Is there any way to make it easier to read?

Off hand, and maybe this is a figment of what I can't read, but it looks like you have a closet on an outside wall/corner in one of the bedrooms in the right-hand square of plans (upstairs?) If that wall could have windows, it would be better to put the closet against the bathroom wall to give a little more sound insulation, and to give the bedroom more exterior wall.

I think there are a lot of dead areas in the flow of this house, but again it is hard to tell, because I am not really sure of what it is I am looking at--I can only see shapes and therefore guess as to their use (for example, "closet" across from front door?)

Also, can you share with us about your family/climate/who will live here?

Hi kirkhall thank you for the response I will try to post a better image. We live in south Florida, we are a family of 6. We are building a 1 story key west style home.
What you see on the top right is a 4 car garage and on the bottom left is a guest house/in law suite that is "detached" from the main house.
We have a front porch and you walk in to a formal living room followed by a family room (where the sectional is pictured) to the right of that is the kitchen and the breakfast area facing the backyard.
There are 2 bedrooms behind the kitchen with a shared bath. Between these bedrooms and the garage we have the pantry , utility room and mudroom.
I will post better pics shortly.
I appreciate your help.

That house has an enormous footprint!

I count five bedrooms in the main house plus two more in what appears to be a semi-detached "apartment" at the front of the main house across the parking pad from the four-car garage. That's going to be a heck of a lot of "impervious cover" and, in some areas, you might not be allowed build such a sprawling house unless you own some major acreage. The sprawling house also necessitates a complex roof design that is not going to be cheap to build. And, I can't detect the roots of any particular style in the floorplan. Do you have any elevations? I'm rather concerned that on the elevations all you will see are the garage and apartment nosing forward and the roof of the main house looming overhead. (With such a deep house, even if you opt for a relatively shallow pitch on the roof, the peak of the house is still going to wind up being quite high.)

With so many bedrooms, were there reasons why you opted against building a two or three story home?

Here are some issues I see:

1) There does not appear to be a bathtub in any of the bathrooms...only showers. I think most codes still require at least one bathtub.

2) I don't like the front powder room location. Opening directly off of the Great Room as it does provides zero sense of privacy to any guests using the facilities.

3) The vanity area of the master bath looks WAAAY too big. It looks almost as big as a bedroom but contains nothing except the two vanity sinks. Perhaps you intend to put some exercise equipment in that area but, with the number and location of the doors opening off of the vanity area, there doesn't really appear to be a good spot to put an exercise bicycle, treadmill or anything like that.

4) The Great Room is huge (which is fine for a big family) but doesn't seem to be well designed to allow for the two or more "conversation areas" that such a big room demands. The size of a comfortable seating arrangement for conversation is limited by the fact that it is really hard to carry on a conversation with someone who is seated more than about 6 to 8 feet away. You can talk AT a person who is seated further away but it is hard to talk WITH him.

In a large Great Room such as you have, in addition to the primary seating arrangement (shown) one would expect to find up to three conversational areas...perhaps a couple of comfortable chairs in one corner for quieter private tete-a-tetes and a big round table and four straight chairs for board games in another corner. But due to the closet door, powderroom door, kitchen island seating, and hallway leading to the dining room and garage, you can't put anything in the "corners" of your great room. You're left with a huge open space between the foyer and the main seating area that, to me, looks like totally wasted space.

5) Other than bedrooms, you're missing any space in the main house for kids to play that is separated from where adults gather. When kids are toddlers and preschoolers one pretty much has to live with having them playing underfoot. But as children reach their pre-teen and teenage years, it is nice to have some space where they can gather with their friends while you entertain adults in another area. I'm not recommending total separation (kids DO need to be monitored!) but having a separate enough space that kiddy noise is somewhat muted will make everyone happier.

