1st floor

Second floor

For how many square feet you have, the plan just doesn't make much sense. I don't want to be mean, but it seems like the square footage could have been used better. Having a room over a garage is tricky, make sure you use plenty of insulation and even insulate the front wall above the garage door. You also don't want to get smells and fumes from the garage leaking up there. Second floor laundry's can be a pain if not done right. Make sure you tighten up the floor joist spacing to make the floor stronger. I have been in homes where you can feel shaking and vibrating in areas around the laundry room. I would have put a little more separation between the bedrooms by making the closets between them. If you are putting windows on either side of the fireplace, I suggest you make them small and raise the header height so you have storage for all of your components for the TV over the fireplace. I would also turn the island in the kitchen, and it seems like a lot of wasted space between the kitchen and entry from the garage.

Thanks MethodDesigns

I like your house plan. If you don't want wider windows (for furniture placement or whatever), you could maybe put a transom over the windows for more light. I hope you post some pics as you build.

Thanks JDez!

I would switch the master bath linen closet and entrance door. It is a very long way to go from the bed to the toilet in the middle of the night, or when one is sick.

Hi, I agree with methoddesigns about separating the garage from the bedroom. It's pretty tricky to do. The important thing is to create a real air barrier and insulate right (see link). My two cents on the plan has to do with the entry. It's a little odd to enter right into the kitchen or dining room (versus living room). Was the plan rotated to make that work? Just wondering because the front door seems more like the back door. Also, I will make a pitch for energy efficiency. Build it in now and enjoy the benefits for years to come. Thicker walls, airtightness and good windows and doors go a long way toward comfort and lower utility bills. Lots of reading on that topic at the link provided. Good Luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Building Science article about floor over garage

Iondondi thats a good point about the distance to the bathroom. We set it up that way because my husband regularly wakes up at 3:30/4am for work and this way he can enter the bathroom and his closet without disturbing me. I will think about that door placement.

Laurie thanks for the link, I will check it out. The living room was put on the back because of the width restrictions on the lot and our desire to have a large, relatively squarish living room.

I like your plan a lot, seems like a plan that would be great for when we first had little kids....
- I'm actually a fan of the front entry, foyer....I remember when we first had kids and a starter home, I detested having my front door, BAM, walk in and you are in my entire family room and kitchen (open concept).

- I do not see any purpose to having more than a half bath with your plan....doesn't look to me that any room would ever serve as a bedroom on the lower level.

-I'm not a huge fan of laundry on the upper level, personal opinion, many seem to love it

-if you have little ones, consider where their toys will be....in your plan I would either assume that their will be toys and play area in the family room or dining room. You may want to consider extra builtins for the family room (if budget allows) for toy storage. Else I've seen plenty of ways to,use book shelves, baskets, etc in the family room or dining room to allow for toys.

-Since the master is so big, I had a few ides for that large space. I though about making the current closet a little nursery, toy play area, a den or an exercise room. Or just a separate, flex area that can change as your needs change. Then the closet can move to the side or something. You would probably loose some windows, so that would need some work to get it right. Contrary to a lot of popular belief on here, I'm not a fan of too many windows or small and or oddly shaped bedroom windows. I like it dark when I sleep and spend little time in our bedroom during the day.

Best wished on your new build, what a wonderful experience to see your plans come to life.

You noticed that by removing the windows by the fireplace, you have no windows looking onto the back of the back yard. Depending on what's back there, will that bug you later? I don't know if you have children; I would certainly want to be able to see what's going on...from my kitchen I can see the front AND back, kids playing basketball in the driveway and soccer in the back. It's nice. Now the kids are older, I still looking out at the whole yard. Perhaps you could move the fireplace and TV to the right side wall, and have windows -- ooh, and a window seat? -- on the back wall.

One thing I notice is that there is no "away" room, as Sarah Susankah calls it. No home office, no play room, no space for one to watch Game of Thrones while the other knits a sweater. We moved just to get that extra room.

Upstairs, if you swap the laundry and hall bath, the bath will be closer to the kids/guest rooms, and won't be as visible looking up the stairs from the foyer. That bothers me in my current house.

Bpathome, we can't move the fireplace to the right wall because the stairs from the basement to the yard is right below, unless we moved those stairs. Another option could be to eliminate a fireplace all together.

That's a good point about the away room. At first, we were all open concept, don't need extra roomsâ¦now I'm starting to second guess myself! We will definitely need to finish a portion of the basement at some point for our (currently non-existing) kids to have a separate play space when they are older.

Thanks!

Oh, the basement stairs, sorry I didn't see that! How about fireplace on the opposite side, better anyway because then you can see the TV from the kitchen?

bpathome the deck is on the other side, but after talking it over with my husband, we think we want to switch the basement stairs so that we can put the fireplace on the right side. An alternative would be to reposition the deck so that it rus along the back of the garage instead of the family room. My husband also pointed out that you wouldn't be able to see the tv from the kitchen if its on the right wall =)

mommyto4boys thanks for the comments and ideas! I agree, I like dark when I'm sleeping. The idea of a flex room is interesting, we will give it some thought.