Hi Paluwasha - congratulations on your new future home! I saw the elevations on your previous post - what an attractive house. I didn't have a chance to post yesterday so I thought I'd offer some constructive feedback today.

Why not have a second full bath on the second floor - or possibly a half bath ? There seems to be plenty of space and several locations that would work.

The master suite looks like it just needs a little bit of work. I'm not sure what you could use that space for right when you walk in the room. What will the large closet in the hall outside of the master bedroom be used for ?

I would suggest that you reduce the size of the openings between the foyer, dining, great room and kitchen just a bit to make each room a distinctive space yet maintain the open feel you seem to be going with.

Have you purchased the plans already ? Have you been working with Mascord to make the revisions ?

Overall, I like your changes, especially to the laundry/mud.

Not crazy about the MB, which is oddly shaped and looks more narrow than the study, which is about 12'. Placing furniture may prove difficult. Do you have big plans for the row of multiple closets leading to the master? If not, I'd just extend the wall where the stairs are to make the master a nice rectangle, as you will still have one closet plus the storage under the stairs.

Upstairs bath: why 2 doors to the tub? Why one from toilet to tub?

Will the entire garage be used as a wood shop, or just the far end? Courtyard garages are my fav, but if one is not using them for cars, the cars seem to end up in the driveway, right in front of the house, which is an eye sore, imo.

Columbus and Jennifer, thank you for your insight. It has really been helpful!

I considered letting the kids have their own bathroom so they would stop arguing in the bathroom on school days. I never thought a 9 year old boy and a 7 year old girl would argue over stuff like a toothpaste cap. Hopefully, they will figure it out.

I was thinking to have a second door from the toilet to tub in case someone needed to use the toilet in the middle of bathing and someone else was at the vanity. The second door does now seem pointless since they can just wrap a towel around themselves. That would give me better options for a laundry hamper and a small corner table where they can set their clean clothes.

I would use the hallway for storing sports equipment, sewing machine, over sized hair dyer, Christmas decorations the kids made that I do not want to store in the attic, pet food and supplies, etc. I guess I could remove the bottom hallway single closet door and keep the bedroom the original 16’ x 13’ to maintain 6 ft between the footboard and corner walls instead of reducing it to 3 ft’. I’ll still have plenty of hallway closet space. And hopefully make the bedroom layout less awkward.

For the master bedroom, I was planning to put our chest of drawers along the top wall. We have a queen sized bed (with headboard and footboard) that measures 5’4’’ x 9’0’’. Our current bedroom is 15’ x 16’ and honestly, I wish it were a little smaller. We have a bed, chest of drawers, night stand, chair, hope chest, and treadmill in our current bedroom and still have room for another chest of drawers or dresser, which we do not need since my husband built storage shelves and drawers for the closets.

Somehow on the floor plan I overlooked the square that sits between the dining room, foyer, walkway, and great room. Perhaps removing that will help with size reduction? I still want to be able to have a table that seats 6 or 8 people in the dining room.

We have not purchased the plans, but will be working with Mascord on the revisions.

The entire garage will be used as a wood workshop and the cars will be parked in the driveway. We currently have a courtyard garage and my husband also does not like having the cars and boat on the front driveway blocking the view of the house. It would be better to have the bays on the other side. I can’t believe I forgot about the boat.

floor plan draft 2

The design seems functional and the proportions and massing of the exterior are pleasing and attractive. If it was my house, I'd be thinking of two simpler baths on the second floor. There's a lot of "bonus" and "attic" space which you will be paying for--hope you want it! Good luck on your project.

I prefer the old master because it puts it on an outside corner where it can have windows on 2 walls. In both versions the negative is the closets are not near the master bath. In your version it will mean walking around the bed to get from bathroom to closets and in the original version you're seeing the closet doors from your master bed.

Congrats on building your new home. Here's my 2 cents. Glad to see you've gotten rid of the door from the WC to the tub. I was wondering about the door on the other side of the double sink that seems to lead to unused attic/gable space. Is that a regular door or simply an access door?

I agree with a previous comment about adding a second bath upstairs. If you have a girl and a boy, soon sharing a bathroom is going to become an issue for each of them. A second bath would avoid that.

I've seen this before -- the powder room located near the garage and mudroom. Maybe it's me, but I don't want my guests walking through my mudroom/laundry room/drop zone to go to the bathroom. That means I have to make sure it's almost always picked up, in case someone drops by unexpectedly. Perhaps, the floor plan could be flipped so laundry/mudroom is next to the garage.

Virgil, Suru11, cpartist, and carrellhouse thanks for your comments.

I actually keep going back and forth with having two bathrooms upstairs instead of separating vanity, tub, and toilet. I do agree that although privacy is not an issue now, it would create a problem later. In the upstairs bathroom, the door on the other side of the double sink is an access door.

Suru11, I am so glad you caught the natural light issue in the master bedroom. I failed to notice how the new bedroom position would affect natural light. Our current bedroom has the same layout with the two windows on either side of the bed. However, those windows face the back of the house along with our great room, so of course there is plenty of sunlight. Our daughter has a single window in her room that faces the side of our current house and I am not thrilled with the lack of natural light she has. I do like the idea of having the bathroom between the closet and bedroom. Even though I would end up with a hallway leading into the bedroom, it would be ideal since I get extra closet space! I plan to store the vacuum, and carpet shampooer, clothes steamer, and other tall items that cannot go on a shelf in the closet under the stairs.

My husband does have a lot of interest, woodworking, marquetry, and he wants to try stained glass. Converting the attic space above the garage to be his dedicated hobby room would make sense.

You all have given me so much to think about. Thanks again.

draft 3

I like this new floor plan more.

BTW: If hubby is taking up stain glass, that will require soldering. An upstairs room might not be the best place for that.

Good luck!!

I forgot to put the windows on the garage.

I know this doesn't bother some people, but it would drive me NUTS to carry dirty/clean laundry 2.5 miles from the master bedroom to/from the laundry room. And even further for the kids' bedrooms upstairs. But you sound young-ish, so maybe it's not a concern for you.

Littlebug, I actually have a portable clothes rack, so it's not too bad. I can set my hubby's and my clothes basket on the bottom and hang clothes on the top and wheel it into my room. I make the kids help each other carry their laundry baskets upstairs though.