I already see something wrong, the island will be 4x11, not 30" by 11.

Okay, to be completely honest, I'm don't like it at all. It doesnt flow well, the room sizes are odd, and dysfunctional. Have you looked at existing floor plans?

For example, the master is huge, but there's not a great place to put a bed, it would have to be cramped in one corner. the master opens directly into the living room. There's no window in the master bath.

Stairs take up a large foot print and should not be an afterthought.

This plans needs a lot of work before you can start construction.

Not sure what a Trophy Room is, but maybe it would work just as well in that 22' x 12' space. Swap the Trophy Room and Laundry/Pantry with the Master Suite.

Schmeltz- What do you like most about this floor plan? What feature or room relationship really makes you happy with this plan? It has some good points (lots of light in the living room, corner windows in the dining room and a big fireplace/stove in the trophy room...but it does need some work. The first thing I would do is make some furniture pieces to go into your home plan. Try placing the furniture in each room and I think you'll see why you need to make some adjustments, to your plan.

Is your main entry, the door into the kitchen? Are you sure you want your powder room door opening into the living room? I'd rather rework it, so that you get to the powder room from the laundry/pantry area. Maybe redo that space so that you include a small hall with pantry and bath access, then the laundry room.

Are you sure you want to walk through the kitchen, to go from the living room into the dining area? Are you having stools at the island? Is all that space behind the island (by the windows) just walkway?

Is the porch covered or screened? Is it an entertainment area? Do you access the living room from the porch (as in company coming to visit) or do they all enter through the kitchen?

Pps is right...the stairs are going to be an important and large feature in your home and their location should be decided, before the plan is finished. Right now, I'm guessing they'd go along the inside wall of the living room (and move the powder room door) or from the living room, through what is currently the master closet and into the toilet area. I don't see how the stairs would work in the trophy room, unless you took out one wall of windows for the staircase.

I think it would be a VERY good idea to think about hiring an architect to help you with your plan. It might be a little more money, but a good plan is so important...and you also want a good flow between the rooms. It might save you some money, too, if you could put your plumbing areas closer together and think about wiring, heating, cooling and all the other systems that go into a house.

Planning, planning, planning is the key to building a home...as location is to buying/selling a home. Hope this helps and best of luck with your first custom build project :)

Do I understand correctly that the front door is the double (outswinging) doors into the living room, and the master is immediately off where everyone will walk in?

And, the Master exterior doors are the same as the living room/entry doors?

These both seem awkward.

Perhaps the entry door is the inswinging door into the kitchen? But, then, you are walking right into the kitchen. Also, not the best scenario.

I think you need to think about how you will move about the house, starting with how a guest would approach the house, enter, set their coat, etc. And, rework your plan.

Honestly, I haven't been thrilled with any of the floor plans that I have done, and I haven't been thrilled with the floor plans I've looked at.

The trophy room is the taxidermy room. It needs lots of wall space, and my husband will absolutely not move it. He is building the stone fireplace, like he did at his parents house, and wants it to be on the outside. I personally don't mind it being separate from the rest of the house, because honestly, I get tired of looking at dead animals on every inch of wall in the living room now. And some of my family is really just freaked out about having animals staring at them. There should have been a window in the master bath, a huge picture window that will look out into the woods. The closest I can do to an outdoor shower with the luxury of heat in winter. I did however, forget to do it in the plan.

Things that are set in stone...
32x48 with trophy room, however the size of it can change. I don't like the extra appendage sticking out, and think it looks off, I suggested just adding another few feet to that entire side and following the roof line out and leaving it open to the second story there. He didn't buy into it.

The master bedroom and living room have to be on the back side and so does the porch. It's absolute necessity for us to be able to walk out of the bedroom onto the porch. We will most likely move a bed out there during the spring and fall while the weather is nice. I also feel like the living room should walk out to the porch, just because it's where we spend a great deal of time. If we're not outside, we're in the living room or the kitchen.

The kitchen, the back wall has to stay pretty close to where it's at now.

There needs to be a pretty close to center line running through the middle of the house longways. Because of the posts in the basement. A couple feet one way or the other is ok, but it needs to be as close to centrally located as possible. This is what is causing most of the headache.

