I'd rather have the kitchen close to the garage than the master bedroom.

I've lived in a house where you walked past a bedroom when coming in from the garage. It didn't seem odd to me. It also often happens with split bedroom floor plans where the master bedroom is on a different side of the house from the secondary bedrooms. Of course, those are one story houses.

I'm sure many people will 'prefer' a different layout, so I guess what would be great to know is if anyone has any experience with this scenario (thank you dekeoboe) or if anyone has seen examples of this in other floorplans or photos? (to share)

My aunt's house is similar to this layout as far as the master location and she loves it because it puts the master close to the laundry, kitchen and garage. Since the kids grew up & moved out, those are pretty much the areas she frequents most anyway and they're all very convenient. Her kitchen is closer to the garage though. In your plan, that would be the one thing that really bothers me--lugging groceries all that way from the garage. Now, if you're really not going to use the garage for parking purposes (more for storage) and you'll be using the front door for coming & going, then I wouldn't have a problem. Privacy-wise, I think the master is secluded enough, unless the garage entry will be the main coming & going point of entry for all and sundry. Just my $0.02. Hope it helps!

Nichole,

You did a great job drawing that plan - did you use software?

The first thing I saw was the bedroom (particularly the bed) against the kitchen wall. I live with that now & in my situation, it's very hard on me noise wise. My hubby works a very odd schedule on an 8-week on & off cycle - 2 of those weeks include a 2-week night shift.

I try very hard to not make noise...do all my 'noisy' work when he's gone or if he's up for about 3 hours before he goes to work. If you put enough sound insulation in, it could work, but be mindful of the noise factor.

Is it possible to switch the bedroom & bath to the other side so the kitchen wall is against the garage?

I also love having my laundry very near my bedroom. In fact, because of hubby's work schedule...I do not like my closet in the bedroom itself. Our new build will have our walk-in closet in the bathroom along with the laundry area in the bathroom, too.

I know how hard it is to plan everything - we've gone round & round with our design - I'm surprised I have any hair left! What has helped us is to focus on what is most important and what you intend to do with the space. Our build is very unusual because we live in the snow capital of Alaska (one year over 900" on the Pass just up the road & over 700" in town...average is over 500") So, that dictates a lot while building.

Plus, our mil rate is sky high (20 mil) but thank goodness at age 65, we'd qualify for a Senior benefit of the first $150,000 appraised value not counting. Hubby only has a short time before that so, hopefully, the benefit will still be in place. We tried to make it as small as possible - we are empty nesters. I think it's just over 1,700 sq ft so it's not big by any means.

I wanted/needed a good-size pantry since we live 300 miles from the nearest Costco in Anchorage (we live in Valdez). We plan (I say plan, 'cause I've learned during this whole process, nothing is in stone until the walls are in!) a rather large exercise room since it's really important to us.

We live 15 miles from town & it's not always easy to get to the gym in town in the winter. Plus, to save on gas...I try to do only one trip a week for groceries & mail - nope, we don't have house-to-house delivery!

Good luck in whatever you decide to do! Looking forward to watching your journey :)

It's fine 'as is' but if you want more privacy...what about just redesigning the master suite? Maybe put the bedroom where the bathroom is and moving around the closet and bathroom areas. Maybe make those closer to the hall and have the bedroom more secluded, with the garden views?

It also might make more sense to have your master bathroom plumbing against the kitchen and have less noise in the bedroom area. A good insulated wall between the bedroom and garage should take care of it.

The only other 'concern' I see is that you have a fairly small doorway into the living room and have to walk past the stairs to get there. I'd change that and make the entry closer to the front door. Maybe rework the office entry and have the stairs on that side? Most people will want to walk into your living room, not your office, unless you work out of your home and want that area, for public access.

There is nothing wrong with the location of the master bedroom per se, but overall I feel like there are so many random bumpouts. For example, in the family room, why is the front wall not straight across?

Who else lives here? (I see stairs -- presumably more BR's either up or down.) Will family be passing the master BR? (Teens in and out?)

