Do you need a separate pantry? If you do all pantry cabinets you could lose the wall that separates the pantry from the kitchen and enjoy that view while prepping and cooking. Seems a shame to waste it on a closed off pantry.

Back up. Rethink the whole thing. Here's a ready for permit and construction plan of what you should be looking at. Pantry on the inboard side adjacent to the kitchen and garage.

Ok, maybe not quite ready for permit and construction, I forgot the window schedule!

Yes, a walk-in pantry is a must. It’s a 4 car garage and our lot is 1.5 acres. Our upstairs has a lot of living space.

If you have a 1.5 acre lot, why is the garage sticking out in front like that?

Is this a design you came up with or are you working with a person of design talent?

Well, the challenge is that we have a 3000-3500 square foot house with an oversized 4 car garage. We could fit 5 cars easily in this garage if we really wanted to. We could push back the garages but then we would be losing out on backyard space. But I feel like I’m getting a little off topic now. But I appreciate you looking at the whole picture, that’s why I posted the entire main floor. And yes we are working with a designer. I would not be able to come up with something like this.

A good portion of our property is in the river and the shape of the lot is narrow and then it gets big towards the back.

The OP wrote, "...Our lot is situated near a river with the back of the house (pantry) facing north torwards the river. Its really important to me that we take advantage of this scenic view with the house..."

If this is the case, why would you give the pantry a scenic view of the river?

Relocate the pantry elsewhere. Reconfigure kitchen so it has a river view.

Speaking of the kitchen why is it as far from the garage as possible? Are you keen on trucking groceries in and trash out, going as far as possible with these loads?

Are you sure you and your designer are on the right track with this design?

My suggestion is to start over and to begin by exploring organizing concepts using bubble diagrams. There's good threads on this subject in the archives, if you haven't found them.

Good luck on your project.

I actually really like the layout (besides location of pantry). I don’t mind the extra exercise of walking to the kitchen. But that was a good point. Maybe when we resell the next owner won’t want to walk the extra 20 or so feet. I’m really just concerned about the pantry location. And I’m feeling more and more like I should change it to another location so I can have as much of a view as possible.

Pasta needs a good view while it sits in storage.

Any suggestions for an alternative location of the pantry?

"And yes we are working with a designer. "

Now, not to diverge from your original question, but the drawing you posted doesn't look like anything some one with a shred of imagination would draw. In looking at conceptual drawings, on this forum or others, there's certain stylistic "giveaways" that render clues as to quality design training and I see none of that in the drawing you posted.

Of course maybe it could be argued that none of that is apparent in the drawing I posted! LOL!!

Oh this was a quick sketch draft before we get to far into the designing stage.

"...Any suggestions for an alternative location of the pantry?..."

Creative and responsive design is not a "cut and paste exercise". It's about identifying various organizing concepts and exploring each concept for its strengths and weaknesses.

If all you are really interested in is another location for the pantry, and nothing else, then just put it anywhere on an interior wall somewhere. Or other.

It's possible to do much better than you have. But it means starting over.

Good luck on your project.

Ok, all this is making no sense to me. "Oh this was a quick sketch draft before we get to far into the designing stage." but yet "And yes we are working with a designer."

A designer normally takes one from conceptualizing to a finished design.Design is part of the process from the very beginning, not something tacked on at the end to "clean things up".

To quote Steve Jobs.....“People think design is a veneer — that the designers are handed this box and told, 'Make it look good!' (or in your case "fix the pantry") That's not what we think design is. It's not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

I appreciate your creative input, but I don’t really understand why this fails so miserably. It seems like such a simple design to mess up on. I really just want a simple and functional home with a nice view.

If you have specific critiques of what makes this draft sketch concept so terrible I would love to hear.

"I really just want a simple and functional home with a nice view."

And believe it or not that's often a more difficult design problem than a sky scraper where there's a lobby floor and 50 indentical floors above it. A well thought out house is design problem often underestimated by architects themselves. An efficient, functional but eye pleasing small house is a tough program.

