New Home Build. Plan Review.
- Thread starter MGH PA
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NorTracNY
Platinum Member
I agree with Eddie response. I can't imagine having a master bedroom not on the first floor. I understand you're young since you have another child on the way, but I can't imagine ever planning on living in such a large house when I'm old. More space is just more stuff to clean. I've learned that half the things you store are just things you haven't sold, donated, given away thrown out. Also a bigger house just means that EVERYTHING else will cost more. Heating/AC, new roof, more repairs...
I also can't understand the concept of a kids play room. What will that room be when your youngest child is 8-10 years old? Give them bedrooms and teach them to pick things up that they bring out of their bedrooms to play. With 150acres, I'd be more focused on what your kids will do outside the house.
My youngest is 8. Lives change. I see a nice house in your drawings, but I certainly wouldn't want it. My family and land keep me busy enough. I'd hate to have a large house to maintain on top of that.
I also can't understand the concept of a kids play room. What will that room be when your youngest child is 8-10 years old? Give them bedrooms and teach them to pick things up that they bring out of their bedrooms to play. With 150acres, I'd be more focused on what your kids will do outside the house.
My youngest is 8. Lives change. I see a nice house in your drawings, but I certainly wouldn't want it. My family and land keep me busy enough. I'd hate to have a large house to maintain on top of that.
I would never, EVER put the master bedroom upstairs.
Wife wants to be on the same floor as the kids when they're little. I lost that battle
I would be very very hesitant to build a two story house is I had space to make it all one story.
Wouldn't mind that, but the footprint would be huge since I don't want a finished basement, and it's cheaper to build up than out.
Play rooms sound like a nice idea, but they really just become a junk room to store stuff in a hurry when you want to clean up the house real fast. Kids are going to play with their toys where you are hanging out. Usually in the TV room. Or they play in their bedrooms.
I agree somewhat, but it will limit the amount of spread out clutter. My son's toys stay in two main spots in our house now as it is, and we're teaching him to clean up (he's pretty good for a two year old), so I think having a dedicated space makes sense for us. Plus, it will be a "workstation" area of sorts for them to work on projects, homework, etc. as they get older. We don't want them up in their rooms online and watching TV (there will be no TVs in their rooms.
That little bump out for the guest bedroom, office area is some expensive square footage.
Agreed. Will try to minimize the hit but finishing everything in that "wing" myself.
I really like the kitchen/great room/ dining room layout. Nice and open so everyone can be together.
Bathroom remodels are a big part of what I do for a living and I would never have a shower head facing the door. In fact, most of my jobs are showers that do not have a door, or a lip to step over.
The bathroom layout is one we struggled with a lot, and still may change that around. I didn't want to fur out a wall for plumbing on an exterior wall, but we do have a plan B and C.
Kids bedrooms are really nice. I'm not a huge fan of jack and jill bathrooms, but if they have to share a bathroom, and nobody else has to use it, they work.
Yeah, I'm indifferent. This was also my wife's idea and must have
Laundry room looks really nice. Good to have it close to the bedrooms and big enough to do everything. Best layouts I've ever seen had a laundry room in the master closet, and anther laundry room for the kids. I'm personally moving my laundry room into my master closet one of these days.
Where is your mechanical room? Where will you have to go to change your AC Filter and add bleach to your drain line?
In the basement centrally located near the stairs. Will have a "Utilities" area framed out, just not in the plans. Need to decide on HVAC to proceed with that.
I'm sure it will be a nice house when you are done with it, but if I was out looking for a house to buy, I would not buy this house because of the Master being upstairs. That alone would kill the deal for me.
Thanks for the great things to think about. I appreciate the honesty and suggestions
See above for replies. Made it easier...I think
Yep, I agree with most of your points. The whole reason for the play room, office, guest bedroom setup is to be able to transition from as it appears, to a work room for the kids, and then most importantly, a master area for us when we're older. One of the major sticking points for us on this area of the house was its size.
fishheadbob
Platinum Member
I like it. I didn't squint long enough to see if you have some backup for the geothermal as they need electric to run.
I also don't see any problem with the second floor master, it will keep you young. I'm 70, when we did the last remodel we put hidden bones in place for a first floor master but hopefully we won't ever get that decrepit to where we need to finish the job. The view from upstairs is spectacular.
