Have you considered placing the master behind the garage and moving the screened porch to the west side?

I’m not experienced with the format here and I now realize I should have thanked and responded to each of the individual comments. Many thanks to all of you! PPF, the pictures are above. Anglophilia and Sina Sadeddin Architectural Design, I understand the comments recommending the screened in porch being more directly accessible from the main living areas of the house. My thought was that when everyone returns from the beach, it would be nice to have a place to relax and have drinks while waiting to shower. I specifically asked to have a bathroom nearby. I was hoping to keep the sand out of the house this way. We’d probably put a refrigerator for drinks there and we mostly grill in the summer anyway so the food would be cooked outside. Since the stairs to the bonus room (above the garage) are in the mud room, and the bonus room will have the large screen TV, the mud room will need to be a fairly neat area anyway as we will need to pass through it to get upstairs there. Does this make sense? Honestly, I’ve never had a mud room before- in our existing house we walk directly into our main foyer so it needs to be fairly neat. I envisioned the mud room being similar, with lots of storage to keep things tidy. And it’s just the two of us as our children are all grown up.

And finally, I do have an architect designing this. In fairness to him, his original plan had a large great room in the back of the house, connected to the screened in porch and everything was open. But the front of the house faces south so there would have been very little sun there in the winter, which I didn’t like at all. Now I’m not at all sure what to do...

PPF- I was writing my rather long winded comment above while you were responding so I only just now read your latest comment. It‘s somewhat ironic because I was actually thinking exactly that when I read the earlier comments. The disadvantage would be that when we come back from the beach, we’d have to walk behind the entire house (and around the newly located bedroom) to get to the porch. Same thing for anyone stopping by. Also, one would have to pass through the entire house to get to the bathroom. On the positive side, it would probably allow more windows in the living area. The porch would probably also appear more accessible, although I’m not sure it would actually be any closer to the kitchen.. I had wanted the entrance to the porch to be at the corner where the sink and range were. But I couldn’t come up with a kitchen design that made any sense with this. (Moving all the appliances down so that the entrance to the kitchen was between the sink and range was totally unacceptable to me.) It doesn’t seem like the design should be this difficult since we really have no restrictions on the property.

How about flipping the house so the garage is on the west, and blocking the west sun?

Do you have room to widen the core of the house? Turning the long axis of the living and dining rooms 90 degrees?

As someone suggested above, maybe moving the dining room to the back of the house.

Overall I think it's a pretty good plan. Ignore the "designer". Vet your kitchen in the kitchen forum here on houzz for the best advice.

My questions are: It looks like you're going to have a banquette seating area off the kitchen, seating at the island and then a separate dining room? Do you really need 3 eating areas for two people?

I would put the dining area where the banquette is and turn the dining room into an office, crafts room, tv room or whatever.

The thing that bothers me is that you have to walk to the rear of the house to enter your bedroom, so that means you'll be constantly cutting through that upper left area which makes it less usable. I would try and figure out a way to have a "hallway to the master from the foyer so you don't have that diagonal cut through. Then I'd turn that back section of the living room into a second seating area or a game area with a beautiful game table, or???

I could flip it, but then I’d lose the afternoon sun in the living area.

And I could turn it, but then the front wouldn’t face the street.

Furniture would be a little tight if I moved the dining room to the back and the banquette wouldn’t work, plus I’d be left with a big space in front, unless I went from a full cape to a half cape, which would squeeze the space between the island and the bar. We also looked at moving the laundry room into the back space of the great room (to utilize the space better) but that took away the view of the back yard.

I feel like i’m being very disagreeable here and that’s really not my intention at all.

One glaring issue is the powder room door. It will hit the toilet when you enter and you'll have to pin yourself against the wall to exit. Reverse the door so it opens into the hall.

Thanks! That’s a great point- maybe a pocket door would be the easiest solution..

Cpartist- You may be right about the three seating areas. I like dinner parties so I really want a dining room, but maybe we don’t need the banquette. The architect put the windows there for a table and then a designer suggested a banquette. And honestly, I don’t need, or even really want all this space. The tv will be next to the gas fireplace (a small one) and I promised my husband he could get as big a TV as he wanted for the bonus room over the garage. (Another space we don’t really need, but it’s there anyway and it will have pretty views of the marsh.). I like the bottom half of the plan (fireplace area, foyer and dining room) but I don’t need all the space in the top half. I just can’t figure out what to do with it.

