You should draw the stairs accurately using the US convention unless the house is located in another country. Show the rising stair up to a diagonal cut line at about 4 ft above the floor and label all arrows up or down starting from the main plan level.

It would also help to label the plans. The dimensions are too small to read.

If the bedroom windows are casements check to be sure they qualify as emergency escape and rescue openings.

You might pull the bath vanity into the bathroom and put some cabinets on the other side of the wall.

The toilet room doesn't look right but I can't see the dimensions. It looks short and the pocket door seems too large for the pocket in the wall. I would scrap the pocket door if at all possible, a frequently used door should be more convenient to use IMHO.

I realize they are small but they are sized for my builder on 24x36" paper.

Also unless there is an option I missed in AutoCAD Architecture, that is how it draws Staircases.

I tried providing links for full size, but they appear to not have worked. I will try again.

Here is a link that might be useful: Full Size First Floor

Second Floor

Here is a link that might be useful: Full Size Second Floor

It's not clear if the stair on the main level is going up or down but it should be going up and down if there is a basemnt as well as a second floor. The single run shown can't serve both floors.

I would never allow a CAD program to draw a stair for me.

You might try not excluding the schedules and increasing the size of the image.

I meant try excluding the schedules (and perhaps even the garage)

How do you envision using your new house? Do you like to work in the yard; will you be out on the lake frequently (swimming? boating? fishing?). Will you have overnight guests? My first thought is that if you are outdoors alot (using the lake, etc.) you would be better served to have the laundry and mudroom combined, or a secondary laundry (like a small stackable) somewhere near the mudroom and both easily accessible when coming in from the lake, deck or yard. (After coming in from a swim or relaxing with a beverage on the deck, where will you enter? Where will you hang your wet towel?)

Or place a laundry/mudroom combo near the entrance for the walkout basement, which will be great to have.

You might consider putting a full bath on the second floor (and the basement) rather than a half bath, as no doubt there will be guests who want to visit your awesome new house. This would let you have friends crash in the loft or give you the flexibility to someday put another bedroom in the loft space or bonus room space.

{{gwi:1509936}}

PS - The door from the garage into the house might be handier moved up so that it opens onto the hallway. Then if you're coming in with bags of groceries, you can go right into the pantry. Or if you're coming in with mucky fishing gear, you go left into the mudroom, and you'll have a nice long unbroken wall in the mudroom for hooks, cubbies, a bench, etc.

We are trying to create a nice outdoor living environment with the first floor, There is a lot of flow to the outside between the great room and kitchen on the main floor with the French doors in hearth and Nana wall in the great room

The plan was to do a secondary mudroom (which could include a laundry) off the walk out entrance.

The basement entrance would be the main outside entertaining area for outdoor activities, as we plan on creating multiple tiers of decks and patios. Where first level area is entertaining and relaxing, and the lower level is activities (think older up, and younger down)

Full bath on the second is great idea.

Everybody's house is so personal to the way they live; so, this may suit you. In general, I feel like there is a lot of inefficient use of space. The entry and master bath has a lot of wasted space, and then there is the winding path of hallway around the island staircase. I personally like open floor plans, and with the staircase being in the middle of the house, it cuts off the flow of the main living areas. It might help to get rid of the wall between the hearth and the staircase, but I'd just rework the stair placement. I also agree with chicagoans that you should put a full bath both downstairs and upstairs. It'll give subsequent buyers flexibility in adding bedrooms upstairs and downstairs. I'm also not sure why you have some steps going up to the master bedroom. I really wouldn't like that. It defeats the purpose of having a ranch and it reminds me of a split level. Also, I don't get the point of that alcove in front of the master bedroom. It's too small to be functional and looks like it's going to be a dark little cave with no natural light.

We actually started with a full open floor plan, where the kitchen and great room ran right into each other and decided to go a different direction. But I do understand everyone likes things differently.

The wall between the hearth and staircase is something we've gone back and forth about, we believe we would like this area to feel more cozy, thusly framed it in, also putting a ceiling over it with the loft.

The steps up to the master serve purpose for a few reasons. One it will allow for full height windows in the basement due to being raised a few feet. Secondly it helps create the start of the multi-tier deck arrangement. We visited a model home setup something like this, and it was a very cool feature of the home. My girlfriend actually likes the little alcove as a small potential sitting area.

I do agree that the master bathroom area (walk in closet included) is a mess, but I struggle with coming up with something elegant yet space efficient at the same time. Actually, redesigning the entire master suite area is not something I am against.

The stair to the loft serves a minor part of your house but it takes up a major place in the first floor plan which is made worse by the double-back feature and it also creates multiple corridors.

Also, the stair rises next to a two story space but is completely closed off from it; yet it is open to a narrow corridor.

I would try to either get it out of the center of the living spaces or make it a straight run stair in as open a space as possible.

