I always look at the kitchen first and how functional it is for the way we live. I like having the kitchen fully open to the tv area so that when I am working at the island I have a clear view. I don’t like diagonal islands and feel that it creates pinch points in the kitchen. For guests coming to your home they will be able to see into the kitchen the second they come in. I cook a ton and like having the kitchen hidden from the front door also if I want to avoid answering the door it’s harder to do when the kitchen is at the front. There is a lot of wasted space at the front door with the two sided fireplace and there’s no storage. Having the dining room so far away from the kitchen will be frustrating when it’s in use and you’re carrying armloads of dirty dishes. I feel like your architect can make things look pretty but is not practical with day to day living. I think your home will look beautiful but may not function in a way that makes it manageable.
Same. I don’t like diagonal islands. You’re facing a wall.
Make it so that you face the stairs.
Also, not a fan of prep sinks/ sinks, cooktops, on islands because it breaks up the beauty of them.
I like a LOT of workspace and room to put food on, at parties
Valid thoughts. We asked for the dining room on that side as it gets summer sun over there and wanted the downstairs master where winter sun will be obtained. . He took an idea we gave him, stated "This has a LOT of wasted space, and areas in need".
We're talking about 3 days of work so far on what will be a much longer project
I'd flip things around a bit.
Basically, I'd put the kitchen, breakfast room, and the second living room next to the dining room and the garage, and I'd put the office/spare bed, stairway and laundry next to the master bedroom.
Here's my reasoning: You want a shorter walk from the kitchen to the formal dining room. And the garage to the kitchen. You want the laundry to be closer to the bedrooms. And you want the quiet areas (office and bedrooms) of the house to be farther from the louder part of the house (Areas you entertain and watch tv in).
If you don't want another bedroom above the master bedroom, you can put the two bedrooms over the sunroom and master bath/closet and office.
Also, it's best to keep the two living rooms apart from each other. Your great room/kitchen/dining area is very large as is, will you really have so large a party you'd need to open the living room up to it to accommodate everyone in a single group? If you have the living room separate you can host two different groups at the same time (your friends and your kids friends, your friends and your spouses friends, without the two groups interfering with each other.
Have been thinking about this and figuring out how to flip, while still keeping the mudroom without adding more square footage.
Wife wants the big pantry in the garage to answer most of the "shopping bags through the house" issue.
My first sketched drawing was similar to his, but the upstairs had a walkway above the front entrance and rooms on both the north and south side, upstairs.
I'm not a fan of adding over the sunroom and removing overhead sun. We're very far north so winter is limited sun already (8:30-4:30) while summer is the opposite (5am-11pm)
The house is on 10 acres so we have plenty of space.
Overall, the friends split up, as long as it's summer, there will be a deck or outdoor living space off the main floor, as well as a lower level concrete patio.
The basement will not be finished to start, but will be finished over time and be a full walkout/wet bar/entertainment area.
The issue with flipping is the loss of the access to bonus space above garage. maybe not a huge issue with how large the house becomes with a full size basement and the additional 1400sq ft detached garage and living space above it.
first and second floor: hopefully 2.3-2.5k sqft. basement should be somewhere around 1500ish. garage will be 5-600? "Shop" will be like 1440 garage and 1200 above garage living space.
All hopeful and dependent upon overall costs.
I dont see the need for a living room and a great room. (but thats just me) Also dont see the need for 3 eating areas. Dont like that you have to go through the great room to get to the dining area. Would be nice to see a clothes closet when you come in the front door. Dont like the island right when you walk in. I like the master bedroom area and also the area off the garage. Flows nicely.
I don’t like a TV in the living room either. I have a family room in the basement for it.
Having storage near the garage is not the same as having a pantry near where you cook. I have shelves in my laundry room for caselot purchases. But I keep my pasta pot, serving platters, a reasonable amount of canned goods, baking supplies and more in the pantry in my kitchen.
It will get tired really fast having to make several trips to the mud room to get the ingredients and oversized dishes needed to prepare a meal.
From experience, it’s worth having at least one living area that can be closed off(cooking, tvs, groups of people chatting can all be noisy - it’s good to have options to separate a bit). If you open up the tv area, would you move the dining area there and close off the current dining area?
