I now you said to ignore the kitchen because the design is yet to be finished by your kitchen designer, but will that include eliminating that secondary kitchen (behind the folding doors directly across from the kitchen)? As is, it looks like this plan has 3 cooktops and 3 sinks, enough to support a catering business perhaps?

And I see a room off of the study labelled "exam room"? Are you home schooling your kids? If so, this seems like a neat idea to me, as long as it's not too small and dark. You don't want the kids to think of it as solitary confimement, lol. Make sure it gets plenty of lighting.

I mostly like this plan, even though I'll say upfront that I'm inclined against 2-story family rooms. They're very noisy. There are plenty of threads on that subject here, though, so we won't go into that.

Speaking of the 2-story family room, there is a room overlooking it on the 2nd floor (with the oak railing to resemble a faux balcony). What is this room and how is it accessed? Is it accessible only from the master bedroom? I can't figure out it's purpose. Is it going to be a closet? A sitting/reading area for the master bedroom? If it's a sitting area, then I'll go back to my concern about the noise problem with 2-story great rooms. That sitting area will pick up every conversation from below, not to mention the tv.

I love all the storage in the entry hall. Are those going to be individual closets, or are you going for the built-in cabinet look? If your thinking of seperate closets, then you're going to have a wall full of blank doors there. Maybe dress up the doors with nice trim or moulding, or even go for concealed doors that look like wall panels. If this is intended to be built-ins with cabinet-type doors, then you won't have this problem.

I'm not trying to nit-pick, but have you considered re-arranging the master bath and closet somehow? When you enter the master, you are presented with the bath to your left and the closet to your right. It kind of reminds me of a hotel room arrangement. Maybe other posters can tell you if they are happy with this type of arrangement. Personally, I'd rather enter the main bedroom from the hallway, rather than having to walk past the bath and closet to get to the bedroom. This wouldn't be a deal-breaker for me, just a preference.

Once you get your kitcen design finalized, I think this plan is very good.

Just noticed something else: the "play room/guest room" on the 2nd floor has a half-bath, but no closet? If this house is ever listed for sale, you can't count that as a bedroom. Most listing guildlines specify that a room has to have both a window and a closet to be counted as a bedroom. (The window is for emergency exit).

Also, is there an entrace from the garage or parking area? I can't see one. That's a big design consideration for most families, you want a short path for carrying in groceries.

Sorry for posting twice, I missed these details on my first reply, but both of these are important to get right during the design phase.

ok, to answer and clarify, yes the kitchen will have three sets of sink stove etc. We are Jewish and keep a Kosher kitchen so we need completely seperate areas for cooking meat and dairy. The kitchen in the closet is for Passover, Its only going to be used two weeks out of a year for the passover holiday, I wanted this in the basement but since we arent finishing the basement right away dh wanted it upstairs.

The exam room is attached to my husbands study because he is a doctor. Eventualy we will build a small office with exam rooms onto the house but for now we need one in the house. I dont even want to get into details of after hour "emergencies" dh has tended to in the house, including one very bloody lancing of a abcess in our tiny powder room ;p ....... nuff said LOL

Im also not crazy about two story great rooms but this is my husbands thing, he really really wants it. I would much rather a one story room. the balcony is attached the sitting room in our master bedroom. He realy wants it and Ive given into it even though I personaly dont like the idea. The balcony will have a nice view of the fireplace wall and windows backing into a wooded area. This was supposed to be the nursery but I dont think it will be quite enough, I dunno. No need to worry about sound from the TV, we dont have one.
Main hall closets, These are regular closets, the first one is the guest closet, We entertain a LOT and would like to have a nice clean closet to hold all their coats etc, The other two are for the family.

Oh please nit pick! I am trying to work something else out for the master bed/bath closet area. I am not happy with it as is. It will have major changes, any sudgestions?

I Think we were hoping that the guest bedroom can count as a bonus room, if it has a closet it cant. Also it does have windows.
The parking area is in the basement, it worked out this way because of the hill that we are building into, Im not thrilled about it. Ill have to scan the basement plans in to show you, you can enter the basement from there and there is a dumbwaiter to haul groceries from the garage into the kitchen.
Thanks for taking the time to adress these issues :)

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Thanks for clarifying; makes a lot more sense now.

As far as the Exam Room goes, I've never lived in a home that had one, so I'm not sure how to critique it, lol. But if it meets the doctor's requirements, then well and good. I'm hoping tile and stainless steel surfaces to make cleaning and sanatizing easier?

The famaily room has only one entrance. Have you considered adding an archway beyond the closet kitchen, near the breakfast area? This would give you easier access between the family room and kitchen/eating areas. You might have to sacrifice that workspace right beyond the kitchen closet (looks like a desk or hutch or something), but the kitchen has so much space for work surfaces, including bar/island, that I don't think you'll miss it. I think you'd learn to appreciate an archway more than that little work surface.

And can you show me where the entrance stairs from the basement-level parking *is*? I don't see it indicated at all on the floorplan. I have some friends who recently moved into a house with the parking underneath. The stairs to the living quarters open into a short hallway with the laundry on one side, and the kitchen on the other. They have adjusted very quickly and don't mind it at all; they don't see it as a short-coming of the design. But they are young and won't have trouble navigating stairs for many years. Counting your basement level and future attic space, looks like you're going to end up with a 4-level house. That's a lot of stairs to climb. Is this the largest foot-print you can have on your lot? If not, you may want to consider re-working the basement and first-level footprint to include more of the living spaces and bedrooms. You may be able to eliminate the need for the top floor (the FOURTH floor). In other words, built *out* more, not *up*.