I don’t really see walking to the bedroom being an issue, but I’ll have to think about that one.

Thank you for your contribution and I will post this in kitchens for advice there.

Pocket doors for bathrooms are rarely a good idea - not much privacy. We rented a house in London last year that had such, and I was amazed at how different an English pocket door is than one in the US. Part is the thickness of the door - their's was very thick and solid wood. The hardware was also different - it actually had a way to latch. I tried to take pictures so I could find out more, but the light was not good enough.

The best way to stop sand from coming into the house is an outdoor shower! We rent every year on the Vineyard, and that's always a "must have" for us - lots of sandy people - especially the children when they were little. Find a good place for that and you'll keep out the sand.

If it's just the two of you, your mud room will probably stay neat unless you have grandchildren visiting. Children are just not neat by nature and mud rooms take a real "policeman" to keep them using such properly.

Lucky you!! These are not bad problems to have. You are right to think about returning from the beach. The best cape houses I have (Rented!) been in have taken this in to consideration. Always an outdoor shower, best with a quick discrete tiled route to he bedrooms, but they are in the mix enough that you can still shout out your 2 cents, and folks waiting for their turn know when you are out. I won't be your best detail person here because I am on my phone but I do have some thoughts for you to chew on

currently it looks like your guests have to split splat across your house after showering somewhere I can't see (you must have an outdoor shower?) I would want a bedroom area secondary "mud" entry from the back that went from the back to your room and straight up relocated stairs. So from the beach you drop everything in the mudroom, gather on the deck, and one at a time people are peeling off to the bedrooms to clean up. Meanwhile, others get started on dinner....

they are COMPLETELY isolated from the fun!! What the heck! As cute as a banquette sounds, can it for a wall of doors so there is constant flow from the kitchen to the deck. This way there is no worry about the porch, it is easily accessible from the doors that are where the banquette is. Anyway, who needs a banquette, an island, AND a dining room?

If his wasn't a cape house I would say that the time of day you want sun in your kitchen is in the morning but it being a cape house the evening action will be in and out the back so the kitchen needs to be in back. Make sure the dining room is wide open to the kitchen to send as much light as possible back there

what about arranging your spaces something like this?

Some loose thoughts

3 possible routes from the shower:

Do you need doors to the main part of the patio from the master? For mor privacy, they could open on the back wall, and a shower could go where they are now, allowing you and guests quick acces to bedrooms and laundry with wet yuckies.

Greenfish1234, I really appreciate all your thoughts on this. We don’t need doors from the master to the patio as currently shown, and we were already thinking of moving them to where you suggested (my husband liked the idea of a private patio). I’m not sure we even want such a big patio, but I thought I’d address that much later. As for the stairs, in an earlier sketch, I had moved them to the exact opposite side of where you suggested, for the exact same reason. (In this version, the access to the kitchen was between the refrigerator and stove, but I abandoned it because I couldn’t figure out a workable kitchen, along with objections from my husband and the architect, as noted below). Interestingly, this design also gave me more doors to the patio, which you had also suggested. My thoughts on the stairs here was that when guests came, they could take all their “stuff” directly upstairs, without dragging it through the entire house, and then when showering, they could also go directly upstairs. But my husband preferred stairs in the center of the house, and the architect objected to two sets of stairs so close to each other, even though they’d be going to two different locations (one over the garage and the other over the main house). So back they went to the current location. The architect did mention moving them to where you suggested, but it seemed like they would take too much space from the fireplace area, along with the views out back (nothing special but I do like to garden so we have a pretty yard) although maybe we should rethink this. (This would also affect the upstairs, which to me, is just perfect right now). Back to the “drawing board”...

Course411, we could move the bedroom behind the house and that was originally something like what I wanted ( although I do want the kitchen near the mud room, so everyone enters this way and carrying in groceries is easier). We abandoned this to have a screened porch open on three sides. And although we could switch the master and the screened porch, it seemed to make more sense to be able to get from the mud room directly to the screened porch.