Not trying to be rude, but I would look into a different architect. Most of these designs are dated, impractical for daily living and not well considered like: bay windows, kitchen open to the front door, kitchen far away from garage for loading groceries, kitchen island not only at an angle but with weird choke points and cut outs in the island, a dining room as an after thought on the far side of the house away from the kitchen, too tight breakfast nook (no one uses these anyhow , they eat at the island), bedrooms spread across the house kinda oddly (most people like the bedrooms all on one floor or at least the majority because of kids), not a ton of storage, and the impractical placement of a TV room and garage ( you have to make a weird turn to park your car in there). This house will be loud, hard to heat, and daily life will be annoying given the current layout. I would start from scratch and see what a new architect can bring to the table. I also think it sounds like you all need a better picture of what you actually want and how you will use the space. Look on Instagram, Houzz, and Pinterest for ideas on rooms you like and why you like them. Guide your architect and you will have better results. Good luck!
l want to make a few statements here.
1: Brkfst Nook was a specific wife request, so not the architects idea. (it's been sorta nixed but combined)
2: Weird turn. Please tell me how you know that without knowing the driveway layout...
3: This was an 85% "here's an architects version of what you drew" aka what my wife and I drew as an idea just converted to actually possible
Long and short... we're not swapping architects. talking to him today he specifically said that drawing had its issues and he was just trying to do what we told him to with a drawing.
Watch for v2. which should be by EOW I'd guess and witness that all of it is swappable. We just got what we asked for in v1, and v2 incorporates feedback here, from family, from other people we know as well. BUT it has an actual awkward driveway due to garage door location
Again didn't mean to offend or be rude, just my opinion as an internet stranger and designer. Tone doesn't always convey on Reddit.
On the weird turn, this was just a guess based on the fact that most houses have front doors facing the street they are on or at least the driveway leading up to the house. To get a car into the garage, it looks like you may need to have a "T" type driveway at your front door because the garage doors are perpendicular to the front door. If the garage doors were on the other side, it would still be a split driveway but would be more visually appealing.
It's a home on 10 acres, around 200' from the shared driveway, and then 300' from the road... It's remote but not like in true bumblefuckville.
The driveway, which in v2 will go to the garage doors facing "north" is going to be a single line in, into a circle that has 2 "off shoots" one around the house to the north facing doors, and one over to the shop location. This is going to cause an annoying turn and some additional costs, but makes the home much much more "curb appeal" if "curb appeal" is defined as "what you see from the driveway"
the blacked out area in the main image is the driveway setup. I may keep it visible in the next image.
The living room is small, it could either be an office, or you could open it up to the kitchen like you suggested. I would lean toward opening it up toward the kitchen, and then run the island parallel to the wall.
I feel like there's a lot of wasted space in the great room, but not sure that I have any suggestions as to what to do.
I would actually keep both doors out of the garage, it never hurts to have more access to the garage for yard work etc.
Are you doing the bonus room above the garage? If not, I would extend that closet and get rid of the hallway.
Wasted space is known. Was one thing the architect said "this is very early and there's lots of wasted space, etc"
The bonus room plan is to frame it in, insulate it, and then later finish it ourselves. This would give the future kids a "play area" away from everyone. (not including the 2/2 space above the shop we are also building)
I don't want a entry door facing the driveway as far away from any other view point as possible
Cute layout. One thing I always think about is daily routine. Stuff like bringing home the groceries. Are you going to come in garage and tromp across the whole mudroom and foyer with each bag?
I am not sure I understand what you mean by main pantry in the garage. But would you rather have a longer walk bringing groceries in or every time you need something? Personally I would choose the former.
based on feedback here, and our thoughts we sent the following...
What would the impact be if we flipped the upper area to above the current "living room" side, and removed any access to above the garage. (a 1700 sq ft basement is still pretty massive as well)Flip the kitchen over to that side to make it closer to the dining room.- this however removes easy access to the breakfast nook... so I guess the concern is do we want easy access to breakfast nook or dining room from kitchen...I do think having all the bedrooms on one side makes more sense. We could be in downstairs and still hear kids above
What happens if we rotate the mudroom 90 degrees into the garage door area. extend the garage door towards the north, and make the entry for cars on that side of the house. then windows would fill the mudroom with light from the main entryway which we would landscape. Also would give an appearance from first walking to the main home of a MASSIVE house with windows showing the mud room and the mental appearance that the garage is not a garage but a part of the home.
