Hi Kelley-

1 - What is the L-shaped thing with two chairs in the middle of the house between bedrooms 2 and 4? (desk?) I would lose that, increasing your center living room. From what you wrote, I would think that you would want more open "congregating" space than little specialty nooks.

2 - Where is the closet space for bedroom 4?

3 - Will one apparently standard-size fridge be enough for this large family?

Well...what is the cost to build this design? What is your desired budget and contingency fund? In other words what sum are you trying to reduce?

Without more info it is tough to tell. What is the budget? How much do you need to trim? Exterior elevations and finishes? Interior finishes? What about you 15% oh s**t fund? If you are very tight it is most often best to wait.

Great question-
The nook is child homework/art/LEGO space to compensate for tiny bedrooms. But I take your point.
We designed for one full size fridge plus a chest freezer—luckily we live 8 of us with a tiny apt fridge now so I have let go of fridge anxiety —but we have to have niche for a water cooler most likely.

Thanks everyone - just realized how vague I was.

Best estimates at this time is to reduce floor plan by about 10% would bring it safely under budget with midrange finishes. It seems a very imprecise guesstimate but not sure how else to go about keeping us comfortably under budget at this stage. About to ask for the boq and thought better to make peace with some trimming now than waiting for the inevitable.

Why do you want a house that is 3 rooms deep with no light reaching your public rooms? I would think in the tropics you'd want rooms that are light and bright which can be achieved by making sure you have large eaves and a larger lanai and porch.

Plus all the wasted space and pathways around. Look how little actual usable public space you have.

Also where are the closets for things like brooms and cleaning supplies?

Look at the path just to get laundry to the laundry room

Here's what I mean.

I'm guessing that if you instead worked with an architect not only would you wind up with a house more on budget, but you'd wind up with a house where your public rooms aren't pathways for your bedrooms. Why? Because an architect will save you from yourself and design the most compact house that will actually live larger than this one that will feel small.

let this be your guide :)

http://blog.buildllc.com/2012/09/construction-is-expensive/

"Best estimates at this time is to reduce floor plan by about 10% would bring it safely under budget"

I have to warn my clients that not every square foot is created equal. Most will want to cut down on the cheap spaces like bedrooms and living space and leave all the expensive spaces intact. If you're 10% over budget, you'll need to cut more than 10% of your square footage. The best way to reduce costs is to cut features as well as square footage. Look for extra bathrooms, overly large kitchen and built-ins.

Cut 30% in size to achieve 10% in savings. The issue is the inefficiency of the design. A smaller and more efficient design without so much wasted space would be less expensive. 10% less of that design is just going to be worse in efficiency and circulation. And only be maybe 2% in cost difference.

You aren’t getting where you need to be with this strategy. It’s the design that’s the issue. Not the size of the design.

Hi, Kelly,

Did you give your architect a budget target to design to? What do they suggest with regard to making the plan most cost-efficient to build?

Why are there 2 bathrooms side by side, accessible from the hall but not bedroom 3 OR 4? Is there any sort of living space to the left of the kitchen or is it dining or ...?

Why does the first master bath wall jut into the living room? what's the purpose of that space in the bath?

Have you gone through this plan in 3D? Because it does not flow well at all.

You only think you’re “just” 10% over budget. The roof on that big fat house is way more than your 10%. So are all of the hallways and wasted space. You’re paying a premium for space that doesn’t pull its weight in the budget.

Pick up a copy of The Not So Big House. It’s all about making your house work harder rather than just being bigger. Reduce duplicative functions. No one needs 5 places to eat and 7 places for the family together. Rooms that do double duty cut down on costs rather than having large single use rooms. Single use rooms should be limited in size. And you have a bunch of them.

Well... it's probably worth repeating that an objective to reduce the construction budget by a significant amount is difficult to achieve by simply looking for cheaper finish materials in a given plan.

Significant reductions are usually only achieved by reducing the buildable area, or by going to another smaller design entirely.

Overall, I can't work up much love for this house. Random thoughts:

- You say you're a family with four kids + live-in grandparents ... yet you've allotted space for two cars. What about when the kids start driving?

- Note that you're parking in the front of the house ... yet your kitchen is at the back. This means every day /week you have to tote groceries the whole length of the house.

- A door between the scullery kitchen /pantry /laundry and the main living area would improve circulation. It would mean people could enter this hard-working room without cutting through the kitchen. (Note: This is not a butler's pantry.)

