You have a LOT of exterior corners and curves which will increase the cost of building if that matters to you. At the least, you could line up the back wall of the MBR (?) with the GR, square off the NE corner of the MBR, line up the Bath/MBR wall with the GR wall, and line up the Study wall (?) with the stair front wall. It's too small to read what each room is--can you repost a larger picture, perhaps without the garages?

I would definitely not put a sunroom on the north side in the north! My BIL added a sunroom to the north side of his house in Madison, WI, and it was always cold in there due to all of the glass when we'd visit, even in the late fall and early spring. What looks like a study on the SE is an ideal place for a sunroom, depending on if there are deciduous trees shading it in the summer.

I don't understand the limited furniture in the large Great Rm. If there's more that will be there, put it in now to be sure that everything works as you expect.

Anne

Anne

Thanks for feedback!

We are conflicted with the overall "shape" of house-on one hand, we do not want a "box" (or rectangle) but will definitely need to take costs into consideration.

The sunroom placement is really bothering me. We don't have a study on SE corner. The rest of our design might really limit ideal placement of sunroom....decisions, decisions. I should clarify as it doesn't show well-North is to the right, East is down, etc etc.

We wanted a big open family room space-you are right we need to better layout our expected use of space with furniture to visualize this. We envision the back wall of family room (facing west) to be open with many windows, providing open view onto back yard, patio space. That is also why we have unobstructed view from front door through back of house. We kinda like the idea of this.

I have attached a more zoomed in photo that hopefully is clearer, leaving out garage spaces.

Thanks again!

A house with a giant wall of west facing windows is just asking for trouble. The entire home is oriented incorrectly. That goes for the kitchen as well. You want the long axis of the island to run parallel to your range, not perpendicular. That zones the work spaces correctly. Also, a butler's pantry should not require that you go outside the kitchen through a hall to enter the DR from the kitchen. It should connect directly.

This is all very basic common workflow dynamics and site orientation considerations, but your design fails to utilize those basic principles. I'm assuming that this is a purchased plan rather than a designed one. You really need an architect to design a home of this scale and expense. It shouldn't be as lacking in the basics department as it is. You can do so much better with a design that suits the lot and understands adjacency and circulation needs.

With South to the left, this is definitely the wrong plan for a house built in the North. The sun is blocked from ALL of the rooms for the entire winter. You would miss the light when you need it most, as well as the free heat on sunny days.

We have an acquaintance who built a custom house with a 3 car garage and workshop on the south side of his house here in Michigan. What's almost as bad is that the house is on a dead end street, so when you drive up to the house from the only direction possible, you only see the garage until the last minute when part of the house is visible. When you park in the driveway, you then have to walk past the garage to even see the front of the house which is set back from the garage. I cringe every time I think of it!

I would agree that you need a good architect for a house like this, but if you could post your lot with appropriate details, we could give you some general ideas about what you should be looking for in a plan.

Anne

In addition to the above comments, I'll add a couple of things. First, the master bath is extremely small for a home of this size, and knowing IL, I assume it is expensive. No one thinks they will every sell, and I can guess the thinking here, but it is too small. If I were to walk in this home as a buyer at some point, I would be very disappointed in the master bath. It's not even private.

The space taken up by the front stairs is almost as much space as the dining room or the study/office. Given the size of the master closet and bath, this seems odd to me.

The left side of the plan has several hallways that eat up space. There are also two entrances on this side of the house. Are both necessary? It seems a better plan would eliminate one and incorporate that space elsewhere.

Things seem out of proportion in this plan. Hard to tell without dimensions.

This post was edited by rrah on Sat, Nov 8, 14 at 12:54

For this much space /this much money, I really think you can have a better functioning house.

First, I agree with the above conversation about site orientation. A friend of mine has a huge bank of two-story windows facing west; in the afternoon, her very expensive house is a miserable place -- hot, hot, hot. Your best light will come from the South, and you don't want to waste that on the garage, mudroom and laundry. I personally react very positively to light-filled windows, and I think that's pretty common.

Next, I also agree about the complicated footprint. I think you're falling into a common thought process: You're thinking that complicated = interesting and good design. In reality, complicated = complicated and expensive. It's something I've been "studying" in the neighborhoods around us since we got a dog and I've been spending HOURS walking him -- he's one of those dogs whose behavior is better when he gets plenty of exercise. Anyway, I digress: Do some walking around and looking at houses in real life. I learned a great deal that way.

About the combined sunroom /breakfast room: I agree with you. I don't like combining these two. Given the location, I think this space has to go to the breakfast room, and it could be smaller. I'd also lose the door; after you place a table in this spot, it won't be convenient to use.

