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Here is a link that might be useful: your URL is now a LINK

Thank you so much- hopefully this helps!

Here is a link that might be useful: Plans for home

The master seems small and there are a lot of unnecessary jogs on the back wall (master, GR, Kitchen, AND bedrooms. Straightening out that master bath would give a few more sq. ft in the master and probably save you money on foundation costs.

Where is the western sun? Remember to take that into account with the sun room- Afternoon sun would make that room unbearable.

I agree with you on the laundry- you can probably rework that bathroom and walkin closet to give you enough space for a proper laundry room.

Nepool,

Thanks for the great advice! That's the perfect solution for the bathroom and you're right- the master is too small. Now we're looking at the kids rooms and they're too small too.... something to figure out...

Looking closely at the kitchen, the location of the stove on the island is really bad. I'd move it. Is that a window type opening between the family room and the kitchen? Seems kind of dated- like the family room was an addition to the house. I'd close that wall up where that is, and open it up on the end so you have a bit of visual separation from the work area of the kitchen, but still have a feeling of open space. You could round out the corner there and even have a 'bonus' space for a couple of stools on holidays. It would be almost like a mini-peninsula (looking straight at the fireplace), in addition to the island.

Don Gardner plans may or may not respond well to mods of that type, because for the three plans of his I have built (as a carpenter) they were very engineering-intensive, with lots of engineered lumber/girders/point loads, which at least complicate, if not preclude alterations without expense. You would need to provide your builder the actual framing plans and give his best call as to whether the changes will require an engineer's stamp to get it past inspection.
Casey

Wow. So much to think about. We are considering showing these plans to an architect and explaining what we like/dislike and seeing what they could do with them. Do you guys think that is a good way to handle it? We are so new to this process and having a hard time wrapping our minds around all the details...

An architect is unlikely to take a Gardner plan and alter it--copyright issues.
But, you could contact Gardner group directly and ask their architects to alter to your desires.

Or, start out with your architect with specific information about what you are looking for (what is most important, next important, and go from there) and see what they come up with for you--customized.

If it were me, I'd flip flop the great room and sunroom. I'd slide the master door down toward the back and not have it open to the sunroom.

There are more single level Don Gardner plans (with sunrooms) that might be a better fit. You can change the kitchen much easier than changing the overall design.

Problem with this plan (IMHO) is your view as you enter the home is...the closet. There are better plans with similar layouts. I'll check back later (off to town) and see if I can find some. Best of luck with your build :)

IMHO i am not a fan of Don Gardner plans: cool looking, but complicated, expensive to build.

Lot's of jogs, huge footprint, small master, little master closets, great room narrow and long -> most likely will be dark, fake dormers, garage connected to the kitchen, blocks view to the back, bedroom 11-8 x 10-2 room after subtracting drywall and closet - may be useless, no real laundry room - just washer and drier placed in the hallway, I would not like sun room facing front of the house, no closet anywhere near the entry, ridiculously small pantry. Where you suppose to vent washer & dryer? (up and kitchen)

Are you sure, you want to spend $500k on this?

Do you really want the Mbed facing the street and not the backyard?

I read your feedback to my wife and she laughed and said, "maybe we should get an architect involved!" you think? lol

Seems like the best idea- we will have to post what we can from there and get some feedback! Thanks for saving us from some serious headaches!

We just completed an owner/build on the Don Gardner Lennon plan and made several modifications...bumped the
breakfast room out 4', removed several exterior doors, shifted a few interior walls a bit, reworked 2 bathrooms layouts, and straightened out a few corners. We are very happy with the revised plan.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lennon

Hi Loto,

Did Gardner do the modifications, or did you have a local architect do it? If it was Gardner, was it expensive for the modifications?

