Be prepared for people on this forum to read it to shreds. But take it with a grain of salt. Weed through the critiques and do what works for you!

Huge house for two adults and two children...hope you have a large checkbook!

Virgil Carter, thanks for the advice. We plan on leaving basement unfinished until our family grows into it a bit.

The only thing I would question is the laundry room on the 2nd level....seems like a lot of work to haul everything up and down the stairs.

I love all the windows this plan has! That giant rec room is nice too. Also, your kids will be lucky to all have an ensuite bathroom. One thing that might not be ideal is that your kid's bedrooms will be far from your bedroom. But, it's a big house that you could definitely grow a family in :-)

@Cathy Sheehan- I spot a washer & dryer in mud room on main floor in addition to laundry room in basement, so there are units on both floors. Which is smart in a house this size!

@imstillchloecat - LOL

OP, chloe is correct in that you will see lots of those statements. As @wysmama said, take it with a grain of salt and figure out what works for you. It looks like it could be a beautiful home! I also love all the windows, and am somewhat envious - my house/lot does not allow for that many windows unless I want to look at my neighbour's siding - which I do not (just as well, as nor does my budget allow for this fancy of a house around here!)

imstillchloecat, your post just made my day! You know the Houzz regulars far too well!

I might not want my bedroom over a kids bedroom ... if you know what I mean! Also hvac ducts are great conductors of sound between floors, so plan them properly.

Hi! We're also in the upstate, and we bought some land in the Blue Ridge area.

Will this be on acreage or in a subdivision? Will it be completed by a local custom builder? Which one?

@LeLuni We are building in a very small gated community in Greenwood, Sc. We have 4 acres and there are only 5 or 6 houses in our community so we will have plenty of privacy. We are using George Bley to build our custom home. We are just an hour or so South of you. Small world!

Overall, it's a nice house! A few things I'd tweak:

- For fire safety, I'd like to see an exterior door in the master bedroom.

- I don't particularly like the master bath ... all that empty space in the middle, yet the things around the edges seem somewhat cramped.

- I'd remove the exterior doors from the dining room ... once you have a table in place, it'll be difficult to reach the doors ... and put a door in the great room.

- The kitchen won't be bright and sunny, but it also won't be impossibly dark. What will be dark is the hallway containing the powder room and pantry.

- If you're not finishing the basement right away, you'll be carrying laundry through an unfinished space for a long time ... and since you say it's your forever home, the day will come that carrying the laundry up /down stairs will be a problem.

- If you're borrowing to build this house, leaving the basement /two bedrooms unfinished may be problematic. Right or wrong, the bank wants to lend only for projects that'd be easy to resell ... and typically that means at least three bedrooms.

- I'd like to see the kids' bedrooms located together: Bedrooms near one another is a bonding thing ... it allows them to share one bathroom ... it makes things easier when you're putting away laundry (and you discover that you've mixed clothes up) ... it's easier at bedtime with small children. Secondary bedrooms together just makes sense.

- Six bathrooms? That's three and a half more bathrooms than I'd like to pay for /keep clean.

I like the setup with the den and master bedroom - convenient place for a nursery for when the new baby is little, and nice place to have a den for your use in the long run.

I don't particularly like the master bath bump-out. I might consider pulling that whole wall out to eliminate the bump-out and instead have a bigger shower and master closet along with a simplified exterior and foundation.

Personally I don't like closets accessed off bathrooms, so I'd probably look at reconfiguring the closet/bathroom spaces of bedrooms 3 and 4. In both I think you could come up with an arrangement that would use the same space but have doors to the closet and bathroom both off the bedrooms.

I find the location of bedroom 2 a little odd and likely quite noisy, off the kitchen and mudroom. It also keeps you from having a window in the kitchen. If you have the space I might look at pulling it right and down, so that it is accessed via a straight rather than angled hallway (it would touch where the back person door to the garage is, which I'd then move to the right side. You could arrange the closet and bathroom such that they insulate the bedroom from the sounds of the garage and mudroom. Then I would add a window in the kitchen. This may be more change than you can make at this point, though, or may not fit on your site.

Finally, I know it's a Houzz cliche, but I'd post your kitchen in the kitchen forum - I think there's likely a better arrangement, but I don't know what it is. Someone there might have some helpful suggestions, though. Oh, and the pantry seems inconveniently far from the kitchen - you might think about whether there's a way to get it up closer (and stretching things out by moving bedroom 2 might create a better spot...).

Good luck to you! I know stock plans aren't popular on this site, but I think this is one of the better ones.

I'm sure you'll be quite happy in it.

(I prefer not to comment when the OP is only looking for confirmation.)

