Suggestions on my floor Plan

[Buff]

1. I agree with what Fobulous said about the closet. That is the 1st thing that I noticed. Why not move the stairs over to the corner of the house and move the den over, eliminating the mud room? Its just a side entry and you don't need as much space in the side entry as you do your main entry.

2. Master Bedroom. If you have young kids, or plan on having kids, you'll find a huge benefit to having the master bedroom much closer to the other bedrooms. Easier to fumble out the room down the hall and into the other room to a crying child than it is to fumble down the hall, through the kitchen or living room, and then through another hall to the crying child. I would see about swapping the location of the master bedroom and kitchen/dining area.

[Canada 02]

Originally Posted by Byrns

Why the door for the MB toilet?

kinda standard on most master ensuites. It can be a bit of a sanctuary for the mrs. if you have a jacuzzi tub and/or steam shower. plus you dont want fart and urine mixing with the potpourri

[firebug]

Agree with a couple of the thoughts already given:

Kitchen appliances are too spread out. Cook an imaginary meal for a group and figure out how many steps you will be taking.

Front closet should be flush with the wall (set back into the den).

Careful with the stairs so far out of the way. I grew up in a 2,600 square foot bungalow and we ended up cutting a hole in the floor to add a second set of stairs. If you are in the rec room and the door bell rings, how many days will it take you to answer it?

I would add a pocket door between the en-suite and the master bedroom. My previous house had an open en-suite and since I was up way earlier than my wife every morning she would get disrupted when I was in the shower. (Also consider a pocket door between the closet and master bedroom).

Here is a fantastic website with floorplan design tutorials and explanations (plus it's from a group here in calgary): www.theslowhome.com

[moncton golden flames]

i would change most everything. i design and draft houses for a living, and i see a lot of things that don't work well. here are only a few;

closet prutrudes into the foyer, sink it into the den.
reverse the swing on bathroom door between bedrooms 2 & 3.
pantry in poor location in kitchen.
stairs should be more in central core of the house.
laundry shute should actually land in the laundry room.
laundry room should be seperate from mudroom.
in basement get the toilet away from the door.

there are many other things that are small and drive me crazy, but if i keep going, i'm just doing his work for him. you should have come to me in the first place! i give CP discounts!....i'm probably less expensive anyway. i've done homes upwards of 15,000 ft2 and $5 million construction cost.

where are you building, are there design guidelines, restrictions, lot size etc....?

ps; i'm afraid to ask, but could you post the elevations? (shudders in fear)

[Byrns]

Originally Posted by Canada 02

kinda standard on most master ensuites. It can be a bit of a sanctuary for the mrs. if you have a jacuzzi tub and/or steam shower. plus you dont want fart and urine mixing with the potpourri

Ah mine does not have such a luxury, but it's not a problem for me since my sh** don't stink.

[jolinar of malkshor]

Originally Posted by Byrns

I agree about moving the closet in the foyer.

Why the door for the MB toilet?

I am not one of those guys that likes watching my wife take a dump. It probably wont be a full door or maybe a frosted glass.

[octothorp]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the kitchen layout. As others have noted, it's not really an efficient design. There's this whole theory about a work triangle in kitchen design that links your major components (range, fridge, sink) together. Stang's floorplan does this perfectly. In yours, the fridge and sink are at opposite ends of the kitchen, separated by the large island. A typical workflow has a lot of taking things out of the fridge and putting it in the sink; this would be very inconvenient in your kitchen. If it were me, I'd put the fridge to the right of the sink and dishwasher; this would give you a nice, tight triangle while still allowing you the freedom to spread out when you need to.

[mikey_the_redneck]

Originally Posted by Buff

2. Master Bedroom. If you have young kids, or plan on having kids, you'll find a huge benefit to having the master bedroom much closer to the other bedrooms. Easier to fumble out the room down the hall and into the other room to a crying child than it is to fumble down the hall, through the kitchen or living room, and then through another hall to the crying child. I would see about swapping the location of the master bedroom and kitchen/dining area.

I disagree with having the kids room close to the master.
Think about when you're getting it on with the old lady and the kids start crying because "its sounds like daddy is killing mommy". Privacy man, privacy.

[jolinar of malkshor]

Originally Posted by ernie

Floor plans are personal things but seeing as you asked....

The kitchen wouldn't work for me too much running back and forth to the fridge and pantry. My parents had a similar set up and it always drove me nuts when i was cooking something.

Consider a main floor laundry. I scoffed at a main floor laundry being important until I bought a house with one. Now, we will likely never buy a house that doesn't have main floor laundry. It is SOOO much more convenient.

Is there a garage? No matter, I prefer to have a half bath or even full bath right off the entrance you will use the most. That is the entrance you will use when you come in from the yard work etc. Nice to have that sink to wash up without tracking crap through the house.

The fridge could be moved to where the oven is. That is something my wife and I thought about.

Originally we thought of a main floor laundry but it jsut doesn't work with what we want up stairs. There is a laundry chute in the walk in closet that will help a bit with the back and forth.