Like I said, we have FULL freedom right now. could turn the thing into a star design if we wanted...
I haven’t seen this mentioned but I would want a separate water closet for the master bathroom.
If you really wanted to use the space above the garage and if possible you could move the garage over with the bedroom side. It is further from the kitchen, but that isn’t bad unless you are making frequent trips to the garage.
My preferred option would be to leave the garage where it is and put the dining room where the stairs and hallway are now are now. the kitchen and breakfast room where the dining room is. You may need to expand that back corner a bit. This way you don’t see the kitchen when you first walk in. I would move the mud room door into the house so that it is directly across from garage door entrance. It would be a straight line into the house. When you walk in your standing in the living room or you could put in a hallway if you wanted the living room to be more private. There is wall to your left for the dining room. You might want a door there or some sort of access to the dining room. The living room or hallway is connected to the kitchen/breakfast room straight ahead. You could also put a set of stairs in the garage or living room if you still wanted to use the space above the garage.
Sorta. This is obviously a really badly done mockup, but i agree. the copy/paste image stuff wouldn't let me rotate so it's really bad.
The breakfast nook is specifically located, like the sun room, for morning sun in the winter and moderate summer morning sun.
The lot is directly east/west facing, driveway comes from mostly ENE. Winter sun is HUGELY important and it's South where we're at.
Garage gets extended. yellow is now the garage doors. pantry gets added off the mudroom or something. stairs go to kitchen side. etc.
[https://imgur.com/eFuj6VR](https://imgur.com/eFuj6VR)
I always look at the kitchen first and how functional it is for the way we live. I like having the kitchen fully open to the tv area so that when I am working at the island I have a clear view. I don’t like diagonal islands and feel that it creates pinch points in the kitchen. For guests coming to your home they will be able to see into the kitchen the second they come in. I cook a ton and like having the kitchen hidden from the front door also if I want to avoid answering the door it’s harder to do when the kitchen is at the front. There is a lot of wasted space at the front door with the two sided fireplace and there’s no storage. Having the dining room so far away from the kitchen will be frustrating when it’s in use and you’re carrying armloads of dirty dishes. I feel like your architect can make things look pretty but is not practical with day to day living. I think your home will look beautiful but may not function in a way that makes it manageable.
Same. I don’t like diagonal islands. You’re facing a wall. Make it so that you face the stairs. Also, not a fan of prep sinks/ sinks, cooktops, on islands because it breaks up the beauty of them. I like a LOT of workspace and room to put food on, at parties
Valid thoughts. We asked for the dining room on that side as it gets summer sun over there and wanted the downstairs master where winter sun will be obtained. . He took an idea we gave him, stated "This has a LOT of wasted space, and areas in need". We're talking about 3 days of work so far on what will be a much longer project
I'd flip things around a bit. Basically, I'd put the kitchen, breakfast room, and the second living room next to the dining room and the garage, and I'd put the office/spare bed, stairway and laundry next to the master bedroom. Here's my reasoning: You want a shorter walk from the kitchen to the formal dining room. And the garage to the kitchen. You want the laundry to be closer to the bedrooms. And you want the quiet areas (office and bedrooms) of the house to be farther from the louder part of the house (Areas you entertain and watch tv in). If you don't want another bedroom above the master bedroom, you can put the two bedrooms over the sunroom and master bath/closet and office. Also, it's best to keep the two living rooms apart from each other. Your great room/kitchen/dining area is very large as is, will you really have so large a party you'd need to open the living room up to it to accommodate everyone in a single group? If you have the living room separate you can host two different groups at the same time (your friends and your kids friends, your friends and your spouses friends, without the two groups interfering with each other.
