Things that I'd change, but may not even be a big deal to you, lol:

• Add window to Powder Room
• Dining room would not be large enough for my family, especially when circulation space is allocated (the path you'd take coming and going from the Mudroom door, as well as enough room between chairs pulled out at the table and stools occupied at the peninsula)
• Add a prep sink to the island, to improve meal prep flow
• Swap Bed #4's Bath & Closet, so that the Bath can have a window (preferably no window in the shower, though)
• Speaking of B4, I might even consider a long reach-in closet along the wall
  shared with the Pantry, and completely eliminate the walk-in closet by
  the bathroom; the bath could then be expanded, giving you a lot more
  storage, and extra clearance on either side of the toilet for easier
  cleaning
• Change Entry door swing so that it rests against the Foyer wall, rather than conflicting with the coat closet's door
• Change the coat closet's swing, too, so that it doesn't hit the front door
• What is that long skinny room just above the coat closet?
• Move Bed #3's door to the opposite side of the room, so that there is one circulation path from the entrance into the room and the closet doors
• Eliminate Bed #2's direct access to Bath #2, and put a linen cabinet/tower there, instead
• Reduce sinks (in Bath #2) to just one
• Slide the Master's closet door up, so that it rests against the wall shared by the water closet, instead of the wall shared with the Hall
• Add furniture to every room, to scale, to see if space is sufficient for everything you need in the spaces

Okay, seriously, I gotta go. It is ridiculously late where I am, and I gotta get my behind to bed!!! :-D Sorry if anything I wrote doesn't make sense, lol.

I love a good ranch house!

It looks like the mudroom will be the usual family entrance, which means most traffic will travel diagonally across the family room. Have you laid out imaginary furniture that will allow for that, as well as access to the door In the corner?

Where will the garage/car parking be?

Laundry is kind of a long walk from the bedrooms (source and destination of most laundry) and from the living areas, where people mostly are during the waking hours. Would you consider swapping the laundry and Bedroom 4?

I see you are setting up the new hallway as an office area. Is it for kids? Adults?

Consider a single door for the pantry. Think of it: you are almost always carrying things, and might not have two hands to open the door.

Would you consider moving the working part of the kitchen all the way to the front? That way you’ll get more light where you work, and create a natural pathway from the bedroom hall, across the FR in front of the fireplace, to the kitchen, dining, and laundry. And, you’d have a little more elbow room in the dining, since it is also the entrance from the mud room.

It is impossible to properly evaluate a remodeling plan without knowing the existing layout and all the existing conditions and the site plan. There is a lot of things I would not do in this plan but I do not know why it is that way or if it is an existing condition.

By the way, this is a "Rancher":

What you bought is probably a "ranch house".

Mark Bischak how did I know before I looked at your profile you are not from the south. Thanks for all that valuable info you posted.

Is there a reason you need 8 bar stools in the kitchen area?

I feel like the path to Bedroom 4 and the laundry room is very convoluted. Personally, I would ditch the peninsula since you have an island and move the kitchen sink there unless it could be put in front of the window on the front of the house. I would make the path to laundry room be where the peninsula is now and put a "hidden" pantry door by the front kitchen window.

This is a rough sketch of what I'm envisioning. You can expand the kitchen island with the peninsula gone.

I like what Shead drew. And it makes the back door by the laundry room more accessible, but maybe it isn’t even needed? Although, if you use the space outside that door to air-dry laundry, or plant a kitchen garden or even just herbs and tomatoes in pots, it could be very handy. I’d be inclined to keep it.

Does the driveway to the 3-car garage go close to that door? Does the garage create a kind of courtyard for that area?

Do you have a study area like that for your children now? Where do they currently do their homework?

Too many entries and too much circulaton space at rear of house.

Have you considered demolishing the mud room and reconstructing it adjacent to the laundry?

Have you considered demolishing the mud room and reconstructing it adjacent to the laundry?

