Tasteful friends: What do you think of this house plan?

Dude, we’ve been here before. I recognize the “great room” on the floor plan but the exterior is not that Arizona stucco this time. You’re in Ohio or Indiana.

r1 I've posted once before, but with a different houseplan. I didn't end up making the previous one, but I'm actually fairly close to being able to build one now.

Approximate cost to build?

Lots of tornados in the Plains, and they will likely get more frequent and intense with climate change. I would need a basement.

r4 My builder relative puts in a storm shelter in each house - it's basically a small concrete or metal room under the garage. It's not a basement but it's a very secure place to go when tornadoes are nearby.

Well, I like this exterior much better than your first one

Lots of tiny cramped rooms and passageways. Looks like a maze. And that front porch is 10'x30' of wasted space — you’ll never use it.

My suggestion concerns the central room which for me is light starved, and likewise the kitchen. Yes there are big windows/doors front and back, but opening onto deeply covered porches The central room is going to be flooded by shadowy gray light from both ends, but never a ray of sun. Depending on the orientation of the house, I would consider adding a shed dormer (as on the facade( either on the front or rear of the house to feed a skylight into the central room below. If the opening is well constructed and beveled and on a good scale it will be of architectural interest and admit light to the center of the house that otherwise will always be in shadow. Do the same in the kitchen (easy with the vaulted ceiling.)

You can have mechanical shutters that roll up and down on command .

I recall making a similar observation on the darkness at the heat of the plan you put out in the past. That house though, had a different kitchen configuration and the roof didn't lend itself so swell to a modest dormer to do a world of good - if I recall properly.

I still think there are a lot of unnecessary complications in the house, especially in the guest bedroom area between kitchen and garage. Planning to live as you say, I would suggest keeping the footprint but simplifying the plan a bit. It's a house of a lot of doors, but one window I would add would be in the kitchen, at the wall opposite the exterior door to the porch.

I think its cute, but perhaps too much house for one person? Like I would go nuts living somewhere so big. Save the money and go on a few adventures/hoe trips!

It looks like it would be kindof dark. Too many rooflines. Too many little rooms. The "roommate floorplan" (master on one side, other bedrooms on the other side of the house will be difficult to sell---a family won't want this. Normally, I don't think you should be hung up on salability unless you're in some middle management transfer suburb, but the floor plan is too idiosyncratic and if you are in the Midwestern flatlands, the market isn't ever going to support quirks (I've lived in such places, I'm not being a snob). It would be better if the home office was larger and had a window.

I hate entering the WIC through the bath. I hate the three tiny garage windows facing the front porch. The house is meh, but go for it if you love it.

You have to check out this house plan on OP’s site. Guarantee the architect was doing drugs.

Who would live in that house at r12?

Wealthy retiree with a penchant for working on old cars, or collecting them?

First of all wooden houses are a fatal fire waiting to happen. That aside, the rooms are small, especially the bedrooms and what's with the $400.00 basements. What kind of rat trap basement can you get for $400 additional dollars?

It’s a little bit Joanna Gaines, a little bit wealthy Missouri tract home

R12--too many roof lines. the bedroom off the kitchen is the sort of thing you live in a house to avoid. usually you see that in anold apartment building where large units were cut down at some point. And a 5 car garage for a 1 bedroom and it only has a "Kitchenette"?

If you look carefully ad all the dimensions the rooms are way too small -- it will feel very cramped and stifling. The study is basically a closet and in fact, is quite smaller than the closet next to it. Also, you walk right into the small living room which will make it feel even smaller. The bonus room over the garage will feel stifling as well as it barely has a full ceiling.

All in all, it's going to feel way too cramped. If this is the square footage you, look for a house with fewer rooms and a better layout.

Sorry for typos above, using tiny phone keyboard. "footage you want..."

The plan at R12 isn't for a house, it's for a large garage with an apartment above it to go next to a house.

I like the study off the master and how both rooms are a little bit secluded from the rest of the house.

R28 ohhhh, that makes sense then.

It's an outbuilding for a much grander home.

OP As I recall, the previous house plan you showed us had a similar layout -- great room and kitchen in middle with master bedroom on one side and other bedrooms on other side, plus large front and back porch areas.

The split bedrooms is not practical for a family, so it will reduce the chances for resale. But if you do intend to have a roommate, then its an idea situation, allowing each of you some privacy.

The house plan is OK, but I see lots o space that could be better utilized; so much wasted space. The Great Room is going to be dark; all that space but no way for direct sunlight to get in there. Study is going to be claustrophobic and dark.

R22 Right, we've critiqued this plan before. Seems like the concerns you and other mention, haven't been addressed. I'll add what was not received well last time... the two bedrooms sharing a bath that opens into both bedrooms. That rarely works, is often a result of added rooms, and mysterious that it be there in a new plan.

it's too risky. I wouldn't do it. You need a house and a home inspection.

