Building A House

Floorplans!

by Jaynee

So I took a break for a week or so on the floorplans because I was getting all buggy-eyed just like Mr. Fish Jr. Yesterday I went back in and made some modifications – creating a small office space in the living room for Denis, making the kitchen pantry into a butler’s pantry, and switching the library and dining room.

Some minor tweaks still need to happen:
– master bath sinks need to be scooted down so that the uppermost sink has room near that shower.
– I need to add a third window to the great room wall – between the door and the tv location.
– widen butler’s pantry/closet area by another foot so that the path between the counters and shelves is manageable
– change direction of the front door so that it opens to the LEFT instead of towards the office door

Denis and I both reviewed it last night and we’re both pretty pleased with this layout. I love the extrawide hallways in the public areas of the house. I love that the kitchen is 33% bigger than what we have now. Denis likes that the master bath has two showers. He appreciates having an office space instead of a computer nook. Granted, the space is small – about the size of our current sunroom – but it’s bigger than I had originally allotted for the computer. He also likes that there are now three doors in the foyer hallway to stop the feeling of being in a wide hallway as opposed to a typical “foyer”.

I’m just really pleased with it, and I’m glad that Denis liked it too.

First floor:

Second floor:

Updated kitchen/pantry/dining room area in response to Pop’s comment. How about this?

Mr. Fish Jr.

The Land Is Disappearing Before My Eyes

08 comments on “Floorplans!”

  • Pop , Direct link to comment

    You might want to consider the configuration of the butler’s pantry. As it is, the only path from the kitchen to the dining room is through the pantry. Depending on how wide that happens to be, it might be better to move the door down to the corner of the dining room and not make the pantry a pass-through corridor. Having the door in the corner might also make it easier to furnish/decorate the dining room–I’m thinking sideboards/hutches, etc.

    But then, what do I know, I’m a guy!

  • Ace , Direct link to comment

    Due to your Dad’s comment, he is now hired to help out with our floor plans when we build a house.

    :up::up:

  • jen , Direct link to comment

    Yeah, that’s a good change.

    Actually, Dad’s good at this kind of thing. He convinced me to put our entertainment armoire in the corner rather than on a wall and it’s much better for the way the room is configured.

  • Pop , Direct link to comment

    One more thought. In the home theater, put a wall about 3 feet from the wall with the TV and a door from the sitting area to that space. That way you can get to the wiring and cables on the back of the theater setup without having to move them. Open backed cabinets with dark glass will hide the space, or you can get removable backs on the cabinets that hold the tv/amp/dvd/whatever to get to the cables. You may need to rearrange the bath slightly to make space, but it’ll be worth it.

  • Pop , Direct link to comment

    You could even move the bath down the wall slightly and have the entrance to the back space come from the office corner. That would make it even more mysterious and professional as your guests would wonder how on earth you got all that stuff in the theater with no wires!

  • Jaynee , Direct link to comment

    The office is not really an office – it’s a bedroom. We’re not allowed to call it a bedroom though, due to perc/septic issues. But yes, although it’s not on the plan, both Denis and I like the idea of the “false wall” for the electronics in the home theater, and plan on incorporating that in some way.

  • Smartest Guy Ever! , Direct link to comment

    Just taking another look.

    I love it, I really do.. I think it looks fantastic. My only suggestion is taking the upstairs bathroom door from the hallway and moving it into the Office. There really isn’t any reason for you to have a bathroom door off the hallway upstairs and this way if you do use your office as a bedroom the person/guest/kid doesn’t have to go out in the hallway and it can be his/her/there own bath.:cool:

  • Jaynee , Direct link to comment

    That hall bath is for general use – not just for that office “bedroom” – the people using the home theater will also need access to a bathroom. Guests coming over for a movie shouldn’t have to go into a bedroom in order to go to the bathroom, and I don’t want one of the kids to have a jack/n/jill share with the home theater space.

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Moving Down South

Floorplans

by Jaynee

Okay, time for floorplans. I spent more time working on it last night. After a quick call to my parents to find out the dimensions of their kitchen, Denis and I came to an agreement about how big to make our kitchen in the new house.

So, here is the ORIGINAL first floor plan:

Here is my re-do of the first floor:

Some changes to note:

  • Master bath and bedroom were moved.
  • Library was created
  • Stairs were made more accessible so you can access from great room area
  • Laundry room area was shortened
  • Kitchen and breakfast nook areas were flipped, kitchen expanded to 14′ x 17′ space
  • New breakfast nook will have access to extended front porch
  • “Living Room” is actually going to do double duty as a guest bedroom with two access points – lockable pocket doors and the door that is next to the full bath
  • Great room is bigger – it is now a 21′ x 21′ room
  • Dining room has been expanded to allow for a longer dining room table

    Here is the ORIGINAL second floor plan:

    Here is my re-do of the second floor:

    Changes to note:

  • Office has been expanded since it will actually be a fourth bedroom. No closet though – this room will use an armoire.
  • Laundry/Computer area between bedrooms has been replaced by closets, and a 3rd full bath has been put to the left of Bedroom #2. This way there are two full baths up there for the three kids to fight over.
  • Linen closet has been expanded since I want a LOT of space for towels, sheets, cleaning supplies, etc. Our current linen closet is so tiny as to be almost unusable, so I want a HUGE one this time around.
  • Home theater room has been expanded since the great room below was also expanded. Bar area has been moved to be near the bathroom for plumbing ease.

    Ignore the fact that the decking, garage and porches have disappeared on the new plans – it’s just because I’m concentrating on the actual HOUSE right now. We DO plan on having the deck, garage and porches like the originals.

    And for reference, here is the picture of the outside of the original house:

    Obviously ours will look different than this since we structurally changed the outside walls, but we hope to have a similar feel to our house as in the picture.

    Update at 2:05 p.m.: I posted my plans at my home building forum and have been getting some GREAT responses from actual contractors and home builders, and they caught a lot of stuff I missed. So tomorrow morning look for adjusted plans to incorporate a lot of their great ideas!

    • Sometimes It Pays To Work Like A Dog

    Fast Day, And Yet

    04 comments on “Floorplans”

    • denis , Direct link to comment

      You may want sliding doors instead of swinging doors to get into the master bedroom walk-in closets.

    • Jaynee , Direct link to comment

      No, no sliding doors – although I did mean to have those be OUTswinging doors instead of swinging into the closet.

      I don’t want sliding doors in ANY part of the house – the bi-fold doors I put in the plan are just “placeholders” for doors. The only sliders I’ll accept are the doors leading into the deck from the greatroom and the pocket doors.

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