Even when I clicked the link, the text was way too small for me to see what's what.

How old are the kids? What part of the country are you in? Which way is North?

I checked on Firefox and Chrome and the pic works good for me. On Flickr are you getting a magnifying glass to blow it up slightly? You can see dimensions better that way.

One kid so far - 4 years old. Plan on having 1 or 2 more.

South

The front of the house faces NE.

OK, I got it to zoom in.

I'm not at all keen on the island. Why 2 islands? Where would you store dishes? Where would you prep? The fridge (and what I assume are wall ovens) break up cabinet runs, which makes the counters next to/between them harder to use. I'd put the fridge at the end by the pantry - which also puts it closer to the dining room.

The master bath is huge - but where would you have a towel?

BR 2 and 3 have tiny closets - seems odd that you have a bedroom-sized master closet, but tiny closets for the kids. One really can't hang clothes in the corner of an L-shaped closet, so it ends up being wasted (or hard to use) space. I'd replace BR 2 closet and hall closet (linens?) with back-to-back reach in closets for the bedroom and hall. You might lose a little floor space in the bedroom, but it's generous to start with.

Bathroom 2 is tiny, with no storage space and no window. I would move the tub the the location of the BR 3 closet, move the toilet toward the outside wall, put in a window. I'd have a single sink, and add a linen closet or some kind of storage.

BR 4 - again, tiny closet, tiny bathroom with no storage and no window.

The bedrooms have tiny windows too.

The plumbing is spread out all over the house. Can you flip the kids' den with BR 4, so at least those two bathrooms will be closer to each other? That also eliminates the issue with BR 4 door opening right toward the dining room.

For privacy reasons I'd move the door on bedroom 4 down the wall so it's by the lower left corner rather than across from the opening to the kitchen.

Better yet I'd swap BR4 and the den, so you can see into the den from the kitchen (keep an eye on kids playing). Then the bathrooms for BR4 and BR3 can share a wall (more efficient for plumbing) and BR4 isn't stuck next to the garage.

I'm not big on the design of the MBR suite. Those angles are awkward and you have to pass the double doors to the hallway to get from the bedroom to the bathroom. Bathrooms and closets don't need much open floor space and your master bath and her closet have a lot. Seems like wasted space to me, esp. when her closet is as big as the study. You could use some of that space for a closet in the foyer for guest jackets, umbrellas, etc.

Looks like the Dining area is 10'4" long. Measure your table at its longest and add space all the way around for chairs and walking behind chairs, and I think that space is going to be cramped when people are in it. Try drawing in your table to scale and see if it fits with chairs and room to walk. Since that's your only dining area think about holiday meals and kids' birthday parties and whether you'll have room.

Count the corners on this house. Every corner makes the roof and foundation more complicated and raises the cost to build. This might not matter to you, but it's something to be aware of.

I'll echo Annkh's point about the kid's closets. Both Mom and Dad have very generous closets which signals that they have a lot of clothes to store. I've not yet met one mother who loves to shop for clothes for herself but is super stingy in regards to clothes buying for her children. What I do see is the clothes buying habits of parents are implemented with respect to their kids.

Picture life with a teenaged daughter, how will she cope with life if her closet is so small? The future will require constant battle with the daughter, paying for her therapy or being proactive now and planning for larger kid's closets.

Alexhouse hit the nail on the head...my girls especially for at least as many clothes as I do.

I'm not a fan of the plan overall. It seems crazy overdone in the master suite, I.e. Huge spaces, huge closets, and tiny bedrooms in the rest of the house. This would be a very expensive build too.

annkh and chicagoans and alexhouse - Thanks for the input! I appreciate your time looking at the plan and analyzing.

For the kitchen... Technically there aren't two "islands." There's an 11' center island and that will be the prep area with sink and dishwasher. The second 11' countertop is a bar area, where bar stools will go and more cabinets underneath. We won't be using wall ovens, and will go with a 48" commercial range/oven combo along the back wall.

Master Bath - Where the master shower is, look across. There's an area for holding towels and stepping out of the shower before you walk. It's almost the equivalent of the shower area itself.

Master Suite - As far as the angles go in the master suite, we were thinking about somewhere squaring off the master bath area and adding a door for privacy. We know it's a lot of wasted space, but that "entrance" to the master suite looks good. (This part of the house we've seen in person in another already built home.)

Closets - Totally and completely agree about the tiny closets. We're currently trying to work on this to make them at least a small walk in. We're dealing with the parameters of the lot and the width of the house and are limited to what we can do. I know how large the "hers" closet is and have no problem losing square footage there to put somewhere else, but it's easier said than done. You can't just take away 50 sq. ft. from there and it add on the other part of the house without comprising some other part of the house or the front elevation. But trust me, I'm well aware and I would love to have generous closets for my kids. The master "hers" closet is that size because it was formerly the study and the current study was the dining room. In order to keep the basic layout the same, that turned into a giant closet.