6) In the two bedroom "apartment" at the front, the living room space looks too small to be useful. Can you fit a sofa and two chairs in there? Remember that you need an aisle way for walking back to the kitchen. And you need an aisle between living room seating the the stools at the peninsula. Of course it's hard to tell for sure with the picture you posted but, once you block out the necessary aisle ways, it looks to me like you're only left with a space about 8ftx9ft for arranging living room furniture in the apartment.

7) And BTW, what is the purpose of the "apartment?" Is it designed for elderly parents or as a guest apartment, or an apartment for college age kids or just what? Do you really need two bedrooms there or would one bedroom and a good sleeper sofa or Murphey bed in a (larger) living room work just as well.

8) Depending on who the apartment is designed for, the apartment kitchen look like it could be made a bit smaller.

9) I don't like having the door to the apartment bathroom open off of the living room.

Overall, I'd give this design about a D+. Not sure what your design parameters were but I have to think that a good architect should be able to do better.

Gonna post better pics. 1st is the front elevation.
We had to move the garage and the guest house 10 ft in bc of easements. Which changed the front elevation a lot. And I did have the same concern as mentioned here about just seeing garage and guest house .

This post was edited by ohana6 on Thu, Jan 17, 13 at 15:11

Close up of left side. I agree about master bath. Can't think of how to changes it and make it better :/

Close up of right side.
Definitely agree about half bath location. It's been a concern of ours. And yes, the great room is huge however I have been concerned about furniture placement on the "1st room". Thought about moving front door towards right side so could have "walls" to make a room.
Dining room and mudroom are getting 2 ft smaller so kitchen can be longer.

Left and rear elevation

Guest house
We do need the 2 bedrooms 1 for parents and 1 for grandma kitchen can definitely be smaller making living room a little bigger.

The whole house again.
We do appreciate everybody's input. Please keep them coming.

Bevangel, I understand what you are saying about kid space we are planning on having a nice outdoor area that should keep the kids entertained ;)

Again thank you for the input.

"I think most codes still require at least one bathtub."

Although some states may still publish their own plumbing code, all of the CABO and ICC (IRC) 1&2 Family Dwelling Codes from the past 25 years have required at least one bathtub or shower in each dwelling.

The accessory apartment could be considered a separate dwelling and if that is the case, in addition to a bedroom emergency escape and rescue window, it will need a second means of egress door.

I really can't see the drawing well enough to comment on the design.

Who designed it and who did the drawings?

What sort of wall construction is this? Is there enough room between the garage and the apartment for cars to enter and leave the garage?

Good luck on your project!

I will check on the second means of egress door.
There is 31ft btw garage and apartment.

Keep them coming please!!! Thank you all for the time

I think your "guest house" picture is the same as the master bedroom/bath, etc picture, if I am not mistaken...

This is going to take some thinking/observation, though Bevangel has hit several really excellent points.

I really dislike that massive roofline that this complex floor plan forces you into. It's out of scale. I think you should take a look at some true hacienda style homes to see how a large single story home can work and not look so ill proportioned.

Or, a second approach would be to make this a multi storied dwelling. It would be more proportionate, and if you simplified some of the jogs and minimized the depth of the home, it would result in a much more pleasing facade.

I agree with Bev. This isn't even close to a pleasing comfortable plan to build. It needs a lot of work. Are you actually working with an architect here? There are so many issues, I'd have to question the qualifications of the person creating these plans.

Thank you for the response, looking over everything it's been said here. Appreciate all the input. Would love to get more opinions.

FWIW, 31 feet is insufficient for a car to back out of a garage, turn left or right and then drive away. It's also insufficient for a car to approach and enter the garage in a single turn.

Minimum drive is approximately 25', plus a turning area of 10' or a total of 35'. This does not include any landscaping or "breathing room" on either side of the paved drive for the adjacent building.

I think there are numerous issues with this plan that should be studied and resolved before the construction drawings and specifications to build.

Good luck with your project.

Thank you for the response, looking over everything it's been said here. Appreciate all the input. Would love to get more opinions.