You've received a lot of suggestions/advice from pros + knowledgeable non-pros (which I am not!) - however, I wouldn't worry about adding desks + lounge chairs in the kids' rooms. Based upon my experience + what I've heard from other parents + people on this forum, kids rarely use a desk (my oldest daughter didn't - I didn't add one in my other daughter's room even though there was space for one. Most of the time, the island was used for homework by the girls while I was preparing dinner (or homework was done in their bedrooms either on the bed or the floor).

Having a lounge chair might be nice if there was extra room in the kids' bedrooms - but I don't think that you need to make the rooms larger in order to have room for one. Generally, friends sat on the bed or on the floor (my oldest daughter had a Japanese floor mattress that fit rolled up under her bed that she would pull out to use on her floor with friends over). My niece had a chair that hung from the ceiling in her small apartment bedroom at college.

Being able to change to queen size beds would be a requirement for me. The smallest bedroom that fits a queen is 10x10 (according to some designers on the internet). It would be a tight fit - but there are ways to make it work (have a built-in storage frame or use a raised frame that you could put storage rollouts under).

A way to make your bedrooms (which are a bit larger) feel spacious (while allowing for a queen bed) would be to add a very inexpensive loft that holds a queen size which would leave all the floor space for desks/chairs/dressers/etc. Also, you could use an RV sized queen bed (which is a few inches narrower) - you'd probably need to make a simple platform for the mattress.

I would really try to find space for a small powder room. I would rather have a powder room for guests than having them use the kids' bathroom - the bathroom will not always be "guest ready" if someone stops by without advanced notice. Plus, it would be nice to have an accessible bathroom closer to the public spaces.

One last comment - I assume that you have a nice view out of the back of your home along the living room - it would be nice to have the two chairs facing towards the windows/french doors instead of facing away from that view.

I feel like it would be nice to be able to get from the side door to not only the kitchen but the foyer. It keeps all the traffic from going past the sink, stove, and refrigerator. I know you like symmetry, but I wonder what it would look like to move the front door to the left, effectively swapping the foyer and the office? Not sure about the mechanicals though.

Will you have AC? Isn’t the condenser usually near the blower?

I’m sincerely appreciative to have received so many helpful comment thus far. I was not expecting for so many peoole to comment and provide feedback. I have updated some things on the floor in accordance with feedback.

Rather than replying to questions about where things were going (such as TV, broom closet etc.) I have added labels over items.

builder says we need to keep an actual mechanical room. I did make it a bit smaller, so that I could have a closet in my office. I cannot part with having an office to gain things like a powder room or coat closet, as I own a full time business and need a dedicated space for work and storage. My office will also double as my exercise room. Gear for that will be housed in the armoire.

added an additional window in our daughter’s room.

Increased the walkway space opposite of the pantry/fridge wall. All walkways in the kitchen are now 4’ wide.

added a sink in the mudroom. Changed the secondary bath to a single sink.

Considering changing the back double doors, as suggested.

My husband wants to keep the 8’ deep front porch all the way across the front of the home.

Firepit in the back will NOT be near or under the overhang of the roof. :)

An 8’ deep front porch is perfect for having ill-disposed Aunt Gertrude sit at the outer edge during dinner on the porch and fall off to never return again.

View from a front porch into a bathroom or bed room is something I try to avoid. But if Luke keeps his BB gun handy it may deter any peeping Toms. Have him look into Byrna launchers.

A walk-out basement, even if unfinished, would add a lot of value to the home. I wouldn't build without a basement, specially if comparable homes are being built with them.

I don't like walk-out basements, as they typically mean you can't walk straight out your back door into the back yard -- disconnects the house from the backyard.

Consider, too, that not all land is good for basements -- no one has them in this area.

I do realize that the main living spaces look a bit large, especially the dining room as a few mentioned. My husband and I both have large families, and our home will most likely become the new holiday gather location after grandparents pass on. So trying to think about the future, of being able to add another large folding table in the dinning room to host everyone semi-comfortably.

Build for what will be comfortable every day -- not for a handful of days each year, especially if you're talking about years in the future. Especially since you're concerned about budget.

Compartmentalize bath for dual usage.

Kids never share bathroom use -- not even my girls, who were best friends from the day #2 was born. Stay with a simple three-piece design.
I would really try to find space for a small powder room.

I'll vote against this idea. I think most plans on this site are over-bathed. This house will have two bathrooms + 4 full-time inhabitants. That's not a bad ratio. Additionally, I wouldn't welcome another bathroom to clean each week.

builder says we need to keep an actual mechanical room.

