I'm no expert but a couple of things stood out to me:

- the little stub walls between kitchen and dining and dining and great room are kind of bugging me. First, the ones in the kitchen don't line up across from each other so it somehow feels off to me. What if you moved the upper one over closer to the slider, and the lower one (if you need it) as an extension of the right pantry wall. Then they'll be across from each other and can be used to define the kitchen space with a beam or other if desired. (Also if you have your refrigerator next to either of those stub walls that's a pain - can't open the door all the way.) Likewise, for the wall b/w the DR and GR, I'd have a matching short wall directly across from it (an extension of the right laundry wall) to define the space.
- re: kitchen sink: personally I often wish my double sink was a single (easier to wash cookie sheets and skillets with handles). I'd put a big sink on the perimeter and depending on where your prep space is (near the fridge), a prep sink on the island.
- I have pantry envy!
- Definitely post your plans on the kitchen forum. They're great with kitchen layouts.
- The angle on the office will make furniture placement tricky and leaves you with some unused space in the area outside the door. I'd either square that corner off with the doors opening to the entry, or do a much smaller angle with a single door.
- will you have a sink in the laundry room? Since you're on a farm, you will want some place to wash up after doing yard work or whatever outside, and I'm guessing your entrance at those times will be through the garage. Do you have enough space near your 'work' entrance for boots, jackets, washing up?
- in your MB, the bath and closet take up valuable exterior wall space and eliminate the ability to have windows on two walls, which is so nice for cross ventilation. Can you rework that space so those spaces are on the interior wall? (The closet would be a nice buffer b/w GR and MB if someone is watching TV in the GR and someone else is trying to sleep in the MB.)

I'm posting some examples of pass throughs b/w kitchen and dining space where the 'stub walls' or columns line up across the room. These examples all have a counter in between the columns, but even if that's not what you want I think you can see how lining up those stub walls can help define the space with an overhead beam or similar.

chicagoans
Thanks for your comments. The contractor uses stub walls for measurments and we will probably eliminate the one between k/d and may put one between laundry/office as I believe a pie safe will go there. We were in a house with the french doors in the office and like that pretty well. I guess I could square the corner and still have french doors. That would give more room for bookshelves etc. have to agree with you on the MB layout. I don't know how to change that without making the closet smaller.

We don't know about the sink in the laundry. We will have a sink and boot changing area in the garage plus there is an entrance to the basement in the garage.

I like the idea of a pass through. Nice touch.

I will post this on the kitchen forum. Once we decide on the window size above the sink we can start with the layout. Not decided yet on counter tops but our son lives in Darien and bought his at Midwest stone in Plainfield. Great selections on granite and silestone.

Since you're building on a farm and therefore probably won't have another house sitting 8 to 12 feet away from the right side of your new home, is there a reason why you have chosen to have no windows on the right hand side of the house? Rooms that get natural light from two directions are SO MUCH more pleasant to live in. So I think it is a shame not to take advantage of the opportunity to put windows on two walls of a room whenever one can.

Thus, I would add windows to the wall on the right side of bedroom #2 - even if they are just transom windows located high on the wall so that a bed can be placed beneath them. Or, add a window on the left side wall so that one can see the front door from the bedroom window.

I don't like the arrangement of fixtures in the secondary bathroom. When entering the door of a bathroom, I'd much rather have a view of the vanity than of the toilet. Plus, why not put a window in the bathroom?

Consider swapping the masterbath/masterbedroom locations so that you can have windows on two sides of the masterbedroom. Since it's just the two of you most of the time, it might not bother you to have the masterbedroom right up against the great room. But when the grandkids come to visit, there might be times when they want to stay up to watch TV when one of you is ready for bed. Having the masterbath between the bedroom and greatroom would help to insulate sound transfer.

While I often like angled walls, I'm not a huge fan of that angled wall with doors leading into the office. It creates a huge space right in front of those doors that is essentially useless and will make arranging furniture in the great room more difficult. Plus it is the only angled wall in the whole house so it seems kind of "accidental." I'd square off the office and move the office doors so they open to they foyer.

Will you have a second floor or do the staircases just go down to the basement? If just to the basement, do you plan to have only a railing between foyer and stairs or a solid wall? The foyer may look a bit narrow if you'll have a solid wall around the staircase. But, if the basement won't be used except when the kids/grandkids are visiting, it might be more sensible to surround the stairwell with a solid wall so that the space can be closed off completely when not in use. If you decide to use just a railing, have a good solid door at the bottom of the stairs that you can close off or you'll be air conditioning the basement in the summer time when you don't need to. (Warm air rises, cool air falls)

I agree about lining up the stub walls in the kitchen so that you can use a ceiling beam to define the kitchen space. I don't agree about not having a stub wall next to a fridge tho. I LIKE having something beside the fridge so one can't see the dust that inevitably builds up on the refrigerator coils! You just need to make sure that the stub wall is short enough so that it doesn't get in the way of the fridge door swinging open. A 24" to 30" wide stub wall works fine beside a refrigerator.