Thanks

We are also looking to build a DG plan - the Pritchard. We brought the stock plan from the website to a local architect and they quoted us a hefty price to make changes. Mostly because at the end of it all they'd be putting their stamp on it. We chose to use the DG architects to modify (larger two car garage, stretch dining room and eliminate breakfast nook and reconfigure the kitchen. Also discovered an enormous amount of attic space which allowed us to make a 5th bedroom on the second floor if the master bedroom has a regular ceiling instead of the tray.

nepool,

I just made the changes myself with whiteout, a ruler, and black ink pen. I know that many of the builders are going to cringe on this but I was in commercial construction for over 20 years prior to my present occupation. My full service lumber/building supply center has a truss designer and we were able to easily make any necessary truss/roof changes which I think was the most critical point. As the owner/builder I was usually able to be onsite almost every day and was able to make minor changes on the fly without a long paper trail....I would say "how much to change" and usually got an answer immediately and we would move forward.
I wouldn't usually recommend not having a extensive paper trail but I have known my subcontractors for years and we have worked on other projects as well.

Watersa,

Approx how much did Gardner charge you for the changes- 100% of the price of the plans, 50%? Did you have a lot of changes?

I'm having a really hard time finding an architect and may purse online plans with modifications.

Thanks

Don Gardner will give you an estimate for changes if you pay a $79.00 consultation fee.

Here is a link that might be useful: Modification Request

Certain changes are a flat fee with DG. For example: basement, 2x6 instead of 2x4, flip the house. We are using some standard modifications (basement , 2x6) but also other modifications for their rate of 125 an hour.

We paid the price of the plan in full and then 50% of the modifications up front. They gave us an initial estimate for the non standard modifications and we are still working within that. Maybe in total $4,000 including the initial plan of about $1,200 We chose the reproducable vellums.

The major changes we made were:

to enlarge the garage to 25 x26 - this was the largest we could do without changing it too much structurally/roof lines etc.

We also made the dinning room12 x 16 and eliminated the breakfast room to enlarge the kitchen.

We added a screened in porch 20x 20 off the kitchen.

We adjusted the areas as you enter from the garage to include a coat closet and a pantry.

On the second floor we added a fifth bedroom above the master and elimnated the tray ceiling to do so.

We eliminated the tub and chose a larger shower and reconfigured the master bath.

We also chose pocket doors for inside the upstairs kids bathroom and for the laundry.

Also moved the pull down access for the attic stairs so it wasn't visible from the main staircase.

The kitchen design and layout is our last hurdle but we won't use DG for this. Most cabinet/kitchen designers can assist with the layout as included in their services so it doesn't make sense to pay DG for this.

DG doesn't do electrical or plumbing or HVAC so you'll need that from your subcontractors.

A few more thoughts - we've been looking at DG plans for quite a long time (several years). Initially we liked the Carinthia but a single floor plan was just too expensive - roof and basement are both massive costs.
We own our lot already and chose a plan we liked. Now we are having some issues having the house fit the lot. I knew this wasn't the right approach - all the books caution about making sure house will fit the lot first but we will find a way to make it work, hopefully not at a budget breaking cost. We would like a full basement not a walk out but now may need to blast in order to accommadate this.

I've seen the Ashleigh in a home show home, years ago. The kitchen and nook were wonderful (probably seem small today) but very light and bright. The only thing I didn't like was the dining room railing seemed to make a traffic jam.

There are other plans (including 'solar' options) with the master bedroom suite and living room sharing the sunroom space. I would prefer this (and the view into the main area) over the entry/closet view. Just my two cents :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Link to Ashleigh plan

Thanks Watersa, for the detailed info. I'm surprised by how high the cost is considering it doesn't include the HVAC or electrical. How fast was the turnaround with all the mods?

nepol - The turn around is pretty fast, 2-3 weeks. When we contacted DG at the end of the summer, they had a project or two ahead of ours but once ours was "on the table" it went quickly. Several emails or phone calls back and forth to communicate the adjustments. We are still waiting to finalize our plan and need some outside advice about the kitchen layout so at this point they're just waiting on us.

The local architect (we're in Connecticut) quote was much higher 10 -15 thousand and possibly more if we wanted them to handle the bidding or some of the financials. The local architect was also quoting numbers without needing to know our modifications because essentially they would be redrawing the Donald Gardner plans and making our changes as they went.