- Does the dining table go in the empty space by the back doors? Lots of space for it, and it should be a pleasant spot.

- This living room doesn't look all that big for a family of eight. Where do you anticipate placing a TV? Other living room storage?

- Lots of odd wasted space in the entry.

- You say that you value common gathering areas over bedrooms ... yet you've placed the bedrooms in the prime square footage (on the outside of the house so that they receive the best natural light /breezes), while the main gathering room is completely in the dark /will require lights to be turned on even at mid-day. This is the single biggest problem in this house.

- You say that the large desk area is for kids' homework /Legos ... but it's going to be a dark hallway. Who's going to want to sit there? Again, this area is in the dark while the bedrooms (where people sleep) are going to be filled with lovely natural light.

- I would want a door on this kids' area so a teenager could sit and do homework without hearing the common area just a few steps away. Similarly, I'd want a door on that secondary seating area on the left side.

- Why does one kid get a desk /much larger room, while two kids are sharing a smaller room?

- I like the four kids' bathroom concept. Two toilets /one full bath. It's a reasonable number to share /build /keep clean.

- Not a tub in the whole house. No one likes to take a bath? No one ever washes a dog? The kids are all shower-age?

- On the other hand, you have three full baths on the adults /guest side. The two master bedrooms definitely need a private bath ... but I'd skip the full bath for occasional guests. Maybe rearrange so that the occasional guest could share with one of the masters ... or place this space nearer the kids' area so those bathrooms could be shared.

- Pocket doors are great for places that stay open most of the time (for example, your scullery kitchen) ... they're awful for doors that're opened /closed frequently ... for example, your master bath. If this is your parents' room, pocket doors aren't good at all for older hands that may have arthritis.

- Consider bringing large furniture through the turn into the back-of-the-house master. I'd add a door to the back patio.

- One master has only a small closet -- looks like 5' or so? -- while the other master has two space-wasting "Ls" that're both larger than the other closet. What's the rationale here?

- One master will be occupied now by a set of grandparents ... possibly in the future by boomarang kids, right? I'd consider setting this "apart" from the main house ... perhaps accessed through a breezeway. This would allow greater privacy for the grandparents ... and it would allow you (later) to cut off heating /cooling to this area if it's sitting unused for a time. My parents' house has a one-bedroom apartment attached, and I can't tell you how many different functions that apartment has served ... but the flexibility to "detach it" from the main house is quite valuable.

- The back patio is nicely sized, but what are the two closets on the far ends? And why do they face outward instead of into the patio?

- A pass-through between the kitchen and the patio eating area would be wonderful.

How to cut back /how to save: Ditch this plan and start again. You can have these same spaces /functions in less square footage. That'll save you money.

Here's a stab at a different layout. Consider:

- This places the parents', grandparents' and kids' private spaces far apart.

- The dining, kitchen and living spaces are all positioned so they'll benefit from natural light.

- The grandparents' area /den is more of a separate apartment /can be "closed off" if it's not being used -- or if you ever rent it out. You could also have a second entrance into the den.

@D E

let this be your guide :)

http://blog.buildllc.com/2012/09/construction-is-expensive/

Those people are full of it. In 2009 they claimed that the cost of new construction at $250/sq ft? On what planet? California?

Dealing with prices right now. So I have a kitchen plan, now I want to shave off 6" (25 sq ft)... And my cost reduction is... $450. That is because I have same cabinets, same appliances, same counter top, same windows, same wiring, same plumbing about the same drywall and 1' less siding, $70 less in foundation cost, $100 less framing, the rest is in standing seam roof. Woo hoo. Price per sq ft is really a stupid measure. Removing pot filler would save more. Removing backsplash, that always gets dated really quickly would save more... Pre-plumb for water-softener - saves more. So talk to your builder.

BT, I posted it for the image that shows which areas of the house cost more and which areas cost less :)

Site plan? Views? Orientation for best use of sun/shade? I agree with all the others are warning you about.

Hi Kelly,

Did you give your architect a construction budget you needed to achieve? How far off is the cost and what are his/her suggestions to reconcile the design and budget?

I'm looking to build in FL and the whole cost/sq.ft gets even more confusing. Some builder price things out as "cost/sq.ft under roof" and others as "cost/sq.ft for heated/AC area". At least we don't have to try to figure out if the basement is included in those numbers!