Thanks @Mrs Pete and @Kristin S! Very good insight. I like eliminating the jogout in the master bath. I also like the idea of adding back porch door to Great Room. I will take all your ideas into account.

I really dislike all the bathrooms acting as hallways to the closets. I know we sometimes see it in larger master bath setups, but it just seems odd in smaller bathrooms. I can see many items being dropped in open toilets as you walk by to and from the closets.

You've never had teenagers ... those closets will get steamed up regularly.

imstillchloecat....brilliant!

Since you are just several days away from breaking ground, it's too late to tend to major issues. In fact, if you remove the bathtub bumpout, what does that do to the roof design and pricing?

Thinks you can easily tend to now:

Have you designed the interior of the master closet yet? 11'7"x11'3" is big, but how will you use the center space?

Get rid of the double doors into the master suite and its bathroom, get single doors instead.

When you step out of the shower, where is your towel?

Have you thought about how you are decorating the vestibule in the master suite? It's quite large with not much wall space. (I just have to say, I do not care for the suite layout one bit. You're not living at the Plaza.)

Will the family schlepper--the one who drives the kids the most, who does the grocery shopping and Target/Costco runs--park in the far right bay? That will be the most convenient for using the stairs into the house. If you think you'll park in the double bay, have the stairs come down to the left, not the right, so you're not walking around them every time.

Add a sink to the main floor laundry room. How will the dryer be vented?

In the kitchen, I hope you've specified the quietest vent hood there is, since the kiddo's bedroom is right behind it.

By the foyer, see the closet behind the master closet? Turn it so it faces the foyer. That way when guests are hanging up raincoats, they aren't practically your master suite.

You're leaving the basement unfinished, but are you roughing in the plumbing?

Was this house designed especially for you? What in particular did you specify?

@bpathome Thank you for your advice. I like your idea about changing garage step direction, sink in laundry, and foyer closet. We will finalize plans in a couple weeks so we can still make small tweaks here and there. We can even delay breaking ground if we want to make major adjustments to plan. Also, we are not locked into any specific selections or budget because we have a cost-plus contract with builder and also won't have the hassle of dealing with a bank. This is a stock plan that we are adjusting from an architect friend out of Colorado.

#1, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 14, 15, 14, 16, 14, & 14.

All the kids' closets are through the bathrooms. I haven't seen that before for kids' closets. You know, they keep more than clothes in the closet. They keep some toys, costumes, bed linens, duffel bags, sleeping bags, sports gear, school projects (finished and unfinished), mementos, souvenirs, all kinds of stuff. When you tell them to clean their rooms, where do they shove all the stuff? In the closet. They really should be accessed from the bedroom, not through the bathroom.

Absolutely love the elevation. The 2nd level laundry is a concern but maybe with a laundry shoot it wouldn't be such a hassle.

Well, this may be more radical than you want to consider at this stage, but I'll put in my .02.

First, if you have an acreage, I'm not crazy about the garage placement--it's eating up a lot of potential exterior windows, views, and light!

Second, it's tough to have a kitchen without exterior walls. Venting range hoods and running plumbing to where it needs to drain outside is a huge pain without direct exterior access, for instance. Related, I wonder if you had a specific idea for who would use the second bedroom on the main floor? If not, personally, I would love to see the kitchen move all the way to the right, into the area where the bedroom, etc is now.

I would take out the dining room bump out and run the back wall continuously from the greatroom through to the far right wall, and square off this back of the house (so the bedroom wall would come up to meet the corner). Then move the kitchen to where the bedroom is, put the dining room to the left, where the kitchen is now, and run the deck the whole back of the house. Then you could move the mudroom over to the right as well, create a pantry where the bathroom off the bedroom is, and perhaps make the current powder room bigger, taking over the space of the current pantry.

All of this would make a much more functional flow and a brighter space. But it does create the challenge of losing the second bedroom, unless the master suite is reconfigured, which of course is an option. :)

I am a mom of 4 young children. A lot of my time is spent in the kitchen these days. If I could design my dream house, I would create a kitchen with a wall of windows above the sink (no upper cabinets on that particular wall), just to make it an absolutely beautiful space to be in. I’d want it to be open and airy and bright. And we could totally make use of 2 dishwashers already! I’d also love to have two tables, so that when we entertain we have plenty of seating, and could seat the kids at one table and the adults at another. I think the prettiest rooms are ones with windows on more than just one wall, so you get sunlight at different times of day as well as cross breezes to cool the house when the windows are open. Built-ins would be wonderful, too, such as window seats and storage cabinets. Hope those ideas help!