Ooooh, I like that idea! Especially combined with shead's idea to reduce the maze-ness of the right side of the house.

If that long narrow room is an office space...do you really think it will be used? I cannot imagine “working” in a room without any natural light.

From Virgil's suggestion....I really like this! That's a triple window in the dining room but it could easily be a patio door unit for access to a grilling area off the back :)

last modified: 16 minutes ago

Have you considered demolishing the mud room and reconstructing it adjacent to the laundry?

I imagine they want the breezeway that leads to the garage. Moving that depends on the location and orientation of the garage.

Then it is a good thing the OP bought the brick rancher instead of the stoned rancher.

Would put the mud room behind the laundry room and make it sized to square that back corner.

Would have only windows (that actually open) in the family room exterior wall but would want the dining room exterior wall to be patio door(s). Keep the windows in the living room wide but higher than back of sofa height. That lets you put furnishings against the /family room exterior wall, have natural light and a view (hopefully a good view) from the family room but still have easy access to the deck from it via the dining room where your table and chairs will be in the middle of the room against the exterior wall anyway.

Along with squaring that back corner by putting the mud room behind the laundry room, you could rethink the configuration of the foyer, living room, family room and kitchen and put the foyer / front hall by the bedroom on the right so the bedroom is off that foyer/front hall rather than directly off the living area.

The foyer front/ hall would begin to the left of where the pantry is now located and the pantry would become a part of that the front entry, with a door between that front hall and the back hall just before the laundry room door. A doorway to the left off that front hall would open between the living/dining area on the back and kitchen on the front.

Your front living room is now totally open to the sounds of your family room area. By moving the foyer, you could close off the wall between the living/family rooms (except for a door), have more interior wall in the primary family room against which you could place furnishings, potentially decrease sound clarity/noise between the two rooms and yet still have that front bonus room open to the kitchen if you wish. You could put a tiny breakfast nook in the front of the kitchen between the front foyer and the (formerly living) now bonus room.

With the family room better separated from the living/bonus room, you could have the more noisy gaming activity in the front living/bonus room, enabling the rest of the family to enjoy a movie or a ball game in the back family room.

Do you have both sons and daughters? At some point it is highly likely they'll each want their own spot to entertain their friends apart from their siblings and/or you'll want a private place for yourselves.

Rather than have the mud room bump out on the right side, you could bump out the left side.

Move your master bedroom suite back six or eight feet (bumping out on back left exterior wall so you can add a hallway between the master suite and the other bedrooms and bath that are on the left side of the house, enabling you to create a side entrance hall that width.

You could line much of that side entrance hall with floor to ceiling storage -- which could also serve as a sound/privacy shield between master and children's bedrooms -- and have the side entrance hall end at two doors: one door entering the back family room and the other door entering the front living/bonus room. That hallway would be an additional sound barrier between the family room and the living/bonus room as well as between the living area and the becroom area.

You could put a sun room or a screened porch or even an open porch or deck along the left side of your home, thus creating a third entertainment/conversation area.

Note: You may want to give some thought to the window placement in all y our bedrooms so you can have both a cross breeze but also appropriate wall space against which to place furnishings.

I have it on a reliable source that stoned ranchers are to be avoided.

I can confirm that, Virgil, as I'm married to a rancher (in KY, we say farmer, though) and am surrounded by some that like to stay stoned ;) (Not DH, though!)

Suezbell, remember that this is an existing house and they are enclosing a carport for a new bedroom and laundry, not doing a complete rebuild.

I've never had a client who would tolerate a kitchen without natural light or a view to the outside. That would make it a lot easier to design a home. Where I live 2 of the bedrooms would be upstairs creating opportunities for windows in the kitchen.

Mea culpa. Even though it was asked " Would you change any of the layout? ", it is likely that weight bearing walls could limit changes, especially the left/right living/den fireplace wall.

bpath reads banned books too