I agree with r4 you need a basement, why not get one of those old outdoor access types, a la Wizard of Oz?

Thanks r19, it is just so OTT with the roof lines and windows and swooping eaves but if it matches a shingle-style barn of a house, then that makes more sense.

Will that WIC hold all of your caftans, OP?

Front porch: waste of space and time. Back porch is OK, but creates darkness in the living room.

Living room: for a house that is 2,000+ square feet, there should be a *real* damn foyer.

Flow of living / dining / kitchen: not crazy about it. I'm neutral, I guess.

Bedrooms: I do like the separation of primary bedroom from other bedrooms. Agree that you should not have to walk through a bathroom in order to access your closet. Don't like the 2nd full bathroom having doors to both bedrooms. Where's the privacy. If you're planning on being a landlord, that bathroom is a minus, unless you rent both bedrooms to the same person.

Study room: I can do without.

Having the two staff bedrooms off the kitchen and near the garage is convenient but frankly this doesn’t look like the sort of house that has two live-in maids

And I bet OP will slap the TV right over the fireplace.

OP its shiite. Lets start with the fake front foot, right, with the picture windows. It's a garage.

There is no need to list more horrors than that. Though I could list 20.

*fake front ROOM, right,

R23 it's not the same plan that was critiqued, but it is similar in some aspects.

R30 probably, because there's nowhere else for it to go with the fireplace in the middle surrounded by built-in shelving and cabinets. I don't see the issue with it though. I know the fireplace is supposed to be the focal point of the room, but a flat panel TV is pretty unobtrusive unless it's on.

Split floorplans are very practical for families. Do you want to you hear your parents fucking? Do you want your parents to hear you jacking off?

This one strikes me as much easier to maintain. I'd knock down the wall between study and the living room to increase the amount of space in the living room. I'd stick a desk in a corner rather than have a dedicated home office.

I would think a lot about sustainability and low upkeep.

What is this new-construction trend of white houses with black trim and doors? I see a lot of it, and don't like it.

R12 that’s like something out of The Sims. Doesn’t seem very practical.

[quote] Split floorplans are very practical for families. Do you want to you hear your parents fucking? Do you want your parents to hear you jacking off?

True. Also good for a roommates situation.

Only situation where you'd want a 2nd bedroom right next to the primary bedroom is if you have a new, first baby. But even then, you could just put the crib in the primary bedroom. Or adult(s) could temporarily move to opposite side of house, where there are 2 bedrooms in close proximity.

I mean families used to all sleep in one room back in the day. Is hearing fucking such an awful thing?

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

I like the exterior. Yes way too chopped up inside. And I don’t see an interior door to the master suite.

Lutyens uses natural brickwork which ages well.

But the OP's model has (I assume) synthetic white paint over grey concrete blocks.

I don't think the great room will be as dark as thought. Note the three windows in the dormer in the vaulted great room, and both the master and the dining room have the extra little square windows. The front porch won't be used much but I like the way it feels like it shields the house a bit from the front and the back. I've never been a fan of a lot of huge windows.

The foyer - I do prefer some sort of foyer so I would probably do what I did in a previous place I lived and have them add four pillars and an arch to create the feel of a small foyer. (Altho not sure that could be done in a vaulted room, would depend on where the ceiling is). That being said I think the front porch fills part of that role anyway.

Usually master closets are off bathrooms, at least in the houses I've lived in and seen, so I don't have much of an issue with that as I'm used to it.

The house seems to have good sight lines from the front to the back. I know the trend is to have little to no hallways because they are considered wasted space, but I think they give a nice buffer to the bedrooms from the living areas.

I agree the study seems a bit small, as do the secondary bedrooms. The study has a window in it so I don't think it would be too claustrophobic. Plus the door could be a paned glass door to give it more visibility. In retrospect though and comparing the room sizes to my current rooms I think they are smaller than I would like.

I work a lot from home so I spend a lot of time in the home office. Currently it's just an unused bedroom.

I agree I don't like the Jack and Jill bathrooms. I expect that the architect could reconfigure that part of the house. For some reason the Jack and Jill bathroom seems standard in houses by this architecture firm.

I would use the unfinished space over the garage as a storage room most likely.

I do appreciate the feedback and it's gotten me to take a closer look at some of the potential problems that I didn't see at first look.

[quote] I mean families used to all sleep in one room back in the day. Is hearing fucking such an awful thing?

IMO, yes, it's awful, especially if it's your parents.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I think overcrowded living spaces (too many kids, not enough bedrooms / not enough supervision, parents who fuck in close proximity to their children) contributes to molestation within families.

I don't like the flower-boxes on the front windows.

The home-owners overwater them causing drip stains and delamination on the painted cement-brick walls.

I love the quasi-symmetry. The fireplace chimney matches the exit fan over the stove.