I have to have a fairly decent sized pantry. It needs to keep the smaller deep freezer, dry goods, and everything I can during the year. Not so much now, but walking up and down stairs is not what I want to do to get a meal started if I can help it. I like the idea of it being right inside the door, so I can unload groceries when I walk in.

Everything else can be changed around. I'm not a huge fan of hallways, but if they are necessary for good flow, it can be done. I hated the master bedroom layout the minute we started drawing it out. It's just how it ended up. The kitchen is too big or too small and the dining room is on the smaller scale for the table that needs to go into it. I could really care less about the laundry room, as I don't spend a ton of time in there, and almost everything gets hauled out to the clothesline and usually folded wherever I feel like sitting. I'm going to work on a few more floor plans and will post them tonight or tomorrow.

From a resale standpoint you have so many issues with this plan. Since you said resale was important.

1. Majority of people do not want to walk straight into a living room without some separation and thus much less straight into the kitchen like your plan has it.

2. People want some privacy with entries to bathrooms. They don't want these to open into main living areas.

3. Many want a bathtub in the master, or at least one downstairs. If there are bedrooms down stairs.

4. Attached two car garage, even if you don't see a need for one, you'd need to figure out how you'd attach one and make sure it can be done without looking like an after thought and enter into the house in good spot.

5. Closet space.

6. Counter space and the ability of more than one person to be in the kitchen. Ie somebody can use the stove and somebody else the sink without colliding.

7. Large areas of Wasted space that doesn't makes sense for furniture placement etc. Hallways aren't bad when they have a purpose.

8. People generally want some privacy for their master from main living areas. Doesn't need to be far removed, but just the illusion of separation helps, Such as a short hallway.

As others say starting with an existing plan that meets most of what you want and modify from there would likely be a much better place to start.

I agree with those who say there isn't much to like about this plan.

I'm going to mention the pantry/laundry, though. As drawn, it is almost useless as a pantry. There isn't any room for shelves. Access to the chest freezer takes up a lot of space, as does access to the washer/dryer. I don't see where you can put 12" deep shelves to store food.

Find an existing plan that is close to what you want and then use that as a start for modification. A house with both a living room and a family room can be modified to turn a room into a trophy room.

Others have mentioned the stairs, but since you don't have an upstairs planned out yet, it isn't clear where your children are going to sleep.

What you have here will be very difficult to sell--and not that easy to live in.

It also won't be easy to build--even if you're doing the work yourselves, you want finished plans before you start. Sure, everyone makes modifications, but if you don't have plans, you will find that you can't make the decisions you want to once you're midway into the building of it.

OK, so I'm hoping I get a slightly better review on this floor plan. I think I took most of what everyone mentioned and put it in place. Only leaving what the husband wouldn't budge on. While resale is important, I feel like it's not nearly as important as loving the house that I will be living in for the next 10-15 years or maybe for the rest of my life. As far as an attached garage goes, it will have to come later, and I have no idea where it will go, so any suggestions are welcome there. It cannot go anywhere on porch wall on the back of the house, because it's a steep drop off, and it can't go on the wall where the fireplace is in the trophy room. I'm also not sure I like the idea of the door in the laundry room/pantry. Awesome when I'm bringing in a few arms worth of groceries, but not so great when visitors choose to use that door. Our current home has the laundry room set up in the mudroom off the back door, and it's the only door people use. It can be a real mess in there at times and it's a tiny room anyways. The upstairs is still in limbo. Husband wants a gambrel roof, and I would rather just have a full second story, so we're not dealing with dormers and awkward roof lines everywhere.
{{gwi:1517385}}

This is better.

Your laundry/pantry still isnt too functional as a pantry. There is still not a good wall for shelves (you've put a pocket door on the one wall that might have worked, but with a pocket, I don't think you can securely attach the shelves to that wall).

Also, you state that you don't really like the trophy room, but I think that most people would likely come into the home from the front porch which is only accessed by the trophy room.

What do you plan to put at the foot of your bed (in the big space between the bed and the stairs)? And, what would you think of reversing your stairs--so that the base is near the door, and the up is near the hallway? The reason I ask is there is a lot of room there that is lost to space. You could potentially fit in the 1/2 bath there. Then, you have more room for your laundry/pantry to actually function as such. Also, if you think your guests will use that door as an entry, then you can make it a little more entry-like (although, they will have to walk through your kitchen to get to the living room).

