whoops, let's try that again..

So..I got the first draft of our plan from the draftsman today.  I see a couple changes, but it's pretty darn close to what we want.  I've been asking so many questions to all of you, I thought I'd share.  It's pretty cool to see all of my notebook sketches & stuff turn into a real plan..  It came in at 1990 sq ft - slightly bigger than we were shooting for, but looking at the room sizes, I don't know that I want to go smaller anywhere...

The house will sit on the lot so that the rear is almost exactly due south.  I should be able to capture some significant heat in the winter (hopefully, at least!)

I'm still not sure about SIPs at this point, only because of costs.  Geothermal will likely depend on the decision about SIPs, at least in part.  I think it's going to be one or the other..

Anyway, the entry/great room will be vaulted, flat ceilings everywhere else.

One change I want is the eliminate the doorway from the hall into the kitchen.  I'm thinking that the range will go there, and fridge where the range is.  That will give another 3 ft of counter space, and with the kitchen so open I wasn't planning on a doorway there.. (we saw a home with that layout & I liked it)

so here's my plan - just thought I'd share..

Very impressive. FYI -- don't forget a good SIP system (or ICF ;) ) will always reduce your HVAC ton requirement -- sometimes as much as 50%. This makes the SIPS decision and the geo decision quite coupled. IF geo is twice as much per ton as a typical AC system and you need 1/2 the tonnage ... there you have it. Nice open design.

I hope by posting here your asking for feed back so here goes.

I think your correct to close up the doorway. For my 2 cents, I never want to be in a kitchen and be in eye sight of any bathroom. Then add a base cabinet with counter top and a wall cabinet in it's place and leave the rest of the appliances where they are. By adding the above you create a landing surface to set items that are coming and going from the refrigerator. Other than that you have a great plan.

I have sent you a private message please check. Thanks

what's on the 2nd floor?

attic

Somewhat similar to the floorplan me and my wife are looking at. I agree that the plan does not have a lot of counter space and/cabinets, you make up for it with a nice pantry. We have a similar island in our home now and the wife hates that when the Dishwasher is open it makes standing at the sink very difficult, especially to work on the lefthand side of the sink, trying to load the Dishwasher.

I think it says down for both staircases, will you be having a walkout or lookout basement? I assume the staircase in the garage leads to the mechanical room? Love the dining room and the amount of windows surronding it. Again very similar to what me and my wife have been looking at, I will send you the link in Private Messgae to the floorplan we have been looking at. We opted to keep the master on main floor and have 3 future bedrooms in the basement, that way were we able to maximize upstairs areas while keeping the SQ. down and ultimately the price.

Jerky,
You should shove the powder room into the master closet space and gain garage entry space. Unless your shelving plans are generic the size of the master closet in relation to the shelving is way out of whack.

I agree, a lot of open space in that closet, unless you have some other ideas. A larger mudroom would be nice, especially if you have kids. Also nice when hauling in grocery's from the garage. Also, I am assuming you will have to place your bed in the master along with ajoining kitchen wall since the other 2 walls are taken up by windows. Unless some may be transom windows. What kind of windows are you going with? Crankouts, Single, Double Hung? Brand? Panes? I am assuming that the window (looks like a window) in front of the vanity in Master Bathroom is actually a Mirror?

speaking of hauling groceries, if you close off the doorway into the kitchen you have to take your groceries in via the great room.

and i love toilets with partition walls; if you're going to crap with someone else in the bathroom you dont need a partition wall.

I like your plan! A couple of things to think about: 1) in the master bath consider having the toilet in its own closet with a door. 2) I agree with the suggestion about the 1/2 bath/master closet change. 3) On your two east bedrooms, I would consider adding 1 window in each room facing east. 4) Not knowing your view, one window move could be to reduce the size of the north facing east bedroom (or was that 2 windows?) and add an east window. 5) Consider reducing the glazing facing west in your master bedroom. Some of the glazing savings there could be used in the south facing east bedroom on the east wall. Of course if you have some killer view facing west, then you might prefer to keep as much glazing as possible there. But, assuming that is not the case, a tad less west glazing there could still allow for view, but reduce the summertime heating. In summary: you have a desirable plan working for you! Best wishes!

holy cow, I get up & have tons of good responses! (interesting ones too!)