My parents lived in an honest to god mansion (they could afford it) but handled the long stairs until their deaths at 88 and 90. My mother would resist and say that it was good therapy for her broken hip recovery. The old man would beg her to let him put in a 1st floor master but she would just say she wasn't that old yet. He would always take 8 flights of stairs in a hotel to keep in shape, after the hip Mom would have to take the elevator. She wouldn't use a handicapped parking spot as that was for people who had let themselves go.
I also don't see any problem with the second floor master, it will keep you young. I'm 70, when we did the last remodel we put hidden bones in place for a first floor master but hopefully we won't ever get that decrepit to where we need to finish the job. The view from upstairs is spectacular.
My parents lived in an honest to god mansion (they could afford it) but handled the long stairs until their deaths at 88 and 90. My mother would resist and say that it was good therapy for her broken hip recovery. The old man would beg her to let him put in a 1st floor master but she would just say she wasn't that old yet. He would always take 8 flights of stairs in a hotel to keep in shape, after the hip Mom would have to take the elevator. She wouldn't use a handicapped parking spot as that was for people who had let themselves go.
dmccarty
Super Star Member
When I designed our house all interior doors were a minimum 36 inch wide. We have one exterior 36 inch door and three 60 inch French door sets. The French doors allow for easy movement of appliances in and out of the house either with the tractor FEL or from a truck. Make sure all "passage ways" are at least 36 inches wide to make it easy to move appliances and furniture.
Why not make the house take advantage of passive solar? It is not hard to do, is cheap, does not require ongoing expenses and does help the heating of the house.
Given you are in the freezing cold of PA, are you planing to use radiant heating? It could be based on solar and gas/oil/wood.
As others have said, put in features that are ADA compliant. You might not stay in the home in your old age but the population is aging so having ADA features will make it easier to live in and help sell in the future.
Our shower has no stall lip or door and works just fine. SOOOO handy to be able to move a heavy bucket or cooler full of water into the shower on a dolly and just dump it out.
Later,
Dan
TractorGuy
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I will echo what some others have said but being in a lower income bracket my thoughts may not relate.
Things I considered when I built my house in 93 were: I plan to live here till death, I didn't want any high maintenance materials used, and I didn't want to pay utilities for a lot of square footage. I didn't want any stairs to climb as I aged and I even had the fireplace removed from the plan and used it for more closet space. (give me a thermostat for comfort any ol day) I settled on a ranch style that has 1200 sq ft living space with a 444 sq ft attached garage. I had the garage finished, insulated, and ducted for HVAC in case I later wanted to convert it to living space. (it remains a work shop with room for the wife's car) My main regret is I would have liked a larger master bath with a walk in shower.
I was not allowed to have the construction I wanted. My original plan was a metal building converted to a house using fire code sheet rock inside and making the whole thing as non flammable as possible. Lenders would not go for owner/contractor or non conventional construction so we went with a regular stick built house.
We did a 2x4 frame with OSB sheathing and plywood corners for strength. That was covered with tar paper and vinyl siding for durability and maintenance. We had wood porch railings which I just tore out instead of stripping for paint again. I clean the outside once a year with a 50% bleach solution.
KNOW YOUR CONTRACTOR! Building a house is one of the most stressful times in anyone's life. My contractor made it especially so. I would see things about to go wrong and tell him about it and he would do nothing. His philosophy was he paid the subs to do it and if they messed it up he would make them fix it. The problem with that mindset is you end up with a bunch of patched areas that could have been built right to start with. I will give a couple of examples. We were living on the property in a mobile home so I could see the progress every morning and evening. When they were about to pour the slab I walked out the door and noticed a vent pipe leaning outward and touching the form board. I told the contractor to make sure they addressed it before pouring the concrete. I came home to find a slab poured with that pipe just as it was when I left. They ended up having to frame around that section so the concrete could be broken out to repair the crooked pipe. When the roof trusses arrived I noticed one was not aligned with the others on the front porch area. I called the contractor and asked him to have the truss company fix it before they were put up. He insisted they were okay without even looking at them. I told him they were banded together and matched all the way from front to back EXCEPT one was higher at about 2 feet from the over hang. Sure enough they put everything on including the sheathing and had to tear it out from underneath and do another patch job to get the roof line level. There were many other issues like this and at the end I ran them off my property with some things not finished. Seems every time they came back they would tear up more than they fixed.
