Close up left side

Close up right side

Sorry to say, but as far as I can see (the drawings are hard to visualize), this simply is not a good plan for a new house.

You have an assemblage of rooms and spaces, many of which appear out of scale and cannot work and aren't habitable as shown. There does not appear to be an overall organizing concept or a central design idea. It appears that the drafter does not know the minimum sizes of various habitable spaces. The result is an interior and exterior that will be disappointing at best, if it can be built at all.

Your best bet is to find an experienced architect and discuss with her/him your needs, wants, budget and site conditions. A new design is needed. This plan is not salvagable, I'm sorry to say.

Good luck with your project.

Thank you for the response, but could you be more specific?
I don't understand "minimum sizes of habitable spaces" the bedrooms are 11x12 at a minimum???
Thank you again

FWIW, at least one of the bedrooms is labeled as 10x12, and you don't seem to have accounted for wall thickness, which will make it even smaller.

I lean toward smaller bedrooms over massive ones, but the 10x12 bedroom is going to be pretty cozy-- I'd check that you can fit the furniture you expect, especially after you've removed @6" in each dimension for walls. I'm not optimistic about your little bathroom working once you've added in wall thickness either (water walls needed to be thicker in our plan). It doesn't make sense to have bedrooms that are so very small in such a large house.

Also, your main living area is going to get essentially no natural light.

I agree with Virgil, especially considering the size of the home you're planning, and the many goals you have for it, you need to consult an architect.

Thank you for the response. As far as the walls they will b added but not as part of this plan. The room sizes would b after the walls are added.
Will revise 10x12 room.
The living area will have sliders and windows front and back you don't think that will b enough for natural light?

The windows are all going to be under deep porches. How would light get in?

You have zero knowledge of home construction processes if you think that the thickness of the walls can be accounted for later. You can not do that "later". This may be a good exercise for organizing your thoughts in order to talk to an architect, but it's a complete waste of time in most other ways as it's giving you some preconceived notions that need to evaporate right out of your head. This isn't productive in any meaningful fashion.

Some people just do not have a good sense of spatial relationships and cannot think at all three dimensionally. That's OK, that's why architects exist. See a professional sooner rather than later if you want to be moving forward with your project.

Haha I don't know
But how do pp with deep porches do?

I never said I knew anything about nothing. I was just trying to have something put together so I can show the architect what I have in mind. Please keep the constructive and helpful comments coming. I can do without the unnecessary rudeness.

I notice right away that a number of the bathrooms might qualify as "inhabitable". I'd think 4 ft in any direction in a bathroom would be bordering on ludicrous, 5 ft is still cramped. I see a number of 2ft doors (I think) which I wouldn't like either..not even for a closet. The guest in law kitchen looks like it would struggle to accomodate appliances let alone leave enough space to prep food in, whereas you have a 2 car garage attached to the guest suite thats nearly as big as the entire guest apartment. As others have said the scale just seems odd all around

Consider skylights either in the porch roofs to bring light to the windows, or skylights in the family roof for a more direct approach

I agree with the doors not doing the 2ft. The bathrooms however I thought the same about being so small but I have a bathroom that size in my house and it's not bad. I might reconsider it since that bedroom will be shared by 2 kids.

Thank you

If you are going to attempt to DIY a home plan, it would really help if you actually had read some building codes and had a working knowledge of how a home is built. This is a hot mess that doesn't have any connection with anything that can ever be done in the real world. There isn't anything salvageable here at all.

Please visit an architect.

Or if the project is several years in the future, take some classes. Hire on as a laborer on a construction site. Read the building code that is applicable in your area. Do something that will help you. You're trying to learn the ABCs here of a foreign language but trying to do it by writing an encyclopedia. You don't have the foundation to even understand how much you don't understand.

I like the idea of skylights but scares me if the problems I hear you can have with it. Will definitely look further into it though.
Thank you

I was just trying to put on paper what I have in mind as what I want from a house. Like 3 bedrooms in one side , master and another bedroom in another, kitchen longways etc...
I'm not building from that plan obviously.
Wanted to gt more specific issued instead of just generally sucks kinda of thing :)
Thank you

I'm with you on the skylights and being concerned with problems. Thats why i'm going with skylights on the porch roof rather than the interior. Should they leak, well they then leak on my outdoor space not my indoor. Still..I'd rather they not leak at all!

