I need measurements to make a comment about size of rooms . I think open to the great room spaces are a waste of space and heating and cooling $$$ not to mention the sound travelling up to the bedrooms. The DR space makes no sense since you will have cold food by the time you make the trek.There is a perfect spot for venting the range but the pantry gets in the way. I dislike walk in pantries they waste space and are almost always outside the main workings of the kitchen. I never understand bonus rooms either have a purpose for it or make it part of the space. In your case you need one more bathroom for sure on the upper floor . I do not know about your lot but if at all possible do not build a garage forward house.

Hi, there! I have a few questions, to get the ball rolling.... :-)

How many folks will live here?

Which direction will the house face?

Are you building in a subdivision, on smaller lots?

How many/what kind of changes can be made? Can windows be added, walls removed, bathrooms extended?

Do you plan to use all of the rooms as labeled?

Have you placed to-scale furniture in all of the spaces?

Can we have room dimensions, please? :-)

Which architectural style is it? Do you have exterior elevation renderings you can share?

As much as I hate to admit it, I don't have much problem with it.

Think about enlarging the front bedroom to lower the ceiling in the foyer, creating a cozier entry and not having to walk into a large voluminous space. The square off the loft taking space from the large bedroom.

The pantry is a bit odd.

Add windows to the side of the house.

I have to run off to a meeting.

A few suggestions...

• Add a coat closet at entry (unless the closet in the dining room will suffice for you. Just a bit of a trek in the winter with coats)
• Add windows along east wall of Master bedroom. If the view is a neighbor's home, add transom windows along that wall instead.
• Add French door or sliding door on west wall of Great room out to the covered porch.

Also, not sure if it's possible but completely agree with the comment about reconfiguring the "garage forward" design.

Love the laundry chute! I feel like I've been seeing them more and more in recent designs and had wondered where they had gone. Love the nostalgia (and function) they bring.

My current home is fairly similar to this layout. First floor basically broken up into thirds - Garage / Utility / Kitchen in one; Living / Dining / Foyer in the middle with high ceilinged great room; master bedroom / closet / bathroom in the next. Upstairs, I have 2 en suite bedrooms, loft and bonus - but similar.

I don't have that 3rd garage bay (but have a drive in basement). I do worry about that 3rd bay taking valuable light from the kitchen. I think the house would be improved without that 3rd bay. I also think that I would make the foyer one story and allow that upstairs bedroom to be a guest suite, complete with bath. I think you are short of bathrooms for a house with this many bedrooms, IMO. Also agree with adding windows. Pantry odd - and kitchen may need rework overall - especially in that pantry entrance area - but that feels like all part of the same problem.

Other than that, I've lived in this house for 20+ years and it lives pretty darn well (moving to the country / ranch / better indoor; outdoor connection)

Overall it is not much to comment on besides what's already been mentioned. The few things I see is make sure you have at least 3ft preferably 3.5 ft in front of the dryer to the counter top or I'm afraid it will be uncomfortable and you will hit the cabinet and counter top there.

The space in the closets looks very tight. How wide are the closets? I would say you want 3 ft of space to walk the absolute minimum is 30" but will feel tight. Remember clothes generally take up 2 ft when hanging in a closet.

Besides the comment about the location of the pantry the other part that is of concern is the width of the shelving you show there. It looks like it only leaves 2ft of walking space. That is pretty narrow.

What size is your garages. Just looking at them it appears they may be fairly tight and that might be ok if you own small vehicles. I would suggest looking up the size vehicles you own and consider being able to open the door fully on your vehicle to get out on both sides and also be able to drive into the garage through the garage to have that space between the vehicles.

ETA: Also consider how you will place furniture in the great room. I think the way the fireplace sits currently it will not be centered on the furniture.

I think the pantry will drive you crazy, it’s so long and narrow.

The laundry/garage entry, I’m not sure I like that. You come in the house, then go into another room to drop your jacket and stuff, then back out the way you came to go further into the house. I don’t know how many people you will have coming in and out at the same time, but even when it’s just the two of us we’d be sliding past one another. And, the Arrangement makes the laundry facilities less convenient for swapping loads. I wonder if that area can be rearranged to make the coat hooks more convenient to the entry and give more elbow room, as well as move the laundry room door closer to the kitchen?

Will you use the dining room as a dining room? It seems a bit far from the kitchen. Will you eat most of your meals at the island? (I don’t have an island, but I can’t imagine eating at one for EVERY meal, especially after DH is the one making dinner. . . And I can see the remnants of the prep . . .)

I like the arrangement of master bedroom, closets, and bath.

Here is the exterior view and original floor plan

I was looking at the upstairs. Our house originally had the stairs with walls on both sides, arriving at the upstairs landing. We our so glad the original owners had that changed to make the bedrooms on either side of the stairs a tad smaller, enlarging the landing, so that the stairs open up as they rise. More space at the top, more light filtering up from downstairs, and less claustrophobic all around. OTOH, they rise from the foyer, not the living space, so noise might be an issue.