When you finish the basement, you may want to consider putting your seperate kitchen *and* another laundry room down there.

I can't really tell where the door to the master bedroom WIC is. Is the door off of the little hallway, or off of the sitting room? Having the door off of the sitting room might work out well, you'd be able to use the sitting room as sort of a dressing area. You'd at least have seating available to put on your shoes.

You're going to hear a lot from some posters about resale too. Although I usually take the outlook that families should design the house that fits *them*, not the resale market, I have to point out that four flights of stairs will be pretty daunting to most people. But home design is a bunch of compromises anyway....there is no perfect design.

You have several pretty big challenges: keeping Kosher and accomodating a doctor that sees patients at home. (That would make an interesting thread in itself; I haven't seen that anywhere except on old TV shows.)

Good luck.

I don't really have any suggestions for your plans because I have been trouble seeing the pictures, but I wanted to let you know that we also have a kosher kitchen and redid it two years ago. I wanted to link pictures for you and let you know if you have any questions please ask :)

Here is a link that might be useful: kitchen photos

We're trying to plan out a 3 story house on a slope with garage/unfinished basement below 2 living stories. We're thinking of the stairs as good exercise, but will line up 3 closets to give any potential future buyers the option of putting in an elevator. That might be helpful in your case, if you have 4 possible floors. We also have a gentle enough slope that we can drive up one side of the house, and unload heavy stuff right by the kitchen/back door. Your floor plan is very similar to what I'm thinking of....looks great!

chapnc, The Im not sure what materials we are going to use yet in the exam room, but they will be temporary. When we complete my husband's attached office we are going to rip open that room and the space will be added to the family room, that section will not be two stories tall and well put some nice pillars to make it look nice. From my husband's study to the family room will be a set of french doors. So that will be the second entrance to the family room. I dont want to add a big entryway from the kitchen to the familyroom, I realy like them to be seperate rooms, the way I have it in my house now is that the kitchen and family room flow into eachother with just a small step down and a little half heigh section of wall, I dont like them together....actualy im looking at it now, and maybe a nice set of french doors instead of the desc area will be nice? I have to think about it. We are planning on putting that extra small kitchen in the basement when its finished and removing the closet kitchen from the main kitchen. Im going to post the bottom level again I dont think it came through right before.
Juniork I think that maybe it would be a good idea to work something out so that in the future if needed we can add an elevator, its possible that in the future our parents may move in and yes 4 flights of steps is a lot, an elevator might be a neccesity.

Mellnoa Thanks so much for posting your Kosher kitchen pics that was very thoughtful of you! I want to ask you a question, Ive seen these corner sinks a lot in kosher kitchens where I live. They dont look too comfortable to work in. Any thoughts?

also im looking at the WIC now, the designer made some changes I see, It looks like he made it a his and hers connected, the his part opening into the sitting room and being a regular closet size and the hers being connected the the hallway (which I think has to go. Do you see that? double doors in the sitting room?
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Oh and about resale value, We arent really worried about that. We are trying to build the best house for US and one that we have plans for developing more in the future. We this is our house, the one we will live in for many many many years. No plans to move from it.

Thanks for posting the basement level. A real eye-opener!

Multiple kitchens, wine cellar, dry sauna, office/study, planned formal living/solarium, formal dining. A house with that level of features on 4 levels cries out for an elevator. "No plans to move from it" means that you, yourself, may be there long enough to have trouble with those stairs.

If you can't fit an elevator into the budget right now, try to do what juniork did and leave some space where one can be added later. That's a feature seen more and more often in multiple level homes.

The door in the master bathroom opens onto the toilet. I would consider reversing the swing of that door so the first thing one sees is the vanity.

sabbanah -

I actually love our corner sink. That is our dairy sink and the one that we use more on a daily basis. The only time it is awkward is if you are trying to pour out a dirty cup while someone else is already working there, but that doesn't happen too often since most dishes go straight to the dishwasher.

I don't know what type of kitchen you are in currently, but I have to tell you that one of my favorite things is the grids I got for the bottom of the sink, especially on shabbos, so that dishes don't end up sitting in liquid and gunk.

Ok, by no means am I an expert on homeplans or building so I apologize in advance if this was mentioned or there is a certain reason for this, but I think it would be better to let the girls bedrooms be together and the boys rooms be together, esp. when it comes to sharing a bathroom. Girl stuff doesn't need to be with boy stuff, nor can they relate to each other at all with privacy etc....and since I'm sharing 1 bathroom with all of my boys right now I can tell you, it stinks. I can't stand it and I count down the days until I can have my privacy, my own private closet, dressing area etc. If I had a daughter, I would definitely not subject her to sharing anything with the boys 'cause in our house that would be cruel LOL! Can you tell I'm a little bitter about sharing with the boys? LOL!That toilet seat thing...nah don't even get me started LOL!

Otherwise, it looks like you have worked hard on your plans and it is going to be beautiful. Love that it will fit your lifestyle really well. Good luck! Thanks for sharing, too!

eventhecatisaboy, thanks for your input. That is definitely a consideration but just consider that we are only finishing the seconmd floor now the attic will be finished probably when we start bursting at the seams. We have three kids now a 5 years old boy and two girls 3 and 6 months. I think that when we finish the attic the big kids will go up there while the younger ones stay on the same level as mom and dad, Im not sure what the boy/ girl breakdown will be yet ;) the designer put those labels on the rooms not me :) (im also thinking the attick wont be finished at least for another 7 or 8 years)