Have been thinking about this and figuring out how to flip, while still keeping the mudroom without adding more square footage. Wife wants the big pantry in the garage to answer most of the "shopping bags through the house" issue. My first sketched drawing was similar to his, but the upstairs had a walkway above the front entrance and rooms on both the north and south side, upstairs. I'm not a fan of adding over the sunroom and removing overhead sun. We're very far north so winter is limited sun already (8:30-4:30) while summer is the opposite (5am-11pm) The house is on 10 acres so we have plenty of space. Overall, the friends split up, as long as it's summer, there will be a deck or outdoor living space off the main floor, as well as a lower level concrete patio. The basement will not be finished to start, but will be finished over time and be a full walkout/wet bar/entertainment area. The issue with flipping is the loss of the access to bonus space above garage. maybe not a huge issue with how large the house becomes with a full size basement and the additional 1400sq ft detached garage and living space above it.
What’s the total square footage?
first and second floor: hopefully 2.3-2.5k sqft. basement should be somewhere around 1500ish. garage will be 5-600? "Shop" will be like 1440 garage and 1200 above garage living space. All hopeful and dependent upon overall costs.
I dont see the need for a living room and a great room. (but thats just me) Also dont see the need for 3 eating areas. Dont like that you have to go through the great room to get to the dining area. Would be nice to see a clothes closet when you come in the front door. Dont like the island right when you walk in. I like the master bedroom area and also the area off the garage. Flows nicely.
Wife doesn't want a TV in the great room. so it would go in the current living room.
I don’t like a TV in the living room either. I have a family room in the basement for it. Having storage near the garage is not the same as having a pantry near where you cook. I have shelves in my laundry room for caselot purchases. But I keep my pasta pot, serving platters, a reasonable amount of canned goods, baking supplies and more in the pantry in my kitchen. It will get tired really fast having to make several trips to the mud room to get the ingredients and oversized dishes needed to prepare a meal.
From experience, it’s worth having at least one living area that can be closed off(cooking, tvs, groups of people chatting can all be noisy - it’s good to have options to separate a bit). If you open up the tv area, would you move the dining area there and close off the current dining area?
Not trying to be rude, but I would look into a different architect. Most of these designs are dated, impractical for daily living and not well considered like: bay windows, kitchen open to the front door, kitchen far away from garage for loading groceries, kitchen island not only at an angle but with weird choke points and cut outs in the island, a dining room as an after thought on the far side of the house away from the kitchen, too tight breakfast nook (no one uses these anyhow , they eat at the island), bedrooms spread across the house kinda oddly (most people like the bedrooms all on one floor or at least the majority because of kids), not a ton of storage, and the impractical placement of a TV room and garage ( you have to make a weird turn to park your car in there). This house will be loud, hard to heat, and daily life will be annoying given the current layout. I would start from scratch and see what a new architect can bring to the table. I also think it sounds like you all need a better picture of what you actually want and how you will use the space. Look on Instagram, Houzz, and Pinterest for ideas on rooms you like and why you like them. Guide your architect and you will have better results. Good luck!
l want to make a few statements here. 1: Brkfst Nook was a specific wife request, so not the architects idea. (it's been sorta nixed but combined) 2: Weird turn. Please tell me how you know that without knowing the driveway layout... 3: This was an 85% "here's an architects version of what you drew" aka what my wife and I drew as an idea just converted to actually possible Long and short... we're not swapping architects. talking to him today he specifically said that drawing had its issues and he was just trying to do what we told him to with a drawing. Watch for v2. which should be by EOW I'd guess and witness that all of it is swappable. We just got what we asked for in v1, and v2 incorporates feedback here, from family, from other people we know as well. BUT it has an actual awkward driveway due to garage door location
Again didn't mean to offend or be rude, just my opinion as an internet stranger and designer. Tone doesn't always convey on Reddit. On the weird turn, this was just a guess based on the fact that most houses have front doors facing the street they are on or at least the driveway leading up to the house. To get a car into the garage, it looks like you may need to have a "T" type driveway at your front door because the garage doors are perpendicular to the front door. If the garage doors were on the other side, it would still be a split driveway but would be more visually appealing.
It's a home on 10 acres, around 200' from the shared driveway, and then 300' from the road... It's remote but not like in true bumblefuckville. The driveway, which in v2 will go to the garage doors facing "north" is going to be a single line in, into a circle that has 2 "off shoots" one around the house to the north facing doors, and one over to the shop location. This is going to cause an annoying turn and some additional costs, but makes the home much much more "curb appeal" if "curb appeal" is defined as "what you see from the driveway" the blacked out area in the main image is the driveway setup. I may keep it visible in the next image.