To give you an idea in case you haven't seen elevations yet, this below shows the massing of the garage versus your house from the front view. Notice how overpowering the garage is to the house?

I know your concern is your pantry, but the pantry has to relate to the kitchen which needs to relate to your living area, which needs to relate to your eating area, which needs to relate to your office space, etc.

As mentioned, design isn't a series of boxes shuffled around. It's creating a whole and working from concept first and then refining so the details are the last thing. However placement of rooms is not a detail. It needs to be part of the whole concept

Why not flip the main living areas - have the kitchen next to the mud area (rearranged and add the pantry) and put the living room to the side where the kitchen is currently drawn - and make that side also full of windows to maximize your views

Our garage is 1400 sq feet and our main level sq footage is 1550. Its a BIG garage. Is it possible to make the garage seem less massive? This is is sketch of what we might do on the outside.

Emily - here's a link to an explanation and discussion of bubble diagrams in custom home design. http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/4351651/beginning-bubble-diagram-for-a-custom-home

I haven't hired an architect for new construction, just a remodel, but the decision to put a pantry between your kitchen and your view would make me a bit nervous about their skill level.

This looks super helpful Ben! Thank you.

Okay. This is an option the designer came up with. I think there are still a few things I wanna tweak. But I’m already feeling much better about it.

Sorry OP, I'm not liking that pantry layout. Either slice off the *interior* corner for the pantry, or else reorient the kitchen.

Question: How attached are you to the sitting room in the front? If you didn't need it, you could move the bedroom there, move the bathroom to where the bedroom is, and put the pantry where the bathroom currently is. It would connect to the kitchen essentially the same way it does now without blocking your view.

If you still want the sitting room, you could move it over to the office side so the sitting room would essentially end flush with the garage on that side.

Very rough idea of what I said above.

Emily that’s an interesting idea. We would like to keep the sitting room if possible. Thank you for your input, I’m going to need to think it through some more.

Another possible rearrange.

If you have a 1.5 acre lot, why is the garage sticking out in front like that?

Maybe because they've made clear that the action is in the back, and thus they don't want the garages messing up the river view??

Anyway, there are various ways to move the pantry, since this is still sketching time. For example, you could shift the full bathroom over by the stairs, moving the office outward to match the sitting room (this has efficiencies for plumbing too) and then put the pantry essentially where that bathroom was. There are other solutions...

The stairs will be awesome for sledding down in a cardboard box!

Back to the drawing board entirely. A home plan is not a box of Legos where you pop off the red cube and place it over by the blue cube. Interior changes can often have dramatic exterior consequences. Just as having a giant GARAGE with a smaller visual mass of a house creates a home that looks like the cars commissioned it.

Your person of talent lacks even rudimentary talent. Find a Real Pro. Preferably an architect.

Architecture is a 4 dimensional art. I guess I'll never quite get how people work on the main floor plan and think now that that's done we can do the upper level. After that we can figure out the roof and after that what it's going to look like. It all works together.

Stairs are the most important element to get right since they are the heart and soul of the circulation system. The stairs here are poorly imagined and dangerous.

Back to the original question. Yes, the pantry is in the wrong spot.

If you have a 1.5 acre lot, why is the garage sticking out in front like that?

Maybe because they've made clear that the action is in the back, and thus they don't want the garages messing up the river view??

Sorry that's a cop out. On a 1.5 acre lot you can design a house so that the garage is not the thing you notice first and is not what is the largest mass.

I have a 2 car garage on a much narrower lot. My whole lot is only 9100 square feet and I can assure you that while my garage is visible, it's not what you see first as you drive up.

Cpartisit i am all about not having the garage be the centerpiece of the home. In fact that’s why I requested that 2 of the garages be a side entrance and the other two are tucked further back. We have to be 80 feet from the river. Most of our property we actually can’t build on because it’s 1) in the river 2) too close to the river. I’m attaching a pic of how the house now sits. Do you have any examples of small homes with large garages that work better?

