I like it...in general.

Its great that you have a heavily wooded site. The hard/big "court" area up front, kind of destroys it. IÂd rethink/revise that, maybe separating or concealing it a bit from the house. Looks like you have the space.

I do not consider the shared bathroom (second floor) a good idea.

Are you sure you want the master bedroom upstairs?

marthaelena,

Thanks for your comments. Regarding the "auto court", we have discussed moving it away from the house or enlarging the radius to allow a landscape bed in the center of the court, but due to the slope the further away it is from the house the bigger retaining wall is needed (too expensive). Our thinking is that most of our views are out the back of the house, but it is a valid point and I would be curious to hear other opinions.

I agree that the shared bathroom situation is not ideal, and so I'd be curious how you would handle bedroom and bath spaces for children of opposite sexes. I just don't believe as a rule that kids need their own bathrooms. In your opinion is it better to just have a standard hall bath? Again, curious to hear other opinions. One of the most difficult aspects of this project is thinking how this house will work for us when the kids are bigger.

And, yes, we do want the master upstairs for a number of reasons. We want to separate public and private spaces, we don't want to be on a different floor from the kids, and we were trying to keep the footprint as small as possible. I also want to look out my bedroom windows and see treetops. :) Is your issue with not having a master on the first floor an aging issue, or resale issue? The music room could technically serve as a bedroom and the powder room expanded to full bath if we needed to do that in the future (we're in our 30s now). Not too terribly concerned about resale (it's always in the back of my mind but we do plan to be in the house a really long time).

Thanks again for your comments! :)

cintijen

I like.

Our ensuite is smaller than yours and we still put a soaker tub in. Frankly I think it was a mistake but dw wanted a tub. I like yours.

I'm not a fan of main level masters either but we did plan ahead by adding a shower to the powder room. We also have bedroom sized music room on the main.

Dig the big mechanical room. If doing forced air consider adding a chase.

Prep sink on the island would be good as the main sink is quite far from the fridge.

Thanks, dyno! Is your plan posted here? I'd love to have a look. I'll try searching but last night the search function seemed to be down.

We will have a prep sink on the fridge end of the island in exchange for the bar sink in the DR. We agonized over the tub in master, too. It's a tough call, but we used not putting in a tub as the justification for a bigger shower. :)

We're planning on geothermal, so I'm assuming a chase isn't required? The architect hasn't mentioned it.

Great plan. Well thought out use of space. A few thoughts:

- I would not want that half wall btw the great room and dining room, but that's a matter of personal preference.
-do you really need that door from the kitchen to the screened in porch? It seems you can just as easily use the door by the desk area. Getting rid of it might buy you some more counter space and storage.
-If you can't squeeze in 2 separate baths for bed #2 & 3, I would do a hall bath. We have a J& J bath but only one child. The other bedroom is his playroom.
-I agree with the above. I would try to reduce the hardscape in the front of the house.

I would leave out the door from the kitchen to the screened porch and add more bench space to the kitchen.

In regards to the shared bathroom, now you have wasted hall space, a bad BR #2 door placement and the closet in BR #3 is too small. A hall bathroom is a better option and will solve all the issues (plus j&j issues). You can still have two vanities (or a double bowl one), a nice size linen closet and an enclosed shower and toilet.

I suggest increasing closet size in BR #2.

Yes, you could use the music-room as a bedroom, if ever needed.

What about a window between the kitchen and the screen porch instead of a door? You could use it as a pass-thru and the screen porch will not feel too isolated, without sacrificing counter space.

I agree about a hall bath. I don't believe children need their own bathrooms either but J & J baths are cute for little ones but when they are older not so much! Also, the hall bath would allow the bedrooms more wall space instead of another door. Can't quite picture what that half wall would look like too; I understand it's purpose, to break up the room but it seems kind of "limiting". Lovely home, good luck!

There is so much that I love about your plan! What a wonderful style and use of space!

As for the JandJ bath, I too think kids should share bathrooms. (What lessons that teaches!) My only concern in your case would be when they have guests over as they age. In that situation (GB mix), I'd want a hall bath with just one door.

My only other worry is closet space. Like you, we're an old house family. Our one big issue is closet space. The lack of it makes the rest of the home feel cluttered. Your bedrooms are a nice size and would feel quite spacious if you could avoid dressers and storage furniture in them.

I feel your pain on the tub/shower debate. That's a tough call. We've lived without a tub for three years now. I thought I'd be fine, but on those days when I'm ill, tired, or stressed, I'd give anything for a tub again. However, you'll always have access to the other tub in the house.