That IS a pretty large pantry for a couple of empty nesters but only you (and your wife) can judge whether you really want one that big. If it were me, I would probably make the pantry a bit smaller and enlarge the garage entry space some so that I had room for a bench to sit down to pull off muddy boots when coming in. And, if you're like most people, the first flat surface one reaches when coming into the house tends to collect a plethora of "junk." (purses, jackets, hats, junk mail, etc.) With no actual mudroom, your kitchen island is probably going to be that "first flat surface." So another reason to make the pantry smaller would be to make room for a cabinet and countertop "landing space" in the in the garage entry way.

If your wife does most of the cooking/cleaning up, do let HER decide whether she prefers a single or double sink. Different cooks have different preferences. I personally HATE single sinks... I've lived in houses with both single and double sinks and, in those with a single sink, I always wound up putting one of those ugly plastic basins down into the single sink in order to approximate a double sink. But I know other people who love single sinks and swear by them.

Once you have a basic kitchen plan (showing cabinets, island, and major appliance) run that by the folks on the KITCHENS forum here on gardenweb. There are some folks on that forum who are unbelievably good at helping you make sure that the kitchen design will function comfortably. They look out for things like "barrier islands" and aisleways that are too narrow and stovetops that are located along major traffic aisles, etc. They'll be an enormous help to you. Like having several kitchen designers but they give their advice for free!

Good luck with your project!

bevangie
Thanks so much for your comments. My contractor has a program for the house plans and he just did not put the windows on the right (west) side but we will sure put some in. Right now we are just trying to get a footprint.

My wife allready caught the fixture arrangement in the 2nd bath and that will be changed.

I like your idea of switching the master bath to the greatroom side. That should be easy.

We will probably square off the office/den but don't know about door location. I thought the greatroom side would allow a more openness feeling to the greatroom. It shouldn't change the arrangement of furniture since there needs to be a walkway back to the bedrooms.

No second floor and probably just railing so will see about a door at the bottom.

I changed the plan some to square up the kitchen line. It also made the entry/mud room bigger and I made the entry at the other end. What do you think? I will take muddy boots off in the garage. I also have an entry to the basement in the garage. The mudroom now should have enough room for a counter. I often said refridgerators,dryers, freezers should have tops like a weber kettle.

The pantry is large but we do alot of canning which the kids raid when they are home. So the canning supplies are stored there and I grind my own wheat so extra appliances can be stored there.

I guess my wife wins on the sink issue. She does the cooking but I clean as I go whereas she makes a mess and cleans much later.

Thanks again

bevangie
Forgot to include the revision. I only did the kitchen area. The MB should be easy.

Farm house. Do you have animals? Do you work in the dirt? I'm from farming country and my SIL is always searching for a house plan that has a good mudroom and easy access to the bathroom/washroom sink for cleaning up before truly entering the house... Do you need that?

kirkhall
No i don't have animals anymore but do get dirty and sometimes muddy so since I have an attached garage it will be easier for me to change dirty shoes in the garage. The mudroom will probably be used for changing from shoes to slippers/socks as we don't wear shoes in the house. Also as bevangie said most need a place for "junk".

I'd look at combining the laundry room, mud room, and pantry into one larger multi purpose area. It will be more versatile, and will also allow it to be a bit smaller.

I'd also try for a side entry garage. Garage doors aren't attractive, and making a 3 car garage look like it's front and center with the house as an afterthought isn't a good look when you have a whole farm's worth of space to turn it so you see a side.

Also, this is a MUCH larger home than most people at your stage in life will want for the next 20 years. Most want to downsize to something about half this size, and some place that is closer into an urban area than a farm. Are you certain that you will be able to keep this up? And travel the distance back and forth to groceries, doctors, and any entertainment? Your priorities may change drastically in the next 5 years, and you both may prefer to cook less and spend less time at home and more time traveling and possibly visiting the grandchild/grandchildren. Is this family land that you will be turning over to one of your children to farm at some point? Or sell if you need assisted living? In other words, will resale for your children or you ever become a factor? What other buildings are on the property? Is there already a home there?