Not sure I believe him. Ask him if it needs to be this large.

kids rarely use a desk (my oldest daughter didn't

I had a desk -- always sat on the bed to do my homework -- used the desk only when typing papers for school on my mom's typewriter. I didn't get desks for my kids, and it was never a problem.

I own a full time business and need a dedicated space for work and storage. My office will also double as my exercise room. Gear for that will be housed in the armoire.

With so many people working from home, I think a small office is a good idea for anyone. Are you sure you have space for exercise in this room?

All walkways in the kitchen are now 4’ wide.

Go down to Lowes and walk through their sample kitchens -- see if they feel comfortable to you. They're 3 1/2' ... but do pay attention to the overhang of the countertops; if you had two cabinets facing one another with 2" overhang, that could steal 4" from your walkway. Details matter.

added a sink in the mudroom.

Place it next to the washer to consolidate plumbing. And, again, exterior wall for the dryer.

My husband wants to keep the 8’ deep front porch all the way across the front of the home.
It's lovely, but it's also expensive, especially for a front porch, which won't see much actual use.
An 8’ deep front porch is perfect for having ill-disposed Aunt Gertrude sit at the outer edge during dinner on the porch and fall off to never return again.

You do need to be careful of low porches without railings. A co-worker of mine stepped off backwards "just wrong" -- missed months of work, had two surgeries, and she's still walking with a limp. Unusual, but possible.

I don’t think your main spaces are large at all. For a family you actually will get on top of one another without an additional space like a rec room or games room. Everyone really can be in the main area or their bedroom. That is all other than you who has an office

The master bedroom door. Tradition is that it opens as shown. But, it is problematic here. When you enter the bedroom during the day, you are most likely headed to the closet or bathroom. But the door makes you walk around it. By hinging it on the left, you avoid that.

Another benefit to hinging it on the left is privacy for the bedroom. As is, it is a straight view from living space into the bedroom with the door ajar. Hinge on the other side, and the ajar door is a view of the door.

But, it seems unnatural that way, doesn’t it. This is why I don’t like bedroom doors that open directly off a public space.

"The master bedroom door."

I once designed a Holding Morgue on a main corridor in the lower level corridor leading from the main hospital to a parking structure, an Imaging Center, and a Cancer Center. I had the door swing the opposite direction than one would think, to block the view into the morgue from the corridor. The same application could be applied here.

Cadavers should be kept at 39 degrees fahrenheit in case it ever comes up in trivial pursuit.

I like some hate some: )

Hate?

Where are kids entering MOST of the timer, especially with their friends? The side door or front? You have all of their foot traffic coming directly through your cook and cleanup in the kitchen! I'm a NO, or a dumping ground at the foyer of no closet.

Your laundry is a mile from all the bedrooms, and the large window is eating all the potential storage, A " lift top storage" ...for what? It will become a piled dumping ground. , and the window a view of washer and dryer from the porch across the entire front elevation.

What about the inevitable shoe piles, the book bags, ?You want to trip over it in the laundry.or worse have it in view in the front foyer.?

You run a business from home, but you have a quite undersized office, for what you plan to do in there, including exercise, It isn't going to be a a girly /pretty...and do you need to even see it from the foyer?

. Tv and fire: : The continual battle of the two competing elements has driven me to nutville. Everyone needs to sit only on a COUCH to see it, at the same time as fire. Why? You are in a climate of tropical heat for months on end. Am I seeing a raised hearth? Why? Nobody sits on it, it simply sucks useful space from the room. I'd be sorely tempted to re locate fire to the north side of the house, ( dim/ cool light no matter what ) , put windows either side of fire, lose the french doors, and change the windows in the dining to a slider and exit you do not have directly from the kitchen. ......and landscape your way to outdoor grilling etc? Bonus?

A view of the well done fire from the foyer entry.

What's my point? A fire can simply BE in a room. But the continual effort to put an 85 inch or greater tv , over a mantel,, and who can see it at nursing home height, comfortably, a thousand ideas to lower it, put it off to the side and yada yada. and the battle continues, unabated.

Just be honest about TV size , how much you want, its importance relative to staring at flames you aren't really staring at,,,,when both are in use.

Kids and their bedrooms. The ONLY furniture that matters is bed, and a side table. They live on their beds, will sleep in a tomb of darkness.. What you will want most in closet storage is shelving and drawers. Kids hang virtually nothing, They accumulate piles of junk you don't even understand: ) If you must have a tub in your primary? Lose the tub in the hall bath for a shower they will far prefer , especially as teens and later when they are gone and you have a parent or guest.