As for the open floorplan downstairs, I love it. Here is a link to a plan that uses neat dividers, both between kitchen/dining and living/dining. I thought of this instantly when I saw your plan. How pretty a similar hutch would be where you have a half wall. Click on "photo gallery" to see pictures of what the floorplan shows. These aren't the best pics, but more come up if you google the house.

I can see why you put the door to the screened porch in the kitchen. You must plan to have outdoor meals. How lovely! If you need lots of kitchen storage, you could always take it out and use the entry by the desk, but I think that is a personal preference issue, too. Both options are quite functional.

If your house had main floor laundry, I'd ask to move in! LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

Wow, this is such great feedback. Thanks to all of you who questioned the door from kitchen to screened porch. Actually, I think we'd more likely eliminate the door by the desk to the screened porch. (We do intend to eat most meals there several months out of the year) It was a hold-over from a previous iteration where there was no kitchen-porch connection.

We actually are considering windows to the porch on either side of the cooktop. And I have this thing about corners in kitchens (hate them!) so that is why the kitchen is designed in only straight runs. We also will have no upper cabs except between fridge and ovens. The only thing I thought of was that if we eliminated the door from kitchen to porch I could put the fridge there, but I think I like it better the way it is.

Thank you to all of you who have urged us to reconsider the kids bath scenario. I have never been totally happy with the layout and I will certainly have our architect draw a couple of options for us. I think a shared hall bath is the way to go. Eliminates several doors and their associated framing and trim and hopefully opens up some space for closets. I am tempted to see if we could squeeze a bath for each child there but it goes against everything we were trying to accomplish (building exactly what we need and nothing more).:)

As far as the hardscape in front of the house we will look at that closely but given the amount of slope and the space required to back out of the garage and make the turn to go back down the drive, I'm not sure we have many options. We're hoping to expand the landscaped area between the house and the edge of the hardscape and certainly would strive to make a more organic shape than the straight cut the architect has drawn.

And as for the half wall between living and dining, we were inspired by a picture from one of the not so big house books, I've linked it below. The living room side will be bookshelves, and the squares on either end on the plan represent columns, which are also repeated in the foyer/greatroom transition. We felt it added a bit of architectural interest into what might be a bit too open space.

I'm still so thrilled we're rethinking the upstairs bath arrangement. Please keep the opinions coming!

cintijen

So glad you linked that "half wall inspiration"! I really like that and so functional too! I am such a visual person, gotta show me the pictures!! LOL!

I really really like your plan as well. I'm in the minority here, but I also really like your huge autocourt. It is perfect for kids. It looks like you have a pretty long driveway, and I'm guessing that your neighborhood doesn't have sidewalks, or if it does, they are far from your house. So, the autocourt gives your kids a good place to play near the house. We have a fairly large driveway, and we love it, for that reason. I know most people think of a huge yard when it comes to play areas for kids, but we discovered how great it is to have a huge hardscape for kids. They play basketball, hockey, four square, hopscotch, etc., ride their scooters, skateboards, rollerblades, etc. on the large driveway (all things you can't do on grass). Plus, it gives your guests a place to park and turn around so that they don't have to back down the long driveway. Anyway, when I saw your plan, the first thing that caught my eye and that I loved was your autocourt. There are ways to dress is up and look nice. You can add color to your concrete and score it in a decorative way. I love how practical and functional it is.
I also love all the windows in your house. I agree about putting windows on either side of the cook top. I don't see any point in eliminating the door by the desk to the screened in porch. You wouldn't gain any cabinet space or anything else by eliminating the door. So, I'd just keep it, and I could see it coming in handy at times. I also agree about increasing closet space in the kids' rooms. I'd put a door to the toilet area in the master bath. Also, if you think that it is a real possibility that you'd want to make the 1st floor bath a full bath, I'd just do it now. I don't mind J&J baths. I know some have strong opinions about that. I wonder if there is a way to reconfigure your 2d floor. I'm personally not a huge fan of long hallways (wasted space), and you have one running down practically your entire 2d floor. Also, not sure what your plan is for using the space as your kids get older, but I like having a common space (even if it's small) upstairs near the bedrooms for the kids to hang out. That way if the kids have friends over, they can hang out in a space that isn't always just their bedrooms. You can have a computer there and a homework area, etc. I saw you had a study in your basement, but there is just something nice about having some common hang out space near their bedrooms. Also, we use our study a bit for our own stuff, and it's nice to give the kids a separate area. Not sure if you can push a bedroom into that angled area over your mud room, but if you do that, you can make that bedroom 2 area an open hang out space (which also eliminates the hallway). I know it increases your square footage, but not all square footage costs the same; so, this may not add a huge expense? Finally, I would add some storage space in your garage. I know you have some storage space in your basement that is accessible from the outside, but it's amazing how much bulky junk kids can have. Your garage is pretty deep, but I'd make it about 4 ft wider on one of the sides (or both). It'll give you an area for your kids to throw their bikes, scooters, outdoor toys etc. that is easily accessible from the garage door. That way, they don't need to walk their bikes all they way from the back of the garage, past your cars. We had previously never seen the use of big garages when our kids were really little, but now our garage is enormous and it still doesn't seem like enough space. It's also just nice to have the room to spread out a little bit more and not have everything fit like a jigsaw puzzle into your garage. That just takes too much mental effort at times. Anyway, good luck. You really do have a very nice house plan. Just my 2 cents, many of them just matters of personal preference.