You said issues in the kitchen are particularly important to you: I don't like the back entrance. You'll walk in the back door . . . and the island is smack-dab in front of you, creating an obstacle to entering the house. This means that everyone who enters through the back door is required to traipse through your workspace. The back door to enter where that double-door closet is: That means you'd enter the house and see a clear, straight hallway into the great room right in front of you. As such, I say some rearranging of the pantry is in order.

Think through kitchen workspaces. This kitchen seems to have all the major players . . . but no thought seems to have gone into their placement. You have two "dead corners", which can be outfitted with lazy susans -- but those area expensive and not as efficient as simple, straight cabinets. You have a large amount of space for the kitchen, but it's not efficient.

Also, I think you have devoted an inordinate amount of space to the back entry halls. Ditto for the front door entry too. I'd estimate 15-20% of your downstairs space is simply hallways -- an expensive choice, given that hallways have to be built, heated and cooled . . . though they provide little enjoyment.

Plumbing is strung across the house, and long plumbing lines are expensive to build AND increase the likelihood of a leak.

On that subject, why two staircases? They're one of the most expensive items in a build. The one to the back of the house appears to be small, and I wonder if it'll be comfortable.

The front hall stair will be quite a showpiece. Are you putting anything underneath these large stairs? It's valuable space, and you shouldn't waste it.

I'm not loving the oddly shaped mudroom. This room is largely for storage . . . and with four doors, you don't have wall space. It's more of a pass-through /hallway than a mudroom.

You say you're not sure whether you want /need the guest room on the first floor. I don't know about your needs, so I can't say yes or no . . . but I would flip the closet and the bathroom so that the bath could have natural light. Since you have a powder room elsewhere downstairs, you don't really need this bathroom for daily use. Since this guest room is kind of "a wing", you could build the house now, and add the guest room later.

Can you flip it? Then replace the guest room with the sunroom?

With 3 entries and two staircases (one very much out of the way, and the other HUGE), you're going to pay a lot for the amount of living space you're getting.

I agree with the others that you need to rework the site plan-- in addition to taking advantage of the Southern exposure, I would want to change the plan so that both garages use the same entry. If you want two staircases, I would want the 2nd staircase to be more convenient.

Thanks for all the responses!

I should clarify how we oriented the home as best I can. There is a gentle slope to the North on our property (very gentle-maybe change of only 5 to maybe 10 feet over course of one acre). The site sits at a corner of two suburban/rural roads, the main one (and one that we wish to have an address on) runs North-South on the East of property. The other borders on the South. It is important to us to have a walkout basement-we have always liked this feature and hope to build a pool in the backyard one day. Because of the slope, we were told that the walkout feature may only really work well with the current orientation I posted earlier. This way the garages are on the South (higher land) and we can better excavate and slope land for walkout feature on North-West side of house.

I have included a general rough drawing of when we thought to situate house facing South. We changed this because we wanted to have house face the road on the right of the drawing (hard to explain but it is a "nicer" road with better view as you approach the property, etc). We didn't want garages facing this road. This drawing is obviously not correct (septic has now been determined to best be located where "service court" is listed; tennis court was never a plan!).

If we "flip" the house orientation (as lavender_lass suggests), I am not sure that we can have a walkout basement and backyard with the garages on that side....?? I otherwise like that flipping would allow sunroom to replace the guest suite and given light on that side.....

Thanks again for all of your comments....

I wanted to respond to more of the comments, suggestions:

hollysprings-The placement of the Butlers pantry does really bother me. I have this nagging feeling that it is not going to be as useful if it is not directly between kitchen and dining room. My wife seems to think its current location is ok and will suffice....

rrah-I believe you are referring to the guest room and bath that are drawn on the first floor. We originally wanted master bedroom on first floor but our foot print was getting so big we decided to move it upstairs. I agree that the spaces would be too small to call a master...The main staircase does appear to be huge! We wanted something that would be fairly "grand" without being ostentatious but when I look at it and see that it is bigger than the office and similar to dining room I can't believe it!

In regards to the "left" sided entrances, the background is the following: We want an entrance from the attached garage as this will be our main everyday access. We wanted an entrance under porte cochere as a way that some family/friends could enter when its raining, etc. The porte-cochere is the main reason we decided to build-we just like the look of this feature! There is a small back entrance to the back patio as we though this would be convenient to access the powder room there, come in from the BBQ to kitchen, etc. I do think that this "left" side needs to be reworked. I haven't thought of it as complicated but that might be good description.

MrsPete-We think that we want to make our attached garage access the main mudroom as this would get most of the use. We have really gone back and forth over needing a second staircase. We like having access to two sides of upstairs and we will have 4 bedrooms up there (if we get rid of first floor guest suite) so it would kinda help.

I really appreciate all the comments-it helps to see things in ways we haven't thought of.

I understand your reasoning for orienting the house on the site as you have . . . but I don't think these reasons trump the far superior Southern exposure being oriented towards your main living areas.

I think your house doesn't fit your lot.
I'd change one or the other.