I live in an area where it is very necessary to have a garage. Actually a lot of people have a 3-4 car garage then they have a large shop in the front of their property. Their garages are 3-4x bigger than their house. Ive always thought it looked terrible. It’s possible that my view has been skewed and I’m losing my sense of style. I still don’t feel like the garages in my plan are placed that poorly with what we have to work with. See attached picture above. I really appreciate you taking the time to educate me. I know I have a lot to learn, but I’m willing to learn! I just learn best from real life examples and pictures, like the one you posted earlier. That was helpful.

To give you an example this is an example of a nice house in the area I am building: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4241-E-250-N-Rigby-ID-83442/126538883_zpid
I think the garages are definitely overbearing in this home. This is actually very typical in my area.

Do you have a plot plan? How wide is the lot? What are the setbacks? A narrow deep lot will need a different house design than a shallow wide one. Unless the lot is 60 foot wide, the garage can and should be made less Jabba like. It’s bloated and unattractive and the first thing you notice.

And it doesn’t have to be. Anymore than the best view should be occupied by a storage area. You’re being victimized by this “designer” just as sure as if you walked by in a dark alley and someone stole your purse.

@acm The bathroom is connected to the bedroom, so I figured she wanted those to stay together.

You can have a 10 car garage if you want! It just shouldn't be smack dab on the front of the house, calling all attention to it, and not your house. If one is on a lake, of course, one doesn't want the garage in the back, but it could be set back a bit from the house, allowing the emphasis to be on the house, and be side-opening.

No, very few people want to walk the entire length of their house to bring in groceries. There are better ways to get exercise! And spills and leaks DO happen in grocery bags, hopefully not on the LR floor!

I'm assuming that if you are on a lake and on 1.5 acres, you are not close-in to town and the grocery thus a good sized pantry is a big help. Personally, I hate those pullout pantries in kitchen cabinets. Too much kitchen cabinetry, hard to load/unload, restrictive on the size of what's stored in them - I could go on... A pantry closet - even a very small one such as I had in our little house in St Louis, is wonderful! I'd kill to have one again, but alas, that storage has to be in my basement.

It's very difficult to not feel overwhelmed by choices, decisions and to worry if one has the right person doing the design job. And we on GW are not much help as we immediately tell you to "get an architect"! One quickly learns on here that designer, draftsman and architect are NOT interchangeable terms! An architect would be an idiot to spend all those years in school if all he really needed was a CAD program and a short course on how to use it.

Yes, architects cost money. A big "name" architect costs a LOT of money, but you're not looking for Frank Gehry to design your house. My parents had 2 houses designed for them when I was a child, so I'm well aware of the time and effort that goes into this, all the while having to factor in cost, for most people.

Your instincts are right about this house; you want to take every possible advantage of that glorious view of the lake from the back of your house. And since you are facing north, light is going to be a big concern - it would be quite easy for a room to get dark in the center of the house.

Take a deep breath and consider starting over. I know - you want to get this house built and move in - we ALL understand this desire as we've all felt it at sometime, even if it was a small remodeling of a powder room. But you'll never regret taking the time to "get it right", and you will deeply regret many decisions made when doing it in a hurry.

Good luck with your house!

The lot is trapezium shape. The front of the lot is about 108 feet. The spot where we are wanting to put our home is about 147ish feet across. We can't have the home very deep because there are regulations set by the county that we need to keep away from the water. So even though it is a decent sized lot we can't actually build on the majority of the property (lame, I know). We do have a little room with the width however. If we wanted to completely start over we could remove one bay from the side garage in the front and possibly add the bay to the ones further back facing forward. So 3 forward facing and 1 side, instead of 2 forward and 2 side. I just have never seen a home designed that way and it just feels inefficient if I want to use the space above for a bonus room. If we were building on land without a high water table I would definitely put 2-3 garages in the basement. I think that's an awesome set up. The only way we would be able to do that is if we built up the lot a ton and it could end up making things look strange if we did that too. I'm going to rework some things with my designer before I scrap it totally. I'll post the results. Thanks for everyone's feedback.