I love the clerestory windows above the front door. I can imagine the great 24-paned glass opening between two wide pilasters.

It's not my cup of tea but it's handsome from the outside. It's like a fresh take on classic New England style houses. I don't care for Great Rooms and like others have said, I worry a bit about there being enough light/air flow. And, a big yes to making sure you have some kind of storm shelter/basement space....it's a must if you live in the Midwest.

I do like the idea of the main suite being on the opposite of the house from the guest rooms. I don't know why that would hurt resell value that much...It's a popular design trend and while it might be impractical for people wanting to START families, it's terrific for people who have existing families and don't want the kids right on top of the parents.

I also don't like the walking through the bathroom to get to the closet...I'd simply swap those two areas. Put the bathroom where the closet is now and turn that middle section into closets/dressing room space.

R36 Uh, that's a dreadful, barren looking house ideal for a senior citizen.

[quote] If I have to, the garage doors can be moved to the front of the house instead of the side.

I hope not.

R13 I'd live in that house! Apart from not being a retiree that pretty much describes me.

A 5 car garage would be great, and combining with a traditional style home even better. Not easy to do though, and the design in R12 doesnt quite pull it off, its still not bad

OP's house is lovely on the outside, but I'd agree with whoever said having less rooms but bigger would make sense

R36 that is ugly, looks like something the council would build to put a sewerage pump station in

[quote] I love the quasi-symmetry.

I thought I loved symmetry, too. But there was another thread just like this one, with a couple of different floor plans. Something about a front door (guest entrance) in the middle of the house was not good for the overall floorplan. (Talking about houses similar in size to the one at OP.)

Something about the entry being set further to the left or right gave the house, esp. the living room, a better feel and flow.

One thing I hate about OP's floorplan is that centered front door opening straight into, BAM, the living room.

R51 if you consider the front porch sort of a pseudo-foyer it's not quite as jarring (at least to me).

I guess I just don't like the front porch. There's no way in hell I'd want to hang out in front, looking at my neighbors and vice-versa. Plus, let's face it, it's another area you'd have to keep clean.

Why does it feature "barn-doors"?

These bulky doors may be the current fashion for ditzy-TV-mavens but they're clumsy, don't form a proper seal and are more suitable for cowboys.

Pocket doors are infinitely preferable.

R45 not everyone can afford a big house.

R46 This is a wooden house (which will turn to splinters when the cyclone arrives).

Uh, most houses are made out of wood.

As you age (and you will) do you really want to deal with going up and down the stairs?

I have been looking at this plan. I really like it, although I don’t like a garage that opens on the front (could be altered) and I’d do different columns around the dining area.

[quote]Why does it feature "barn-doors"?

Because it has so many door openings stuck in corners and in other tight spots. There's not proper room for a door to swing.

[quote]Pocket doors are infinitely preferable.

Better but not great. Sure pocket doors are great in a 19thC house with large rooms and high ceilings when you want to throw together the twin drawing rooms, or the drawing room and the dining room, but those are handsome solid wood doors with architectural moldings. In this house they will be hollow core sliding doors trimmed out with the most basic molding -- all told (normal doors and sliding barn doors per plan) there are 20+ doors to install. But OP agrees that the barn doors are a bad idea.

I just think it's an overly complex plan trying to solve too many needs by way of too many compromises:

-The stair to the future bonus room above the garage is unnecessary. A 12' x 31' tunnel under the eaves so with headroom only in center 6' or 7' and the with a tiny window at one end above a garage that's hot as fuck in a Midwestern summer and cold as fuck in a Midwestern winter. That's not a bonus room it's a storage loft. Install a drop-down attic stair in the garage to access it. Getting rid of the basement stairs (as OP suggests he will do) AND the loft stairs makes a nice skinny passage for boots and hanging coats, etc., an L-extension of the garage entry with its too tiny closet, accessible from the front door or garage -- something otherwise missing in the plan. (If you could bring that front wall to the right between house/garage forward a couple of feet, you would improve the bootroom (in place of stairs), the laundry/storage room, and the 11' x 11' guest bedroom and walk-in-closet.)

-There are five exterior doors, all within 20' of one another. If you sat in that chair shown in the 4-o'clock position in the Great Room, you could observe all doors barely having to turn your head.

-The Great Room — the dimensions state 16'4" x 17 but it looks to be closer to 22' front door to back door. That's better, but it's not a large space. (The dimensions are shown in the central part of the room, but unless it's drawn wrong the one dimension (16'4") looks right and the other wrong. If it were as stated, 16+ x 17, that's too small for the one space of its sort.

-I would be sorely tempted to get rid of the study and the rear entry hall behind it that leads to the principal bedroom. I would rather have a greater great room, shifting the fire place a little closer to the front door to make room for a door to the principal bedroom.