Anglophilia, thank you for the recommendation against pocket doors. My mom has one in her powder room and it isn‘t an issue to me that it doesn‘t lock- but maybe other people wouldn’t like it. I never really thought about it.

I like your point about the luggage but consider that it is 2x per visit v the constant flow of traffic throughout the stay.

You can change the plan. You can change the siting on the lot. You may or may not be able to change the lot. The larger point is go BACK to your architect, the one person familiar with all above and say you are not thrilled yet. I do hope that IS an architect and not a draftsman. ......... they are not the same. Either way, it will not be solved here. To have sun and abundant light and view and water et al in sight all times of day, all exposures is a shallow and wide home, and not a cape. Either way, lose the banquette, a useless feature and in this case too small in proportion to the rest...........which makes me think this may have been a draftsman

He’s actually a designer and has designed several homes in our neighborhood, all of which I like. And in fairness to him, he put the bump out for a table there, it was an interior designer I consulted that suggested the banquette. But you have a good point that my problems won’t be solved here and I need to go back to him.

How about raising the height of the mud room just enough to to accommodate a hall to both the bonus room AND the second floor? I realize that this may be tough to pull off on a cape while keeping the characteristic low profile, but I think with the proper roofline it could be pulled off. This means your shower stays on that side which to me is a bummer because I think they are creepy in a far off corner, but fun when integrated in to the outdoor flow. Anyway I like the idea of the bonus room being attached to the upstairs again so people don't have to truck around to get to their rooms.

I know designs have a way of getting spendy when your internet friends get involved, but if I were to do sliders I would want these double babies:

This is a good place for collecting thoughts to mull over with your designer, definitely not your be all and end all. Make sure your guy is addressing overall aesthetics and proportion and not just your flow needs, e.g. Potentially Too tall connector between house and garage that I just suggested, also it just occurred to me that your MBR is connected to the house by another "breezeway" which is the laundry room. I'm thinking that won't look great from an overall aesthetic standpoint.

Let me suggest you forget pretty much everything your kitchen designer suggested. If the first iteration was really close to what you wanted, as was already suggested, post the original kitchen and let us see if we can't help you with a better kitchen design. If the first design was sound, there is no reason to trash it because of the kitchen. Function is the first priority of kitchen design. Boring is not one of the considerations.

I have a half bath for guests off from my mudroom, sort-of similar to your plan. Because the half bath is off a mud room, there aren't people just hanging out right outside the door.

I used a pocket door on that half bath due to the exact same door swing issues you have, and I LOVE that pocket door.

It's already a rather private location. I have had zero issues with the pocket door and would do it again in a heart beat. Just use good hardware.

What do the elevations look like? I assume your designer has those already.

And the term architect and designer are not interchangeable. One took a course in CAD design and maybe a design course and the other studied for years to get a degree and then apprenticed for at least 3 years before being able to take the exams to get their license.

Well...are you still considering a Cape Cod style house? Or at least the center element of the house in a reasonable Cape Code style?

Here's what a 5-bay Cape Cod looks like:

Here's a 3-bay Cape Cod:

If Cape Cod style architecture is important, don't stray from one or the other of these two forms.

Good luck on your project.

We are going with a Cape as I love the way they look. And the style will be similar to the pictures shown above except we will have 8’ ceilings and I’m guessing the pictures above probably have 7’ ceilings (at least the top one). And we’re planning either two double doghouse dormers, three single, or two single wth a shed dormer between. Front door will be centered, with two windows on each side.

Greenfish1234, I was a little concerned about the two connectors to the main house as well, but because the bedroom wing is set far back, the designer/architect assured me it would be fine. The house is a bit long, but other than that, I think it looks great (but I love Capes).

The doors you suggested (thank you!) look like what the designer had in mind although our builder thought there was a bit too much glass (as opposed to wall space). And although the space over the mud room is specified as unfinished, we were planning to put a half bath there for those hanging out in the bonus room watching TV. If we do this, there is no room for a hall, although we did discuss connecting the bathroom to the bedroom on the other side (no shower though).

