Original Author
11 years ago
1st floor
vbensley
Original Author
11 years ago
2nd floor
dpusa
11 years ago
Vbensley

Glad all is better now/
Here are some thoughts:

1. Overall the first floor looks great. The foyer area looks like a lot of wasted space. I would move the coat closet to open that space up a little and make it less boxy.
2. Add a cupboard to the Office so that it can add storage there - perhaps a double back one for the coat closet and the office itself within the office space.
3 .Is the dining room on the top right?
4. Upstairs foyer area looks large again - can some of the space be added to the bonus room?
5. I do not understand why there is a bump out closet in the foyer.
6. Love the laundry room layout and space!!
7. Can the storage room become smaller and the space be added as a walk in closet for the bonus room?

As you can tell from the above - I am all about space maximization :) however they are just IMHO - no offence meant as I think the plan has to fit your needs.
vbensley
Original Author
11 years ago
Funny, I thought the dining room was labeled! It is to the right of the foyer.
The closet is there to kind of separate the space, and behind it is where the piano will go. Also, it is (part) of where the elevator shaft would be, should we put one in.

The storage room is unfisnihed space in the attic. To me, having that for christmas storage is more important than a wic, but I will think on that more.

Thanks! Keep em coming!
renovator8
11 years ago
I hope this plan is just a diagram because the rooms don't seem well thought out beyond being roughly placed on a grid. For instance the walls that enclose the dining room need to be thought out more carefully. Between the bump-out closet and the oversized door to the dining room it is not a good space. And the kitchen is huge with odd relationships between work areas. Perhaps it would help to show them large enough to read the text and dimensions.

I never turn on the grid feature on in my CAD program because it makes it difficult to visualize the individual spaces.
zone4newby
11 years ago
A few thoughts--
1) Do you have clients visit your home office? If so, you might want the powder room to be closer to the front of the house.

2)If it were my house, I would worry about the first floor being dark-- all the windows that face East or South are shaded pretty heavily, have you checked that they've got the angles right so you'll get winter sun through them?

3)Right now, when someone walks through your front door, they're going to see closet doors first. I imagine you want something there because you want to keep the private part of your home separate from your office, but if it were my house, I'd rather have a plain wall there (that you could decorate with a nice painting or something), and move the coat closet somewhere less prominent.

4)I agree with renovator8 that the bump-out closet and the dining room's doorway to the foyer don't work well together. I think the closet (or wall, if you take my suggestion above) needs to be lined up with something, and that big doorway should be open only to the foyer, not partially to the side of the closet.

Those are my opinions, worth every cent you paid for them!

Best of luck!

Good luck!