-The laundry room is a little small for some people. I would lose the built-in desk and flanking closets in the hall behind it maybe as these don't seem especially. I might flip a closet inside the expanded laundry room for vacuum cleaner and cleaning stuff. I don't know the requirements for venting dryers, but you're some distance from an exterior wall. The shorter the vent, the better. More importantly, the safer.

-The kitchen and dining room are fine, and having a pantry is not a bad idea at all.

-That bank of windows and window boxes lighting the garage is a bit much. If you're a motorhead, it's great I suppose. Otherwise it's an invitation for people to press their face against the glass and see if your car is there and what kind of tools you have lying about. Leave the wall blank and plant some vines on a pergola in front or someting.

-

If I were you, I'd look carefully at this site:

Yeah, check this out:

Can you loose the porch and use that space as part of your house

Any house floor plan with a "great room" needs to go straight into the trash.

Great room = new name for family room. Family room = old new name for living room in a house where no one uses the living room.

"Living Room" is blah.

I call my room where I entertain and that is without a television a "sitting room." A smaller version of that type of room off my kitchen is called a "lounge." And the room where the television is is called a "television room." I also have a room lined with book shelves that I call a "library."

R58 no, but that's why this isn't considered a two story house. I doubt the storage space will do anything but store boxes.

R60 many good points, although I think the staircase is just for show, really. If you don't know it's a just a storage room it looks like a two story house when you enter.

Too much wasted space. Half baths are stupid, if there are people staying in all three of those bedrooms, give them each their own bath, even if one of the bathrooms ends up being small (shower instead of tub). And build a bathroom adjacent to that "bonus room" while you're at it since you have to go up stairs to get to it. At 427 sq feet, that room is the size of a NYC studio apartment, so you could really make it into a totally separate, decent rentable space (with kitchen, washer dryer, and bathroom) but do that now--don't try to retro-fit it.

If you have enough dough to fill a walk in closet that big with clothes, you should live in a bigger house. Otherwise that space could be another small bedroom, or a den or library.

If you're going to die in that house, where will the caregiver stay?

If you're going to rent the opposite bedrooms, use some of that study/ridiculous hall leading to the porch to put in a kitchenette so they can have almost totally separate living if they want.

The great room onto the porch will be nice for entertaining, but with the kitchen right there in an open floor plan, your guests will see the caterers--or you--scrambling in the kitchen too.

Hate the Jack and Jill bathrooms, and why isn't the utility room adjacent to a bathroom? You've got to run pipes all over the place, to no effect.

And who needs 9' ceilings in all those hallways, studys, desk areas, and wasted spaces?

Follow the advice above and when rental time comes or you get close to death's door, you can have two paying tenants - one on the master side and one in the bonus room. You'll live in one of the bedrooms on the other side (with your own bathroom) and your caregiver will live in the other. That's not a bad setup.

Sorry, OP, not a fan of the floorplan. You should be getting more usable square footage and convertible spaces for your money.

Oh my! But where will you store all of your holiday decorations?! Also if you have more than one guest who needs to use the restroom you will need to send one of them through someone’s bedroom to find relief.

[quote]And who needs 9' ceilings in all those hallways, studys, desk areas, and wasted spaces?

Anything less than 9' ceilings is savage.

[quote] If you have enough dough to fill a walk in closet that big with clothes, you should live in a bigger house. Otherwise that space could be another small bedroom, or a den or library.

Just noticed how huge that WIC was - same size as one of the bedrooms, pretty much. I guess it might be useful for a couple. Seems trendy? I'd rather have built-in storage (drawers, shoe shelves) that were set against a wall rather than free-standing like in that WIC. Wastes space.

[quote] If you're going to rent the opposite bedrooms, use some of that study/ridiculous hall leading to the porch to put in a kitchenette so they can have almost totally separate living if they want.

Agree that the study and the hall are superfluous. Kitchenette sounds good, but that means you're renting out the largest bedroom. That might make sense, though.

Here’s a simple plan for a one bedroom, 1 1/2 bath house, small but some important features. *Front door has an entry with a closet. *Kitchen has a pantry and a utility closet. *Laundry room with space for side by side washer and dryer. *large walk in shower.

For changes, I’d flip the master bath and the walk in closet. I don’t mind walking through the closet to get to the bath and I’d rather have the bath on the outside corner so I could put in more windows. Eliminate one sink. Add windows in the kitchen because you don’t need that many upper cabinets. Change the exterior sliders to French doors. The biggest alteration is roof needs a much bigger overhang/eaves.

This is a simple square footprint, no jogs in and out. Easy to maintain. Small but livable.

Forgot the link, it’s from OP’s website

I think it's optimistic to imagine a builder's architect is going to chip in on so many tweaks, which are needed, because the view this is a warren of little rooms is right.