My first thought on seeing a BR near a kitchen in the back of a house is that this is the maid's quarters. (That IS where a maid lived after people no longer employed 'staff' and stowed them under the eaves. lol)

I wouldn't like this arrangement of rooms nor their orientation. We looked a long time for a lot where the back of the house could face South so we could position rooms for the light and views we wanted. How much freedom does this site allow you? Are you constrained by the lot size?

Our garage is NE (coldest in winter with worst view). Our kitchen is on the front of our house with access to the garage through the back hall (where laundry anc powder room are located. My kitchen sink window faces North. There is light from the SE 'breakfast' room (used for all family meals). The screened porch is SE off the dining area, convenient for summer meals.

I want quick access to the kitchen from the garage for groceries and trash removal. I want morning light for breakfast. I don't want the Western sun to heat the kitchen in the evening in summer or make me squint at table in winter when it is low in the sky. Ideally, a BR would be East so you can wake to the morning light. I'd also want windows on two sides of my MBR.

For melaska,
It looks to be the software available at:
www.floorplanner.com (which is what I used for my floorplans posted earlier this month also (see links in post titled 'remodel floor plan help').

Some of my concerns about this layout:

--other people walking from garage past the master bedroom. My kids come in through the garage (even pre-driving), and I wouldn't want them and their friends walking by our bedroom

--people will be using the half bath--I wouldn't want my guests being able to "peer" into the bedroom. For people I don't know well, I wouldn't want them that close to the "private" area of the house

--I wouldn't want the garage to be so far from the kitchen. Grocery shopping is one thing, but it's also our "drop zone"--I wouldn't want to walk that far to get to the kitchen area.

--I pictured myself answering the door and inviting a friend into the living room--they'd have to walk through the kitchen area to get to the couch. The kitchen is often a 'work in progress' when there's company--I wouldn't want it to be the first thing people see, or for people to have to walk through the kitchen, through the dining room, and then finally get to a couch.

Good question pps7! That wall was/is in fact straight across, but we happened to find this exterior online (linked below) which we loved and it seemed like something we could pull off with our layout. The exception was that 'nook' in the living room (that didn't exist in our layout).

Not sure how that would look visually yet though. :) But anyway, that explains the 'bump out.'

Thanks for the suggestion for the living room opening and stairs on the opposite side of the hall lavender_lass. That entrance to the living room started out as a 5ft entryway, but I pushed the stairs back a foot to try and keep it from being too close to the entryway, but I might try that arrangement to see how we like it.

Melaska, we just used floorplanner.com to roughly draw the layout.

Here is a link that might be useful: exterior

The most common concern we hear from people in general is that they want their garage close to their kitchen, mainly for carrying groceries from the car. Can you give us a good reason why that's important to you? If you look at our layout, it's quite a short hallway. (only the length of a 15ft master bedroom to get to the kitchen entrance from the mudroom)

We are 30, have lived in an apartment for 6 years, carrying bags of groceries across a parking lot and up 3 flights of stairs every day of our adult lives, so this concern just doesn't stick with us. :) I don't want to say it isn't valid, because I totally get the reasoning. I'm just wondering if there's something else we're missing that makes it such an important issue to people.

Keep in mind also that this is a 'country' home. (on 30 acres) In most farm/country settings the garage isn't even attached to the house, let alone attached directly to the kitchen. :) (We're still considering that option with a covered breezeway!)

We appreciate the critiques so far! Thanks so much. Some of the other concerns listed about the location of the bedroom are some of the same ones we've had.

I should add that this photo is what we after for the main entrance. (really what we based our layout around)

kirkhall - thank you for that! :)

Nichole - is that amazon picture your house? Beautiful! Love the staircase, too.

Nichole- your inspiration pics are gorgeous. I love the contemporary farmhouse elevation.

Have you looked at the Southern living 2007 Tucker Bayou Idea house? I've linked pictures below and here is the flooplan. This house had a detached garage but you can easily add it next to the multipupose room and kithen. Get rid of the eat in kichen and tweek things here You can do a mirror image if you prefer the garage ot be on the east.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tucker Bayou

You and I are on different wavelengths, so feel free to ignore my perspective of this plan, although you did ask for a critique.