O, I'm sorry to say that it's very hard to to provide helpful suggestions and give useful advice when a plan is so full of errors and bad practices. To do so would mean someone would have to completely redesign this idea and show it to you so you had a sense of the many areas where you are going wrong. On an Internet web site like this, there's just no way this can be done.

The most constructive and useful advice you can get is to find an experienced design professional to talk to and hire that person to help with your design.

I don't know where you live and where your property is located, but in many places you are going to need a building permit, which is only obtainable with a fully complete set of drawings/specifications. Some jurisdictions require that construction documents be prepared and stamped by a licensed architect. Point being that getting your design to work is only the first of many steps necessary for bidding and building. You would benefit from someone who knows what is required in the way of documents, and is experienced with residential design.

This is not a criticism; it's only a gentle suggestion for the needed help. Otherwise, you may waste a lot of time and build a sizable frustration factor. There are people with many years of design and construction experience with residences who can help.

Good luck with your project.

You seem like you are at a good place now to go speak with a professional, you've thought about some of your needs, and what you like in a house plan, and a proffesional can help straighten everything out. My only regret in my planning process is that I didn't speak to a professional (and the right professional) earlier!

A few comments:
- Is that unfinished space in the middle of the house? I'm not sure that is possible.
- Your master bedroom closet takes up prime corner space where you can have windows on two sides of a room. Try to rework things so the closet is in interior space.
- How many people do you fit around your dining room table during holidays, or at other times of the year? 12x14 is only big enough for about 12 people.
- Where is your front hall closet.
- I'm not sure about the half bath being right in the front entry
- Think of the furniture placement in the living room, and how you will have to walk around it to get to the master bedroom.

I would swap the closet and bathroom off the master bedroom, giving the bathroom more natural light. What is the 14 x 10 room by the master bedroom?

There's not much light in the dining room. Could you move that to the other side of the foyer? Make that room a flexible space, possibly a study or playroom. It has wall space for shelves to hold games, toys and books. Close to their bedrooms and very convenient to the kitchen.

Some skylights or solar tubes might bring in more natural light. Also install plenty of artifical lighting on dimmers.

ohana6 -
This is my advise...It may not be worth anything.

There are some very rude and down right mean people on here. There are some very nice and helpful ones too.

Having said that, if you decide to stay and look around and ask some more questions you will learn a lot, see some things and think about some things you may have not been exposed to before. I hope your experience is mostly positive and helps you.

Read all the advise, think about what they are saying, and if it's crap or mean natured...ignore it. If there is something to what someone is saying then, explore that further.

We all are in different situations and have different needs. Not everyone on this site takes the time understand where the other person or design is coming from before making snap judgements and comments, especially if they don't see a "pretty" floorplan right from the start.

Posting on here is a step in the right direction (if you have a tough skin). I am not an expert in design, but admire your willingness to try to learn more. Keep your head up and best of luck!

Guys,
Your content is correct, but you are unnecessarily rude in your delivery.

Ohana6,

I think the basic problem here is that you're trying to draw a one-story house with a central living area and two bedroom wings . . . but that house will almost certainly have to be a rectangle, whereas you're envisioning a square. Start with your living areas in the middle, and let the bedroom wings branch off the sides with hallways. Note that your sketch has essentially no hallways; in a one-story house, they are a necessary evil -- evil in that they're expensive heated space that gives you no live-ability, necessary in that you can't get to the bedrooms without them. Your hallways need to be 3.5-4' wide.

You're going to notice immediately, of course that this gives you a problem: You can't have the living area (including the kitchen) adjacent to the garage . . . if it's in the middle of the house. So, the question becomes, what do you really want? Personally, I'd put the garage next to the kitchen and move one of the bedroom "wings" upstairs.

You are way off on your sizes. I suggest that you grab a yardstick and walk around your own house. Do you really have a 2x3 foot closet? I kind of doubt it, but you might have a 2x3 pantry cupboard in your kitchen. Measure all the closets in your house, see how big they are, and then adjust your plans up or down -- after you've gained some sense of real proportions.

Measure the cabinets in your kitchen/bath. You've drawn them as 12" deep, whereas standard cabinets are 24" deep, and you need much more than 18" walking space between cabinets and the toilet. This is a learning curve; your yardstick will help you become more realistic. Once you understand "the standard", then you'll be equipped to consider whether you want to branch off into something bigger or smaller -- but it'll be an informed decision.