I'm another one who wants a basement. I am all about storage in houses and, thinking on resale, so are families. There's not much point building a good sized house that isn't fit for purpose. Plus a basement allows for rooms to send the kids when you can't stand them. There's not a lot of privacy in a house unless you want to go back to your cell. There are only so many single people want a house that's big size. And this house then isn't even well laid out with its micro rooms.

Finally, pet peeve of mine, but I hate all these designs where the front door opens directly into the living room. Front doors need a front hall with a front hall closet. Also, in cold weather, a blast of cold air gets in every time you open the front door. Although this design plainly focuses on entrance and exit through the garage.

This feels like a 3,500 sq. ft. home crammed into a smaller footprint.

R74--it looks more like a converted garage than the upthread place that's actually a garage with an in-law suite. Ironically R74's floor plan has no garage.

The "roommate" floor plan would not be good in a fire or (this is the Midwest) tornado. You don't want to cross a bunch of rooms to evacuate a house.

I agree with R75, you need a foyer/breezeway, partly for air temperature and a clothes closet but also just for privacy. I think the opening to the living room began as an economy with GI Bill houses and it also served the purpose of making moving in & out easier.

The faux craftsman (R59) is just ugly. An actual craftsman wouldn't have all those rooflines--just one dormer or buildout to give some interest and light. Craftsmans do combine form and function though not to the extreme of the Bauhus. They had to be easy to cut, ship and assemble.

Ha, yes r76, because it is square. I haven’t seen a rectangle footprint yet that I like. No garage for me because I don’t have a car.

[quote]Craftsmans do combine form and function though not to the extreme of the Bauhus.

All houses combine form and function. That's nothing unique to the Craftsman (or Bauhaus.) If it's a habitable house, it combines form and function.

Even Louis Sullivan's quote "form ever follows function" holds true for the overwhelming majority of houses. Thee quote is often misattributed to Le Corbusier but is from an 1896 essay by Sullivan (phot here because he's not half bad looking.)

Open floor plan kitchen and no dining room. That means everything in those two spaces are going to be covered in grease.

Been there before with the open kitchen. I will NEVER again clean grease off a ceiling fan or book case in an adjoining living space. The kitchen needs to be a discreet space. With a good exhaust system. And a pass-through to the dining room for serving and clearing.

I’m tired of these houses with a front door that opens directly into the living room, like a sitcom set.

[quote]No garage for me because I don’t have a car.

I noticed that too. Such a car-centric, suburban design... squeezed into a plan too tight like the future owner wife squeezes into her jeans.

R79... really useful insight. I am contemplating building in a few years too and have personally always hated the open concept kitchen because by the time I serve a meal the kitchen generally looks like a bomb went off. (Why rinse a spoon when you can just use a new one!) I hate looking into the kitchen during the meal. I hadn't thought about the drift of grease and smells.

This my dream home, but I would add a basement and put in multi-light interior doors between the kitchen and dining room and hall to the living room.

This place is 2600 sq ft but on two floors and I think good use of space.

You should always have at least one tub in your home even if it’s in the guest room or even if you think you will never use it. Trust me, if you have any health problems like a broken bone or many other issues can be aided by a warm bath.

R78: For examples of form not following function, look at any number of Victorian houses or contemporary minimansions. That Minimansionhell website is a good reference. Craftsmens had particular needs because they were shipped as kits and you could not rely on the skill level of the person who assembled and built them which probably ran the gamut from skilled crafts and trades people to hapless property owners who could barely hold a hammer.

R83: Victorian houses absolutely are a case of form follows function. Their floor plans, their volumes, their spaces, windows, doors, fireplaces... You're referring to ornament in heavy brackets and massive turnings on stair balusters and architraves with the profiles of Greek Temple entrances wearing epaulets and heavily studded.

Even in the most ridiculous McMansion the exterior reflects the purpose, though the form itself becomes the ornament: the scores of peaks and valleys and shifts in angles of the roofline is purely ornamental, like the ridge cresting of a gable end roof in a Victorian house.

The basic form of a Victorian house fits its purpose, maybe in a way you don't like, but it's nonsense to think that there is one elemental house of two public rooms, kitchen, bath, and two bedrooms. The Craftsman house invented almost nothing but some ornamental details.

Only the cheaper catalogue Craftsmen houses were shipped on a box. The better ones were built on site to specific plans and specs. How does a Craftsman style house exhibit "form follows function" any more than a Greek Revival or Federal or Georgian house? It doesn't because they all do. It's a myth of Modern Architecture that "form follows function" was a 20thC invention.

Form ever follows function doesn't mean a building can have no ornament or was shipped.im a crate. A look at any Louis Sullivan building will attest

R84 is why people hate architects.

Love this house but rule of thumb for us when buying was one bath for every bedroom then half bath in washroom area . If you can’t afford to make guests feel comfortable shitting in private then don’t invite them.