I understand the constraints, the hurry of the mold/health concern. But you could benefit greatly from a bit more square footage, LESS PORCH, more thought into the daily come and go in rainy , muddy days.....I DO think a powder room is necessary if only because two genders are sharing a hall bath and its and extra emergency potty and sink not invading your primary!

PS. Sq feet as it applies to walls , traffic pattern etc are 100% meaningless. Dimensions to rooms, and THEIR walls and windows and openings are far more helpful: ) and movement through spaces enhances or limits the usefulness of any room.

In short? Pretty good as compared with a lot we see here! but a lot more thought, reality based put into it, would be excellent as well.

alot you could do here, suggest you think about a typical day.

• suggest reduce the mechanixal room size, its stealing space. you builder will not live there, but big space makes it easier for him to install stuff - he saves a day or two of labor.
• add a 1/2 bath for guests
• need a coat closet
• office and two kids bdrooms too small to be usuable. measure you current home and set up current furniture in same space.
• kitchen to patio route is a too far

I agree with Jan about the lift-up storage. I’ve seen the inside of ours only a handful of times in 20 years. I was happy to find the rain boots, at least! Instead, it has a couple of baskets with some recycling, store returns, and mittens and gloves. A solution to that is tilt-out storage. With the double window there, where will the coats etc go?

The bedrooms are small, but they are not too small.

It would be nice to have an ”away” room as Sarah Susanka calls it. Will the attic be tall enough to finish out at some point?

In the living room, the beams give me pause. One cuts along the center of the living room, which seems like bad ”feng shui”, and the middle of the fireplace, which doesn’t seem logical. And then, according to the image, doesn’t meet up with the beam between the dining and kitchen.

Sunday morning and football is preempting Olympics so, good time to dream. Here’s and idea:

Switch around the mechanicals, pantry, and mudroom/laundry. Shift the cooking part of the kitchen over to make an uninterrupted L. Yes, the range symmetry is lost. But might be more functional.

This keeps traffic out of the kitchen. Allows access to and from foyer. The office could possibly expand. The pantry door could move around the corner to the kitchen, depending on how you use the pantry. The pantry is uppers and lowers, or closets or a combination.

I’d use pocket doors since I expect they would usually stay open anyway, and pocket doors are out of the way.

Very best idea? Get a licensed architect to the site. The builder must know one. Give him your must have list. Hang on to your plan, and don't show it, until you see what you get from someone on your site.

Yours is really a good attempt, but you can still do quite a bit better: ) and the hurry word is the worst word for design of anything,

You will need the permits, the final drawings anyway, You might be very pleasantly surprised that the expense comes back to you with a home you can love ""forever"

A few more square feet would help immensely as well.

I am loathe to voice this:

The seemingly unstoppable trend to nothing but a ranch style home, is more lot, more roof line and there is not one thing wrong with children up a stair . Snug in their beds, EVEN with a primary on the first floor. No, I am not talking about a nineties Mc Mansion, a Georgian ...but we have wiped second story off the home design map.

^^^^Maybe I'm misunderstanding the changes made -

It appears that now that directly accessing the kitchen with groceries through the side door has been cut off - I would rather have the access as is shown in current layout. Most families use the side door to access their homes. I assume that there will be parking for vehicles over on that side of the home (and when a detached garage is built - it will also be over on the left side).

Also - where is the laundry room?

I have a laundry/mudroom combination right off of the hallway from the garage to the kitchen. I also have a coat closet in that hallway (right outside of the laundry/mudroom).

The coat closet has rarely ever been used as an actual coat closet. There are a few coats in there currently - but they are ones that are not used (I actually found two coats from when my girls were little in there - LOL). I am actually about to make it more "design friendly" for my Costco items + will continue to use part of the space for my vacuum/broom/duster pole).

My girls used the mudroom for their coats/backpacks/daily shoes/boots/etc. They would hang their dress coat in their walk-in closets in their bedrooms. I keep my "coat collection" (which is rather large) upstairs in my closet (my primary closet is fairly large - 18.5 x 8.5 - and only used by me). It was easier to just grab the one I wanted to use that day from the closet after getting dressed for work and take it downstairs with me.

If the mudroom in the laundry room is set up correctly, she doesn't really need a family coat closet by the side door. I don't have a closet in the foyer either - haven't ever missed having one for guests (and we have four seasons where I live).