A couple of thoughts from me. I agree, the motor court is not ideal.

The exterior of your home is beautiful!

Your outside grill is far from the kitchen-think about how far you will have to carry items to cook them. Especially if you have to go from the door by the desk to the grill. Perhaps if you change one of the windows in the dining room to a door?

I would want larger closets for the kids rooms upstairs. If you change the their bathroom, that might free up much more space for closets.

In our new home, three kids will share a hall bath. A door leads from the hall to the sink (wish I could have had room for two!) Another door leads from there to the tub and toilet. It gives it semi-private and private space and they still have to share.

HTH!

I really like your plan - looks great.

I think your J&J arrangement is a good one. Each has their own vanity and then the separate space for toilet and bath. I am doing the same and like you not putting doors in between the bedroom and vanity area. I just wanted to let you know that to some people this is a nice configuration and it seems to be favored over hall baths in my area. Either way can work fine. It would be nice to add a little more closet space to the kids rooms.

Good luck with everything!

More thanks for the continued responses! Just to address a couple of comments, the "windows" in the DR aren't windows. It's actually a 6 ft. slider, though you can't tell from the plan, so I think the grill is OK where it is, or we may move it onto the deck and out from under the trellis, though that would mean enlarging the deck by a couple of feet at least.

It's interesting to hear all the opinions on the J&J bath. I'm going to at least let the architect draw up a couple of alternatives. I told him to draw it this way from the beginning, so we've never explored any other option, but the thought of the kids accidentally or accidentally-on-purpose locking each other out would really drive me bonkers!

Regarding the hallway... this is my absolute least favorite part of the design. The hallway is there because the stairs are at the end of the house. We looked at swapping the stair location with the music room, but in the end we all agreed that the exterior of the stairwell is such a feature, and it is on the end that you will see as you come up the drive (our house will not be visible from the road). In addition, the windows in that stairwell should let in a ton of light to all three floors. Putting the stairwell on the front would mean not nearly as many windows due to the slope and it would also face north. It took me several days but I decided it was worth it to have the hallway, even though it is roughly 100 sqft of wasted space. If someone can come up with a 2nd floor plan that eliminates the hallway, go for it, but I just don't see a way to do it! We are planning some sort of ceiling/lighting treatment to break up the length of the hallway. Suggestions, anyone? :)

gobruno, thanks for backing us up on the auto court! :) Our current house has no space for the kiddos to ride bikes except the basement and I, too, thought it would be a great spot for them. Our new neighborhood does not have sidewalks and our drive is very, very long and will most likely be gravel for a while after we move in.

We did originally have a full bath on the first floor, but I just felt it was overkill for us to be a four person household and have 4 baths. We live in a 4600 sqft 5BR, 3 full/2 half bath house now and we are really trying to simplify and downsize. Plus I KNOW this house is going to come in over our budget so we're trying to be so diligent about trimming anything we can. The shower in the first floor bath was one of the first items to go!

It's so difficult, isn't it? I think any build has its (big) share of compromises, no matter the size or budget. I'm dying to get to the bids so I can see just how far off we are!

I can completely empathize with where you are at right now. I stared at our plans for so long, I couldn't see straight! Anyway, I'm sure you've considered all your options, but one way you could possibly shorten that upstairs hallway by about 5 ft is by switching the kids rooms with the master bedroom. That is, you could put the kids bedrooms first and the master at the end of the hall. I'm not sure if you have the master bedroom there for a reason, but if you're flexible about this, you could arrange it so that the entrances to the kids bedrooms are closer to the stairs, put the bath across the hall next to the laundry room, and then you can start the master bedroom where that second set of dotted lines in the hallway are. By moving the kids rooms, you can shorten your hallway length bc most of the doors you need to access via the long hallway are now closer to the stairs. Anyway, again, just my 2 cents. I dealt with the same issue and got rid of most of the hallways in our house, but some of the shorter ones are just unavoidable. Good luck!

Gobruno, what a great idea, and one that has never come up for discussion! I will have to give this some serious thought. It makes a lot of sense. We had liked having the master to the east for the morning light, but it is really worth taking into consideration! Thanks!