[quote] I’m tired of these houses with a front door that opens directly into the living room, like a sitcom set.

I could not agree more. I can't stand that. Seems like bad feng shui.

That's why I love the Leave It to Beaver house...a gracious entrance hall (not really big, but larger than much of what you see in contemporary architecture and large enough to accommodate two chairs that sit on either side of the front door).

R81, those upstairs bathrooms seem poorly laid out.

R84: Brevity is the soul of wit. Gasbaggery is not. Victoriana was the origin of "folly".

R88... yes, I agree on that.

Maybe the Victorian embellishments (different colors, tons of decorative woodwork) detract too much (despite good functionality). People get turned off from stuff like the Painted Ladies (gaudy, IMO) in San Francisco.

I lived in an Edwardian (post-Victorian) apartment that I liked a lot. It was small but had a couple of thoughtful built-ins (shelves, cabinet) that made the apartment feel like there was enough room.

R84 is right - Victorian homes can be functional, and were designed to be. I want to home to be functional at its core, but also as ornate as possible without compromising core functionality - unlike R91 I feel that Victorian embellishments add to a home, not detract from it. I'd love to own a Painted Lady

R78 Sullivan may be not half bad looking but he's not as special as John Wellborn Root.

I haven't read the thread but assuming this is real:

1) Why would you not just buy the plans off the homeowners of the house you're looking to copy? Its like a free few thousand dollars for them.

2) If you were even considering renting out rooms, why wouldn't you create an in law suite / studio with separate entrance as opposed to having a stranger living in your house, sharing your kitchen, etc. Part of home ownership is not having to deal with the bullshit of interviewing roommates, setting boundaries, negotating boundaries, dealing with their bullshit, dealing with when they fail to live up to your expectations, etc.

What kind of person has enough money to build their dream house and then thinks they'll likely rent a bedroom out? Sounds insane to me. (Although I do think more people who build homes should do in law suites/studios, pool houses, and rent them out....

r94 -

1) Not sure what you mean, there isn't an existing house (that I know of) I am trying to copy, there's just a list of things I need and a bigger list of things I would like in a house, as well as a certain modern farmhouse and/or Craftsman look.

2) This isn't my dream house, it's a nice place to live for this part of my life, which may turn into the last place I live. My dream house would be at least a few thousand feet larger. Because my relative is a builder and has said he's willing to cut me a big discount, I can get a nicer house built for not a ton more as it would cost to buy one of the same size and amenities.

3) I interact with a lot of young gaylings (not "at-risk youth" or anything, and by youth I mean "in their twenties"), and sometimes they need a place to live for a bit. I wouldn't be renting out the room because I needed the money. I agree it would be nicer to have a full suite with separate kitchen but I haven't seen a plan I like that has the other features I want.

The garage is bigger than the "great" room.

r96 I think all that "Great Room" means now is just "a large room with an open kitchen attached".

The pseudo craftsman is going to look dated and stupid in no time. That other one has closets masquerading as rooms. You really should find something that works better. The idea that you need thousands of square feet for a dream house is delusional---lots of maintenance and wasted space.

Another bizarre DL coincidence. I’ve been looking at a variation of this floor plan to build for my mom, and was considering posting a tasteful friends thread for it, and one for another plan (with many alterations) that I’m considering for myself.

I think this version is a lot less “choppy.” I’d probably bump out the east and west walls by three feet.

I feel there's a discrepancy between the plan and the first illustration.

The illustration suggest the main gable crosses lengthways but the plan of the master suite shows a vaulted ceiling underneath a gable pointing at 90 degrees o the main gable.

The plan indicates the outer wall on the left side is all aligned but the illustration is not aligned.

There’s a fly around

R60

[quote]bonus room that’s hot as fuck in a Midwestern summer and cold as fuck in a Midwestern winter.

That’s just a poorly built house.

r99 thank you! That's actually much better than the one I was looking at in the OP of this thread. The layout is almost exactly what I was wanting. And there's no Jack and Jill bathroom, which should make most here happy.

r99 that one wouldn't have come up in my search because I limited it to a range of 1800 to 2400 square feet.

[quote] This isn't my dream house, it's a nice place to live for this part of my life, which may turn into the last place I live. My dream house would be at least a few thousand feet larger.

If this house may be your last house, I'd treat it as a dream house. Why would you want something a few thousand feet larger? What would you do with a few thousand more feet?

[quote] I interact with a lot of young gaylings (not "at-risk youth" or anything, and by youth I mean "in their twenties"), and sometimes they need a place to live for a bit. I wouldn't be renting out the room because I needed the money.

Why not just make that upstairs portion a place for young gaylings? I don't understand building something new with an upstairs portion that, by design, needs further construction.

For any of these joints, I'm gonna need more taffeta caftans.

r96, I avoided any floor plan where the garage is the largest space. It makes the house lopsided.

