Am I reading right, that it is 25 steps up to the second floor? Around here that is about 2 flights of stairs, are your main floor ceilings that high?

Where will the bed in Br 3 go?

Hi Partim
Firstly, I want to thank you for your response.
Answering few of your queries.
Yes, land is flat.
the only entrance we can have is to the South, there is a small mountain on the east side of the house.

The house will be constructed in India.
Kitchen, Living and Dining will be in the north side, assuming it will not be that hot.
Entrance is in the South.
There is a lake in the north side, just at the back of house, so the balcony in the leisure room will face the lake side.
it will be a owner builder home, builders are getting to expensive, and not very reliable.
I live in Sydney, and planning to move back home.
Once again thank you for your response and time.

Hi bpath,
The ceiling height is 12 feet, there is a landing at 9 feet.
bed for bedroom 3 will be to the right of bedroom 3 entrance.
thanks for your response and time.

Hi Beverly,
Thank you so much for sending the links.
As an Indian, I have to consider the vaastu principles while designing the house.
The garage is only for 1 car.
Thanks a lot.

"The house will be constructed in India."

The biggest issues I have are the location of the powder room on the main floor, and also the fact that it's a long way from the entrances to the kitchen and powder rooms. A powder room nearer the entry and further from the kitchen would be better.

Also you have a lot of walk in closets (?) in corners taking prime window real estate. Do you really need these? Sometimes reach-in closets are just as good. Plus windows in a closet can fade your clothes.

Houzz has a forum for India at Houzz.in that might give you more local information. Probably more helpful. For example, their discussion forum seems to have a lot of questions and answers about vastu. https://www.houzz.in/discussions/design-dilemma

What are the leisure and lounge rooms for? I can tell from your design that you are probably not the household cook/grocery shopper. You've made mistakes a lot of men who are amateur designers make.

1. The space for the laundry is in a horrible place. How will it vent? It should be on an outside wall.

2. The laundry space is horribly designed and inadequate.

3. The path from the garage to the pantry is a terrible maze. I pity whoever has to bring in and put away the groceries.

The ideal functional layout is to have the laundry, utility closet (where is it?) and kitchen together near the garage.

Thank you for introducing me to concepts of vaastu. This board is dominated by suburban Americans with most useful insights, but I think we all benefit from also considering other cultures and environments. So many design concepts seem universal.

Your draft design seems to me to need better integration with the outdoors to produce better views and greater usefulness, indoors and out, even if that might mean smaller square footage.

That large western window in kitchen will introduce glare and heat during a part of the day when most kitchens are heavily used and hot. Will there be a wall on the property border, just 4' from that window? That isn't enough room to create an attractive view from such a dominant window, which would be possible were it even a few feet wider. With just a few feet that side yard could be a much more useful outdoor service area as well as providing screening and a view for that window. . A skilled garden designer should be able to produce a useful and pleasant garden area in your backyard yard, especially if that space doesn't also need to serve pets or laundry or kids play equipment.

Similarly, it appears that your house would sit so close to the street that even one guest car cannot part in the driveway. Will bicycles, baby strollers, garden equipment, & tools also need to be stored in your garage? Where will the trash and recycling be kept?

In India I would not want a kitchen/living room of this design. I would want more private areas, indoors and out, for the service people to rest and do their sitdown tasks. And I would prefer a main floor powder room largely for guests. Too, have you considered how routine service deliveries work in India? Do you want the front door used for such? When I visited friends in India, even a household without live-in service seemed to have a constant routine of drivers, day helpers, and sundry delivery people. My hostess in such a house entertained her sisters, teens, & guests in her bedroom because her own living room wasn't sufficiently private during the daytime.

In India, (or in California, where I read that brownouts are now announced) I would want cross ventilation in all bedrooms and living areas.

I didn't even notice until now that the house will be constructed in India. That really does change things. Do you do the laundry, cook, etc. or do servants do it? If this home is in India, you might consider a spice kitchen or closed kitchen. My mother-in-law is Indian and lives with us part-time. The only reason why the strong (yet delicious) smells of her cooking don't go through the house is because we have very high ceilings and a huge great room. She doesn't cook every day though and she usually is only cooking for one.

How stable is the electric grid and how reliable is the water supply? We insisted on my mother-in-law living on ground or first floor because where she lives is prone to brown outs. Is monsoon season an issue? Do you entertain a lot? Instead of the typical pile of guests' shoes at the door, it might be nice to have some shelves right inside the door like I've seen at some temples.