I can't remember if you had a specific reason for having the living room at the back of the house? I know you said you have to have the double doors to the porch, but can't remember if perhaps the dining room, say, could be back there (and kitchen) with the living room in front--perhaps a more appropriate entry?

Another alternative to think about--what will you do with all that space between the front wall of the house and the Master vanity? Seems you could better utilize that space--move the laundry to that area (freeing up the one wall in the pantry for shelves), for example.

If you are serious about later adding a garage, you need to decide where it will go. Period. Like the stairs, deciding later to just put it on, it will look like an afterthought. Flow will be interrupted. As it is now, I would think the best place would be the front side of the trophy room. With a door to the dining room. But, there really isn't room for passage in the DR to accomodate that. (Another reason I'd suggest flipping the kitchen/dining and LR areas).

Some more to think about. But, you've improved a lot in the short time so far!

I have a lot of suggestions, but before I go any further, don't you think you might need a closet in the master bedroom? The whole master bath arrangement is very much out of proportion. You don't need 10' of space for a toilet, the master vanity is much too short for 2 sinks, especially when there's so much open area where the vanity could be extended, etc. Reworking that entire area is critical.

Kitchen, dining room, powder room, laundry and pantry all need revision.

Three of us were looking at this house simultaneously and had trouble finding the front door. (one of the people was my son who is studying architecture).

We couldn't figure out the flow--people come into the house via the trophy room--which you said made people uncomfortable. Alternatively, they come in through your laundry/pantry, which makes you uncomfortable.

To reach the stairs, someone has to walk through the living room. Do you want that to be the main pathway for your family to get to their bedrooms?

Also, do you have a good sense of what size various rooms need to be?

For example, what size/configurations are needed for a powder room? 5x5 is big enough for a nice powder room--if you have a reason for a bigger one (space and money) that's fine, but I don't think that's the case here. You can google and find standard layouts, or you can look at existing floor plans.

How big is big enough for a HUGE walk in shower? This has been asked several times on this forum. Ours is 6'2" and could be a bit shorter. I don't recall anyone suggesting that more than 6' is necessary. 6' and under has more inexpensive door options as well--over 6' and you get very expensive--that extra 2" cost us $1000.

Pocket doors can only recede into walls that don't have electricity or plumbing--or that you want to hang heavy things on. Have you priced pocket door assemblies vs regular doors to determine which best fits your budget?

Not everyone is cut out to design a house--finding a plan that you can modify will probably get you closer to what you want, something that is livable, and something you'll be able to sell someday. Do you have a planned square footage you're aiming for?

My husband will be making all of the doors for the house. I think we can even make the hardware required without buying the actual hardware. We have all of the tools necessary to do so. I can definitely shrink down the shower. And I will flip the staircase and see what I can do there. We were trying to shoot somewhere around 3000 sq ft. with a full size basement. The 32x48 comes in over 3000 with the basement, but the gambrel roof cuts down a lot upstairs. The trophy room is giving me quite the headache, as well as the master and the living room being in the back of the house. Husband will not budge on the issue and he's the one doing most of the building, so I'm sort of stuck there. I'm thinking about scrapping the combined pantry/laundry, because it doesn't work well, unless the room is bigger than what I want. Trying to piece everything together and staying within the 32x48 is nearly impossible. I would ideally like to have an actual front entryway with the stairs located right outside, but can't seem to make it work. I would also like a front door smack dab in the middle of the house, because I like symmetry. I would also like a walk in closet in the master (for resale), but then I end up with funny shaped rooms. I've got a while before I need to have anything set in stone, but it would be nice to have a rough idea of how things should be laid out well before it's time to start digging a basement.

If you like central front door and stair case, and you will have a gambrel style roof, consider looking through some Cape designs. Just do a google search for Cape Floor plans. Many have a central door and stair case. And the upstairs is smaller floor area than the main floor. (easy to adapt a plan).