EDIT: okay - so, I didn't sleep last night (one hour between 5-6 a.m.) -

Tradition is that it opens as shown.

I misunderstood what that comment meant. Obviously - based upon how the room is set up - there is a common sense way that the door swing should happen. You don't want the door to block entry into the room vs. swinging into a corner that has no use.

I'm typically more intelligent than that 😉I

It’s not about which side the door hinges on, it’s about which side it hinges on in a given situation.

True, there are steps to walk through with groceries, but much of them go in the pantry, depending on how the OP shops and cooks. I just wanted to get traffic out of the kitchen. I consider everyday to be more important than a weekly or semi-weekly event.

I don’t like laundry in the family entryway, but that’s how the OP had it so I kept it. It could maybe go in the mechanicals room?

Another 3-4’ on one side or the other of the house could make a big difference, but the OP is limited to 2200 sq ft for cost reasons.

@bpath - okay - so, I am an idiot this afternoon . . . (made an edit to my above comment).

I wasn’t clear enough. Too many distractions! Olympics, football, snow, life!

If you can keep it limited to this afternoon you're doing better than me.

Adding a story, need not be a loss of appeal.............or a dreaded Mc Mansion

Are you planning on using obscured glass for the window in the kids’ bathroom? Asking because the toilet is right in front of the window, and the window is next to the front door.

Notification say she posted "Most recent" changes...where?

Put them in a comment box below? I could be dense, but I don't see them? ( 45 minutes ago..? 0

Thank you all SO much for the ideas and feedback! We have another meeting with our contractor today and will consider suggested opinions given! Thankful for such a helpful community!

If that is a freestanding tub in the master bedroom, it will be hard to clean around. It is a long reach across the tub to turn on the water.

Love it when Mark likes a layout :-). I do too, for the most part. An entry closet could be created at the kid's bedroom's hallway by shortening their bath. My biggest problem is the door from the living room leading directly to the master bedroom. Bad idea for both privacy and noise reasons. I don't have a good solution other than trying to create some sort of privacy screen/wall in the bedroom; maybe someone else can show how this might work.

Maybe consider converting both the primary walk in closet and the kid’s one to reach in closets - it is a more efficient use of space and neither closet have the room to get changed in.

And, for the same space saving reason, I’d change the French doors to sliders.

^^

Mark and Rapp : ) with love

Seventy to seventy seven percent ( currently ) of the licensed Architect profession are men and we love them all, could not run a design business without them.

Conversely , interior design is female dominated to an even greater degree.

( Not sure they love us, quite as much.)

Given women tend to be in charge of the ugly nitty gritty , day to day household activities, especially the upkeep,,,,,we tend to be more function oriented, more storage oriented, more kid focused.

I too 100% loathe a direct view into a primary bedroom, but other things make me crazier. A kid and his/her friends clomping through my cook /prep clean up in the kitchen? Big no.

A non dedicated laundry, replete with muddy feet, back packs left behind and a view of my unfinished laundry and dangling air dry work out brazoo's? Big Fat No.

Having to tidy and clean a kid bath used by any boy child before even casual dinner guests over for a pizza night?! Huuuuge no, I want a powder room and I care not you can barely turn around in it.

I want kids bedrooms easy for upkeep. That means storage of just about everything but hanging clothes, It means shelves/hooks that do not require a 2' depth because i defy you to find a kid that likes a hanger. It means "display" run around the room, a foot below the ceiling line for the inevitable "craft and treasure" display ( Lego creation comes to mind ) Kids don't even require a ton of wall sucking window. Please show me a kid , especially a teen , that lifts a shade in the morning and you can not find that kid.

If I work from home, I don't need a lot of space. I need a window, adequate work surface and the clutter of printer, paper, supplies out of my sight. I don't want or need my 17.5 dumb bells in there.

I want the laundry near the bedrooms, especially kid bedrooms, as at some point, I will make them do their own laundry- in their future lives away from me, that will be their chore. so learn well and early. . More ? I want two washers two dryers, stacked or not. We own 300% more clothing than our ancestors and keep insisting on a single set to accommodate the bloat.

This is a very attractively laid out house on front door entry, a great first go around plan that for me? Needs w.o.r.k to truly work.

Funny, but in my own business , there lies a 99.9 % wake /clients with kids, nary a single one whose home has been "forever".. Clients age right along with their designers and a drum beat I hear now? "Thank god we down sized. I miss that house like a toothache". My favorite is my client who recently said. "Every day I bless you and this gorgeous galley kitchen. It is my joy in life to be in here all alone. It isn't that I don't love you know who and the kids and their kids. I simply relish cooking in here, being alone in here......and that it takes two steps to anything I need isn't the only reason. It is the "alone" : ) at last.

