I'm not seeing much in the way of privacy in this house. The powder room is right off the front door and one bedroom as well as the master bedroom are right off the living room. Why is the back door off the dining room rather than the living room? Personally, I am much more apt to want to go outside when I am in the living room than I am when I am in the dining room.

I suggest you just take your list of needs and wants to an architect and let him/her design the house.

I agree that if you plan to hire an architect, it's best to let him/her do their job. But I do think it can be useful to do this sort of plan as an exercise. It can make you think through your list of needs and wants (and hopefully know the difference!) and have struggled with the way different desires tend to lead toward compromises. You may find out that a person with a fresh eye and a whole lot of training will come up with elegant solutions to some seeming conflicts, but you'll also find out that you can't have everything, because some things just are not possibly to combine. At any rate, I would not get bogged down in a detailed evaluation of a plan at this point, just use it to get the conversation underway with the architect.

There may just be 2 of you, but I sure wouldn't want all of the bedrooms opening so blatantly to the living space. If you had to sell this house, I think you'd have a real problem.

Anne

Things are not to scale: the MB shower looks like it must be 26x46, which is not a permissible size. The tub facing the way it does makes getting in/out crowded and will look pretty awful.
The basement stairs do not work; there is no headroom, and making the headroom legal is going to spoil the bedroom they will take the space from. The problems with planning/organization of space pointed out by others are valid. IMO you need a clean start. And a copy of architectural graphic standards 2014 edition.
Casey

The MB door opening in the middle of the living room is odd. The MB tub seems extremely large. Have you ever actually used a tub that large?

I think you still need a linen closet, but here are a few ideas. I moved the tub to the outside wall and you'd need a bump out to include it.

As for the basement, I think it would be safer to make that a pocket door. Maybe a French style, with glass? It would match the style of the office doors. Hope this helps :) {{gwi:2134448}}From Kitchen plans

This post was edited by lavender_lass on Mon, Dec 8, 14 at 13:59

I have to echo the question concerning the tub: Have you used a tub that large?

We frequently stay in a certain hotel (near our daughter's university), and it has a GIANT tub. It's, um, fun to have use of that tub occasionally . . . but it takes forever to fill up, and with such a large surface area, the water doesn't stay warm as long as it does in a smaller tub. If you have such a tub, you definitely need to have a water heat that can handle its size.

I wouldn't want to own it.

Likewise, I used to think I wanted jets in my tub . . . until we stayed at a hotel with that type of tub, and I found that I didn't like the noise of the jets.

The larger point: It is wise to "try before you buy" whenever possible.

Lavender, you almost always come up with such good changes. Nice work here!

A couple of more suggestions applied to LL plan, if you keep this plan--
Consider making the entrance to the MBR through the closet from the little hall, and put a pocket door, a 3' regular door, or double doors to close off that hall. Put sliding mirrored doors on both sides of the closet. I realize these aren't "in" anymore, but I had them in a similar situation for decades and loved them.

Whew! Now you'd only have one BR opening into the LR, and the house would have more privacy.

My DH has difficulty sleeping at night and I know at least a couple of other people who have developed sleep apnea as they've gotten older, or prostate issues that wake them. 2 doors between DH and the kitchen noise allows him to take naps during the day when I'm working in there, and if we go to bed and get up at different times, which happens more the older we get, we each can function well in the house while the other person is sleeping/napping without waking each other. As he's recuperated from several medical situations, the separation between the BR & kitchen has made life a lot easier for both of us.

Anne

Thanks, Anne :)

As Casey mentioned, the stairs do not work. Perhaps they could turn and go under the storage area? That would mean a smaller storage area. However, the door over the stairs needs to swing the other way, you cannot have it swing over the stairs.

Thank you so much for your comments; you are wonderful. I just wish to do this exercise before going to architect. I'm sure will be lots of questions from him but I wish to have a starting point to discuss. I never designed a house in my life; just a pole barn and sheds :)
So I did some changes based on your comments and wish to thank you again.
- The 1/2 bath is gone, yes is a bungalow and not reason to be there.
- The stairs didn't work before (even the SW is shown me that but I ignored) so I used a landing area and switch 90deg under the storage room (pantry).
- The "huge " bath tub" is gone (was huge because I picked a "huge" symbol...
- I moved the access door between LR and DR. That door will go on the deck.
- The suite and MB are changed and fireplace moved on MB wall.
- Island added in the kitchen. Yep, make sense and looks great.

We are planning to have a cathedral ceiling just in the living room and the 9' ceiling in rest of the rooms. And strange but 1900sqft are there; I trust the SW...:)

Just a quick note...I don't think your closets are deep enough. You might want to include a linen closet in the hall bath, too.

Keep working on it! You're making progress :)

It does show improvement. Two things stand out to me:

- You can't support the roof as it is shown now. Back to the truss thing.

- I see a house with large public areas and small bedrooms. You say it's just the two of you. This house would fit a couple who frequently entertains -- but typically just has people over for meals, not overnights. Does this reflect your needs?

And several small tweaks:

- In the office, the inswing of the French doors will eat up some of the already-modest floor space. I'd consider pocket doors. You can "pocket" French doors.

- If you move the back French doors a bit to the right, it'll be dead-ahead of the entry door, creating a lovely sight line.

- You can get some storage in the master bath by cutting 10-12" off the shower and putting in a "linen tower" in such a position that it'll serve the sink area well.

Is it only going to be for 2 people or children in the future? We have closets like that in our MB but my wife also uses one of the closets in another bedroom. She doesn't get rid of 'anything'! Just the 2 of us.

This post was edited by robin0919 on Wed, Dec 10, 14 at 0:18

I"d put a 3rd closet next to the MBR closets, thus making a hall between it and the MBath wall. This would provide more privacy for the MBR, the BR, & hall bath.

Anne

If you move the hall bathroom sink down (instead of being smack dab in the middle) you could use one of the sides for a linen tower - all the way to ceiling which makes great use of that space.

Nice to see another person interested in ICF on the boards!

Yes, if you are building with 8-10" forms, they eat up ALOT of square footage.
My current 2700 sq ft home would be at least 300sq ft smaller if I nixed the ICF idea...but that's not gonna happen. ;)

Just a sketch trying to get more privacy for the bedroom entrances and also avoid looking straight into the bathroom from the bed. I did enlarge the bath some by taking some of the space at the foot of the bed, but there was a lot of extra space there that I think will be better used in the bath. Not sure on clearances etc. but this might at least get you started.

Do you need three bedrooms on the first floor, if you also plan to have a basement? Or can you increase the square footage and think about a partial basement/part crawl space?

If it's just the two of you, it might make more sense to have two bedrooms upstairs...a larger master, upstairs laundry, larger 2nd bedroom and better closet space. If you want to include a full basement, then you can have a family room space, maybe a bar/small kitchen area and a couple more bedrooms with bath.

I have friends with the concept you're showing. They had 4 kids at home (all teenagers) when they bought the house. Now one is still living at home (about to move out) and they're trying to sell their house. Everyone looking at the house wants the laundry on the main floor...just something to consider :)

Hi,
Here is a cathedral hip roof I built years ago; the architect had an engineer approve it. So with some timber trusses, it is possible. all the moreso if the mid-wall of your plan can be load-bearing.
Just takes writing a nice check to the engineer.
{{gwi:2134449}}
Casey