10x12 is an okay child's bedroom. My girls have 12x12 bedrooms, and their rooms are big enough to share -- one, for example, has a full-sized bed, a large dresser, a bookcase and a small desk which doubles as a nightstand; she has the bed in the middle like an island, and she has adequate space all around it. It's fine for a teen bedroom. Again, I suggest that you measure the real bedrooms in your existing house; that'll give you a better feel for what size bed'll fit in the room, etc. In a modest-sized bedroom, consider your window/closet placement carefully; this will affect furniture placement.

I think the question of "is this room the right size"? is the toughest question asked on this board because we don't know what another person considers "enough". Oh, you can get a starting place here, but some families want big bedrooms that're essentially retreats, whereas others consider the bedroom just a place to sleep and dress. Without knowing how you intend to use the rooms, it's hard to get a sense of what's "enough". The obvious answer is that you must start measuring rooms in your real life, and then you can determine appropriate room sizes for your family. Another good exercise: Make a list of all the things you anticipate will be done in any particular room. For example, my girls would say they need a bedroom for sleeping, dressing, storing clothing and various other personal items, reading, and making private phone calls. Someone else's kid might add watching TV/playing video games, entertaining friends, studying, or using the computer -- whereas, my girls do those things in the office, which is adjacent to our family room and kitchen. To some extent, your lifestyle will be determined by your living space, so consider what YOU WANT to happen in your house.

Speaking of windows, I do agree that a fully interior living room isn't ideal. No, with the sliders you're planning and windows on the other side, it will not be dark-dark; however, it will be darker than a similar room with direct sunlight. Start paying attention to other people's houses -- plenty of people have this type of set up. In fact, I have a porch behind my family room (I have a slider and two windows flanking the fireplace). We do not have lovely sun beams streaming into the room every morning, but neither do we have to keep the lights on all day long. It's somewhere in between. Building a house is an exercise in compromise. Which matters more to you, the useful value of the covered porch, or the sunlight streaming so nicely through your windows every morning? And pay attention to degrees -- this isn't an all-or-nothing situation. A deep covered porch will block more sunlight than a shallow porch. A porch with skylights, or a living room with upper dormers will yield a more light-filled room. You might choose to go with a shallow covered porch that opens onto a large deck/patio -- a halfway option. Again, start paying attention to real rooms around you, and you can make an informed decision.

Storage space in the middle of the house is an expensive choice. You could do that much less expensively in a garage or even a shed.

Why so many garages? They are hindering your window placement, so consider making one of them detached (especially if one is for storage or a workshop). I have a friend who started with a typical side-loader two-car garage . . . then added a second, detached garage straight in front of her driveway. You drive up the driveway, and you see two garage doors in front of you, two garage doors to the left. It's a good plan: It doesn't look so massive as a four-car garage would, and it utilizes the driveway space well.

Finally, study house plans. Lots of house plans. Start paying attention to the way things are put together -- which rooms are placed to the front of the house, which rooms are grouped together. Think about WHY this is true. You'll start to see patterns, and those patterns will help you improve your plans. THEN you'll be ready to draw plans and go to a professional.

I see no wrong with the dimensions that everybody are mentioning. A square appears to equal 2 ft based on the notes. Plenty of space. Lots about the plan I'm not overly fond of though.

What are the limitations as the shape is somewhat odd in the width vs. Depth?

Thank you so much for taking your time to go through our plan :)
Lyfia you are right each square is 2ft.
Mrs Pete thank you for your extensive critique we really appreciate it. the closets are 4x6 not 2x3, the pantry is 8x6, and the counter tops i figured 2ft width so we should be good. I might eliminate the dining room all together and just use the 2nd living area as the dining room, not sure yet.
Cottagewithroses, definitely changing the closet and the bathrooms in the master (thank you) we are gonna add a door from the bathroom making it a cabana bath.
Laura 12 we dont see a need for a front room closet, we live in south florida so no coats 98% of the time and for the kids sport stuff we will have the "mudroom" off the garage.
we really dont want to go with a 2 story house. the house width cant b more then 85ft
cottagewithroses im looking into the solar tubes or skylights.

thnak you all

You could everything in and get more light if you decreased the width and increased the length, and then moved the inlaw quarters off to next to the garage.

A suggestion for inspiration would be to go to http://www.mascord.com/ and search for homes that have a great room set up, that are over 85 ft in length, and that have the number of bedrooms you need. While the style of the houses on that site are probably quite different from what you would be doing in Florida, the floor plans are probably an excellent start!

Here is a link that might be useful: Inspiration from Mascord designs