Sorry to pick on your stair but the stair is a much more important design issue than closets.

Bathrooms: as others have pointed out, you should have a full bath on any floor where there might be sleeping rooms. If you intend to ever sell this house, there should be a full bath on the 2nd floor and in the walkout basement. (Currently, it looks as if the master bath is the only full bath in the plan.)

The laundry location will be very annoying to anyone who has more than a single couple in the house--they go up/down stairs, **across the house**, up stairs and then into a laundry room.

Stairs: How do you go downstairs? Do you really want the stairs between the great room and the kitchen? The stairs take up a lot of room in the middle of the house--especially considering you don't intend to use them often.

Accessibility: By adding stairs to the master bedroom, the master bedroom will not be accessible to someone with limited mobility. As others have pointed out, that negates some of the advantages of a first floor master.

Kitchen/Hearth area--there's a lot of space there but I'd be concerned about the actual cabinet layout before I started building. Since the back wall is primarily windows, that will influence how the cabinets are laid out. You'll also want to be sure there's sufficient room for a large table, since that is your only eating space--at least, I assume there will be eating space in there someewhere! Although the space is large, it is fulfilling 3 functions: kitchen, dining, "hearth".

Entry way: The entryway looks as if it's over 160 square feet. At even *cheap* construction costs, do you really want to spend $16,000 for an entryway? It is large and will be a huge empty space when you enter the house. What is the purpose of having it so large? I guess you could put a large sculpture in the middle.

Flows: The pathways from the garage to the kitchen or garage to the bedroom or garage to the great room are all filled with turns. I think the flow could be improved.

Pantry/Officette: What exactly is an officette? How would furniture be arranged here? Pantry shelves don't need to be very deep--the room is too wide to just be a pantry, but isn't really big enough to be an office.

Also, does it make sense for one of you to have an 'officette' in an INTERIOR room when the laundry room and mud room both get windows?

Office: At that size, it should be big enough to share. If you don't want to share it, I'd consider making two separate offices. For that matter, I'd consider making them "bedrooms" with the intent of using them as offices. That would mean putting in a closet--and turning the powder room into a full bath (or adding another bath).

Master bath: There is a lot of wasted space here--it looks as if it's about 11' from the vanities to the shower--that's an entire room--all empty space. The tub gets a back window, but there's a lot of unused space in front of it--on top of all the empty space in the middle of the master bath.

Master closet: Some people don't like walking through a bathroom to get to a closet, but that doesn't bother me. What does bother me is what you're gong to do with an 11' wide closet. I *like* big closets, don't get me wrong. But closets are most valuable along the walls--what are you going to do with that space in the middle? Some people put dressers and benches in the middle, but if you're going to do that, what are you going to put in the 16x18 bedroom?

Foyer to master bedroom: It is big enough to walk through, but not really big enough to put furniture in. You said your girlfriend was interested in making it a sitting room, but given that you have a HUGE bedroom, a great room, and a hearth room, why would you consider putting a sitting area in an interior, private space near the laundry?

Owners Suite to bathroom: I can't tell if there's really supposed to be a door there--it looks too big for a pocket door--and most people do want a door to their master bath, since couples don't necessary get up at the same time.

I admit that a 4.5 car garage would be fun to have :-).

I'm afraid I don't like this plan--it doesn't use space well, I don't think it'd be easy to live in--even looking at it as a two person house, and you'd be walking through a lot of open space. This house is big and would take a lot of money to build--and I don't think it's a particularly livable plan.

I think you ought to look at a lot more existing floor plans or find yourself an architect.

Bathrooms: Agreed on the second floor full bath.

Laundry: Originally we had designed a washer/dryer right in the master w.i.c. and a separate laundry. However when the plan was changed to bring it down in size those were combined into a laundry off the master. I do agree with what you are saying up and down steps, but the master suite area is only a 2 foot rise, so like 3 steps. I'm not 100% sold on it, but did like the setup in a model home we saw.

Stairs: You will go downstairs on the same stairway, it will be two stacked switchback staircases. It doesn't necessarily need to be there, but I also don't want the kitchen and great room to run right into each other. I'm not fond of that look.

Accessibility: Agreed, and again it's not a definite, just a feature we did like from a model home we saw.

Kitchen/Hearth area: We will have no formal dining room (however the loft could serve as one during large holiday parties.) The kitchen would be starting at the back (window wall) sink, then on the east wall range, then on the south wall fridge/freezer. with a 10x5' island with seating in the middle.
The hearth room is more breakfast nook than hearth room, however it would be setup more comfortable; couch and chair around the fireplace, and maybe a small round table.

Entry way: Agreed, and this is another remnant of our original plan. The Loft was above it, which made the entry slightly larger than normal. However not quite as big as it is now. I agree things need to be tightened up in that area. I could perhaps redesign the back hall/mudroom and get a secondary laundry in there again.