I think, when you do that, you will discover that most put the kitchen in the back. And, maybe if you see a lot of them, you will be able to convince your husband otherwise. (I get that there is a deck/porch in the back, but is there a view? What is the draw to NEEDING the LR on the backside?)

Can you modify this, for example:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_mtRLpYr-C8Y/Sa648VicHUI/AAAAAAAAA1A/jmVqiUve2Dk/s400/Cape+Style+Timber+Frame+Floor+Plan+1.jpg

Or, this:
http://www.muncyhomes.com/images/Floor%20Plans/Capes/FloorPlans/Gif%20Files/Marshfield.gif

Here is a link that might be useful:

I think I might actually have something here. Although, it's still a bit choppy and I'm not sure I like the walk-in closet on the other side of the bathroom. However, I do have friends that have theirs that way, and they love it, mostly because there is one less door in the bedroom. It also makes most of the plumbing located in close proximity. I'm also not sure about the entry. Any input on how to make that right bottom corner set up better? I was trying to figure out a way to put the bathroom off of a hall, instead of directly connecting to a room, and I made an awkward hall that also gave me room for a closet. If this setup works, I will probably use the area under the stairs for more storage. I do like the stairs right by the entrance, which will be the main entrance to the house. I'm working on the second floor as we speak, now that I know I can have the stairs where they are and where the bathrooms downstairs are located. I had planned on stacking the bathrooms and adding a laundry chute for convenience. I loved having ours at my parents house growing up. I'm really pretty happy about this plan, and I'm sure with some minor tweaking will fix the errors that I've missed. You have been such wonderful help and I already feel better about having something figured out by the time we break ground.
{{gwi:1517387}}

Could you possibly put the kitchen where the dining room is and the entry where the kitchen is? That would leave the dining room where the entry currently is, which in my opinion would make everything flow better. Also, you should work on the hallways a bit more. There seems to be a lot of wasted space between where you have the kitchen and dining room and the entry and living room. You may want to consider adding a small closet to the entry, especially since it doesn't appear that you have much closet space on the main floor.

I think it would be pretty easy to tuck that 1/2 bath under the stairs (wherever they end up). Don't forget about wasted space under stairs. If you are looking only 2D, you don't "see" it, but there is a lot of space under there. For example, I think you can straighten out your entry area (and have a LOT of space in the entry--which you probably don't need) by moving the 1/2 bath to under the stairs and where you have the end of hall closet there. (linear bath of about 3x7). That can get you more space for the kitchen.

Also, consider switching around the Master closet and bath.
Why not walk through the closet to get to the bath? It is essentially a hallway anyway between the 2 racks of clothes. Additionally, no reason to waste a corner on a closet. Better to have the bathroom there where it can have a window or 2. Also, that lets you put your laundry and bathroom back-to-back.

How will you set up your pantry? Most of the time, it doesn't make sense to have a really deep pantry, because if it is too deep, you don't ever "find" the things in the back.

Also, don't forget, someday you want to add a garage. Where will it go? Will it be attached? (what is your climate like?)

You said you like the door in the center of the house. Why not swap the kitchen/dining block with the entry/living room block? (and flip the kitchen) This would allow you to later have the garage near the kitchen. It also allows you to get the 1/2 bath (under the stairs) near the kitchen plumbing...

Try playing with any number of those suggestions. You are getting better!

It's definately alot better!

I agree on 2 points-I think you need to decide now where the future garage will go and if it will be attached.

And the entry could be better. Since the front door lines up with the back door to the patio, it would be nice to just have a straight foyer instead of zigzagging. This would also allow you to use more floor space in the living room.

I would center the bed on that wall in the master bedroom and move the windows accordingly.

I would move the closet in the front entry so that hall can lead to the family room. That way you don't have to go throught the living room to get to the family room.

If you want symmetrical swap the dining/kitchen with the living/entry and put the garage as a wing on the other side of the house to mirror the family room.

Wow! This new floor plan is a big improvement :)

A few ideas (hope I'm not repeating anyone) but I think the entrance to the powder room would work better, if the door was opposite the stairs...and push the entire powder room back to the wall, to the living room. This would give you a few extra feet in the entry area, which you could really use, but the door would be opposite the closet...still not opening directly off the living room.