Cpartist, I think the elevations look fine. We’ve been careful to maintain the integrity of the outside with any changes. I’ve never had any reservations about that part of the design.

Patriceny, I’m glad to hear you are happy with your pocket door as that seems like a good solution. I grew up in a house with one and other than friends visiting for the first time not sure whether there was actually a door at all on the bathroom, we never had any issues. And no problems with the one in my mom’s current house.

I love capes too. I would rather have a connected bonus room than the bathroom, JMO. With the room you save by moving the central stair perhaps that bathroom can be in the main part of he 2nd floor? So I assume that would be 2 full up and a full and 1/2 down which in a guesty place I think would be dreamy.

A cape has consequences. Love it or leave it. :) Just don't ruin it. Go back to the Arch.

the designer/architect assured me it would be fine.

I'm sorry but unless he/she has an architecture license (s)he is not allowed to call him/herself an architect and is not an architect. Please do not use the terms interchangeably. They are not.

Start by removing the bay window. It's limiting the design and a table there would be too close to the counter anyway. I’d do a large table in the empty space and make the dining room whatever else you want.

Cpartist, I really wasn’t trying to use the terms interchangeably and certainly meant no offense, I was trying to distinguish between the person we are using to design the house and the interior designer I consulted. (And just for the record, we hired a licensed architect to design an addition to our existing house in another location; the project turned out great, but only because of the design skills of our contractor. The designer we are using now seems so much better and more competent, despite the lack of credentials. Of course, there are better and worse people in all fields).

Emilyam819- Thank you for your suggestion. I am starting to think that may be the best use of space, although then I’m not sure what to do with the “extra” space where the old dining room was. I don’t really need, or want, all that space, but if I make the Cape smaller, everything gets scaled down. But that could be a good starting point for my next meeting with the building designer...

How much do you need that bonus room? The (formerly known as) dining room would be a great place for a pool table etc. no reason a big TV couldn't be in the living room too for more comfy viewing . I have no use for a living space I have to truck all around to get to and from, but everyone's needs are different. I always like to be in the middle of the action, but I guess I can imagine a day when my adult children spent the summer with me and needed a place to socialize when dad and I go to bed. I have been to parties at houses with spaces like this, and it just feels weird to me: the hosts have to really corral people out and up the stairs and break up conversations and things to get everyone where they want them to be.

We have a huge space over a garage that we intentionally built to be at the same level as our second story, plumbing and electrical are roughly set up to be accessible when needed. We spent more than we should've to make sure the right number of windows were there and there was enough head room should we or anyone else ever want to make anything of it. It just made sense given the fact that we were building anyway. I wonder if that makes sense for you? Plan your living and play space all in that lovely Cape of yours, and if you find you are ready to kick the rowdy ones into the party room, finish that space off.

AS soon as I saw "bonus room over garage" where the biggest TV will be, I thought no way. totally disconnected from all your other entertaining areas and crazy as you age.

One of the important things to recognize and remember about architectural design, especially for residential remodels, is what's logical and possible to create, and what's really beyond possible.

Maintaining a Cape Cod house is possible, and additions are also possible, but they cannot obscure or overpower the acutal Cape Cod structure. One approach may be to add separate, "detached" wings to the sides and/or rear of the original Cape Code house.

But unless one is careful with their list of needs and wants, and one has a creative and experienced architect, this:

cannot be made into this, without losing all of the Cape Cod character of the original house:

Virgil made my point. The only way to have sun all sides but north? Don't have a cape.

New England never had or will have the weather of Miami, nor Charleston NC. There's a reason for small windows , dormers and even shady porches in history ,

I assumed this is what my husband calls a "super cape." Pretty common here and usually 2500+Sqft no columns, of course-this pic is for size reference only

If not cascading a bit is nice.

[https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-exterior-traditional-exterior-boston-phvw-vp~17871820[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-exterior-traditional-exterior-boston-phvw-vp~17871820)

This website--Classic Colonial Homes--shows lots of cape cod style homes with open floor plans. And they are very nicely detailed, inside and out:

http://www.cchonline.com/cape

Wow Diana I love that site-I recognize several of their homes as ones I have saved for inspiration and example!