I would absolutely have a full basement unfinished. My kids played down in ours (even skateboarding and gymnastics). I placed my laundry rooms down there too. It gave me space upstairs for closet and storage.

If you did a full basement ( not a walkout) then all the mechanicals can also go down there.

OP has mentioned a couple of times that a basement is not in their cost range.

A completed basement is not but perhaps an unfinished one?

^^

An unfinished basement would open up amazing possibilities, just to get the mechanical off the living floor. I'd find that money., some how, some way. I'd be double inclined to find it in an area of the country not without a very good probability of a tornado.

Thank you for the continued thoughts and feedback everyone! I have read and value each of your comments! Reassessing some things. :)

I don’t usually go against the pros, but I really have issues with the current layout, with the flow. Everywhere anyone goes, they have to go through another space to get there, and hardworking spaces at that. Except for the kids’ pocket corner where they step out the door, across the hall, to the bathroom. Everything else with their detritus goes through kitchen aisles or steals space from the living room that could better be used to make the living room cozier and mor congenial. And it steals privacy from your sanctuary, your bedroom.

I’m glad to see you are reassessing some things.

Updated! Comments welcomed. :)

You seem focused on filling a larger rectangle with a bunch of smaller rectangles.

It's easy to start seeing a plan as a puzzle and lose sight of what's really important -- the design.

This needs LOTS of work, and I'm not suggesting all the jogs in the exterior walls, just trying to show an alternate arrangement.

Mechanicals can go behind doors in a hallway -- no need for a dedicated mechanical room.

Laundry moves so it's with the bedrooms.

Since the house faces south, I'd work to open that wall up with windows and not block the light with the pantry and office, and porch.

@PPF. thank you for your comment, I like that placement you are proposing! The foot print of the home is what fits well with our site and the craftsman cottage exterior that we are doing. The laundry room will also be used as a mudroom, and is where I will carry my groceries in through.

The new master closet has you fighting for access to the hanging clothes. Also, remember that rods and hangers do not turn corners, and clothes will block each other even if the heights are staggered, so there is actually at least 2’ less hanging space than it looks like.

If the closet door is centered, you can have hanging on that right-hand wall, and turn the cabinet to open to the center of the closet, or, better, put it on the left-hand wall.

The only reason the laundry should stay where it is, is if the clean laundry including sheets and towels regularly dry on a clothesline. Otherwise, why is it the space where you the outside gets tracked in, and where it is as far as possible from where the laundry originates and ends up? You wouldn’t put the pantry where the master closet is. Same principal.

A bigger problem than the closet is still the direct view from the sofa to the bedroom. IMO that's always been the fundamental flaw in this layout.

I agree with Rapp. Not only is it a direct view, but the door and the path to it eat up living room space.

I have never seen completely internal mechanicals. Even in basements, they are by a perimeter wall. Here, everyone will hear the water heater fire up, the furnace kick on before the blower, etc, and where will everything vent?

Can you give Luke's bedroom another window on the side of the house? The only window for that room faces the covered front porch, so it won't get sun and won't be very private.

Swing the master bedroom door in the oposite direction. The door will block the view.

And behave yourselves in the master bedroom when anyone is in the living room.

Mark, you and I both recommended that upthread. Great minds?

There are SO many reasons why a living room shouldn't be adjacent to a master bedroom. Reversing a door swing doesn't even begin to solve them all.

Are you saying the people sitting in the living room have more than the three options of watching television or watching the fireplace or watching the cat open the master bedroom door??

LMAO!!!!^^^^

Wow kids......just WOW

I was surprised at the thread's initial welcoming of the design, so stayed out of commenting on that portion because my comments would be drowned out. I will say that I am not fond of the overall design - it's not bad in ways which most that grace this website show. But it is very inelegant, very complicated in layout that only "Tetris-like" can describe. It is very "heavy" upon entry, with a disconnect to the front porch. The Kitchen is still an odd layout.

It seems to me that the biggest negative influence is a static front elevation you are trying to "fit" a floor plan into. Realize that an "historic-looking" elevation arrived there from how the floor plan was designed, all those proportions have a reason. So if you bought an existing house with that elevation, you could not remodel the interior into your design, it wouldn't work.

The coffee beans my wife buys make everything look better.

Thank you all for the continued feedback! I am just now checking this. Reviewing everything and taking the suggestions into consideration. :)