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No first floor owner's bedroom????? You'll want that in a forever home.

Going to be dark. That porch roof will kill most all natural light in your main living area.

BeverlyFLADeziner Yes, we are planning to convert the first floor flex room [left of the front door] to a primary bedroom in twenty years or so. Or we will add an elevator. We are not sure we want to give up the water view from the bedroom [which we have on the second floor.] Thank you.

What part of the country are you in?

Debbi Washburn Thank you, great comment. We will have two similarly sized, large sinks, and the prep/cooking sink will be in the island. The sink on the wall will be the clean up sink and will be deeper and allow us to hide the dirty dishes. We have this exact kitchen in our current house and it works well for our family. I clean and DH cleans! The prep sink is always ready for another meal!

And we are now working on the bathroom based on your reply.

millworkman We are planning a second floor porch as well, the same size. Any ideas for skylights? Skylights on the first floor for a second story porch?

You need 6" on each side of your frig to be able to open the doors unless there's an open doorway. All the valuable counter space to the left of your range will be unused 90% of the time. If you give up symmetry and move the range over 3' the function of your work zones will improve. And you'll be able to move the frig out of the corner.

The window configuration blocks the waterfront view. Why? That's the primary value of your property. Maximize it with a folding or sliding glass wall. You didn't buy this property to save money.

Figure out the stairs, do not just allocate space for them.

What does the site plan look like?

I try to avoid having to look through a screened porch to get a view of a lake.

What are the side yard setback restrictions?

" . . . as we are restricted to the existing footprint."

If this is a remodeling, you need to show the existing plans. If this is a new house, you need to not restrict yourself by a drawing.

Three comments:

• As others have said, the full width screened porch at the back severely restricts your view of the lake, not to mention making the north-facing living space even darker than it will already be. Pull the porch to the kitchen side and create an open deck on the west side which would receive the afternoon sun.
• The space allocated for the stair looks tight. There are strict code restrictions for stairs, riser heights, tread widths and landings. The number of treads and risers will depend on the floor-to-floor height. Make sure your stair layout complies with all requirements.
• The bath doesn't work well. I would pull the bath back to the inside wall, leaving just enough room for a hallway from mudroom to the house. The space just inside the side door can be reconfigured with a bench and storage/closet area.

dan1888 Maybe the plans don's show the double sliding doors in the middle? The front window wall is three large openings.

And thanks for the refrigerator comment - the kitchen designer said the same thing yesterday!

Mark Bischak, Architect

-This is a new build.

-I posted the site plan next.

-The porch is open and we will use Phantom screens that we can use when we are planning to be outside.

-The setback is not an issue but we can get a faster permit if we use the existing footprint.

-I have an architect and I will note to discuss the stairs. Thank you!

Here is the plat.

RappArchitecture

• Thank you, I will talk to the architect about the porch...maybe adding more windows in the kitchen and the family room will add enough light? We do have a gazebo on the water [see top left of site plan above] and we will have a patio [and maybe a pool] on the west side.
• I am noting this for the architect.
• I wil reconfigure based on this! Thank you!

If the mudroom is the side entrance from the waterfront area, consider adding a shower (even if it means losing the window) with handheld showerhead to clean up after being on/by the water. Do you have someplace near that side entrance (in or out) for wet bathing suits, towels, boat shoes, etc.? Also consider adding a 2nd washer/dryer in the mudroom (or boathouse if you will have one) so you don‘t have to carry the bathing suits, towels, etc. to wherever the main laundry room is located.

Design Fan Thank you - I added the outdoor shower, but we may add a sauna and an outdoor shower in one of the outbuildings. I think a perfect place might be the waterfront gazebo.

And yes, I have added a washer in the mudroom! Good advice.

Consider weighing the extra days to get a permit versus the years you will own the home. I have found with my clients having a better home design is worth having the pre-construction process last a couple days longer. Permits are a small thing, living there is a big thing.

Did your "architect" prepare the drawings you posted?

Thank you all. My updated first and second floor floorplans are below. There is still time to comment. This is a fantastic forum! Please let me know if I should post this in a different thread.

REVISED FIRST FLOOR

NEW SECOND FLOOR

The bedroom on the lower left of the first floor can't work because it doesn't have a closet. Plus I certainly wouldn't want to be staying in that room and having to go into the hallway to use the bathroom.

Where are the plans from your architect?

Not having a closet and hallway access for a bedroom is totally fine for a lake house. Non issue

The bedroom does have a closet on the right side. And both lower bedrooms access the bath thru the hallway, which isn't really a problem. But I would allocate more space to the bathroom and less to the overly large laundry room. And not sure who or how the loft will be used, but it seems oversized as shown.

Mark Bischak, Architect

-The architect is next, these are pre-plans.

-The permit process for a house larger than the existing footprint requires us to move the house back 50 feet from the water - and then our neighbors houses are very much in view. We are determined to keep the same footprint to keep the view.

RappArchitecture

- The left lower bedroom also has access to the bathroom directly so if there are no other guests on this floor, it is a master. Yes, if two rooms are occupied, they will have to share.

-Thanks, working on the smaller loft and larger bathroom/laundry room.

cpartist

-These are my plans to show the architect.

-The first floor "flex" room is possibly a home office to start and only a bedroom for overflow guests [mostly college kids an probably a pull out sofa] and possibly a master bedroom in thirty years. At that point, we can pay to reconfigure or add an elevator.

"but we may add a sauna and an outdoor shower in one of the outbuildings"

Make sure to plan your space appropriately for the sauna. Americans have a thing for making saunas too short (like 7') and too small. A good sauna will typically be about 8.5' high interior and you need about 100 cubic feet of volume per person. A typical 4 person sauna in Scandinavia is about 8'x8'x8.5' plus a changing/shower room about twice size.

Search for Trumpkin's Notes on Building a Sauna for more.