I'll try to respond to everything - if I missed anything, let me know..

first, it is a 1-story, so nothing "upstairs" except attic.

Someone brought up a good point about having to come into the kitchen from the great room if we close up that kitchen wall.  My wife & I sat down with a pen & started marking up the plan last night, & noticed the same thing.  I went back to a plan I modeled this one after & found that they had aligned the back entry with the edge of the cabinets, basically, so that you can come directly into the kitchen & not have to "walk around".  The difference is, that plan was a 2 bath vs 2 1/2 bath.  Squeezing in the 1/2 bath seems to have shifted things over a bit.  I think I have a solution, though..

I agree that there is a lot of "dead space" in that closet.  We're thinking that we may want to flip-flop the laundry room & 1/2 bath.  The hope is that if we move the master closet wall in, we can free up more space for the laundry room.  With the 1/2 bath on the other side, I think we will have more space to manipulate to make the back entry line up with the kitchen.

Stairs in the garage are going down to mechanical/unfinished space in the basement

Windows on the west wall (master bedroom & master bath) are going to be transom windows, up high on the walls, so we can have some natural light but still have privacy.   They will be small, so I'm not incredibly worried about heat loss.

Not sure what type of windows we're putting in just yet.  In the living room I'm thinking maybe picture window with double-hungs on either side.  In the kitchen, either double-hung or crank out.

windows on east side of the house (bedrooms 2 & 3) - the house being built next door is pretty big & basically out to their setback.  We will be pretty close, so the view out the side would be of the neighbor's garage.  I initially had some windows on that wall, but I thought in terms of privacy, heat loss, and cost of extra windows, I don't know if it's worth it.  We don't have kids, so I'm guessing the front bedroom will be office & back will be guest room (we don't have guests over very often)

You dont have kids, dont have guests over often and you'll have a full unfinished basement, why build the wasted bedrooms and bath then?

well..... a couple reasons.

first - we plan to be in this house forever.  BUT you know how plans sometimes go.  Job changes, etc. - you just never know.  If we ever had to sell, I think it would be much tougher to sell a one or two bedroom house.  We've seen some for sale, actually - empty nesters that built a 2000 sq ft 1 bedroom with huge great room, etc.  They sit for a long time.

second - we don't have guests often, but we do occasionally.

third - we do need some office space - I work from home sometimes & do need some dedicated space.

last - (personal, and kind of a downer) we do want kids - just haven't been able to.  we're still hopeful that it will happen, and are considering adoption. 

it's a fair question, but I think that for our situation the plan we came up with is pretty reasonable.

OK,

I have a batch of comments. 

Overall this seems like a nice house concept. 

I would suggest a few changes.  First I would separate the garage from the house.  I know this is unpopular but studies have shown this is a common entry point for fumes into the house.  If you do use an attached garage I would pay strict attention to airsealing between garage and house.  I would also use a small exhaust fan in the garage to keep it negatively pressurized.  This is strictly from a health perspective.  Why a 3 car garage if you are only 2 people and have a full basement for storage? 

 

Some other general thoughts going from big picture stuff to small details.

1 This house if for 2 people and occasional guests. Taxes are often based on # bedrooms and # bathrooms.

I would eliminate one bathroom between bedroom 2 and 3 and make the ½ bath a full bath.  Then I would move the north side of bedroom 2 even with the foyer wall.  This eliminates complexity and wall surface  I would leave a small hallway that leads to bedroom 2 but designate room 3 as a  study and use French doors directly off the  living room or an open walkway.  Now you may be down to a 2 bedroom 2 bath house for tax purposes.   Occasional guests can walk 30 ft to get to the bathroom without too much grumbling.  I would swap the laundry and ½ bath (making it a full bath)  this makes it so the bathroom is not visible from the kitchen which bothers some people.  I would tile the

You now have clustered all your plumbing which will make your life easier. 