Bur if you widened the left side of the house from 13 ft wide to 24 ft, it would be balanced and give you an amazing master suite. I could live there, then.

EST

That does seem to be an EST ^

R105 I kind of like the idea of a large creepy atticlike space that I can fill with Mysterious Items and chests of wonders and ancient tome, odd antiques and things. I'll have to buy an old mannequin or dress model, a Victorian bird cage, a strange hanging mobile, and I can also store my old carved wood furniture that isn't fashionable currently. Of course it's all junk until I'm not there and my relatives inherit the house, then find something in the attic that starts an adventure.

But perhaps I've been watching too many kid movies.

The attic is where the sling goes. Obviously.

This attic is sounding like a Silence of the Lambs sequel.

R105: OP really is planning to build his dream house whether he know it or not. What he needs is probably a classic, easy to maintain design--not a lot of gables or dormers, no excessive amounts of plumbing, a floor plan that flows (doesn't have to be open, but no rooms that are basically closets), no jack & jill bathrooms. You want something that can adapt to changing needs.

If you're going to have an attic that's attic, then make it that size and height. If you want it to serve another purpose think through the possibilities and whether you could do it for later. Make sure you have plenty of light where you need it for passive solar in winter w/o overwhelming the a/c in summer. Porches and decks, how will you use them? If decks come back in style, where would you put one. A front porch only makes sense if you're going to use it--a foyer/breezeway is more useful if you're not going to use it. A house that looks like it's mostly garage is ugly and it shouldn't be the most dominant feature, otherwise you have a design that lloks like every sunbelt subdivision and no one will want that in 10 years.

The plan at r99 has nicer staff bedrooms but they are staff rooms. Any bedroom accessed off the kitchen is clearly a maid’s room.

r114 one of the rooms can be for the cat's litter box.

Alas, the house is just plain fussy.

OP, can you post an example of your dream house, no holds barred? All 6,000 square feet?

Also, wanting to provide free housing to "young gaylings" does make me suspect this whole thread is an EST.

I don't know what ESR is.

Wiki says it's a "system for self-improvement aimed at developing a person's potential through intensive group awareness and training sessions".

But reading your sentence suggests EST equals Virtue-Signalling.

R116 I got accused of an EST in the original thread, too, and it was tiresome then. If you don't want to participate, don't.

I'm not hunting through hundreds of houseplans to find one close to my "dream home" when I know I can't afford it and it would be a waste of time. But if you're curious it would likely be a rambling pseudo-Victorian mansion like the Addams Family mansion, an Italianite (?) mansion like Grey House on The Good Witch, or a Mediterranean-style arch-heavy manse with a central courtyard, like the mansion in the movie Ghoulies.

I've owned three homes, the largest being a Eurooean-style and 4000 square feet, in-between a modest ~1600 square foot starter home (no idea what style it was, generic) and a the last one (which was almost as expensive as the 4000 square foot home due to its location), a modern Mediterranian/European (?) 1700 square foot rock-covered townhome. I sold and bought a lot of furniture to suit the house at the time, too (which is partially why I can't afford a ton of home now).

My tastes for size have changed as I've gotten older and been less concerned about impressing others with what I think they expect of me and more concerned with what I want and like.

I like a lot of styles except for flat Modern and whatever the homes built in the 50s and 60s were, but the style can be a mixture as the important part is that it looks good and is functional to me and doesn't have any glaring architectural issues that cause a designer or architect to heave.

Well r118, my issue with most of those house plans is that they have a lot of complicated roofs, gables underneath gables, and the footprint has a lot of jogs in and out. Someone once told me “every corner adds to the cost” which, of course, but it seems like these plans add corners just for the heck of it. Every seam in the roof is a potential weak point. (Did you say you were putting up a metal roof?). I’m just more of a minimalist and a snob; I’d never want a house that looks so suburban McMansion.

I hope your OK when the roof collapses on you.

I used to own a Craftsman, so I have to laugh at the faux Craftsman. Simplicity helps with maintenance and long-term value. Colonials and their various brick and frame variations, foresquares, etc. may not always be "in style" but they remain popular and adaptable. Bungalow designs have had recent comebacks and again, are simple, adaptable, and durable. The layout should make it easy to provide circulation for deliveries, groceries, etc. and keeping noise from laundry equipment, HVAC units, etc. away from living spaces. Light should be where you want it--living areas and not so much where you don't like bedrooms. You also want to be aware of where the water is--there can be underground streams no one knows about and the lot shouldn't bring water easily into a basement or crawl space.

R119 a 2000 square foot house looks like a suburban mcmansion to you? 🤔

R121 we've decided that the house at r99 is the preferred home rather than the one in OP. They are actually "modern farmhouse" but they also categorize it as a craftsman because they overlap.