We plan on building a detatched garage at a later date. We just wanted to cut back a bit on the costs for the original build.

[jolinar of malkshor]

Originally Posted by Buff

1. I agree with what Fobulous said about the closet. That is the 1st thing that I noticed. Why not move the stairs over to the corner of the house and move the den over, eliminating the mud room? Its just a side entry and you don't need as much space in the side entry as you do your main entry.

2. Master Bedroom. If you have young kids, or plan on having kids, you'll find a huge benefit to having the master bedroom much closer to the other bedrooms. Easier to fumble out the room down the hall and into the other room to a crying child than it is to fumble down the hall, through the kitchen or living room, and then through another hall to the crying child. I would see about swapping the location of the master bedroom and kitchen/dining area.

We thought about this as well. However, we like the privacy of having the MB away from the other rooms. We plan on using the office when we have newborns.

[mikey_the_redneck]

Originally Posted by moncton golden flames

i would change most everything. i design and draft houses for a living, and i see a lot of things that don't work well. here are only a few;

closet prutrudes into the foyer, sink it into the den.
reverse the swing on bathroom door between bedrooms 2 & 3.
pantry in poor location in kitchen.
stairs should be more in central core of the house.
laundry shute should actually land in the laundry room.
laundry room should be seperate from mudroom.
in basement get the toilet away from the door.

Moncton brings up a great point about that bathroom. You cannot have switches mounted inside the door when it is that close to the tub, so if you swing it the other way it will solve that problem.

I would consider flipping the den/mud room/staircase around to get your stairs a little more centrally located, but it looks to me that it may affect the W.I.C. if you wanted to do that.

[jolinar of malkshor]

Originally Posted by moncton golden flames

i would change most everything. i design and draft houses for a living, and i see a lot of things that don't work well. here are only a few;

closet prutrudes into the foyer, sink it into the den.
reverse the swing on bathroom door between bedrooms 2 & 3.
pantry in poor location in kitchen.
stairs should be more in central core of the house.
laundry shute should actually land in the laundry room.
laundry room should be seperate from mudroom.
in basement get the toilet away from the door.

there are many other things that are small and drive me crazy, but if i keep going, i'm just doing his work for him. you should have come to me in the first place! i give CP discounts!....i'm probably less expensive anyway. i've done homes upwards of 15,000 ft2 and $5 million construction cost.

where are you building, are there design guidelines, restrictions, lot size etc....?

ps; i'm afraid to ask, but could you post the elevations? (shudders in fear)

Thanks for the suggestions. I will probably use some of them.
There are no guidelines or restrictions. I have 10 acres to build on. As for the elevations, the site has a natural slope which will require a little bit of alteration but I do not have the measurements.

[fredr123]

I am concerned your walk in closet is not big enough for your wife.

[stang]

Dont listen to anyonwith the redneck in there name... if he needs to crap at night it involves a flashlight, and shoes

[mikey_the_redneck]

Originally Posted by stang

Dont listen to anyonwith the redneck in there name... if he needs to crap at night it involves a flashlight, and shoes

You're confusing rednecks with people from Edmonton.........

[fredr123]

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_d...te-one-st.html

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, posted an initial floor plan for his new house and had people commenting on it as well. Interesting process. Have you considered a cat bathroom, Jolinar?

[ernie]

Originally Posted by jolinar of malkshor

Originally we thought of a main floor laundry but it jsut doesn't work with what we want up stairs. There is a laundry chute in the walk in closet that will help a bit with the back and forth.

For some it's the decrease in lugging laundry back and forth but for us the biggest thing is the visibility and ease of access. The laundry quite simply gets done more often because we can pop over and throw a load during a commercial break or while cooking dinner etc.

It may not be a big deal to you.

The main thing is to get the kitchen right if you actually eat at home, because you'll hate a house in short order if you don't like the kitchen. Make sure it is as functional as it can be.

[Jedi Ninja]

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but I'd delete the pantry and wall separating off the living room, for an "open plan" design. It will give a much more dramatic impression when entering the house. I would also relocate the fireplace in the living room in order to increase the number of windows. (Maybe put it as a corner fireplace.)

Nonetheless, looks like a nice house and I'm sure we'd all love to own it!

p.s. I think you can have a switch near the bath so long as it is on a GFCI circuit.

[Madman]

Ensuite toilet that it right beside your master bedroom - I would move that. I have that setup right now is our new house and wish we would have moved it away. I'm a, "don't want to hear you pee......or worse", kinda guy.

It looks like I'm in the minority, but I like the kitchen that big and spread out. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and I demand an ass load of usable space. Bigger pantry though.

[mikey_the_redneck]

Originally Posted by Madman

Ensuite toilet that it right beside your master bedroom - I would move that. I have that setup right now is our new house and wish we would have moved it away. I'm a, "don't want to hear you pee......or worse", kinda guy.

You could just insulate the interior wall that divides the toilet/bedroom. That cuts down the sound quite a bit.