I like the plan, except the Great Room seems kind of small. Try placing to-scale furniture in there and see what you think. The biggest problem is leaving space for a pathway from the front door to the kitchen, etc.

Are you ok with the kids being across the house at such young ages?

17 x 19 is a quite large great room. I would consider it small if you were planning on also putting your dining table in it, but you have a separate breakfast nook and a separate dining room so you're fine.

Personally I don't like the stairs where they are next to your master, and that you have to walk through the dining area to use them. And like you I think the master bath needs some work.

I don't love the kitchen layout. I would highly suggest posting your kitchen layout in the kitchen forum to get the best advice available. Better than most kitchen designers!

And post in the bath forum for bath advice.

Is the padded enclosure for you for when the kids get out of hand? ;)

Overall though it is a very good layout.

Thanks for the replies!

I'm thinking the family room is sufficient, but I'll measure it out compared to what we are using now.

I think I'll get the kitchen plan over to the kitchen forum tonight and see what happens... Ditto on the bath.

The two older kids will be fine, and our youngest wont get bounced for another year or so knowing my wife ;).

I'll have to ask about the stairs, I didnt think about it. And yes to the padded room!

Thank You

This is the plot

Sorry for the chicken scratch doodles :)

The surrounding area is woods to the West(above) and pasture everywhere else.

so it has been pointed out that a mud room would be nice. does anyone see any space for it? Or a powder room anywhere near the kitchen/bonus room stairs?

For your lifestyle do you need a formal dining room? Or would a kitchen/dining room combo work? that would open up some possibilities for you including moving those stairs and adding a mudroom.

I guess what I'm saying is really think about how you live now, how you want to live in a few years when the kids are a bit older and what's important to you. For example, I will NEVER hold a sit down dinner party, so we took out the formal dining room. Instead we entertain informally, and intend since we're in FL to do lots of barbecuing and entertaining outside so we put more priority into that and having the space in our great room.

Thanks for your thoughts cpartist. We differ in that we do use the dining room, not so much as a formal affair but as a seperate room for sit-downs. I would be more inclined to nix the "breakfast nook" in favor of a larger kitchen and more informal island seating.

lol people do like different stuff.

See? that's the type of thing you and we need to know. So how would you feel if you moved the kitchen for example t where the dining room is now and moving the dining room off of the great room?

Might I suggest you take your plan and some tracing paper and play around with the left side of the house? the right side works beautifully. Additionally if you have a basement, do you need a separate storage room off the garage?

One other thought. And this is personal. I Hate having to go through the bathroom to get to my closet.

Anyway, I just don't have time this week to do anything but prepare for an art show I do this coming weekend. If you can wait, I would be more than happy to play with after next week.

No basement. I will play around with it in the days to come.

The Master bath is a wreck in my mind. It will definitely need reworking.