i'm building soon also, and chose not to include a rear deck, landscaping or driveway/sidewalk in the mortgage price because we can do that later for A LOT less with the people we know.

It is crazy that outdoor areas are calculated the same as indoor!

The crazy part is using a builder that would charge you by the square foor period

It's difficult to be certain without room sizes, but it does appear as if fitting any type of table into the dining area will be difficult and leave little room for walking around the table and chairs. I'm assuming it would be placed in front of the doors, thus am guessing at an area size.

The island just seems to exist without a real connection to the rest of the room. I think it would be better if it was more of a rectangle that ran parallel to the wall of cabinets with the range.

When we were owner/builder, some contractors use sq ft as their price... like framing. They wanted to charge us same sq ft price for the first and second floors, the basement (unfinished, 75% concrete walls), garage and porches and deck. To me, ranch vs 2 story vs basement and unheated spaces or un-roofed should all be different prices.

Anyways, I'd do the garage and decks seperate (84 lumber has great packages for garages), and pull out the landscaping too. The GC isn't adding value there, just cost. Directly hiring a landscaper and working with them on how much you're willing to spend and what you want is easy. Plus, you could do things like buying sod and mulch directly from suppliers in large quantity.

It's very simple and straightforward. It'll be economical to build. I do see a few tweaks that might be good:

- As for losing the back porch, it's probably going to be more functional than the front porch. I'd cut the front porch down to 1/3 the width of the house. This'll allow more light in your windows, and it'll still give you the look of a front porch . . . without the whole width.

- I'd prefer to see the back porch coming in on the laundry side. This would allow you to enter closer to the pantry.

- I think I'd lean towards trying my best to keep the back porch now, but add the garage later. The garage is a whole separate entity, and it won't affect the quality to do it later.

- I would never build a nice porch between the house and the garage -- it'll kind of be in a dark spot. I'd let that space just be yard, and I'd go deeper with the porch on the other side.

- I would flip-flop the master bedroom and the master bath. This would accomplish several things: 1) The bathroom would provide a sound barrier between the living room and the bedroom, especially because you're probably going to have your TV on the wall near the fireplace and your bed "backing up to" the fireplace wall. 2) It would allow you to have windows on two walls of the master bedroom, and I'd rather have the nice windows in my bedroom rather than my bathroom. 3) It would bring your master bath plumbing closer to the kitchen and the laundry, which means less plumbing in your walls, and that's a cost-saver.

- In the master bath, I would not do two small vanities /sinks. As shown, this requires that you have a door bisecting one of your bedroom walls. This will inhibit furniture placement. In contrast, if you use one long vanity, your door can be at one or the other end, and you'll preserve wall space for a large dresser, built-in bookcases, or whatever.

- I think I'd turn the island the other direction. Why? Because it should run parallel with the longest leg of the L.

- What is the safe room? You say budget is tight, and this looks like an expensive room. Is this for tornado areas or something?

- I love a large pantry, but this one isn't particularly functional. Having a walk-in area but only shelves on one side isn't good use of your square footage. If you could work the pantry / laundry / closet all into one room, you'd only need "walking space" once, and you'd have more storage space.

- A sliding glass door is less expensive (and more secure and more energy efficient) than French doors. You can get sliding glass doors with "dividers" in the glass.

- I'd move the front door to the other side of the living room. You always want to enter a door and have something lovely straight ahead of you -- preferably a window, another door, or a focal point (like the fireplace). Walk in your front door, and you see . . . the kitchen. Move the front door to the other side of the living room, and your straight-ahead view is of your dining room table and the doors beyond.

I think it would be worth getting the porch done now and the garage later. Otherwise you'll have to deal with tying roof overhangs and framing in so the porch will end up costing more in the end. The garage is free standing so not a big deal.

I would also flip the floor plan so the laundry entry is closer to the garage side. Then the the laundry could also double as a mudroom.

You don't show sizes, but the dining area looks very narrow. I'm assuming a 6' door there to the porch.

Where are you planning on placing furniture. Have you tried arranging furniture in your plan with whatever sizes you have of the rooms and planned furniture.

for the front bedroom I would move the door up into that little hallway and make it part of the room. More usable wall and floor space then.

I would be tempted to do the same on the other room and make the linen closet accessible from the bathroom.

Could the safe room double as a pantry?

I live in tornado country, and I know it's important to have someplace to go during a storm, but I don't think it needs to a room that's 100% dedicated to that purpose.

If you had a dual purpose safe room/pantry, you could enlarge the existing pantry to include the current hallway to the safe room, and then push the master closet back into the current safe room, and push the master bath up, and the master bedroom over, and you can enlarge your great room/front entry.

I agree that the dining room looks narrow. You could fix this by doing a built-in bench /banquette, which requires less space in the long run.

Change builders if he actually prices things like that. Real builders don't price all spaces the same. They'd go broke if they did. Or they'd rake in crazy profits pricing a porch the same as a kitchen!

"Could the safe room double as a pantry?

I live in tornado country, and I know it's important to have someplace to go during a storm, but I don't think it needs to a room that's 100% dedicated to that purpose."

Excellent idea ... and you'd be in there with all the bottled water, chocolate and tuna. :)

The master suite is taking up a lot of room relative to the amount of time usually spent in there.

Walking through the bathroom to get to the closet is silly, and the high humidity from the bath is not good for the clothing.

I think the center of the house will be dark, and you probably will need artificial lighting during the day, especially in the dining/living area.

Having a shed roof with clerestory windows might solve the problem. An example:

Thanks everyone for your thoughts, I have already contacted my drafter to make some changes to my prints! By the way, the safe room will also double as my husbands "man room" for all of his guns and hunting equipment.

50-60k sounds awfully expensive for a carport and porch. If he really charges the same for all square feet, make a bigger finished garage, and add the porch later.

I suspect if you ask for an estimate minus the garage and porch it will not decrease as much as you think.

If he wants that much for the garage and porch, what he charging for the whole house? Have you gotten comparison bids?

I prefer a closed garage, so it is less obvious if you are home or not.

What is in the hall outside the safe room? That area of the house seems overly large and down a long hall. ?wasted space. Could it be accessed from the middle of the kitchen to eliminate the long halls?

My neighbor built an over 6000 sf home including porches, and garage. She got a deal of a price since the builder said it was not as much more per square foot to make rooms bigger, as well as the unheated garage and porches with concrete floors. In other words, kind of like bulk discount or costco shopping.

Overall, lots of thoughtful detail in your design. And, of all parts to add later, garage and porch make sense to add on later. Though the roof will be more solid if the porch is part of the original construction.

Lafdr

50-60k sounds awfully expensive for a carport and porch. If he really charges the same for all square feet, make a bigger finished garage, and add the porch later.

I suspect if you ask for an estimate minus the garage and porch it will not decrease as much as you think.

If he wants that much for the garage and porch, what he charging for the whole house? Have you gotten comparison bids?

I prefer a closed garage, so it is less obvious if you are home or not.

What is in the hall outside the safe room? That area of the house seems overly large and down a long hall. ?wasted space. Could it be accessed from the middle of the kitchen to eliminate the long halls?

My neighbor built an over 6000 sf home including porches, and garage. She got a deal of a price since the builder said it was not as much more per square foot to make rooms bigger, as well as the unheated garage and porches with concrete floors. In other words, kind of like bulk discount or costco shopping.

Overall, lots of thoughtful detail in your design. And, of all parts to add later, garage and porch make sense to add on later. Though the roof will be more solid if the porch is part of the original construction.

Lafdr