I agree that at a minimum we should put walls around the dining room which will help obscure the powder room. But we will also think about different placement for powder room (any ideas?) although I do have to say that conceptually our current powder room is in a similar spot in that it is in between the breakfast room, kitchen, great room, and dining room so we like the fact that it is accessible both when we do more formal entertaining as well as every day use by the kids (my husband and I rarely use it and instead primarily use our master bathroom which is currently upstairs). I get the functionality of having a powder room near the mud room but I would not want that to be the main floor bathroom for guests since I envision our mud room will likely not be the most presentable spot in the house and since we can't afford 2 powder rooms I'd rather have 1 where I think will work best based on how it currently works for us. Also we hope to have a pool and finish some of the walkout basement so there would be a bathroom down there easily accessible from the back yard.

Overall, I like the flow of the rooms, and it seems like with some tweeks this could be a nice plan. However, some of the proportions seem really odd. For example, your foyer closet is 4X5. That is too small for a walk-in, too big for a reach-in. That is 10 square feet that is just wasted. And the laundry room - is it really 8X16? Unless there is something going on in there besides laundry (sewing? crafts?) that room is twice the size it needs to be. Maybe give some space to the pantry, and some space to cubbies and a drop zone for the garage entry? I like big kitchens, but only when they are functional. There is what looks like a 10X11 area just open in the middle of the kitchen. That is a lot of walking back and forth space. Lots of counter space can be nice, but lots of floor space doesn't really help you cook. I would reexamine the whole kitchen layout. Maybe post it on the kitchen forum? Do you really need three eating areas? I agree with previous posters that you could loose either the breakfast table or the bar. I would vote for the table, since there is another table in the dining room just a few more steps away, and then make the counter seating nicer when reconfiguring the kitchen. Maybe a wider counter, or an island with seating on two sides? Then give some of that breakfast space back to the living room, which as lavender lass pointed out, seems too small. I think you have a good start on a nice plan. It just needs some fine tuning. As i've been working on my own house plan, I've started measuring everything around me. Sometimes I'm surprised by the dimensions of rooms I am in. Try measuring some of the rooms where you are living now, and see how they compare to this plan. i think it could give you some ideas about where things are out of proportion with function or comfort.

I made the image bigger by picking it up, moving it to word processing, then zooming in on the screen. - Your site sounds ideal. - I agree with the others about your garage. With so much space, why squeeze it onto the front? I'm not a big fan of angled garages. Sometimes they're necessary for small city lots, but you don't need it here. - I think that's a workshop in the garage. I'd suggest that you don't have the builder install this for you. Instead, keep your eyes open on Craigslist 'til someone sells old kitchen cabinets, and you can install this yourself for a fraction of the cost -- and avoid having it financed in with your mortgage, which will save you big bucks over the years. - To stay on the other folks' bandwagon, I'm totally in agreement that I would not like to circle through the mudroom to reach the master. I don't know that it'd be a make-or-break item for me, but it isn't ideal. - I also agree that I'd want the master bedroom facing the back of the house /would want to take advantage of the ability to have windows on two walls. Your master is kind of small, which I actually prefer -- I don't see the point in a huge, oversized place to sleep -- but windows on two walls will make it appear larger visually and will make it more comfortable, especially since you'd get lovely southern sun from the back. - The master bath could be much better arranged. It's relatively large and could be much nicer. - Love the big pantry. If you're going for enough space for L-shaped storage, only one extra foot could enlarge your storage area by 30%. If you don't do that, I'd consider either in-wall can storage (like Pharoah's Storehouse) for the wall "behind the door, OR at least a pegboard that could store seldom-used kitchen utensils. And consider Lazy Susans in the corner; they don't have to be expensive, built-in items -- just have your shelves built wide enough for the ready-made pantry-quality versions at Bed, Bath & Beyond. - Your eating area is going to be cute, but it isn't overly spacious. If you do away with that clipped corner, you'd have space for a larger table. And in such a set-up (with a big window behind), I always like a built-in banquette. - In the kitchen, angled cabinets are expensive and provide less storage than plain squared-off cabinets. Being in the center of the house, the kitchen won't be particularly bright, so I'd go with white cabinets or pale wood. - I'd consider putting the bathroom into the middle of the two bedrooms. First, this would be more convenient than walking all the way down that loooong hallway. Second, it would allow you to make the back bedroom nicer: It could have windows on two sides, and part of that giant hallway could be incorporated into the bedroom. I don't think I spelled that out very well: When you enter the secondary bedroom hallway, you'd see the first bedroom door and the bathroom door on the right-hand wall . . . but the back bedroom door would be straight ahead of you -- and closer than it is now. Less hallway, more bedroom -- win-win situation. - I have a friend whose house has that half-moon front step configuration, and she has no handrails (where would you put them? Against the house?) as you walk up the steps. It isn't a problem for me, but it is an issue for her elderly mother.

We are likely going to add built-ins to the wall to the interior (down in picture) side of the fireplace wall. We're also thinking of bumping the fireplace outside the house, TBD. Where will the bed go? Does anyone on here actually have windows in their bathrooms? Everyone comments about that but almost none of the houses we've walked have windows with bathrooms. My master bath and my guest bath both have windows. Only my powder room won't have a window. The bed could be positioned on the other wall, but how is that different? It's not. My comment is trying to show you that there has to be a better way to lay out the bedroom and bathroom. Including the fact you put the bathroom and closet on the exterior walls so the bathroom could have windows on two walls and the bedroom only has windows on one wall. We're thinking about what to do there You use someone of design talent to create a well designed space to begin with so you don't need to then figure out what to do there. That's closing the barn door after the horse has left. Where is the wasted space? The wasted space is that from the edge of the bed to the wall you have 13' which is the length of a full room. And your width is almost as wide. Unless you spend inordinate amounts of time in the bedroom other than sleeping, it's wasted space. If it's not being used on a regular basis, it's wasted space. It's an open foyer looking down on the first floor and door. So you're saying you have an open foyer that leads to nowhere that looks downstairs? WHY? No one is going to walk into an empty useless space to look down. Again wasted, useless space. A designer could create the idea of an open space that works with the house but this is not it. Good catch. According to the step calculators online, you're correct. We measured several houses we walked (7.5x11.5" steps) and based off that. But that doesn't net out. will re-measure... We had larger stairs in the plan until we measured real stairs and cut these down. And another reason if you don't have the years of working as a design professional, you hire someone who can catch things like this. And to design something that looks and works better, but hey, it's your 6 figures. We should be able to flip the plan either direction once we find a lot. And on the size we're looking for, should be plenty of flexibility in the orientation of the house. It's dark because it's an INTERIOR space with NO natural light from windows. It has nothing to do with orientation. Orientation will just make the lack of light slightly better or worse. Off of an alcove. You still have to walk into the living room to get to the powder room When you find a lot, also find a person of design talent unless you're willing to waste six figures of your hard earned money on a less than ideal and my guess less than attractive house