Congratulations on feeling like you are getting close!

One suggestion would be to add a door between the playroom and the bathroom in case you might ever need a ground floor guest room (elderly relative, injury, illness).

I thought similar to Daisy, but actually, I think I would move the bathroom. It is nice that it has windows, but your guests, or anyone for that matter, on the first floor who needs to use the bathroom has a LONG way to go to get to it--and through a mudroom! I think I would think about putting it where you have the mudroom's WIC and the playroom's closet so that it is a little closer to the main living area of the house and in a less cluttered area (at least, at my house, the absolute back of the mudroom would be a very inconvenient/cluttered location for the only bathroom on the floor.)

And, the laundry room seems like it should be large enough for a countertop somewhere (if all things were lined up on the long wall, for example). What is your plan? It is certainly a room of sufficient size.

Otherwise, I like this, and you got your Christmas Tree too! (next year, maybe?)

Love your house, but can't imagine not having an entry door into the house near the garage that does not go through the garage.

Love the kitchen, dining area, and living room.

Very pretty!

A couple of thoughts: looks like a great house for entertaining so you might want access to the powder room that doesn't go thru the mudroom (also closer access from playroom to bathroom.) You could switch the WIC and PR and rework that area to make that happen (see rough mockup.) Also added a door straight into mudroom for outside; this is great if you have kids and/or pets. You lost a window in the mudroom with my mockup, but you could have a door with windows to make up for it.

Be sure to post your layout on the kitchens forum too. Lots of good help over there. It's a long way from your refrigerator to the sink, so consider adding a prep sink to your island.

If you swap the pantry and butler pantry, it's a bit closer from the garage to the pantry when carrying groceries. In addition, guests in the dining room have a view of the island rather than the cooktop/work zone, which might be more cluttered.

You can add windows to the other wall in the playroom to make it nice and sunny.

{{gwi:1514307}}

kirk- haha! You noticed that he fit in our Christmas tree. Definitely hoping for next Christmas! We really like the idea of moving the bathroom- it certainly is a trek from the living room to the end of the mud room.

red- another door is definitely a good thought!

chicagoans- thanks so much for doing the mock-up changes. Moving the bathroom feels like it will make a big difference in ease of getting to the bathroom. And I think you are right about the prep sink, too.

Thanks again, all! We are getting excited.

I really, really like this house. Especially after the changes chicagoans made. The only thing I might suggest is making the garage a bit deeper if possible. If I read the plans right it looks like it is only 21 feet deep? Only 31 feet wide too? I would expand at least one if not both of those dimensions.

Might be difficult with depth because of the second floor above but you could certainly make it wider by extending it a few feet into the backyard. The more space in a garage to get around cars the better, especially if you have larger SUVs, vans or trucks.

I just noticed something else: how about putting your office built-ins on the wall b/w the office and LR? Then you can have windows on the right side wall of the office (will look pretty when someone looks from the foyer through the office door), and it might be a bit of a noise buffer b/w the office and the LR. I don't know what your space is like there, but imagine how pretty it would be to have a flowering tree on that corner of the house that you could see out the side windows of the office.

This post was edited by chicagoans on Thu, Nov 29, 12 at 15:15