Thoughts on our house plans, please?

[gocards1177]

Sorry for another house plan thread if this is over done. I've read a couple of others here and I appreciated the solicited advice others received, so I'd like to try for my own. I sent another member a private message about this and he suggested I start a thread, too. So here goes.

This home is for my family. It's my wife and I, plus two young kids. We have about 80 acres we will build on. No real time frame - we're taking it slow and methodical. We've designed this ourselves using "Home Designer Pro". Honestly, this is probably the 20th(+) rough draft. I'm pretty good with the program, but I haven't figured out how to do everything with it (specifically elevations).

We want to keep the total square footage at about 4000 or less. We'll have a finished walk-out basement eventually, but will leave it unfinished for now and finish it ourselves once we've moved in and decided what we need. We want the first floor to be about 2000 and the second one to be about 800 or less.

Other specific features to us include a study/bathroom that can be a first-floor guest room for grandparents. A back stairs (pajama stairs) that will have the basement stairs under it. First floor master suite, too, as you can see.

The first floor is really good for what we want as far as layout, flow, room sizes. The second floor is "OK". I'm stumped on the second floor bathroom.

My retired contractor uncle is looking it over. I'm also waiting on a materials quote from the guy at Meeks. Otherwise we haven't approached local builders, yet.

Hopefully I've attached the images correctly. There's a first and second floor layout, plus 3 exterior 3D images. I'm open to any and all advice, critiques, and constructive criticism.

Thanks,
Nathan
View attachment 2012-8-6-Home -Working-Master-image.pdfView attachment 2012-8-6-Home -Working-Master-image-2.pdfView attachment 2012-8-6-Home -Working-Master-image-3.pdfView attachment Home Designer Pro 2012 2012-8-6-Home -Working-Master.pdfView attachment Home Designer Pro 2012 2012-8-6-Home -Working-Master-2.pdf

 

[Pete Judd]

Wow, at an average cost of 100-200+ per sq foot, a big investment. Nice looking exterior, not sure about 2 baths upstairs, maybe one was laundry and then walk through to the bath. Also look at what will happen when you become empty nesters in a few years, and those years will go fast. A lot of house to maintain. My father had a 5400 sq ft. on the water just south of Seattle, and the new cedar roof cost him over 40 grand, when it became over 30 years old. Also, if the laundry is upstairs, might be a problem in your older years.

 

[dave1949]

Three ideas.

The study/guest room might be too small if you intend to have a desk and queen-size bed in it. I have seen nice Murphy beds that fold down from a wall. They can be surface mounted or recessed to be flush with the wall of the room that they are in. You can get them faced in finished wood that looks like nice cabinetry when folded up. That would make max use of the room when no guests are using it. A lot depends on what you mean to do in the study when it is a study. A desk full of humming blinking computer stuff is not a good fit for a bedroom, for example. Watch your window sill height on the study windows to the deck. Putting them too low limits usable wall space and you don't have much to use in that room.

The back to back closets upstairs between the bedroom and bath may work better as: a wider walk-in closet from the bedroom that goes back to the bath wall, divide the hall-facing portion into a built-in linen cabinet opening from the bath, and a wide coat closet or shelves from the hallway. You can turn the studs on the inside closet partition sideways to pick up an extra 1.5 inches of closet.

If radon gas is an issue in your area, leave room for a radon vent/blower pipe chase from the basement to the roof. If there is radon in your area, it is hard to know if you will need to abate it until after the house is built. Better to put the pipes under the basement floor and a riser up through the basement slab floor so they are there if you need them later, it is not expensive to prep.

 

[scaredychicken]

Looks like a beautiful house. House designs as you know become very personal dreams, so it is difficult for a 3rd party to have any real impressions (dare I say opinions). I agree with Pete Judd that in the future that will be a lot of house to maintain. The roof lines are very elaborate, and will be costly, the slopes and peaks will create challenges for the builders, and for winter months, but they are all part of the entire appeal as well. Keep in mind where the snow will fall, rain drops, gutters run etc - so that doors, second story windows, etc are not obstructed. If the wrap around porch is low enough (difficult to know simply by the photos), stairs would be minimal at perhaps 1 or 2 steps, otherwise railings are a factor also.
The immediate impression that I had was that the fireplace was off to one side of the house ... if it were my house design, I would try to centralize the fireplace into the house for maximum efficiency throughout the house - this might be accomplished by switching it to the opposite wall in the family room - for example, nearer the corner / wall where the pantry exists. Maybe you already have central in floor heating into the design though, so fireplace location itself is not a factor. That would be the only suggestion that I would have.
Beautiful house plan.:applause:

what garage bay does the tractor go into ?

 

[hr3]

Why 2 stairwells ??

 

[trihounds]

It's going to be a beautiful home!

A small suggestion - critically think about your entry way and confirm it is large enough and with enough space for closets, shoes, coats - then increase it some more to accommodate guests arriving and departing at the same time. Add some on again if you have a dog or two who want to greet and say goodbye to your guests. . Don't ask me how I know!

 

[gocards1177]

Thanks all for taking the time to write your comments.

