You should get a designer to draw up the plans with the changes you want. I don't know what you mean about changing price. No two houses cost the same, even if you use the same floor plan. There are many things that change the price. It depends where you are building it, site conditions, finishes, and a whole mess of other things. Get with a designer and go over square footage and budget with them, and you should be able to get a rough estimate. If you want something more exact, you would have to take the plans and get an estimate.

As far as the plan goes, I like your ideas. I think the kitchen could be laid out better, and opened up a little more. I am not into the columns by the living room either. They look a little too traditional. For the size of the great room, I would do at least 10'. You could always do a coffered ceiling to drop it a little. I would make the breakfast a little bigger, and put a large island to eat at. That would give you two places to eat, wich in my opinion is enough. That would free up the formal dining to use as an office. Unless you like a formal. I would also put a bonus room or something over the great room.

This post was edited by MethodDesigns on Wed, Nov 20, 13 at 21:58

Corner arrangements in the kitchen aren't an automatic negative.

To me, what is about this house, is the roof "match-up" between the garage and main house. As far as I can tell, from the pictures, it appears you will have a high likelihood of a major leaf/snow/etc pile right above the mudroom (see where all the slopes all come together on the back?)

Another negative for me would be the laundry being downstairs, when many of the rooms are up. That is a fairly easy fix though, if you plan to enclose the great room so it isn't a 2 story. And, I think it would be fairly easy to "fix" having the laundry/mudroom become a mudroom/half bath.

My 2 bits.

You could always make the great room with 9' ceilings and have a bonus/playroom/office, etc above it. Obviously, it will cost more to build but it will also add value in more s/f. In the kitchen, you could move the window over the sink to the left and still have the sink in front of it. Then have the dishwasher on right side of sink and then put the range between the dishwasher and right side of wall. On the right side of the range, the counter might be around 14" or so.(ours is 14") You can adjust the window to make whatever size counter on the right side of range. That's the way our kit is and it works out great. Everything is lined up, sink, dishwasher and range. It also would be allot less expensive for the overhead vent under the cabinets for the range there than out over the island.

I have seen several variations of that plan on this site recently -seems to be popular.

"Expensive" is a relative term. What one person thinks is expensive another may not. You could certainly build at a much lower cost per foot of heated area than this.

Thank you all.

I love the idea of having a space above the great room as bonus room. If we did that it would have to be finished later. We're on a tight budget.

As for laundry upstairs - I am hoping to get a laundry both up and down.

I see what you are saying about the leaf/snow situation. We were also thinking of moving the garage to the right side with a breezeway style mudroom off the side between the kitchen and eating areas. We would keep the space where the laundry currently is and just extend the eating space. We are really hoping for 15-16' for an eating area.

I would love to see other variations of this plan if anyone has a link. I'll try to search for it though.

As for "expensive", I just meant: Does the roof line and details (the parts I like LOL) seem more difficult to do or use lots more materials that would make a contractor charge more? I know I'll have to get a quote, just curious what others thought.

My only other concern is lack of closets on the main level. I was hoping to get at least one good size closet up there. We would use the dining room as our school room/office. Maybe I could get one in there.

Another thought I had was switching the kitchen with the eating area. I haven't tried to lay that out yet. I just thought it would get traffic out of the kitchen.

I just tried to put the mudroom and garage on the side. I realized that the part I planned to leave on the back doesn't have anything over it upstairs. That should still be okay to leave there right?

I'm afraid the kitchen will be too small. If I put the sink at the back wall I don't think there is even room for a dishwasher to the side. Part of the reason I chose this plan was because it was less sf to help with budget but I seem to keep trying to add sf. doh!

Charge more than what?
Building a large porch cost more than a small one. Building a plain 4 corner box will cost less than building a house with a lot of projections and corners. Building nice columns for the porch cost more than using 4x4 posts. etc..

This would not be the least expensive house you could build of the same interior heated area.

Can you find similar houses in your area that are within your price range?

I don't have exact measurements....but maybe something like this? :)
{{gwi:1513569}}From Kitchen plans

As for the half bath, it's not too far from the kitchen. I think it works well as is, but you could move it to the other side of the entry, if you like. I'd rather have the pantry and dish storage in the dining room...so maybe a runner in the hall that can be cleaned easily (between kitchen and powder room)?

This post was edited by lavender_lass on Thu, Nov 21, 13 at 15:44

Thanks Lavender- Except we will be using the dining room as a school room/office so the nook area would be our primary eating spot. I'm not sure how to get enough space for that.

I love what you did with the kitchen though! I guess we could consider putting the office/school area in the back of the house. I was just hoping to leave the back more open for the lovely view.