Chelwa I'm enjoying watching your home plan come together. I've had three thoughts regarding your 1st floor and I'm just now taking the time to comment about them.

I'd consider changing the west door so it opens to the living room and move the mudroom pocket door wall to the exterior wall. I just prefer when there is a wall perpendicular to the hinge side of a door (ours doesn't and it's kind of awkward, but we didn't really have an option) and moving the pocket door over provides that wall. Also, traffic from the front door to mudroom won't be impacted, but traffic flow from the stairs to mudroom might be improved and traffic from living room to mudroom will stay out of the door-swing area of the front door.

I'm always so verbose! ack.

I don't see an advantage to a pocket door between mudroom and powder, it might be a disadvantage. If you move a swing door to the stair side, you can have your light switch on a logical/knob side of the door and you could add a medicine cabinet into that wall you presently have a pocket door in. Since your vanity is small, a medicine cabinet would be a nice addition.

Finally, I don't know if you've worked on windows yet, but in the main floor powder you might just have a small window above the toilet so you can have a mirror above the width of the vanity.

I have a suggestion for your 2nd floor. Coming up.

I posted on the other forum, but here's my idea :)

New upstairs with the stairs moving back a couple feet.

What are you thinking the ceiling heights will be?

By moving the stairs, did you lose your en suite bathroom? With the master bedroom door on the same wall as the closet/pantry you were able to go from shower room to your bedroom without entry the public space.

Benjesbride: Downstairs ceiling heights will be 8'. Upstairs they will range from ~4' at the N and S walls to 11.5' at the peak. Not sure of dormer height.

For now the entry to the bathroom is through that tiny hall way. I am deciding if I would want to add a wall from the stairs over to the closet. It seems like a lot of doors in a small area.

Benjesbride- Good observation about the bathroom! Maybe something like this?

It's so fun to play with these plans! Hope we're able to give you some good ideas :)

You are giving me some good ideas. Thanks! I like the way the doors are now for the bedroom/bathroom. Much better. I may take the suggestion and make the plan a bit wider for some breathing space. 3' more because straw bales are 3' long, 1.5' at each end. I don't know if it is really necessary but it only adds 81 sq ft. It will also make the kids rooms a skosch wider and makes the landing at the top of the stairs 1.5' deeper.

I am still ruminating on the kitchen. I think I prefer the screen porch on the east to keep it a little cooler in the summer.

Our last house had the master bedroom door open with our closet behind it. It was a slight annoyance to me because the bedroom door had to be closed to open the closet. It's not a big deal, but you could put a small broom/vacuum type of closet outside. (I think this is your most recent layout.)

Benjesbride I like that idea. I can see where it would be annoying.

what are you doing for heating/cooling?
where will the system & ducts be located?

energy_rater

Our primary heat will be wood with hopefully some boost from the sun in the winter. Cooling will all be passive, high r-value and shade. Back up heat will probably be electric. No system or ducts. Our climate is fairly mild with temperatures rarely below freezing in the winter. It will be in the 80's mid summer but with low humidity.

Hi, Chelwa. I just saw this photo and thought of your house. Was thinking if you have room to have the base of your stairs like in this photo it might look cool to have wood storage where the dresser is and the stove to the right.

I hope your planning is proceeding nicely :-)

Thanks Benjesbride. We are feeling pretty good about it. Every once and a while I go off on a wild hare and think what if I tried something totally different? but in the end I think there are only so many ways you can accomplish a specific set off goals. Right now the kitchen we are leaning towards is the one I think everyone else would pick last :). I think our taste in kitchens may be a bit odd...

I love the idea of wood storage tucked under stairs, that is a great photo. Some combination of these maybe would look very nice

Some of the best spaces are the ones no one else thought would work :)

Too true. I know that I have seen many kitchens that the owners love that I would never want to cook in...

I know what you mean! And how many cute, older homes have these odd little spaces that turn out being fantastic for so many ideas. Cute little book nooks, or space for a writing desk. Nowadays, few even think about fun little spaces like this.