Could you make the openings larger and more centered, between the kitchen and dining room? Maybe so the arches/doorways would line up with the entire kitchen island. Also, if you don't need that wall space between the two rooms...could you take out the wall between the living room and dining room? If you like the separation, that's fine...but with no wall, you could easily expand the table, during the holidays.

It looks like you'd like a doorway, between the entry and kitchen. If you moved the powder room back a few feet (toward the living room, as mentioned above) then that would give you plenty of room. This would also make a better traffic pattern, for laundry coming from upstairs, through the kitchen and into the laundry room.

Maybe double doors or french doors, between the living room and the trophy room? I wouldn't want to see all those animal heads from the other rooms, either...and it would help control noise, especially when you're watching TV.

My mom has a bathroom, similar to the one in the master bedroom. If you're accessing your closet through this area, too...I'd take 6" to 12" off the pantry and put it in the bathroom...then switch the sink and toilet. Then, have the door open into the bathroom, resting against the linen closet. This will work out much better, than opening out to the bedroom.

If you had just a few more feet to play around with, I'd recommend moving the pantry where you have the laundry area...the laundry where you have the walk in closet (also accessed from master bath) and the master closet, where you have the pantry. It would give you more flexibility and storage in all three areas.

Maybe check out some of Summerfield's designs to get some ideas. Even better, now that you're getting closer to your final arrangement, maybe Summerfield will chime in with some ideas! No one is better, IMHO :)

{{gwi:1517389}}
{{gwi:1517391}}

OK, so this is my last attempt at the downstairs for a bit. Quite honestly, I'm not sure if I'm improving or I'm making a mess of things again. Although, I'm almost positive that I love the central entry with the stairs just inside the door that will be used the most. I also boxed in around the stairs for a pantry right off of the kitchen, but I think I'm going to have to send the deep freezer down to the basement with the big one so I have some more room for canned goods. The freezer over the fridge should be sufficient for a week or two of meat. I would have loved to use the entire area under the stairs, but the basement stairs will be under there. I also see that I have an extra step at the top that doesn't need to be there. I'm really loving the bathroom setup, but I'm not sure if it's big enough for the setup. I'm used to having a very small house with a weird layout and tiny rooms that are impossible for arranging furniture, so I'm a little lost with this much square footage. I can't imagine having a house bigger than this, because I honestly don't know what I would do.

I played around with the upstairs for a while too while the girls took their quiet/nap time. With the stairs in a central location, it makes for some funny rooms upstairs. I don't think I like the particular setup, but with two rooms with the exact same shape and sq. ft. and one that is square with almost the exact same sq. ft, I'm seeing a future with no fighting over the biggest room. Also, what do you think of asymmetrical dormers? I would love for them to be the same, but it doesn't work with the walls and no matter how I set them up, there was a wall in the way. I could skip a dormer on the bedroom next to the bathroom, because it will have a side window, and maybe do one in the two middle bedrooms? Or switch the whole layout again and make the stairs in a better location (ARGHHH!) I do think the bedrooms are a very nice size sq. ft. wise. I was also thinking that I could do a shared walk-in between the two rooms? I have three girls that are just turned 2, almost 4, and just turned 5, so they most likely will share a good portion of their wardrobe as they grow. Or I could just do two smaller closets. Just random thoughts I suppose. The living area/ playroom would look out over the two story family/ trophy room. Ideally, I love the idea of having the space, but it's fairly small and I would hate to make the room any thinner. I thought we could possibly take the floor out a few feet into the room and make the area bigger as well. Maybe do a catwalk around the family room :) OK, not really, but that would be handy for dusting.

Yay! You did it! You moved the LR to the front of the house. I wasn't sure you'd try that.

You can still have rear access to your porch--through the dining room.

Upstairs, go for reach in closets in the 2 identical rooms. It makes for more usable space in the closet, and in the room, in my opinion. Sometimes WICs aren't all they are cracked up to be.

Again, I recommend you search under google images for cape floor plan. You will get a lot of help with upstairs arrangements. Your house constraints aren't much different from a cape design--and your tastes seem to be cape-style to me (central front door, and stair cases, etc).