Alec - I kind of agree with cpartist. You show a plan you are excited about and ask for critique. You are ready to break ground so you don't really have time to make real changes. What are you looking for?

imstillchloechat speaks the truth - except about the bathroom/closet arrangement.

The absolutely most important thing in house design (IMO) is windows and orientation. I have lived in houses with horrible glaring from large west windows. I have lived in dark homes from excessive shading. Getting light from multiple directions without excessive glare makes spaces feel larger and are more pleasant. You give no orientation.

On acreage with a snout garage is the absolute worst design feature in a house. An attached 3 car blocks a lot of light. I've had one before - not again. Especially with a walkout basement for storage. The one time a snout garage is helpful is in very snowy areas - not upstate SC.

The angled master suite with double doors everywhere. First the WIC will be inadequate for me. Just a tad too small for an island and then the windows and angles limit space significantly. Boy do I hate double doors - the are the design feature that people get excited about because they imagine grand entrances. They are awkward to open and close daily, they allow significantly more than the double the sound of single doors.

I live in Raleigh. I had a fireplace in a covered area outside in a house I custom built. Spent more time replacing the batteries than actually enjoying the fire (it was gas with electric start). Lived there 8 years. Good to impress visitors - not very practical. Does look cool though. At some point, it doesn't heat the space and how often do you want to hang out in the cold staring at fire? It had a role in our house - breaking up the view in a tight suburban lot. Here you have acreage so I doubt you need it - but maybe you do?

As a teen, living in a basement sounds great. Always know when your parents are coming, able to come and go when you want after they go to bed. They think they have you tracked/alarmed/monitored but they don't realize that I know more about tech than they do. But on second look, I see no door down there. Easy enough to crawl out a window. Are you sure you don't want a door down there?

Said by others but here is my perspective. I love my closet off a master bath. One that is so large that humidity is not an issue. When they become the size of secondary baths, then the humidity can be an issue. Also with long teenage showers. Humidity sensing fans for sure. The closet off the bath is fantastic when 2 people sleep in the bedroom, when it is one - I would go for closet off the room.

Betsy - they don't need a kitchen with an exterior wall. It is a ranch and venting straight up is perfect. But I agree on the light.

The issue David covered above - the master suite. It looks grand on paper, but when you start trying to put clothes in the corners of that closet, and realize you have an awkward middle space that is too large to be empty and too small to be filled - it's a waste. Same with the master bath. The shower looks small for the house. The tub can be grand - but unless you take a bath every day, you'll appreciate the shower more. Lastly - change that door swing on the water closet - imagine trying to get in there and close the door without standing on the toilet.

You'll probably have to put a closet and egress window in the den and call it another bedroom if you are not finishing the basement. If you are getting a loan, building a 2 bedroom house will SERIOUSLY under appraise.

I think overall on the exterior it's a handsome home - to get it right, you'll need to pay strict attention to the details with trim, stoneworks, railings, landscaping and most importantly - fenestration. If you get the windows wrong / undersized / lacking detail, you'll end up disappointed. Please ensure your builder is detail oriented and you check these things CAREFULLY.

I don’t get why people say that closet access in the bathroom is bad. I currently have two houses. The house I’ve lived in for 20+ years has the walk in closet accessed via the bathroom. I’ve never had an issue with steam and I take really long, really hot showers. Plus the shower is right next to the closet. I also prefer going into the bathroom and shutting the door and not having to carry clothes in there, or having to traipse back through the bedroom to get clothes.

In our cabin, the closet is separated. It’s a pain to go back and forth. I also dislike that I have lost wall space in the room due to another door. After living with it for the past 18 months, I moved to the main floor master bedroom, which is considerably smaller but has the walk in closet access via the bathroom. I’m going to use the original master as a guest room.

I am in the camp that likes closets through master bath. But, it does seem weird having them accessed through the kids bathrooms. I keep lots of my kids' toys in their closets, so having them convenient would be ideal. The den would make a perfect nursery.

I like your master setup. I find it odd that the vestibule doesn't allow for a nice piece of furniture. Your closet is just a few feet short of being able to get a really nice island (with drawers). I like your bathroom, although personally didn't want as much of a large space in the middle. Your shower seems small for the size house (I'm planning 4*6).

I like how you can enter the house and avoid the kitchen. I would turn the dining room so the table can go the other way...it is such a nice look. And it just means turning the room upstairs. Would be nice for the pantry to be larger.

Your living room fireplace directs the living room view out front.

I like the setup with the den and master bedroom - convenient place for a nursery for when the new baby is little, and nice place to have a den for your use in the long run.

