Roast my floor plans!

My wife and I are preparing to get a house built. Goal for the home is "adequate", nothing extravagant, for 2 adults and 2-3 kids with us adults planning on staying there until we croak.

The lot has a good view to the East. Road access is from the south. We don't know for sure yet if we'll be able to have a basement due to high groundwater in the area in the fall (monitoring well is in place so we'll find out in a few months.)

We'd like to have a couple reasonably mature floor plans already in hand when we start working with a builder. We've spent a lot of time between the two of us deciding what we think we want and don't want, but I'm sure we haven't thought of everything, so let's see what the truck forum thinks!

This set is a single floor version that assumes we'll be able to put in a basement.

See anything in these plans that you think would drive you nuts if you had to live with it?
Anything here that would be unusually difficult/complicated/expensive to build?



Couple things that aren't obvious in my drafting:
-In the kitchen, at top left is a small walk-in pantry; bottom right is the fridge
-The couple of rectangles between the bathroom and bedroom 2 are...we haven't quite decided yet. Might be built-in cabinets in the bathroom and bedroom, or might be another closet that opens to the hall.
-I expect the closet in bedroom 2 will need to have a raised floor to make headroom for the stairs going under it.

Let me have it!

 

My personal preference is to have the Master separate from the other bedrooms.
Mostly because as a kid, growing up with a room beside my parent(s), I got into a lot of trouble for being “too loud”. That’s stuck with me to this day, and I still “want” my room away from the rest.
Or should I say my kids room away from my room? (I don’t have kids BTW)

Other than that, your plans look good to me.

 

having to walk through the master closet to get to the bathroom is weird. i've been in a lot of houses, never one with that. i don't know that i'd want to stare at me or my significant others clothes that often on the way to pooping. generally, the master bath has the main entry with the closet off of it, or is off the bedroom separately, as very few people use the closet as often as the bathroom.

i think the kitchen layout flows poorly, though once you go to design the kitchen cabinets (entirely separate process, i've never had a set of house blueprints where the layout on the drawings is even remotely the same as the final cabinet drawings), they'll likely bring up the same issues. they'll likely recommend rotating the island 90 degrees, and creating a peninsula/breakfast bar along the pathway from the mudroom for dumping 'the stuff of life' as one enters through the mudroom, or making the island bigger for a similar purpose instead of that small pantry behind the door.

possibly consider a sliding door to separate the kitchen/mud room instead of a swinging door that's either in the way of the kitchen or in the way of the washer/dryer, as the majority of people don't shut that door anyways unless there's company coming over. or the washer/dryer could be relocated to the wall behind the dining area, and the kitchen door could swing inwards to the mudroom, with the washer/dryer area changing to floor to ceiling cabinets, serving as a pantry area.

angled corner tv stands/mounts are getting harder and harder to find, in part because the average tv size anymore is about 50" lately, the retiree remodels i've been part of, they won't go smaller than 70" tv's due to their eyesight. given your living room layout, that might be tough to make for a flat wall for the tv, but something to consider for a house you'll want to live the rest of your life in.

the couple of rectangles between the hall bath and bed 2 would likely be better served as mechanical through-ways for the hvac system, as well as exhaust venting for the furnace, and/or water heater if those will be in the basement, though that would need to be decided after you had a rough basement layout. that area's pretty close to the stairs already, so it might be more preferable to shift the hall closet from the other side and use the 'old' closet space between the kitchen and bed 3 for that mechanical stuffs.

could consider flipping the basement stairs and hall bath-- would allow for a decorative railing along the hallway side of the stairs, would visually open up the area, as well as solve the raised floor issue with the bedroom closet but eliminate the possibility of a closet in that spot.. being that the stairs would then dump out in the center of the basement, it might allow you to divide the basement up better in the future were you to choose to finish it. though i can understand keeping the staircase to one side to maintain as much usable space in the basement as possible.

is your head spinning yet?

 

I agree with Soundman on going through the closet to get to the master bath. Also - if there were any way to kick the north side of the home out another 5-6 feet (with the truss line, you would just add on 2 - 3 more trusses) so you can put the master toilet in its own room (can use a pocket door), and then you could have the closet be separate and not have to walk through it for the MBA. You could also add a second sink in the bath as well.

I also agree with Soundman on the angled TV. If it were me, I would remove the large window on the east wall of the living room and put two smaller windows on both sides of that window. Then where the window is currently at, you could mount your TV there. It is the ideal wall for the living room, dining and kitchen. It will also open up the living space by eliminating the angled TV hutch.

The garage, I would push it to 30' deep (that WOULD change your roof line) and with how it is, you COULD at a later date, add width to it if you wanted by taking out the west wall and pushing it out. But trust me, the garage will NEVER be big enough!

Good luck - always a challenge to a marriage building a home

 

Tiny garage. 3-4 bays min.

Shitter. Create a separate room for shitter at least in the M bathroom. Thank me later.

Dual sink in the master is minimum.

 

I like a lot of what is going on here, I would say if possible avoid small walk in pantry and get a larger cabinet that has more total storage. Also add a half bath to the laundry mud off the garage so you don’t have to cross the house to take a piss. There are some other things that I personally would adjust but nothing other people might prefer.

 

A potential problem with old age is the stairway. My wife has a difficult time navigating stairs. Something to consider if you plan to stay there until you croak.

