And now I will try to post actual pics again...

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I like your plan a lot. It all makes good sense to me. There are only two things that I would suggest...your dining room is quite small...don't know if you entertain often but you'll probably only fit six comfortably. Also, I would add a small window in the half bath on the main floor because the back of the house looks like it's lacking a window on your porch area and you'll probably appreciate some natural light and ventilation in the bathroom. Other than that, it looks like a nice place to call home!

I would have a landing for the stairs going up flush w/ the foyer wall and run the lower part of the stairs entering from the living area. You could put drawers in the landing space facing the foyer side and do some nice ballustrates/railings work.

Ok, I'm not an expert, but with a quick glance, here is my 2 cents.

I currently have my laundry room in the basement. It is pure H E double hockey sticks. LOL! Laundry chute is always stuck and I have a devil of a time getting everyone to even use it. On my plan, I put a stacker w/d in the mudroom and a laundry room on the 2nd floor as well. Can't wait for that!

Might just be me, but I wouldn't want to walk through my bathroom to get to my closet as in your master, (nor do I care sharing a closet and sink area with DH, but only a marriage counselor could fix that for us--just kidding--kind of--LOL!).

I'm not sure I care for the powder room right off of the kitchen and by that screened porch and I'm not sure what the utility room is for you. Seems to interrupt the flow of the kitchen or the openness of it for me. But it is nice to have a powder room near the mudroom for the kids. PR definitely needs a window. Hmm...

My lot is a view lot, so I personally don't care for a fireplace that takes away from the back view. I'm worried that those windows you have are too small for that area. You may not mind though and some don't care about their back view. But I would move the fireplace to the wall that is shared by the master, (which could also allow for a fireplace in the master if you wished). You could also do french doors and windows there for more light, which would help esp. since it is going to be a vaulted ceiling, although that would make changes to the basement windows.

To my untrained eye, the single window up front that is on the siding looks lonely. I would prefer two spaced or a double, which would be more eye pleasing to me. Also that porch post is odd to me. It seems to slice that window in half in a weird way, but it just could be the photoshop playing tricks.

Someone on this site did a beautiful job of a walkout basement on a level lot, but I can't remember whose it was. I know they posted pictures. It might help with your situation too.

Overall, your plan is nice and the outside seems like it is going to be a beauty. Plus, you know how your family lives and what works for you. I think you are on the right track.

Great job and good luck!

You need to either remark that guest bedroom as a "storage room" or make sure that the window and the well it is in is properly sized / equipped by code for secondary egress.

Well, I had my red pencil all sharpened, and couldn't really find much use for it, lol.

The girls' bath is very well done, convenient yet separate enough to prevent territorial issues. Where is the linen closet?

Can't tell from the drawing, but are all doors at least 34" wide? 36" is better, and 32" is a no-no.

Is there at least 48" between the front of the oven and the front of the cabinet opposite? That's the recommended minimum for safety.

I'd move the refrig closer to the wall, eliminating the present cave-like cabinet on the right, and stretching the counter between fridge and range. Have you decided where the microwave will go? Some folks like it up in the air, but I really prefer countertop. A matter of opinion.

And we know I don't like walk-in closets. But consider that a 4x6 closet sounds roomy, but actually only allows you 2 feet to stand in front of the hangars. Sigh, maybe okay for you but I'd be banging my elbows on the wall just pulling a hangar off the rod, not mention I couldn't bend over to reach a shoe rack underneath without burying my face into the hanging clothes. And I guarantee that no one on crutches will be able to manuever. Suggest you study some closet designs before making the walk-ins permanent.

I'd prefer the main floor stairs to come to a railing landing just 2 or 3 steps up and then turn to complete the flight up -- or maybe a twin-faced landing that is usable from both the foyer side and from the living room. Putting an open landing at the bottom will provide more available/natural light and eliminate the crowded dungeon feeling common to tall, narrow stairs. Again, are those steps actually wide enough to comfortable?? Remember that someone is going to have to haul beds and mattresses and chests up when you move in -- not to mention you constantly hauling all the clean linens and clothing from the basement up two flights. I'd sure be tempted to turn that 3rd floor spare room into a convenient laundry and craft center...

Before you make a 3-D model, suggest you enlarge floorplan and the make to-scale pieces to represent all your furniture.

I also suspect that both dining and breakfast areas aren't sufficient for more than just the immediate family. Don't forget that people not only have to move the chair away from the dining table to get up and down, but it is usual to have enough space for someone to pass behind a seated person -- preferably enough space that the person passing doesn't spill hot coffee down the back of the person sitting.

I didn't see a coat closet near the front door. What happens to the coat when you get a visitor in the winter?