That is a good set up ... the room could be an office, an exercise room, a sewing room ... any number of things.

Personally I don't like closets accessed off bathrooms,

This is personal opinion, and you'll find no consensus here. You should, however, think through just how this choice "would live" and make a thoughtful choice.

Absolutely love the elevation.

I'm not crazy about it. It's a lot to take in.

You are on 4 acres and appear to have a huge budget. I generally love the exterior but the interior is odd in so many ways I'm wondering if it needs some rework by an architect. Very sorry to say this, OP.

I really do not like the round arch over the front door and the large trapezoidal stone pillars in front of the entrance. The arch does not fit the square lines everywhere else. The pillars make the walk up unnecessarily tight. I think you need an overhang, but more open.

I really do not like the fireplace in the middle of the Great Room. You have sooo much wonderful open space and now have ruined it.

The pantry is too far away from kitchen.

I don't like the angles at all, and the double doors.

“As a teen, living in a basement sounds great. Always know when your parents are coming, able to come and go when you want after they go to bed. They think they have you tracked/alarmed/monitored but they don't realize that I know more about tech than they do. But on second look, I see no door down there. Easy enough to crawl out a window.”

David Cary, you read my mind. Takes one (former sneaky teen) to know one (future sneaky teen.) Ahhh... good times, good times. :D

David and Sammy, I so appreciated having, my kids on the same floor as me. When I woke up at 1am, I could see the sliver of light under the door of the kid who wasn't finished with the essay due in the morning. And when one had what turned out to be appendicitis at 19, I could hear him up in the middle of the night with the symptoms.

I do remember my brother moving into the basement when he was 12, but he'd been sharing with the 6-year-old, so that made sense. My BILs appreciated their basement bedroom for their, um, smoking and assembling a motorcycle. How they got it up the stairs I'll never know.

imstillchloecat: You forgot my favorite phrase that usually comes after the very accurate list you made. "You can do better than this" It's that final dig that closes the list so "nicely"

"19. You can do better than this."

#19

Chloecat, the funniest thing about your list, and that these are often recurring comments, is that they tend to be true again and again...! Most of the generic plans from the plan factories have the same, repeated mistakes and errors...they all tend to borrow from one another... :-)

And Virgil's comment wins as best comment. Just because it was bad design in plan factory 1's drawing doesn't make it any better when version 200 is posted with the same problems.

So while Chloe's comments are funny on the surface, there is much wisdom in the comments.

27 "likes" and counting vs 0 "likes" tell me otherwise as to who wins best comment...

Always a mystery to me how the desire to be "right" trumps having the best house one could possibly have. And I say this as the wife of a small independent builder who's pretty good at design but knows his limitations.

If one is going to go to the trouble of crowd sourcing, free good advice (free!) is so much more useful than "Emperor has no clothes" back-patting.

To each their own, or as we say nowadays, you do you!

The two people who can give you real advice are your architect friend from Colorado and your builder. Your architect friend can help you determine whether this plan fits your lot and your family and what changes can be made to make it ideal.

Your builder can help you determine whether you can afford it. Before you buy plans, have your builder do a rough estimate what this house will cost to build. As we say in Colorado, "you're a bit out over your skis" before you have that information.

I think this would be an appealing house on a lot with enough grade to make it a walk-out.

I'm surprised no one has commented on the stairs. Not only is there a gap in the middle of the switchback (wasting space, there are 3 steps in the middle level! To me, that's just begging for trips and falls, and I can't see how it adds anything, either functionally or visually.

That gap in the middle of the stairs is the laundry chute.

AnnKH, Mark's humor notwithstanding, this type of stair design is common in an attempt to "open up" the stair, add additional light at the bottom of the stair and make it a bit more of a design element, as opposed to a utilitarian switchback design. Like all things, however, beauty is in the eye of the beholder...! :-)

Virgil, thanks - I am always interested in the whys and wherefores. Additional natural light makes sense - though in this case I think the big covered porch will cut back on that.

What about the steps on the middle level? I guess adding a couple of steps there will shorten the legs of the U by a step, but I don't know that it's worth it, for the additional trip hazard.

imstillchloecat I've only got as far as your post, but I'm dying... thanks for the laugh, and remind me not to drink anything while reading here...I now have to wash my monitor & keyboard.

Now I have to read the rest to see what Mark has to say!

Now I have to read the rest to see what Mark has to say!

All of us have our addictions.

*whistles innocently, rocking on heels*

Just don't tell my husband. I'll deny everything.

pantry is a bit far from the kitchen, the bedrooms are very spread out for small children, and the access to the unfinished space right near the bedroom is a little creepy.