I really appreciate all your comments and suggestions. In rethinking this, we’ve decided to move the dining room table to the left of the kitchen, ditch the banquette and turn the former dining room into a morning room/library. (I am having trouble giving up my existing house and I was attempting to take many of the rooms we now have and recreate them in this proposed house. Both my husband and the building designer had suggested otherwise but it wasn’t until reading all your comments that I finally realized this just wasn’t going to work. ). I think this arrangement will work really well. Greenfish1234, I love the house pictured in the link you sent. Our proposed house looks very similar, flipped so the garage is on the opposite side, with a shed dormer above. It will then have the master bedroom wing where the garage of your picture is. And there is enough room over the mud room to connect the bonus room with the rest of the upstairs and include a bathroom there. I also think your suggestion about finishing the bonus room later is a good one, and that was our original intent; however, when I tried to fit my husband’s TV into the plan downstairs, it just didn’t work. We compromised by deciding to finish the mud room sooner, rather than later. And if it seems too expensive, we’ll just have it finished to the drywall and flooring and my husband can do the rest later. He’ll be retired at that point, his “shop” will move into the basement and he’d love having a project to work on. My existing furniture will fit there perfectly and it will get the morning sun.

Virgil, your pictures are perfect and your point is well taken. I have neither the money nor the desire for the castle shown!! And Diana, I have also looked at the houses in the link you sent. They are very beautiful, although I think our windows will be a bit bigger and the back of the house will definitely deviate from tradition.

One final comment. I love the Joseph Lanza house. I’m pretty sure I read an article about that exact house. I think the owners added on to an existing house over a long period of time- I believe it had been in the family for years. And the pictures of the interior were gorgeous. I could be mistaken though and I certainly wouldn’t want to pass misinformation around.

The designer we are using now seems so much better and more competent, despite the lack of credentials. Of course, there are better and worse people in all fields).

I agree with you 100% on that comment. However the two terms really are not interchangeable and I was commenting on it because so many people here (not yourself) come on thinking they hired an architect when what they hired was a designer/draftsman. I made the comment for the lurkers. :)

If you are aging in place, having DH's large TV upstairs may not be the best idea. Right now you're both able to climb stairs, but what happens if that is no longer possible?

Why not make the former dining room into DH's TV room and forget the bonus room upstairs?

The area that is now empty space to the north of the living room could be partitioned off with french doors so that when you want it opened up to one large space it could be but you could close it off to use as a library room when not in use. Or put the TV there and the library where you suggested.

What I don't love is how you have to get to your master suite. I would prefer you don't have to walk to the back of the house through a room to get there. Maybe the thing to do is create a "hallway" between the extra space room to the north of the living room and the living room to the master suite.

It also sounds like you said you're trying to add too many rooms for the two of you. Build what you need, and not what you think you need. If you haven't read the The So Big House by Sarah Susanka, I highly recommend it.

Two thoughts to add to the discussion:

(1) I love my bay windows - the key thing they achieve is that they allow you to be inside your home and yet in your garden at the same time - they thrust you out into the yard where you are surrounded by natural beauty. This is especially nice if you have a beautiful yard which you say you have. You will get new angles of viewing across the yard that you don't get with a flat window. But consider what you will be seeing from those angles if you do go with bay. Not good if you'll just be looking at a wall.

(2) I really like that you are paying attention to where the sun will rise and set. You seem to really appreciate southern exposure so give careful consideration to which rooms you spend the most time in and which rooms need to receive that sunshine. If you're not going to spend much time in the room, why put it in the prime sunny location? And rooms with both southern and western exposure actually get sunlight most of the day! A real premium if you're a sun lover.

How wonderful to build a Cape Cod on Cape Cod!

Regarding sun exposure, be careful what you wish for. We have a glass sun room on the south side of the house (built in 1924). When we moved in, there were lots of tall trees that shaded the room, and we loved it--there was light and dappled sun most of the day. However, during the years the trees either died off or came down in storms (most recently the 2012 Sandy Storm). Now the room is "drenched" in sunlight, and even in the winter it's too hot in there. I need to either plant more trees or install awnings so I can once again use the room!