Nice looking house. No criticism meant here, but you asked for toughts, so here goes. O.k.?
Some things I would be concerned about.
That area over the rear of the house with the sliding doors (sunroom)... the roof of the garage slopes towards the house. The water will wash down the garage roof and onto the shed roof with the skylights and actually run UP the shed roof before slowing down, then turn 180 degrees to roll back down and dump right over the service entrance door on the back of the garage. In major rainstorms you will see trouble in that area and over time, the shingles will fail and the water will run UP under them.
You show no downspouts on your gutters. With all those peaks and valleys, there are some areas where you don't have a place for a downspout for a gutter over a roofed section. As an example, 2nd floor roof gutter over the master bedroom closet has no place to dump water and no good place for a downspout. Same thing goes for the 2nd floor roof over the family room.
A walkaround porch is great. I want one. Use your design program to place some furniture on it to see if you have room to sit AND walk around it without making people get up.
You also show no way to get off the porch at the right rear side. Be sure to include steps, etc... to get off back there. You don't want a dead end back there.
Your study door and front door will interfere with each other. Try to imaging you and your wife standing in that front entryway greating another couple. All four of you won't fit without standing in the family room, on the stairs or in the area to the left of the stairs. Also, where are you going to hang your guests' coats?
I like the little study with the walk through bath, but it is too small. Again, use your design program to put some furniture in the room.
You can't get from the 2nd floor to the kitchen without going through the dining room or family room.
The dining room is not wide enough to get around the table and chairs when people are seated. It is also not long enough for large gatherings. We have a 14' dining room with a table that expands from 5' to 9' to sit from 6 to 10 people. A 9' table in a 14' room only leaves 2.5 feet at each end. Not enough room to get into a chair with arms, and not enough room to walk around while people are seated.
You will have trouble getting large furniture into your master bedroom with a right angle turn in a 4' wide hallway.
That's a gigantic shower with a lot of tile to scrub every week.
I like the separate toilet stall.
Where's your wife going to do her hair and makeup? Not in that hot steamy bathroom.
The family room is nice. Only issue I have there is there are three entrances, so it really limits how much seating you can have in there. For instance, you can't have any seating to the left of the fireplace due to the door that opens into the room there.
Three people can't sit at the end of that kitchen island.
Consider moving the refridgerator to the right of the sink. That way you can move food from refridgerator to wash/prep area to cooking. Otherwise you have to pass the stove each time you go from refridgerator to wash/prep area.
Let's haul some groceries from garage to kitchen. You have to go through the dining room. Let's have a midnight snack. You have to go through the dining room. The kids want a drink of milk. They have to go through the dining room. You'r in the kitchen and have to use the bathroom. You have to go through the dining room. :laughing:
The kitchen is one of if not THE most used room in the house. Make it more easily accessible. Try swapping the dining area with the kitchen area if possible, just to see how it feels.
Think about it... you have guests over in the family room and its time to server dinner. They have to go either through the front entrance hall or through the food prep area to get to the dining room. If the dining and kitchen were swapped, they'd just move into the dining room directly from the family room.
Also, you have very little natural light in your dining room as it currently sits. Just the sliding door. Swap the two areas around and you can have large outdoor light on two walls.
One more thing about the dining room.... do you have or want a china hutch or buffet to store dishes in? It won't fit in there with the table and chairs and people, too.
In the front right 2nd floor bedroom, I'd ditch that bump-out closet thing and make that bedroom the craft room then make the existing craft room the other bedroom and build the closet into the existing attic space.
In the left 2nd floor bedroom the closet is too wide for that narrow door.
Again, I think you'll have trouble getting large furniture into the 2nd floor, as there are 90 and 180 degree turns on the stairs.
One last thought.... which way is north and on what side of the house will the sun shine? Try to figure out both the extreme winter and summer solstices in relation to the house placement on the lot. The sun will rise and set in different places throughout the year. In the summer, you don't want the sun to come blazing in your bedroom windows at 5:00am. Also, the north side of the house will not dry out as fast. Wth all those peaks and valleys, and a long covered porch, it could be a problem if, say, the underside of the porch roof is eternally in the shade and never dries out. Also, ice does not melt fast on the north side of the house. As an example, here in northern Indiana, our driveway is on the north side of our house. The ice NEVER melts on the driveway in cold weather due to the shadow of the house while the areas not shaded by the house will melt off by the sun even if the temps get into the high teens as the blacktop can absorb the sunlight and melt it.
Anyhow, nice looking house and a good start for ideas. :thumbsup:
