Ooh, pretty house! So, thinking about a mudroom and a laundry, and where the space would come from, do you want 3 full garage bays? Could you steal space from one of them? Or if you just move the whole garage over you could insert a mudroom, maybe even with a service entrance if you want.

This might make it easier for others to comment.

Carve a few feet out of the MBR closet for a few cubbies and a seat? Stack the W/D and remove the hall door to the laundry? Enlarge one of the kid hall linen closets for a stack W/D? Steal a foot from the DR? If you are in a warm climate, put the W/D in the garage. Put the W/D in the basement. If it was me, I would prefer a W/D near the kid's rooms but then anywhere else but there. I would also make a bigger MBR shower and skip the tub since there are two other tubs. But, I am not a tub kinda gal.

Is that one entry closet enough for your coats, hats, mittens, boots, vacuum, broom? I like that there is garage door to the back yard and that groceries will go right from the garage to the kitchen.

This post was edited by nightowlrn on Tue, Dec 31, 13 at 2:57

You could place a service door to the porch instead the window - or add more cabinets if you do not need a door.

I'd move the master closet and bath to buffer the noise from the great room and master. Then move the garage over slightly and you have a mud/laundry room combo with seating and pegs for hanging coats.

Not helpful for your laundry room, but I would eliminate the tub in the bath by BR4 and instead turn that into a powder room that opens to the entry way. We need a pot by where we live (great room/kitchen) and wouldn't want to have to run around the house to get to one. Then you may be able to sneak some extra closet space there too.

I like holly's suggestion, but I'd reverse it and put the closet on the interior and the bathroom on the outside wall with a window.

I wouldn't build it in the current layout for these reasons:

* The kitchen layout: the corner cabinets in the kitchen are difficult to actually use for storage. Someone can't easily be at the sink with the dishwasher open. The cleaner person might be bumping into the cooking person. etc. I also like the pantry and fridge right next to each other, but their current layout isn't horrible.

* Every bedroom will be potentially noisy. They all share walls with other rooms without a buffer. (bedroom 2 hears great room noise. Bedroom 3 and 4 hear each other, master hears breakfast room and kitchen...)

(edit: Just read other suggestions... so ignore what is redundant :))

* Every bedroom will be potentially noisy. They all share walls with other rooms without a buffer. (bedroom 2 hears great room noise. Bedroom 3 and 4 hear each other, master hears breakfast room and kitchen...)

use unfaced batt insulation in walls to eliminate noise
transfer. offset outlets on opposite sides of wall studs.

where is heating system going to be located?
attic, basement, inside living space in a closet?

what is layout of second floor?

best of luck

I like hollysprings suggestions a lot......and I like your plan
esp the size of the great room

RE: the noise transfer:

We did what energy_rater_la suggested to reduce noise between master bedroom and adjacent kitchen in our home. The door is also solid wood, but the small gap underneath the door transmits noise enough to bother me. I'm a light sleeper; I can hear a lot still although the bed is around the corner and opposite side of the room from the door (20' feet to the pillow.) I don't think any noise is going through the walls, but it's been difficult sound-proofing the door. So, I probably wouldn't build again without buffers between the rooms. If the OP isn't concerned about noise, nevermind. Just something to consider.

Lots of people on here suggest putting the bedrooms such that they are in the corners of the house or placed in a manner that allows them to have windows on two sides of the room. If you do that with all your bedrooms, and you have three or four bedrooms all on one level, it is pretty darn difficult to get buffers on the sides of the bedrooms that share a wall with another room. You can eliminate wall sharing by using hallways, but a number of people are also apposed to hallways.