Already adding a window to the bathroom in bedroom 4 (and other shared bath). Upper cabinets will be added above toilets in guest baths and not much storage will be needed in bedroom four's bathroom as it will be for overnight guests. But I do like the idea of swapping the kid's den and bedroom 4.

As far as the "tiny windows" go... I don't think these windows are an indicator of what we're going to use, nor size. All of that will be decided later, once we get further in the plans.

We are having a big issue with the door to bedroom 4 being in eyesight of the entry out of the kitchen. But there's not much room elsewhere to move it based on the layout of the room. We're limited to where the bed will go, furniture, tv., etc. I have considered putting in a pocket door in the closet and having it accessed through the bathroom, but not sold on this as I'd like the bathroom to be accessible to visitors as well.

Dining area is 15'4" x 13'10".

Bedroom 2 does has a window, a rather large one facing the street.

Thanks again! Any other ideas is appreciated. We're going to have to work with the designer to try to get bigger closets in the kids' rooms, change the bath layouts and kid's den.

Michelle1973-

"I'm not a fan of the plan overall. It seems crazy overdone in the master suite, I.e. Huge spaces, huge closets, and tiny bedrooms in the rest of the house. This would be a very expensive build too."

I'm looking for constructive criticism and advice, not judgement. Expense isn't an issue. The kid's closets are small and we're working on it, but their rooms are a very good size and they'll have a playroom as well. It's not like we're sending our kids to live in a 3rd world country while we live on our side of the house!

You can't just take away 50 sq. ft. from there and it add on the other part of the house without comprising some other part of the house or the front elevation.

I started a thread on this very topic!

In your case though you don't yet have elevations, you essentially have a blank slate to do with as you please so long as you meet heed property restrictions. With a blank slate you could conceivably end up living in a home which has no connection to this floor plan at all, meaning that as you refine your requirements the floor plan of the moment will change, and then in the next iteration will change some more and then some more until you're looking at a different house altogether.

You're going to invest a lot of money into this project, so I'd counsel that you strive to make it everything you want rather than accepting expedient compromises which are going to work to hinder your lifestyle. Don't stay wedded to a plan - change it. Besides the process of constant evaluation and change often helps to put priorities in order - you really weigh what you gain against what you give up.

Never mind

This post was edited by Oaktown on Fri, Feb 6, 15 at 19:34

Thanks AlexHouse! It's always nice to hear from an intelligent person. You're absolutely right about not getting too invested in a plan, this will see many changes before we break ground.

Do you have the link to thread on the topic about moving square footage?

Here's the thread. With you being at the floorplan stage, these issues won't be as pronounced for you. Some other folks may chime in and share with you their stories about going through dozens of "do-overs" until they developed a plan they liked, meaning not just little tweaks but starting with a blank page and watching a plan develop as choices and life activities are imagined taking place within the space being planned.

The two master closets and the master bedroom entrance look like they are placed there because of the need to fill space rather than because they were designed to fit your needs. For instance, clothes on a hanger take up about 2' of space, your husband's closet is 10' wide, which leaves a 6' void between the two walls of clothes. Does he really want to walk across that void to get some clothes on the other wall or would he rather just reach for them or maybe pivot and take only one step? I'd find his closet a chore by my preferences. Secondly, he needs to fill that closet, which is usually a more difficult task for most men than for most women. If he doesn't fill that closet then that open, wasted space is likely going to look more comical than elegant.

I'm looking at the plan again - your kitchen is buried in the center of the house and relies on light from the distant DR wall to reach deep into the kitchen while the HERS closet has a nice huge window. In terms of time spent in each room psychologically benefiting from the light exposure and the views, will you really be spending more time in the HERS closet than the kitchen?

To me it makes more sense to put the closets into the center of the house and the kitchen on the windowed perimeter. That might not be possible with the footprint of this plan, so I would start afresh and keep that requirement as a priority.

Or working with the rough layout, take the master suite and plunk it down where the kids bedrooms are. This might be more efficient in terms of garage traffic at night or morning not disturbing the kids as they sleep. Secondly, put the two closets into the center where the kitchen is and move the kitchen to where the MB is now. Move the DR over to be near the kitchen. Bump out the left side of the house and rearrange the study and other rooms on the front of the house.

The point is that you have the flexibility to do major surgery on the plan at this stage. A dark kitchen versus a light and airy closet seems like less than an optimum trade-off.