Yes, it is a large house, but you should have seen some of the previous plans! For instance, when we started this whole process we initially thought it would be a good idea to use an architect buddy of mine. Well the home he was steering us towards was 6000 sf and we spent more than we were comfortable on fees. Overall we learned some valuable lessons but that's when we decided to take matters in our own hands.

Our thinking is this size will be good for our family now. As the kids move out my wife and I will mostly just stick to the first floor. As we age the second floor could be used by guests and grandkids.

The study will be more of a "sitting room" I guess. We were thinking a cour of easily moveable chairs and a table that could be pushed out of the way of a Murphy bed.

Yes I'm worried about the roof. We modeled the house somewhat after another house near our land and the builder for that home is nearby. I guess we'll see.

The second stairs comes from bill Cosby show. I know that sounds funny, but I always thought that sounded meat for kids. It will be the most used stairs, opens up near our bedroom and kitchen for the kids, and will have the basement access under it. That leaves the main entryway stairs to be "decorative". Under those stairs is a pretty spacious closet and pantry. this may be my only chance to do something different to a house like that…

As for the entryway size, we modeled that after my sister in laws house. Actually we did that for a lot of rooms, like the master is the same size as our current, the family room is same as my parents, etc.

The fireplace is where it is so it can be seen from the entry. We also like the idea of a stone chimney so it will be visible on that side of the house. As for heating I think we'll probably go for forced air with in floor in floor in the basement and bathrooms. In Missouri our heating and snow covered roofs arent that big of a concern.

Thanks for the great questions! I have a perfectionist personality so please keep it coming!

Ps. The tractor goes wherever my wife lets it, ; )

 

[mjarrels]

Plan on getting old and confined to a wheel chair. My current new home does not allow for that, plus plan for the kids getting old and moving out. I don't want to heat/cool 4000 sq ft for two people.

mark

 

[EddieWalker]

One of the pitfalls that people run into when designing a house themselves is that they limit themselves to what they know. How many houses have you built? Each time, you learn something new. How experienced are you in construction and what can be done affordably and what will cost a premium? Not knowing your budget or personal taste, I can't say if the plan is good or bad.

I would strongly suggest you set this plan asside and go to eplans.com Type in your requirements, bedrooms, bathrooms and things like that, then look at the floor plans that come up. DO NOT pay attention to what the house looks like. That's easy to change and make your own. Pay attention to flow, open concept and use of space.

There are severalt things that jump out at me with your plan that I think you need to reconsider. Two stair cases is a huge waste of money. I don't like one, but if you have two, they should be spread out far enough to justify the square footage they take up, and the cost to build them. Stairs are expensive!!!

The family room is tiny.

The kitchen is small and closed in. Reminds me of an older tract home from the 70's and 80's. Sticking the island in the middle of a closed in space just makes it more crowded.

Master bedroom closet is tiny.

Tons of wastes space on your entry.

Why have a shower in the downstairs hall bath?

Is the sun room needed? Seems tiny and something cute, but not really usable unless there is a fantastic view

Upstairs is something that I would scrap and start over again. The bedrooms are nice sized, but the rest is a mess. Tons of wasted space, poor layout in the bathroom and a hall closet that looks like it has a hallway inside the closet.

I was shocked that this is 4,000 sq ft. With 2,000 square feet, you can get all that with a better flow. After 2,000 sq ft, you are adding duplicate rooms, such as more bedrooms, eating areas and living rooms. With your plan, you are eating up square footage without any gain in layout or usablitiy.

Two stories is always more expensive to build then one story.

The more angles, peaks and valleys in a roof, the more it will cost and the more areas of potential problems you will have.

Since you are not in a hurry to build, take the time to make sure the plan is perfect. Posting it on here is a hard thing to do, but a great way to get input and comments on things that you might never have considered.

Good luck,
Eddie

 

[s219]

We spent 7 months desigining our new house (broke ground on Aug 1). It was quite a process. We got the basics worked out with my sister-in-law and her husband, who are architects. They really opened our eyes up to fundamental concepts and ideas, including what would work on the lot. That steered us in a real good starting direction (which was quite different than I had originally envisioned). They charged us about $3K and it was money well spent, since we got a real solid custom floor plan and a good layout.

At that point, we hooked up with a builder and his designer, who took the "massing" from the architects and then iterated on styling and details with us over a period of about three months. It's amazing how that process worked, and it made me realize that a good floorplan and proper massing can go in any number of directions with regards to styling (plus we are doing a craftsman style house, and that has a lot of leeway).

If you asked me what the house should look like about 9 months ago, I am sure my ideas would have been limiting and simplistic in comparison (I'm an engineer and not artistic or design-oriented outside of quantitative hard numbers). I had none of the vision of the architects, none of the styling expertise of the designer, and very little of the practical experience (and code knowledge) of the builder.

So I guess that's a long way of saying 1) I won't offer advice because you don't want it from me, and 2) take your time and get the basic floorplan and massing worked out before dealing with styling. Prioritize things like utility, flow from room to room, views, lay of the land, etc. Picture yourself using each room and traveling from room to room. Does the current design meet all your needs? Then move on to styling and consider practical aspects of building/materials/construction.

Good luck!