Show us what else is going on below the dining room and to the right of the courtyard.

See below. We would not add a door into the bedroom from the new space. Pantry is big, but a big must for my SO.

I'll take bedroom2 and make it my dream closet, thanks. Or a built in from dining room swings open into the "secret room" - your very own little speakeasy. Or, I always wanted a Christmas Tree closet where I could store the fully decorated tree on a dolly and just roll it out in December.

Another question is: what would you do with this as awkward exterior space?

@lizziesma - This is why the SO wants it built out.

I would put built-ins in the dining room - so move the wall 2', and give the rest to BR2. Or give it all to BR2. That tiny walk-in closet is too small - you could have a marvelous walk in for that room instead. Or make it a much bigger pantry with 2 access points (SO would love that even more I imagine).

Side note I would consider switching your fridge and ovens so the fridge is close to diners.

Divvy up the space.

Lengthen the pantry a bit for two entrances, maybe.

Split the courtyard down the middle. Built-ins on the dining room side. Reach-in closet on the bedroom side.

Bedrooms: move the top bathroom all the way up to the corner, taking over the closet. Extend the other bedroom's closet into that space. As it is, 5'x5' with hanging on two walls is a really bad closet. Make it longer with hanging and shelves etc on one wall, maybe hooks on the opposite wall.

To be honest, i like the courtyard idea. I’d put big windows in the dining room and landscape really nice or add a water feature.

As it is now, there is no room for a hutch, server, etc for the dining room. Fifteen feet is also pretty tight if you have a table that seats 8. Ask me how I know. 😏

I would give some to the dining room and add another closet to the bedroom.

ETA: Can't see all of this in the snippet of floor plan but what about moving hall closet to the end of the pantry. Recesses the pantry door to hid it some but it take the zig zags out of the hallway.

Wine cellar?

I would get rid of the weird walk in closet in bedroom 2, reconfigure its bath, split the space of the courtyard for a conventional wall of reach in closets in bedroom #2 and add length to the Dining Room.

I agree - reach in closet for bedroom 2, beverage bar for dining room. Possibly 2nd door for pantry.

You do not provide enough information to make a plausible recommendation and you are experiencing the ramifications of a poor designer.

Based in the information provided, use the space in the reconfiguration of the two bedrooms and their bathrooms. Provide a four foot wide hallway and remove the clothes closets from the bathrooms and make them reach-in closets that are sized for the use intended. Allow three feet width clear space at the toilet; and layout furniture to scale in the spaces.

Pal, can you give that Bedroom 3’s bathroom a window and make the closet interior?

It looks like it.

Think it works? and the running/flushing water doesn’t back up to the other bedroom.

I like how this lets you put another leaf in the table, add a buffet, have room to mingle, or let the footmen stand in waiting.

l like expanding the bedrom and having a place for a killer bar / buffet station.

You have room for a buffet or built-in storage for the things you use only in the dining room, like candles and a lighter, napkins, things you use for a centerpiece. I think you’ll use that ”nook” more than you know.

I guess I have the larger question of how that configuration came to be. You can call the space anything you want (like a "courtyard"} but in reality it's a little dead area with no life. It appears your wife is the only one here with any design sense which would include your designer.

Another little hint to me that your "designer" is largely clueless in home design is the method he/she uses to dimension the window openings. Normal convention is to dimension to the centerline of an opening, not to the edge of an opening as your plans indicate. And rough openings (which are larger than the actual window unit dimension for obvious reasons) are rarely exactly even numbers as your construction drawings suggest.

Anyway, my point being you may have someone who doesn't know what they are doing, in both the intangibles of sensible home design or the tangibles of good construction drawings. And while the suggestions above for a "fix" have merit, they are still "work around" solutions and those almost always don't measure up to a total rethinking of a plan.

I don't know where you are in the process. You posted three months ago on bid questions Understanding the Bid Process (houzz.com) and it looks like you were a few months into bidding by then and here you are considering a major change (roof, walls, foundation) that would effect that bid.

Maybe best to do some comprehensive rethinking.

As mentioned by others, bedroom 2 is currently very awkward. Where would a bed go? Under that offset window?

