I can't read all the labels - what's the space between garage an laundry? What's the bumpout in the kitchen? I believe you have a long stretch of closet along the west wall - what's at the end? It seems a crying shame to waste a whole exterior wall with closet: if you put that long closet between bedroom and great room, not only do you provide sound insulation, but you gain windows on another wall in the bedroom.

With the exception of the master bath (which is enormous), the bathrooms are tiny, crowded, and have no storage. I would eliminate the jack and jill bath, combine those two bathrooms into one, eliminate one sink (kids typically don't use the bathroom at the same time), and add some storage to that bathroom.

Where do you plan to eat most of your meals? The dining room is somewhat removed from the kitchen, and I don't think the island is big enough to seat 5. Even if it was, I can't really see a family of 5 eating dinner at the island every night.

What part of the country are you in? How old are the kids? Will the office be used as an office (work from home), or will it be living space? Even though this is a huge house, there is no place for kids to hang out separate from adults, except for their bedrooms.

Thank you so much for responding. The space between garage and laundry is an unfinished storage room. The the extra storage space at the end of the long (his) closet is his gun storage room. I was hoping that all the light from big north wall windows and windowed French doors would be lots of light. You don't think so? I'm sort of hesitant to make it too bright, but I don't want dark and dreary either. Thanks for the suggestion.

The bump out in the kitchen is a breakfast nook with built in benches like this inspiration photo:

We have 3 kids (son is 7 medically fragile with a nurse, wheelchair) and two girls 1 and 3 years old. I put an open (no doors) flex room at the end of the hall that can be used for TV/play/etc for their extra living space.

Husband uses office for work from home. I would use Desk in pantry for my needs.

Closer up photos

Your closets and storage space need work. a 9 x 6 closet is kind of worthless. Clothes take up 2 feet per side, really a bit more as stuff sticks out. That leaves you 2 feet of space in between, it is really not enough to comfortably select clothes. You will feel like you are entering a cloth cage when you go in there. The same thing happens in the other closet, you get 2' of walkway that is 13' long. Your pantry is gigantic, which may be nice or it may be a giant waste of space and money. Which then brings us to the also large butlers pantry. I think you need to shrink you pantries a bit and grow your closets. Just my 2 cents. Also, figure out if you have to consider resale or not.

I'd bring the master bedroom closet in to the middle of the house. This will allow you to have windows on two sides of the bedroom, while also forming a sound barrier between the great room and the bedroom.

I also agree that the closet needs to be wider to be useful.

Is that the washer/dryer in a closet in the master suite? I'd hate that. With no place to keep laundry baskets or to fold clothes, you're constantly going to have piles of dirty stuff right in the master bedroom doorway. I like the idea of having it NEAR the master, but not in that space. Also consider how you're going to vent the dryer.

I can't see the master bathroom well, but it seems to be very spread out ... for no real purpose. For example, you have two sinks crammed together in a small vanity, which means no drawer storage ... and then acres of empty space leading to a windowless toilet closet. With this much space, everything should be comfortable -- what you have now is just lots of floor space.

I'd look at eliminating the square-footage-gobbling hallway.

The kitchen is over-sized. When people say they want a large kitchen, they usually really mean they want a highly functional kitchen that'll make cooking easy. Lots of counterspace doesn't = highly functional. Consider how many extra steps you'll have to take in this kitchen to prepare a meal. Consider, too, that you're planning a monster-sized pantry, which is the best and cheapest way to store your stuff -- you don't need that PLUS all those expensive countertops.

I'm assuming Bedroom #2 is for your son, whom you describe as medically fragile? Is that bathroom adequate? I'd consider taking in some of the butler's pantry to allow more space for his special needs. Note that this bathroom has no storage space -- I'd want at least a linen tower.

The jack-and-jill bath also has no storage space. Also, you'll want to flip the door in the bathtub/toilet room so it doesn't prevent someone from entering the tub. This room is very minimal.

In the other hall bath, with the toilet on one side and the sink on the other, how can anyone enter the shower? Since all the bedrooms are already served by a bathroom, do you really need this shower? As a powder room, this'd be comfortable -- as a full bath, it's too crowded.

Overall, I think the secondary bathrooms are really quite lacking. All of them need storage, space for a clothes hamper and a trash can. I'd give up the flex space and enlarge the bathrooms.

Note that in the girls' bedrooms, with closets on one side and window seats on the other side, the girls can only place their beds in one spot.

Finally, I don't like a garage-shoved-out-in-front of any house, but an oversized garage will really overshadow even this fairly large house.

Honestly, I think you can do a whole lot better than this house plan.

Thank you everyone for your advice so far. I've redrawn the master completely, does this seem more appropriate? I eliminated the butlers pantry and enlarged bathrooms and closets. Please tell me what you think now?

I know it looks fuzzy but there is a seated corner vanity with mirror in bedrooms 3 & 4 in the nook between entryway and closets for hair/makeup since they are sharing a bathroom. Is that too strange?

When I was preparing to build my house I used Publisher. The program doesn't need any special skills and makes available a lot of versions to improve the house plan. It is not more complicate than Word.

tcufrogS answer is absolutely correct. No house plan without the land. House must have conversation with the land and surrounding (nature features, neighbors buildings and the Son).

Sorry for my English.

nataliia...

There's nothing wrong with your English. You're perfectly easy to understand. I posted that because I keep seeing members posting plans they've designed without addressing whether they've bought land and whether said land has any restrictions that affect how they can use the land and where they can build on the land. Until you know those things any design you come up with is a pie in the sky fantasy.

The land we bought has some crazy restrictions on it because of neighborhood restrictions and the contours of the land. We bought the land anyways because it's absolutely gorgeous and the location and price were ideal. Any house we would have designed before we bought the land wouldn't have worked on this lot because the shape we have to work with is so odd.

Hi,

You may not get a ton of detailed responses to your plan. It doesn't make a lot of sense to refine a plan like this much, now. You won't be building for a few years, you have not identified a lot, and you will be using an architect when the time comes. No discussion of desired costs. With that much potential uncertainty, it is hard to motivate people to rev up the brain power IFYKWIM. : )

And you are a bit extreme in the disconnect between the interior and the exterior (it could well be quite ugly if you don't try to design both interior and exterior at the same time). I think you should very much care that the exterior is attractive! Why not? It is almost, might I say, irresponsible to take on a project that marshalls the level of resources of a custom home build requires, without trying to make sure you create something economically viable/saleable, whatever your current expectations with regard to resale.

My advice is this. First, are you sure you want/need a custom build? It is generally the most expensive option, so only do it if you want it and it makes sense to you. My second piece of advice is to educate yourself about property markets so you are ready to buy the right piece of land when it becomes available. My third piece of advice is to start talking to people now about architects and builders and looking at their projects and getting recommendations. I would spent the next couple of years getting educated, but going to the trouble of drawing plans and working out nuances is probably not the best use of your time. It's kind of fun (at least I think so) but it's really a case of the cart way way way before the horse, IMHO.

The labels are not visible. How are you planning to utilize between your laundry and garage? I found am amazing floor plan on the internet http://sshomes.ca/documents/142009KZ.pdf. I found they have intelligently utilized the entire space. I completely agree with others that you can do a lot better with your closet and make it much wider. You need to customize your son’s bathroom to meet special needs. Try installing a lower level sink for him. An extra basin that can be easily lowered to your kid’s height can serve the purpose.