I have to ask: With all this land, why would you build a three-level home? How long do you plan to live here?

I've lived on one level all my married life except for two years in a townhome, pre-children. Basements/lower levels are good when kids are older; do create *safe* stairways with landings.

chisue, thanks. We're building a three-level home because the cost of adding the unfinished second level and making the basement a full basement adds very little to the building cost, as opposed to building a one-level with the same square footage. We plan for this to be our forever home. The basement won't be completed for another several years.

By then, the basement will have a garage, storage spaces and large rec room with entertaining kitchenette opening onto the creek side.

We have been considering the stairway too. We have multiple versions with different stairs - no landing, one landing, two... We are not totally convinced that this is the best option because of the safety issue. Are there any other ways to make a straight stairway safer for young children?

Is that an open doorway from the foyer to the mudroom? (At first I thought it was a solid wall and I wondered how you would get to the mudroom from the first floor without going outside.)

If the art room is going to be your master for 2-3 years, you might want access to it w/out going through the mudroom. If you can find another spot for the powder room, you can have a hall into the art room/master. Maybe move your front foyer wall down to be even with the mudroom and DR walls (straight wall = simpler design = often less costly.) Then you have room to put the PR below the stairs, near the foyer if you don't mind that set up.

With the plan the way it is now, to get to the boys' room (library) from the master (art room) if they need something in the middle of the night, you'd either make a big circle through the house (mudroom/foyer/hall/great room) or go outside on the balcony to get to their room. Depending on your climate and whether or not that door to the balcony would be locked at night, that might be OK or it might be a pain.

If you want this to be your 'forever' house, leave space for an elevator (closet over closet over closet). You plan a garage *under* the house? (Do you plan to park and unload groceries before entering the garage?)

I'm having trouble understanding the plan. What are the three rectangles in the lower left?

There have been discussions on this forum about the costs of two-story v single-story construction. The cost difference is not great, and the advantages of one-floor-living ARE great. You don't have to have full basement under the entire house; crawls are fine.

You can break a stairway many ways: Two steps up, landing, 90-degree turn with more steps, another landing, 90-degree turn with more steps; or Straight up, long landing, more straight up. A full straight run of stairs is asking for harm, especially with high-ceilinged homes (more stairs).

It is VERY difficult to design a house that suits a large family but can adapt to becoming a retirement home. I'm not sure it is even possible! It's also quite a burden on the whole family to live in a state of constant construction. "The House" can take over life as you'd like to live it. Long range planning is great, but you want to live happily NOW too, not 'camping out in a project' while years of family life go by.

I hope you have luck keeping your children away from the creek/river you mention. We live beside one and have our hands full keeping neighbor kids from harm.

Thank you so much for your help! I appreciate it.
chicagoans, I totally agree with you on the Art Room/ Master access. It had been bothering me too. We will prob. put a door between the art room and the library for now, and maybe close it up for the wall to wall bookshelves in a few years, if we don't need the door then. Good point made.

Yes, it is an open doorway from foyer to mudroom.

I see the rationale behind moving the foyer wall down to create a hallway to the art room (and I would like the art room to be more accessible), but we had gone back and forth on that and the front elevation was just far too plain with the straight front wall.
We will probably have to rework that area around the stairs because I don't think the stairs are long enough. So that area might change quite a bit by the time we're done!

chisue,thank you for your advice! I appreciate input from someone who has more experience. We have talked about this being the (first and) last house we build, and have also discussed possible locations for a future elevator. My DH is so excited about getting his own elevator I think he WANTS to get old, LOL.

Yes, our garage would be part of the basement, and we plan to use it when it's raining, etc. Even though we've had garages, we've almost always parked in front of the house... such peasants we are... and I don't see us magically changing our ways. It helps that we drive vehicles that can take a beating. :)

The 3 rectangles on the lower left are "sections" of the bathroom. It's really unclear in the picture, but we had the toilet and sink nearest the mudroom door, followed by a shower/ tub and sink. Today, I changed the order to shower/ tub nearest mudroom door, then toilet and sink/s.

Thanks for your advice about the stairs - we're going to try for a landing. (Prob. need one anyway as I'm sure we made the stairs too short)

The point you make about designing for a large family vs. as a retirement home is a good one, and I don't think I've ever actually thought of it that way before. Our priority now is designing for the medium-term... we're going to have at least 20+ years raising a family if we have several children, as we want to. (Also in 20+ years we should have retirement money, and thus more options... who knows what we'll decide then, God willing?) Good reminder about the stress of construction and that we want to design for now as well. That's how I sometimes feel now, as we're in limbo and living behind our business while we plan and build. Esp. now that I'm expecting again, I want to move into our new house right now, and this endless planning to get it "just right" is a little stressful!