Pantry/Officette: Some people call it a planning center, officette, what have you. Basically think of it as a drop zone as soon as you walk in the door for keys, mail, groceries etc... Plus maybe a computer for kitchen and bill paying purposes.
Windows are a Non-factor, as the officette is not a place you spend a great deal of time in.

Office: It is big as the G/F is an attorney and may at times work from home, in which she wants a space big enough to work from home, and still treat it as a shared space.

Master bath: There is for sure a huge waste of area here. The bath tub area however is planned, it is planned as a separate relaxing "bath room" with a chair sitting area, and a place to just chill away from everything.
But everything else I agree, I personally want a huge shower (4x8' min) which was driving the layout somewhat, but this area including the closet is my area where I dislike things the most.

Master closet: Can't answer that completely.....

Foyer to master bedroom: Again, was driven by the raised area, and could be completely eliminated if we went away from it.

Owners Suite to bathroom: That is probably just an oversight on my part.

You wrote: I personally want a huge shower (4x8' min)

Our shower is slightly bigger than 4x6 -- trust me, you don't need it to be any bigger. 4' is wide enough to stand so that your hands are on your hips and you don't hit the walls or door. 6' is long enough for a shower head at each end and not "being in" each other's spray. Our shower wouldn't be "more pleasant" if it were 2' longer. Depending on the door type you want, there are few options over 6' (we regret our extra 2").

Kitchen/dining/hearth--I repeat my recommendation to layout furniture and cabinetry--that space is not as big as you think for 3 spaces. Even if you don't need a formal dining room, you do need a space for a kitchen/dining table. For a house that size, you'd want to be able to seat 6-8 (or more).

I would strongly recommend against having a floor plan that doesn't allow for a table. An island is fine--but it's not a table. Giving up a formal dining area is one thing--but giving up room for a table to fit 6-8 is something else.

Kitchens don't need to be "big"--they need to be well laid out--a large space does not necessarily make for a great kitchen design. My kitchen is about 15' square--it's a nice size--not too big, definitely not too small.

Our dining nook is 12.6' wide--you wouldn't want a table area to be any smaller. So you're up to 27'--where would you get room for any seating whatsoever beyond the table and kitchen cabinets?

Pantry--take another look at it--you have a 4' wide corridor. To the right of that 4' wide corridor, you have an 8.5' walk-through pantry. If 30" of that is walkway (minimum amount) than you have room for 3' of shelf on either side. But pantries don't need to be that deep. If you're going to put a desk in there, then the walkway probably shouldn't be straight down the middle. Having 6.6' of walkway in that small square footage seems like a tremendous amount of wasted space.

I see a LOT of wasted space--but the LIVING space isn't that big. 18x19 is a nice sized great room--but it isn't huge, especially since it has to include walking space.

Its your plan, and your house--but it looks to me like your plan was to build a 1 bedroom, 1 full bath, 3500+ square foot house. You've updated it to be a 1 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 3500+ square foot house.

I would never suggest that anyone build *just* for resale--but it's something everyone has to keep in mind. There were choices we made that were made because it's what we wanted and weren't necessarily ideal for current resale (a peninsula and not an island in the kitchen, a large shower but not a whirlpool tub in the master bath).

But I doubt there's much of a market *ANYWHERE* for a 3500sq ft one bedroom house--especially one that that has such a poor flow.

I understand that it's your plan and you designed it and you want to design your own house. We tried to design our own house--and it just didn't work--we had all the pieces we wanted, but that didn't mean we could put them together so that it formed a cohesive whole. We ended up finding a plan that we liked and making some rather extensive changes--making it "ours", but recognizing that being brilliant doesn't make us architects :-).

I'll be interested if you get many positive feedbacks on this plan--to me, it looks hard to live in and expensive to build.

"But I doubt there's much of a market *ANYWHERE* for a 3500sq ft one bedroom house--especially one that that has such a poor flow. "

I agree with bethohio3!
I would also make the office a bedroom.

OP: "We will have no formal dining room (however the loft could serve as one during large holiday parties." - THAT would be a royal PITA! Seriously, lugging food, dishes, etc. up and down stairs... not my idea of a good time.

The OP says his girlfriend wants a large office.
And.. regarding the wasted space between the stairs and the MBR: "My girlfriend actually likes the little alcove as a small potential sitting area. "
And... "The bath tub area however is planned, it is planned as a separate relaxing "bath room" with a chair sitting area, and a place to just chill away from everything. "

So much space is being wasted giving the girlfriend "space"...

Anyway...
it ultimately is YOUR house, for YOUR way of living, not ours. You can plan and build as you see fit.

If I thought it was perfect I wouldn't have posted it, I obviously need to go back and think more about the flow then just getting what I want in it.

But I will say the office will not be a bedroom....