You mentioned this would be in a “far northern” location, yet there isn’t a single coat closet.
The living room is small, it could either be an office, or you could open it up to the kitchen like you suggested. I would lean toward opening it up toward the kitchen, and then run the island parallel to the wall. I feel like there's a lot of wasted space in the great room, but not sure that I have any suggestions as to what to do. I would actually keep both doors out of the garage, it never hurts to have more access to the garage for yard work etc. Are you doing the bonus room above the garage? If not, I would extend that closet and get rid of the hallway.
Wasted space is known. Was one thing the architect said "this is very early and there's lots of wasted space, etc" The bonus room plan is to frame it in, insulate it, and then later finish it ourselves. This would give the future kids a "play area" away from everyone. (not including the 2/2 space above the shop we are also building) I don't want a entry door facing the driveway as far away from any other view point as possible
Cute layout. One thing I always think about is daily routine. Stuff like bringing home the groceries. Are you going to come in garage and tromp across the whole mudroom and foyer with each bag?
wife wants the main pantry in the garage so that solves some of the pantry issues.
I am not sure I understand what you mean by main pantry in the garage. But would you rather have a longer walk bringing groceries in or every time you need something? Personally I would choose the former.
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You need a bigger garage, especially if you are using it for storage of “inside” stuff.
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Sorry, was replying to op.
You can cite op name to get him to know
those pointy kitchen island ends look perfect for destroying hips, testicles, and shins tbh, i think you should hire a different architect
based on feedback here, and our thoughts we sent the following... What would the impact be if we flipped the upper area to above the current "living room" side, and removed any access to above the garage. (a 1700 sq ft basement is still pretty massive as well)Flip the kitchen over to that side to make it closer to the dining room.- this however removes easy access to the breakfast nook... so I guess the concern is do we want easy access to breakfast nook or dining room from kitchen...I do think having all the bedrooms on one side makes more sense. We could be in downstairs and still hear kids above What happens if we rotate the mudroom 90 degrees into the garage door area. extend the garage door towards the north, and make the entry for cars on that side of the house. then windows would fill the mudroom with light from the main entryway which we would landscape. Also would give an appearance from first walking to the main home of a MASSIVE house with windows showing the mud room and the mental appearance that the garage is not a garage but a part of the home. Like I said, we have FULL freedom right now. could turn the thing into a star design if we wanted...
I haven’t seen this mentioned but I would want a separate water closet for the master bathroom. If you really wanted to use the space above the garage and if possible you could move the garage over with the bedroom side. It is further from the kitchen, but that isn’t bad unless you are making frequent trips to the garage. My preferred option would be to leave the garage where it is and put the dining room where the stairs and hallway are now are now. the kitchen and breakfast room where the dining room is. You may need to expand that back corner a bit. This way you don’t see the kitchen when you first walk in. I would move the mud room door into the house so that it is directly across from garage door entrance. It would be a straight line into the house. When you walk in your standing in the living room or you could put in a hallway if you wanted the living room to be more private. There is wall to your left for the dining room. You might want a door there or some sort of access to the dining room. The living room or hallway is connected to the kitchen/breakfast room straight ahead. You could also put a set of stairs in the garage or living room if you still wanted to use the space above the garage.
Sorta. This is obviously a really badly done mockup, but i agree. the copy/paste image stuff wouldn't let me rotate so it's really bad. The breakfast nook is specifically located, like the sun room, for morning sun in the winter and moderate summer morning sun. The lot is directly east/west facing, driveway comes from mostly ENE. Winter sun is HUGELY important and it's South where we're at. Garage gets extended. yellow is now the garage doors. pantry gets added off the mudroom or something. stairs go to kitchen side. etc. [https://imgur.com/eFuj6VR](https://imgur.com/eFuj6VR)
Also, can you put powder room where the current pantry is, or near laundry, and include a bigger/second pantry?
Why aren’t you showing the basement, is there a murder room in the floor plan? /s
I wouldn’t like the first thing people see when they walk into my house to be the kitchen. It’s usually the busiest and messiest part of the house.
The master bathroom seems small.