I would not...

.. build a vertical house with a small footprint on a 30-acre property. (Early farmhouses were built the way they were for reasons that no longer exist -- like having to rely on gravity-flow heating.)

...build extensive and expensive-to-maintain open porches no one is likely to use.

...put a screened porch on the hot west side of a house, or off a living room.

...orient a kitchen/dining area to the bleak north.

...put my master suite north, or put it off 'the back hall'.

...build a foyer oversized for the rest of the house.

...build a 'murderous' staircase (no landings).

One can live with inconvieniences, but why create any? Ask a realtor how many buyers desire a trek between garage and kitchen -- or want a MBR there.

(I don't like the California-modern photo illustrations in this book, but the architects who wrote it explain some principles of light and proportion that people enjoy: "Patterns of Home".)

Hi Chisue,

Good thoughts. Can you elaborate on the downside of having a screened porch off of living room...

Thanks

AJ

A couple comments:

Our MBR is on the "bleak" north side of our house. :) Where I live, wind pounds heavily on the South/SW side of the home. Since we have different work schedules and want a DARK, QUIET master bedroom, the north side was the best choice. Every area is different.

Nichole- I am your age and share your question about the necessity of a garage near a kitchen. I don't grocery shop that often, so it's always weird to me to make that a huge priority in a build. It is true that buyers might request it, but it is always going to be strange to me that it's a big deal. :)

RE: bedroom placement, I think it's fine. I agree that you should try to switch the bathroom/closet with the bedroom. More noise will come from the kitchen. Either way, try your best to sound proof those walls and make your door solid core. (We have our MBR situated like yours, next to the kitchen.) If you do have kids with noisy friends, make them use the front door! :)

RE: your bump-out, could it be a daybed/window seat set up?

ps. one more thing..... do you have an elderly guests that can't make it up those stairs? will there be a bed on the first floor for them?

I think a lot also depends on your daily life. I don't bring in groceries every day, so the kitchen being extremely close isn't a deal breaker to me. I do prefer though, not to have to walk through a living area between the garage and kitchen. You don't have that set up to worry about. In addition, I have to wear nice clothes to work, but I don't wear them around the house. We live in the country and also have pets, so I have much relaxed 'uniform' that I change into once I get home. For that reason, the master bedroom is normally the first place I go when I get home. This would work great with your layout.

The only concern I have with your plan is the wall that the bed is on. I wouldn't want to be on a main, shared wall. I don't think flipping the bedroom/bathroom would be a solution either, as I wouldn't want to be on the garage wall either!

If you wanted to put your bed below your windows, that would work with your current floor plan. I don't know what kind of windows you had imagined there, but if they were not tall windows, that would work. Alternately, could you make one big hall closet and slide your doorway to the side. This would also give more privacy to your bedroom if a guest were using the hall bathroom.

I did a copy/paste of that. In addition, I think you could work to create a design that was better configured for the bathroom/closet. It seems like a lot of wasted space to not even include a tub.

{{gwi:1500299}}

aj33 -- The LR/Porch seems less desireable...to ME. I like a short route to a porch from the kitchen. We often eat meals or have drinks/snacks on ours; it's off our family dining area, AKA 'breakfast' room. There are two skylights in the eastern angle of our screened porch roof that keep interior rooms bright in winter.

Having a porch off a living area is fine if you're in a mild climate and 'live' in both areas. The lanai of our Maui condo is off the LR. A porch can be an empty 'hole' off any room in Chicagoland for much of the year.

aa62579 and lolauren, thank you for the ideas! chisue, your opinions have been considered. :)

All in all we're happy to be reassured that the location of the bedroom isn't necessarily 'weird' off of that hallway, but that we could possibly make some tweaks to it's orientation and/or access from the hall to make it work.

Yes, we really have no idea how to arrange our bathroom. We'd like separate sinks, and don't really have a desire for a tub. But if someone showed us a layout where a tub would fit, we wouldn't argue with it.

did anyone suggest flipping the master with the laundry and office? plus you;d get more pantry too.
unless you really want the master on that side of the house, that's what i'd do.