The first one would be far more livable for me. It seems more logical for the kitchen to open to the dining room than to the living room. There is also more wall space for furniture arrangement and TV placement.

I don't care for the second plan. The chair against the bar is awkward. Will you not have barstools? Where will the TV go? The dining room seems isolated.

I think you should honestly consider how you live and entertain when evaluating these 2 plans.

How many people would live here? What would be on the second floor?

Small is relative - this looks substantially larger than my 1550 sq ft house, which fits a family of four nicely.

I like the defined entry area in the second. With the first you go straight into an undefined area of the living room.

I don’t like how the kitchen faces the bathroom in the first plan.

For the location of the dining area alone, the first is definitely better than the second.

I like the first plan for several reasons. When you come in the front door it is more open and welcoming. There is a nice flow between the living room, dining room, and kitchen. The dining room with its large windows will be very pleasant. Since the kitchen entry is the one you will likely use most often its larger mudroom will be very practical. Lastly, the galley kitchen should work well for you. My one initial suggestion would be to add more windows in the kitchen if possible

I'm confused. Are the requirements of the house defined or is that still changing? Do you want the extra bedroom on this floor? You said the kitchen is in relatively the same position, but it's not. In the second, the kitchen is in the back corner with double french doors opening up to the backyard. The idea of having the kitchen open to the backyard is great. (and depending on the execution, you could have a little breakfast nook looking at the backyard). In the other plan the kitchen is on the side of house, with a wall separating it from the back door, so it's more isolated from the backyard.

I like the idea of a foyer vs. opening the front door to a big and completely open space.Have you read "The Not So Big House?" It talks about how people relate to space. Are you working with an architect on this? It looks like this will be a $$$ project, but there seems to be problems with the basic flow on each. Can those stairs move? It might be nice to have something like the second plan but with the stairs moved, and the dining room where the office is, so it too can look to the yard. Maybe put the office where the front bedroom is.

None of the above.

Besides: when not known for whom it is, and what's on the second floor, it seems impossible to decide. Is this a house flipping project? Then find out who is living in this area first.

It also seems you can change the back of the house completely. Where would people love to sit outside? Is this a warm area, where people want to sit in the shade? Or a colder area, where people want to catch a lot of sunlight? When the family likes to eat breakfast outside, the kitchen should best be adjoining the outside, that gets the morning's sunlight.

Or is this house very close to lots of others and should it fit in in the larger scale of the street, thus maybe dictating which area is used for what purpose?

Elderly couples want an office and a big dining room to entertain the growing family. Young families want a play room adjoining the living room or kitchen (or both), so the parents can hear what's going on, without being bothered too much by the noises.

My first thought is the view. The living room should idealy be placed where there is the nicest view to what's outside.

Here are my thoughts concerning your ideas. With the first plan, you bumb into the living room without an entry. That's going to be sorely missed. And who on earth takes a bath from the office? A smaller bathroom with just a toilet and small sink would do fine.

When the office is to be used by the owners as a retreat area, it does not need an entrance to any bathroom there. In fact, I'd put the bathroom on the other side of the floor and have just the living room and office on that side, with sliding doors in between, made of mostly glass, so you can see through it, have all the light, but hardly any noise.

In your second plan the kitchen takes center stage. Way too much for a house this size, unless it is custom built for people, who's biggest hobby is cooking and entertaining. And even then the dining room ought to be adjacent instead of the living room.

In all normal cases: make the kitchen more compact and make storage cabinets up to the ceiling. Than have the dining area in between the living area and the - open or half open - kitchen.

Your second plan has the floor botched up in small patches. Not good for anything, let alone selling. When elderly people like to have their own bedroom and bathroom downstairs, they at least want those to have some bigger proportions. Just skip the office and make the master bedroom there. It will be big enough for a small seating area, which could also be used as a tiny office area.

Close the entry on the upper side, make it a bit longer and open it into what you have as dining area. Make a guest restroom where the closets are in your picture and adjacent the bathroom to the master bedroom. The piece of carrying wall that's left can be closed with a door on the upper side next to the lower staircase. That door leads to the master bedroom. You've ditched a small good-for-nothing corridor then.

There's more to say, but this is getting too long.

Wow, some good responses.

To answer some questions, the kitchen currently sits where the second one’s kitchen is...the one with the nook dining room. The second option gives us two bedrooms on the main floor: one for an office and one for a guest bedroom, which is the best situation for that. My husband is near the kitchen when he’s working from home, and then also guests (namely our parents) have a little distance from us and future kids who are all upstairs. We are fine just having one bedroom on the main floor, however, if it is needed for the “public space”.

On the first option, I agree that the entry way is a little big. However, it’s only for guests. I also was trying to keep a line of sight from the kitchen to the living room. We definitely want some sort of mud room space where we come in from the driveway (in the back of the house)...at least a little bench which would fit in the second option or a bigger space like shown in the first. Design/layout suggestions welcomed.

We’re trying to not move the stairs because that’s a massive cost. So working within that limitation. Also I’m trying to minimize the number of windows and exterior doors that need to be changed as well. Again, cost.

Right now it’s just the two of us, but we’re trying to make the house fit for a family of five.

I think I got all the questions...let me know if not.

Here’s the original floor plan:

I like the first plan, but do not care for the way the mud room shrinks the kitchen - I would extend the kitchen cabinets to the back wall, and put the mud room storage and gear on the far wall only - that should be more than sufficient. The interior dining room in the second plan would be dark and not inviting

I prefer the second plan, mainly because I don't like how the front door opens directly into all the living space (including line of sight to the kitchen) in the first plan. I prefer a distinct entryway with closet nearby (as in the 2nd plan), and not seeing the kitchen from the door.

I actually like your existing plan as well. Is your main objective for this project to increase the kitchen footprint?

Incidentally, my house has a similar layout as your first plan. I don't like the front door opening into the dining/living space, I wish I had a closet closer to the door. Also, I decided not to remove an existing wall between kitchen and dining because I don't like seeing the kitchen from the front door (there's another thread on exactly that topic). I do like having the guest bedroom to the rear of the house, however.

The large one. In my experience, one larger room can make a home with otherwise small rooms feel and genuinely live larger than it is, while the same home with no large space feels small and cramped.

Our snowbird mobile home on the water in FL was originally 10' wide, and that's all the long hall, bedrooms, and bath are. But a 12' widening extension was added on the front so that what would have been a miserably cramped 10 x 14 living/dining space is 22 x 17 and 14. The whole thing, amazingly (I didn't believe it when I first measured and multiplied), is not quite 600 square feet but feels much, much, much larger. What that relatively spacious front experience does to make the "west-wing" bedrooms also feel nice, and pleasantly separate in their identity instead of continuation of smallness, is magic.