 

Besides the master bath/closet issue, I dont like the 2 seperate closet doors in the spare bedrooms. Seems like you wont have any useable wall space for furniture or a TV by doing that. I would just do 1 normal size door. My bedroom as a kid had a double door closet and I hated it since it took up too much space.

 

Red circle = double doors in anticipation of a wrap around deck N and E sides of Master Bedroom.

If you do have a basement, I'd put the laundry down there, if the discharge is not too much of a problem. Laundry/mud becomes workroom/mudroom

If w/basement, will the proposed laundry room plumbing be crawl space, or over basement? I hate working in crawl. You said "grow old here", so be thinking repairs later in life.

I agree on garage depth: go as deep as possible. That space in front of the vehicles is really nice. My 4 car garage is 40 deep and 50 wide. That extra depth is great.

Like the idea of moving basement staircase to hallway entrance. Great branching point for foot traffic to all directions of the house. Especially food headed from kitchen to basement.

Good luck!

 

Seek out the services of a professional designer. They already know what works and what doesn’t.

 

I would delete the bathtub in the master bath and install a curbless walk-in glass shower. These are beautiful and easy to get in and out as you both age. Also frees up some space to enclose the toilet and possibly allow access to master bath without walking through closet.

I install glass enclosures for a living and can’t tell you how many I’ve installed where the homeowner has removed the tub and put in a walk in shower solely for ease of access and because “we don’t ever use the tub”. You’ll gain a lot of space and if either of you must use a tub, you can use the tub in the main bath.

 

If you don't move the master away from the kids rooms. Consider moving the closet to the master bed room wall. Gives a 3 foot wide dead space. This way the kids hopefully won't hear you both after hours... And definitely consider the tub to walk in shower instead. Along with finding a new way into the master bath. Leave access to the closet from the bath room. But not the only way in.

 

4 recent remodels i've worked, their main motivation for the remodel was to move the laundry stuff out of the basement or from across the house to the area with all the bedrooms/bathrooms. all of them were getting older and starting to plan out living without kids in the house, and dreading stairs. 2 of them, they carved out a hallway closet from the rooms that would be beds 2 or 3 in this print to place a washer/dryer just outside of the master bedroom specifically because they were tired of dragging clothes hampers all the way across the house when the beds/baths were all on the opposite side.


and one other note for later on in your design stage-- make sure there's an allotment for at least one 60A 220v car charger between the overhead garage doors (my preference would be to have 2, and worst case, use them for a welder and/or backup generator outlet). starting to do a lot more car chargers, and they're a massive pain to pull wire to later!

 

The garage is too small!!

 

X2

You need a 3-car garage!

 

The master bathroom needs a second sink; Other than that and not having a 3-car garage, I love it! I've always loved ranch houses!

 

Great feedback! Though I can't believe so many people on a truck forum think I need a bigger garage The original plan (well, my original plan...can't speak for the wife) was for a 3-car with the 3rd bay being shop space, but with the building market currently all gone to hell (from the buyer's point of view) we've scaled some things back. Hopefully that means I end up with a separate shop building sometime down the road.

It has been for the past month or so, I'm used to it

I really like rotating the island and using a pocket door between the mudroom and dining; I'll get those in there. The layout of the mudroom needs some work, but we'd like it to end up with some shelves/cubbies for all the "stuff" to get dropped before it makes it into the kitchen.

My last home had a double door out to a patio in the master, and I didn't like how much wall space it took up. But, I could see us using a regular swinging door from the master out to a deck in the future. I think I'll ask the builder whether they can frame it in for a 36" door, and then put in a 36" window with some framing beneath it that could be easily removed later to change it to a door.

We had debated flipping the positions of stairs and bathroom. While I agree it would look better and traffic to the stairs would flow better, our main hangup was where it leaves the door into the bathroom. The only place I could see to put it was right inside the front door, which seemed weird to us, and it made for a long walk from either of the bedrooms to the bathroom.

With the view we'll have over farmland to the east, I think the big picture window on the east side of the living room is non-negotiable. I'll tinker around with the window arrangement on the south side, though, and see if we can make room for a better TV mount there.

My wife made threats of violence in response to any delete the tub recommendations Maybe that'll be a remodel after we're too old to get in it.

Kid's bedrooms close to or far away from ours was something else we've been debating. We want them close while the kids are still young (currently one 18 months old and one 4 days old ) but not so much when they're older. So, if the basement works out, the plan is to finish a couple rooms and banish them down there when they get old enough to be obnoxious. We do like the idea of putting the closet spaces between their rooms and ours, though.

I was planning on having a 220V outlet out there, so I can finally use the welder that I've been lugging around for 10 years since one of my old roommates left it behind when he moved out. An electric car charger hadn't crossed my mind, as I tend to be a, um...slow adopter of automotive technology. ("I'll buy an automatic transmission when they pry my clutch pedal out from under my cold, dead left foot!" mindset.) But it is probably worth seeing if the wiring for the welder outlet could be used for a charger later.

 

@241240

Also, I know it’s a 1-story and you only need one central A/C system; However, to make the system operate more efficiently and lower your electric bill, I’d recommend getting damper system in the ductwork and having two thermostats installed. One thermostat would be for the main part of the house (kitchen, family room, etc), and the other one would be for the bedroom area; This way you can keep the bedroom area nice and chilly at night but set the other thermostat to like 75 and not pay to cool/heat the living area while you’re sleeping!

 

Here is what I was thinking...