Thanks so much for the suggestions so far. I should add a few more things: I like to fold clothes in front of the t.v., so I wanted the laundry room downstairs. My girls already put their own clothes away, so I don't see that being a problem. They can just grab their stuff on the way upstairs at night.

I agree the powder room needs a window. I will be adding that!

I am also going to look at making the stairs have a double landing. Do you think that would look odd in the living room side? I have 4' set aside for the stair width. Is that wide enough?

I would like to hear more opinions on the walk-in closets upstairs. Their current closets are 24" deep, which would leave 2'6" of walk space in the new closets. I am planning on two rods down about 4' of the length, then have shelves at the back for shoes and whatnot. Hopefully that would keep stuff out of the floor.

The utility closet in the kitchen is for a large garbage can and cleaning supplies. An under the counter garbage can would not work for my family!

I have to agree that the laundry room is a long walk from anywhere, not necessarily for folding at night, but for keeping it running, and it's a long way from the master, which doesn't have the benefit of a chute. I agree that the chute could have problems, especially since it's from 2 floors up. I also wouldn't want my closet through the bathroom (I always wonder if they get a lot of moisture that way) and that far from the bedroom. It's a long, winding way to go just to grab a sweater, for instance, from the covered porch or any other place in the house.

Where do the kids come in? Always through the garage? That's the only family entrance with a closet or space that looks like it could handle wet, muddy shoes/boots, or is close to a bathroom.

You may have heard the advice in previous posts, but want to make sure you know to run your kitchen layout past those in the kitchen forum. There is great counsel to be found there.

I've been reworking the master bath a little. Do you like this one better?

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kelbrad7, In the new master bath, I don't think I like how you enter the master bedroom and "walk" into a wall and I think it is going to be really awkward to navigate around the door and into the Master Bedroom. I'm sorry I don't have a good solution. I'm sure someone here will!

You may wish to consider what you're going to do to treat that window in the master bath. It looks like anybody coming up the front walk is going to be looking into your bathroom.

Regarding the master bath and specifically jaymielo's post, the door is awkward but can be solved very easily by making it a pocket door into the master suite. And it opening to a wall is what you want, so no one can see in. Houses with those big double doors from a family room looking right into the bedroom are ridiculous!
So make that wall a feature. Hang a favorite painting and put a light over it ans it will greet you every time you enter the room.

Pocket doors are a good solution, especially for the closets, because you never want any two doors inhabiting the same swing area. Actually, that's a safety issue and may be covered under the local building codes.

So put the W/D upstairs, and put a TV in that room. Gorsh, another TV isn't all that expensive.

Go online and meander through some of the sites for 'closet designs.' The reason small walk-ins aren't very good is that they are small walk-ins. They usually bear a strong resemblance to a crowded cave and are extremely difficult to adapt to useful, convenient, usable storage. You also lose the visual openess (means that the whole bedroom looks smaller) when you enclose a space that used only to stand in while reaching for a hangar. A single-use space isn't too efficient. And I know from experience that not many children are going to go into that cave to get and/or put away shoes. It doesn't seem to matter that they are small enough to bend over without putting their butt through the back wall, it's just that they WON'T bother. Their viewpoint seems to be that shoes and socks belong in the same armreach, and socks are usually in drawers so drop the shoes near the sock drawer. Uh, huh. This doesn't apply to those folks who walk in the door and immediately remove their footwear -- and I'm one of 'em. [I keep houseshoes and yard shoes by the most-used door; dress shoes are stored on the wall in the dress closet.]

Okay, we appear to have a difficulty with tactile use of a 4' wide space. Go to your present bathtub; hang some hangars from the shower curtain rod. Measure the space -- it'll probably be real close to 4' from the far shoulder of the hangar to the wall. Now get into the tub and walk up and down with the wall on one side and the hanging clothes on the other side....that's what you are planning to allow for the closet.

kelbrad--what software did you use? It looks pretty good to me. TIA, h

I like your plan alot. Seems really functional for how you are describing your lifestyle. I would also like to see a landing spot coming in from outside to your basement for muddy shoes. I liked your original Master Bedroom setup better than the redraw but I'm one of those that prefer the closet be off the bathroom. I'm not sure about your kitchen setup. Seems functional with the triangle workspace but I wonder if you could move the fridge a little to obtain more counter space on that wall? The kitchen folks could probably help better. The only other thing that would be missing for me is a master bath tub...but again, personal preference.

Bathtub in the master bath...for resale purposes.

I used Envisioneer Express for the floor plan. It is free to download, but they charge $19 to download a plugin for the text, if you want it. I really like it. I just wanted something to give a professional a good idea of what I wanted, as well as to be sure if what I wanted was even feasible!