Things I considered when I built my house in 93 were: I plan to live here till death, I didn't want any high maintenance materials used, and I didn't want to pay utilities for a lot of square footage. I didn't want any stairs to climb as I aged and I even had the fireplace removed from the plan and used it for more closet space. (give me a thermostat for comfort any ol day) I settled on a ranch style that has 1200 sq ft living space with a 444 sq ft attached garage. I had the garage finished, insulated, and ducted for HVAC in case I later wanted to convert it to living space. (it remains a work shop with room for the wife's car) My main regret is I would have liked a larger master bath with a walk in shower.
I was not allowed to have the construction I wanted. My original plan was a metal building converted to a house using fire code sheet rock inside and making the whole thing as non flammable as possible. Lenders would not go for owner/contractor or non conventional construction so we went with a regular stick built house.
We did a 2x4 frame with OSB sheathing and plywood corners for strength. That was covered with tar paper and vinyl siding for durability and maintenance. We had wood porch railings which I just tore out instead of stripping for paint again. I clean the outside once a year with a 50% bleach solution.
KNOW YOUR CONTRACTOR! Building a house is one of the most stressful times in anyone's life. My contractor made it especially so. I would see things about to go wrong and tell him about it and he would do nothing. His philosophy was he paid the subs to do it and if they messed it up he would make them fix it. The problem with that mindset is you end up with a bunch of patched areas that could have been built right to start with. I will give a couple of examples. We were living on the property in a mobile home so I could see the progress every morning and evening. When they were about to pour the slab I walked out the door and noticed a vent pipe leaning outward and touching the form board. I told the contractor to make sure they addressed it before pouring the concrete. I came home to find a slab poured with that pipe just as it was when I left. They ended up having to frame around that section so the concrete could be broken out to repair the crooked pipe. When the roof trusses arrived I noticed one was not aligned with the others on the front porch area. I called the contractor and asked him to have the truss company fix it before they were put up. He insisted they were okay without even looking at them. I told him they were banded together and matched all the way from front to back EXCEPT one was higher at about 2 feet from the over hang. Sure enough they put everything on including the sheathing and had to tear it out from underneath and do another patch job to get the roof line level. There were many other issues like this and at the end I ran them off my property with some things not finished. Seems every time they came back they would tear up more than they fixed.
prichard
Veteran Member
The house we just sold was 3000+ sq ft tri-level. I was never so glad to be out of that house. We are now living in a 1200 sq ft mobile home while we build. It is too small but we were both so relieved to have everything close and easy to clean. Now, you are younger that us I assume due to "child on the way". Mind you we are in our early 50's but we have age on our mind.
I were in your shoes I'd be aiming for around 2500 sq ft ranch on walkout basement. Basement could become man cave, play room, teen hang out, etc. I'd put a bath in the basement and a guest BR. 2 Heat/AC systems - main and basement. Now some folks don't like ranches because they are too plain. Think outside the box a little, it can be U or L or T shaped. You could go a little more "Cape Cod" style and put just guest bed and bath on the second floor so it's still tri-level but you can mostly forget about the 2nd floor and heat/cool with a mini split to save enregy.
With a layout like that later in life you can forget the basement and just live on the main floor.
If you wish to stick with the larger plan but plan for the future consider carefully where the house is placed so you can sell it off along with an acre or so. Use the proceeds of that sale to build the retirement home elsewhere on the property. With this plan you need to work hard to make this house attractive to buyers. You may want to ask a local realtor to give input to that aspect. As others have said, master on main is a major selling point. Around here master on main homes sell for 10 - 15% higher than same house, neighborhood, sq ft as without, and they sell a lot faster.
I were in your shoes I'd be aiming for around 2500 sq ft ranch on walkout basement. Basement could become man cave, play room, teen hang out, etc. I'd put a bath in the basement and a guest BR. 2 Heat/AC systems - main and basement. Now some folks don't like ranches because they are too plain. Think outside the box a little, it can be U or L or T shaped. You could go a little more "Cape Cod" style and put just guest bed and bath on the second floor so it's still tri-level but you can mostly forget about the 2nd floor and heat/cool with a mini split to save enregy.
With a layout like that later in life you can forget the basement and just live on the main floor.
If you wish to stick with the larger plan but plan for the future consider carefully where the house is placed so you can sell it off along with an acre or so. Use the proceeds of that sale to build the retirement home elsewhere on the property. With this plan you need to work hard to make this house attractive to buyers. You may want to ask a local realtor to give input to that aspect. As others have said, master on main is a major selling point. Around here master on main homes sell for 10 - 15% higher than same house, neighborhood, sq ft as without, and they sell a lot faster.