That is a tight turn getting inside the Master bedroom. I would move the door back toward the foyer to eliminate the jog. Otherwise that king bed you want might get stuck

To note, we will have a view of trees out the East side (house will be facing south) so we do plan to add two additional windows in the master bedroom.

I love that your kitchen has a large window and 3 walls. If you bake I'd put in a baking center to the right of the fridge instead of a desk/hutch(?)

Ground Floor: (1) Powder room right after you come in from the garage is very convenient - can use the restroom before getting in the car to go somewhere, and it's handy when you return home and really "need to go." BUT, visitors in your dining room or great room have to trek through the kitchen to get to it. And, anyone using it while folks are still in the dining room will result in the diners getting an earful. (2) You need a coat closet near the front door, unless you are in a climate where no one ever needs a jacket or umbrella. (3) How will you vent the range hood to the outside? (4) How will you vent the dryer to the outside?

Upstairs: (1) Bedroom #3's closet should run the length of the wall between it and bedroom #2 to dampen sound between the rooms. Of course, the door into the room will need to be relocated. (2) If you go with having a bonus room upstairs, any guests to your home that are in that room will either need to use the kids' bathroom, or trek downstairs to the powder room.

Double height great rooms have problems all their own.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5929767/two-story-great-room-pros-and-cons#n=49

Are you really, really sure you want a 2-story great room? Have you read the other current thread on a 2-story great room?

For the two story family room, I’d prefer to lower the ceiling and make it vaulted with beams. This just depends on how much it costs to change.

The long, narrow, pantry might be more convenient if it can be accessed by either end (and widened slightly). Using that premise, I also opened another entry into the laundry room (that idea can be omitted in favor of more shelving in pantry). The fridge is recessed into the laundry/entry space, with shallow cabinets on each side. I tried putting the fridge on the sink wall, but it was too far from the range, IMO.

The PR fixtures have been moved to the other wall to help buffer sounds. This is rough, without exact measurements:

The door at the foot of the stairs (is there a basement?) looks like it will hit the door to the closet right behind it if they are both open at the same time. That could be awkward, particularly if someone is coming up the stairs from below and opens the door they could hit either the closet door that's been left open or the person standing there with no way to anticipate the collision.

Two entries to the pantry is a great idea! I’d love to have the microwave in there so that would be very convenient.

The basement door and adjacent closet door I don’t think will be an issue as I don’t see that closet being used frequently.

You say the closet wouldn't be used frequently, but wouldn't that closet be the coat closet? Regardless, it's poor design to have a layout such that doors have even the potential to open into each other. I wonder if you could move the coat closet somewhere else, and perhaps use the space to make the pantry closet deeper?

So, we have a basement door and a closet door across from each other. It is so rare to have both open at the same time, I can't even think of a time it happened. Except, when we intentionally open the closet to give a skosh more room to maneuver something big in or out of the basement. THAT is convenient.

One more thing I think you should fix is the 2ft wide walk between the garages. That seems very tight.

And to add to the comment above - dimensions would help yield more constructive critique / recommendations.

I was so focused on the kitchen I didn't notice how the garage was attached. I assume that is still in the planning stage, too. I rearranged the laundry and moved the wall up to ease the corner, and to provide an entry from the smaller garage (easily omitted if not necessary)--but that puts a small, money-slurping jog by the other garage entry. It looks as if the laundry keeps getting smaller, and storage is disappearing from the entry, so the shallow cabinets on the kitchen wall to the right of the hall (as one enters) could be dedicated to entry storage. I also pulled the double closet toward the hall, to provide a little more space at the top of the basement stairs.

My main areas of focus seem to be the laundry room and kitchen layouts. The laundry room will double as the mud room as well. All shoes will stay in the garage so shoe storage is not a concern. One laundry room must for me is having the laundry chute from the kids bath upstairs.

How do you plan to use the third garage? A door that is more convenient to both garages, or two doors, might be handy, depending on its use.

I need to gather measurements on both of our vehicles to make sure they will fit comfortably. My husband drives a truck and I drive a Yukon xl. The third car space will be for the kids things like bikes and power wheels and mower until we build a shed.

I think it would be helpful to have a second bathroom upstairs, maybe steal some space from the loft area, which really just looks like a landing I guess. Just no Jack and Jill, ugh. I'm also not a fan of the two story thing but I know lots of people love that.

Does anyone has thoughts on having our additional stand up freezer in the pantry in the south corner? Would this make that small room hot?

When you measure your vehicles, put to-scale models on the floorplan. Make sure they don’t conflict with the steps going into the house, that you can open the doors comfortably on both sides, and without hitting the steps. Then, be sure everyone can get into the house, dropping their shoes along the way, without tripping over each other.

BTW, you say shoes will stay in the garage, so can I assume you are in the south? Up here in snow country, you’d be guaranteed slushy shoes lol.

We are in Ohio. I am a strict no shoes inside person. In our current home, we have shoe organizers in the garage and it has not been a problem :)

Thank you everyone for your input! We have a lot to consider!