 

Be aware that sinks and dishwashers in islands cause venting reliability  problems for the plumber.  It is definitely doable though.   Personally I would swap the stove and sink location easier plumbing and you need to go up and out with the stove vent because it is not on an outside wall anyway so you just go with an island  type vent.  I would also eliminate the pantry and just go with 24” depth pantry cabinets. The pantry appears to only be big enough for a single L shaped row of storage anyway so cabinets have the same total amount of storage.    I would move the fridge over towards the pantry where the opening is now and then eliminate the T shaped wall and open that whole corner up to increase sight lines and allow you to walk straight into the kitchen with groceries from the garage.

Now remember I am always trying to simplify things and think of things from the mechanical perspectives.  My layout also allows you to leave off the garage to build if money is tight. 

Anyway I hope my thoughts help.  It is noce to see someone putting in lots of thought into what they want before they build
good Luck

If you don't mind having the powder room entrance from the mud room and the MBR entrance from the top end of the kitchen, you could slide the kitchen and DR down and eliminate the corridor.

My wife would ask, "OK, now where is YOUR closet going to be?"

You might consider the possibilites of handicap accomodation.  You don't need to build them in today, but having the space to make things accessible without major renovation could add some future value.  Unfortunately, that also usually adds some sf to the house.  When my wife had knee surgery, trying to negotiate our current place with crutches and a walker was an eye-opener.  The ability to put in a 36" door is important.

Hang in there with the big garage!  I try to keep selling my wife on a smaller house and a bigger garage (I am not winnng so far).

Bruce

Have any of you gentlemen run your ideas by your better halves.
Jerky, if your wife has not said a lot about the kitchen layout yet, ask her now, and listen to her. Otherwise, you will be remodeling the kitchen in two years. Also, while the angled counter space is pleasing to the eye, putting any appliance in that space really messes up the functionality of the kitchen.
eric, the idea of having to walk thru the great room to get from the bedrooms to the bath is not acceptable to most people.

funny.. I am the cook of the household 100% of the time. We are on the same page with the kitchen, but I've told her that building a house is about compromise, which means that I get the kitchen I want.. hahah!

A few comments on your plan:

Overall, I like the layout since the back faces south.

I don't see a tub in the master bathroom. This could really limit your potential buyers if you ever had to sell the home.

Is that a window over your masterbath sink area?

As previously stated, you need more space between your kitchen sink and dishwasher. Think about where the door of the dishwasher will be when it is open.

I would want some counter space next to the refrigerator. If you want to pour a glass of milk or juice, where are you going to set the glass? I would eliminate the opening from the kitchen to the living room. Put ~6' of wall there and locate the fridge along that wall with more counter space so that you can move the dishwasher to the left ~2'. I like the doorway from the kitchen to the hallway and would keep it. It provides direct access from the garage to the kitchen.

1/2 bath door facing kitchen. I would rotate that room 90 deg CCW so that the door is facing the mudroom.

Pocket doors. Why? Where you have them located you could easily put in a regular door. I much prefer to open/close a regular swing door than to mess with a pocket door.

I would make the stairs in the house go down to the basement and the stairs in the garage go up to the attic space. If you ever wanted to finish the basement and make it into livable space, I would prefer to access it via the house rather than the garage. And the attic space over the garage is generally more accommodating for a storage area since there will likely be no or much less insulation up there compared to the main part of the house. Having the attic access stairs close to that area would be better in my opinion.

Assuming you will have forced air heating or cooling, where do you plan to put your HVAC return?

arkie,
Both stairs are for a basement. In this area this is common in new construction. Hardly anyone uses an "attic" for storage because we need so much insulation depth. You could spray foam the underside of the deck so you could store stuff but thats what we have basements for; plus you'd have to pay an upcharge for additional bottom chord load on the trusses.

Hvac returns are all over branched off a return trunk in the basement.

After years of planning my wife and I designed and built our own home, second best thing we ever did. The best thing we ever did? Adopting kids after years of trying. Good luck!