Your front door should open inward.
And, your pantry *could* swap places with the laundry, or the doors to the pantry could move to the hallway between the kitchen and MBR. I'm not sure if you appreciate yet, how much space is under a staircase. It is substantial.

You have been tinkering a ton. Keep it up. You are getting there, and have made some huge improvements since your first post. Congrats!

The "other bedroom" upstairs. 9 is a bit narrow. It would be better to put the closet on the longer dimension. Having a room that is as close to 10' wide as a minimum as possible is best (9.5 can work, but you are getting quite close to 9' above, and that is getting tight.)

A standard mattress is 7' long (not including bedframe, etc).

You're planning to have a basement, right? So you need stairs to go down, as well...so no storage, under the stairs. That front closet could disappear, which would show off your stairway or you could make it a coat closet. If you moved the washer/dryer under the window, you could access the laundry area from the kitchen and put a pantry area on the wall to the hallway (where you have the door, now).

The bathroom designs are SO much better and I think the entire master suite is a big improvement. The kitchen might benefit from posting on the kitchen forum, but I know they'll tell you if you leave the doorway to the dining room where you have it now (putting a pathway between the range and sink) you might want a prep sink, on the island. Or, move the fridge to the other end of the sink, slide the range cabinets up (forming an L-shape kitchen) and put the door to the dining area on the other end of the counterspace.

How closed off do you want your living room? You could make a larger opening, between the entry and living room...this would allow you to move the entrance up a bit, giving you room to open the front door into the house (I think that's a code requirement). You could also have a larger opening, between the living room and dining room. That way you'd have the dining room opening about the same size as the french doors(?) and it would bring in a lot more light. If you move the door down, between the dining room and kitchen, you might not need the doorway, between the living room and kitchen.

Upstairs...the playroom open to the family room looks great on paper, but I would worry about toys falling, into the family room. If you put the bathroom over the downstairs bath, it might save you a little money...and what about two bedrooms and a bigger playroom? You could have the girls share a room and as they get older, they can take over the playroom, if they don't want to share, anymore.

I think this is your best plan, yet! You've got a lot of talent and I think you're going to end up with a home that will be beautiful, functional...and perfect for you and your family :)

{{gwi:1517393}}
{{gwi:1517395}}

First off I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to make suggestions and offer their insight. So here is what I have now. I just made a few minor changes, and added a pantry and the laundry room off of the kitchen. I also made an extra entry to the kitchen from the back porch via the pantry. It may be too small for a mudroom, but I think more than likely, the kids will use the walkout basement entry more than anything. The plan is to clear out an area on the chimney side for us to park. So I'm thinking I might use the pantry entry when I come home from the grocery. Most of our groceries are dry goods and pantry items that I buy in bulk, so I think being able to walk directly into the pantry would be the easiest way to go. Ideally, if I could get rid of the doorway in between the living room and kitchen, I think I would like that better. Cabinet placement is tricky with this setup, and I absolutely despise corner cabinets and I'm not a huge fan of upper cabinets either. I plan on doing the full size pantry cabinet on the sink side to even out the fridge, assuming that sort of layout will work. Then do the base cabinet with a wall cabinet depth cabinet sitting directly on top with another wall cabinet on top of it. It doesn't leave a ton of counter space there, but with an island directly behind me, I would rather do it that way. And honestly, with the prices our local cabinetmaker charges, I would probably have him make more cabinets if we decided to sell the house. I think most people prefer a ton of cabinets. I honestly don't even need all of the cabinets I have in this layout. The more I look at this design, the more I'm thinking that it could easily be our forever home. With the upstairs now closed off from the family room, it made the upstairs work better. Having the dormers in also made the rooms huge! I believe the extended hallway in the middle could easily be a small sitting area or playroom as well. I am also leaving that bonus room/ storage area open for the possibility of a second bath upstairs when they hit the teenage years. We can also use the cubby space where the roof comes into the rooms for storage. I think they will only be around 3-4 ft tall and only a couple feet deep with insulation, but handy for shoes or toys. The upstairs can also be completely shut off from the downstairs after the kids move out if we wanted to stay here.

This looks much better. Have you done an elevation yet? Have you worked out how the walkout basement will fit on the land and where the future garage will go? We have a full walkout basement and it wasn't easy to get everything to work out.