wow!! looks beautiful!! is that cedar shake? I think that 2+ years paid off! How many sq ft is it?

I think its great! You must be thrilled to be done with the planning stage and getting ready to move to the building stage. Bless your husband for the job he's about to undertake. That's a large home and he's gonna be one busy man for a while! Congrats!

I'm interested in your kitchen/pantry. You seem to share my philosophy: Keep the (expensive) kitchen relatively small, but have a giant (inexpensive, can be messy) pantry nearby to store . . . well, everything.

Is that a pass-through from the pantry to the screened porch? You can't grill on the screened porch, but is that to become a sideboard for serving food?

thanks everyone! the house is right around 3500 sqft not including the basement, bonus rm, or screened porch.

carp - yes, it was originally supposed to be cedar shake but we have realized that cedar is just too much $$ (not to mention, not easily diyed) so we are considering hardi shake or cedar impressions vinyl shake. I really really do not want vinyl shake but I have driven by some in my area and it doesn't look too bad. It's probably going to be one of those things that I have to live with in order to get everything else I want.

downsy - yes, I am VERY blessed to have such a handy hubby! Now we just have to figure out time-wise what is smart for him to do and what is better to sub out. He has a full time 9-6 job now that he didn't have when we built our current house so he won't have as much free time to spend on the build... so nights & weekends will be very busy around here.

mrspete - thank you! yes, I just love the pantry area. I'm thinking of it more like a scullery/stash everything space. And yes, that's a 6ft wide gliding window with a counter out to the screen porch. I thought I could use it as a buffet/serving area when we have parties on the porch. We will pretty much live on the porch in the summer so I think it will be pretty handy.

here's some inspiration pics for the kitchen layout & pantry.

Love it! My favorite is the craft room and the pantry.

Laurensmom--so glad you posted this.

I love it. The layout is wonderful and the exterior is so pretty.

There is a beautiful house near ours on the Lake which is an hour South of you that house vinyl shake. It is surprisingly realistic. I will get a picture for you.

Sometime ago everyone here that used fiber cement shake was using Nichiha (sp). Might want to check it out.

I really like it-well done!

I only have a few comments. What do you imagine for the bonus space? Is there any way to access it from the rest of the second floor?

Right now, you have to walk through the family from the entry and master suite to get to the kitchen. I can't read the dimension but make sure you have a furniture plan as it relates to the fireplace that works for you. The fireplace is centered but the furniture will need to be shifted towards the top.

Will there be a prep sink on the island?

Our architect also drew a bump out on our garage like yours but we got rid of it bc we preferred a simpler elevation. If you are looking for a way to save some money :)

I don't know much about architecture, but the elevation is a bit tudorish too. You can go with a brick exterior and I think it will look great.

It's going to be a beautiful home! I can't wait to see it built.

I also wondered about the bonus room access.

LONG way from a bedroom to whatever is going on in there....

So happy for you!!! It looks like it will serve your family wonderfully! Good Luck with the sweat equity:) Keep us posted in your progress.

Very nice! But there are a couple of things (mostly upstairs) upstairs that would bother me.

1) From the loft area, there is no access to a bathroom, without walking clear thru one of the bedrooms or making a long trip downstairs.

2) It is a very long journey from the central bedroom (the one that is over the craft room) to the toilet in the J&J bath that bedroom shares with the back bedroom. From the most probable location for a bed to the toilet, it looks like a distance of about 25 feet, thru three doorways and requiring several half turns. I would not want to navigate that journey in the middle of the night, particularly if I woke up feeling nauseous.

3) If/when you finish out the future bonus room, do you plan to add another powder room up there? If not, getting to a toilet from the bonus room will require a trip downstairs and thru the length of the mud hall.

4) There is no easy access from the upstairs bedrooms to the bonus room. So, the bonus room is NOT going to be a natural common "play area" for kids or teens because it is simply not convenient to the areas where they are likely to keep most of their "toys".

You MIGHT be able to solve some of the above issues (that is, if you agree that they are problems) by making the J&J bath a hall way bath.

And, downstairs, I'd probably want access from my craft room to the foyer...just because I imagine that that would be where I might spend significant time during the day when someone might come ringing the front door bell. I think it would be nice to be able to answer the door without having to make a long trek around. Might not be an issue at all for you tho.

thanks for the feedback :)

to answer a few questions -

The bonus room will hopefully be my future art studio/mom cave. I'm envisioning a space I can escape to for some peace & quiet. Thus, the no access to the kiddos rooms upstairs :) Although, I have thought about putting a tiny access door between the bedroom closet & the bonus rm closet.

I would have loved to have a bath in the bonus rm but I already have 4.5 baths (plus another in the basement).

I have 2 girls (9 & 7) sharing the J&J bath upstairs. It's not a perfect bath set up but I think it will be sufficient (they each have space for a 6 ft sink/vanity area.

The family room is 18x18 and the tv will be in the built-in closest to the back wall/window seat.

the craft room is more of a laundry/home work/utility area. I will probably keep my sewing machine there + computers for the kiddos and washer/dryer.

kitchen appliance layout is yet to be determined, but I'm not very fond of prep sinks but that could change...

Really like your house! Excited to see how it turns out. No formal Dinning Room YES! - I think with an open floor plan - the way to go. (Much better then a small kitchen eating, and small formal dinning area for eating. That's what we had in our last house and would not do it again.)

It's wonderful! I think the screened porch/garage area turned out very well...and the entire home plan is a very nice balance of beautiful and functional :)