Always do a to-scale furniture layout to reveal spatial flaws in a plan.

I consider bed placement under/in front of windows to be less than desirable.

I just wanted to mention that we are having built in cabinetry in our dining area, which is located next to our kitchen very similar to yours. We are calling it the coffee bar, because I want to remove my husband from getting in the way in the middle of the kitchen while making his coffee as it seems as if he is always in the way. It is bottom cabinetry only with the same granite top as in kitchen although this cabinetry is painted unlike our kitchen which is natural cherry. I would like 1 or 2 shelves over the cabinetry (discussed with builder, but not signed on yet). I plan to keep my husband's coffee in the cabinet, as well as napkins and other serving pieces in the drawers and in the bottom, less used kitchen appliances (cuisenart, instapot, crockpot, etc)

I always wanted a closet in my DR for tablecloths, cloth napkins, the leaves for my table, and storing extra chairs. If you have big dinner parties, that's a consideration. The other thing that's been mentioned above is that it would be nice to have BR2's closet on that side, for a sound barrier from the public space and so that you can move the bathroom in that corner and gain a window. So I'd either use the whole space for a nice WIC for BR2, or split the space and do a reach-in for BR2, with a bigger DR and perhaps some built ins there. It's a nice problem to have! And removing that bump-in will probably simplify your roof and foundation, which could save some money.

ETA: I like Pal's second version, but in the bath for BR2, I'd swap the sink and toilet so the toilet isn't right across from the door.

Wanted to thank everyone for their thoughts. Plenty to think through. This forum always amazes me how helpful the contributors are and how abrasive and downright rude the “pros” are. They hurl insults like…well…pro a-holes.

Well, even if you don’t like the way something is expressed, the meat of the matter might still be something to consider.

How DOES removing the courtyard affect the roof?

@bpath When these a-bunch-of squares-connected-together are designed they are routinely capped off with a complex hipped gable roof with a bunch of valleys everywhere, almost one per square on the perimeter. Two wings with a slot in between allows for two separate gables at a certain height. When that pair of boxes becomes one box, the roof gets bigger and then how it ties into other parts changes.

I am guessing, but it could do something like this:

Without the two separate boxes, the roof will be something different, and it could be this, and in order to maintain a proper pitch it will have to get correspondingly taller. This is why some of these houses have massive roofs. It's also why I tend to prefer rectangular houses with simple gable roofs.

Love the palimpsest design but would add door from pantry to dining room.

@Frank the Tank I just read through this thread and I don't see anything here where pro's were abrasive or rude at all. Did I miss something?

I do think this has been quite a good thread.

Do not confuse straight forward honest advice with "rude".

This forum always amazes me how........ abrasive and downright rude the “pros” are. They hurl insults like…well…pro a-holes.

Well, I can’t figure out where THAT came from.

I did have a different idea than the others that fixed it WITHOUT adding 77SF to the house size at whatever cost per square foot is in your area. And while the additional cabinetry suggestion is nice my idea works without the probably $7K in additional cabinetry costs that would likely be needed for cabinets to happen.

My idea has the house size the same but the pantry actually got BIGGER! I drew it up to understandable form and sent it to another forumite (not on the thread) so at least someone knows I’m not making this up.

And being called names aside, that kind of FREE work is not unusual for me. I did it recently here (second post)...floor plan critiques? (houzz.com) and here Floor Plan Feedback (houzz.com) and here Should I give up the doubles doors? (master suite) (houzz.com) . Those folks appeared to appreciate the improvements.

I didn’t think my observations where off color or “insulting” as you say. I’m sorry you thought otherwise.

At any rate, no hard feelings. The best of luck with your build. Exciting times ahead!

I like the ideas suggested here adding a ”party closet” in the dining room is a great idea tablecloths, napkins, candles,, stemware, drinks cabinet - even a wetbat it seems like it would be better to incorporate this slace into the interior. just went on a quick search - here are some party closet examples: https://kimberlywhitman.com/2019/11/the-party-closet.html

I should have added, we are also anout to build an addition and i posted a thread about our mudroon and laundry this week . we are struggling and figuring out this stuff is not easy - even wirh the help of our architect, sometimes you know its‘s not right but not how to fix it