Also I don't think the OP house or the r99 house have complicated roof lines.

^Ha, nice! Glad to have helped. Do you plan on making any alterations to the plan?

R124 actually it's close to perfect! I'd lose the window flowerbeds but I think that is just flourish for the pictures. I would add some built in shelves in the office and master if there's room, but that's about it.

Actually that house at R99 is really nice, and practical too. I wouldnt say no to that even though I prefer Victorian

I like the floor plan of r99's house a lot. I've been saying for years that the laundry room should be attached to the master bedroom closet.

However, the master bedroom closet will need a third door to access it from the bedroom. I don't go for walking through the bathroom to get to my clothes.

This split floorplan is great for a roommate situation or elderly parent. A door could be added to block off the area and a nice two room suite is formed.

I would move the entryway out a bit, as it seems to be in the front elevation picture. The entry foyer needs a coat closet and I would add a wall and door to make it a formal vestibule. I do not like direct sight from the front door into the entire living room.

R99's floor plan is superior to OP's to my eye: it's quite a similar design outside, but inside more logical, better zones, better use of space.

The Great Room/Dining Room/Kitchen/Foyer spaces are more practically arranged and visually the relationship between the parts is better, too.

- The mudroom makes more sense. Floor-to-ceiling cupboards will hold tons of stuff and eliminate the need (in OP's plan) for little closets at every turn. Again, I would get rid of the stairs to the "future bonus room", expand the mud room and pantry accordingly, and install a drop down stair to the storage loft from the garage.

- The who zone to the left of the foyer is private: the main bedroom suite, an office, even the connection of the laundry to the main bedroom walk-in-closet.

- The two guest bedrooms are at the opposite end of the house, again set apart nicely. Yes there is only one bathroom, but a good sized one, and easily accessible. If OP's parents are going to stay there for a serious length of time, they can take over both rooms and make one over as a private living room — and play their TV loud like old people like. It's never going to be the optimum situation to have your parents staying next door to a guest room or a short-term room mate. If you want to maximize income opportunity and minimize personal disruption, build a separate garage with an apartment over it. But if you just want to plan for every possibility of house guests and family staying with you, you will never win. At some point you do what you want and what you want to afford, not build a hotel wing for some once in a lifetime alliance of the stars.

R127 and r128 I’m going to need you to come critique my floor plan when I post it.

Same here R127 and R128. I’m currently working on a plan with a builder, but it’s not close to being ready yet. You guys give a great, constructive critique. Would love to know what you think of mine when it comes.

The house at R99 looks like an improved version of OP's house. There's a foyer and mud room. I'd still swap spaces re: the master bath and WIC. Makes more sense to flip, plumbing-wise, anyway. (Laundry room would be right next to master bath if you flipped it.

Outdoor porch spaces (3 now, instead of 2) are still fussy. Master bedroom porch is superfluous, IMO. Would rather have indoor space.

Two bedrooms on the right side should be just one large bedroom with a larger bathroom.

It looks like something from the San Fernando Valley and I have not been to the San Fernando Valley in over 40 years.

It's an expensive house to build with all the jigs and jags and different rooflines. It will also require a lot of extra maintenance. The rooms are small and some wouldn't have a not of light. Also, think about heating and cooling it.

Really don't understand why people think the r99 house has so many rooflines.

R134: The house at R99 is definitely much simplified internally, externally, and it its rooflines as compared to the example at OP. But it's often impossible to tell which house a poster is responding to: OP's or R99's or another.

The plans are definitely of a type and it seems the various companies that sell mass market floor plans borrow quite freely from one another. OP's plan and R99's have all the same elements and flourishes, just rearranged a bit; I saw the same plan from other companies that sell floor plans. Obviously this basic plan proved popular somewhere and everyone copied it and tweaked it, including, probably, whichever company "designed" the house in the first place. (I think these companies are more publishers than architects and designers, collecting and publishing the sorts of "Floor Plan of the Week" that used to be a feature in many newspapers.

Southern Living magazine has somewhat better offerings than the usual mass market floor plan factory. The quality of exterior design and the thought behind the internal plan typically show more attention to architecture and less to cobbling together some reworked version of someone else's bad plan. All the same, here's their version of more or less the same house as in OP's and R99's posts, much different externally, but otherwise a flipped left-to-right version of much the same with the variation of a semi-enclosed room to either side of the front door before reaching the great room of OP's plan.

R135 it's the same architect for both house plans, OP and r99 are just variants of the same plan/look. These plans are usually sold on multiple sites but they are the same plans.

There's only so many configurations for rooms and such so it's not unusual that there would be similarities amongst different plans.

However in this specific case these are actually by the same group.

The link at R135 is quite different in terms of layout. It's similar in that it has the master on one side and the rest of the bedrooms on the other, though.

And these are all "Craftsman/Modern Farmhouse" plans so there will be similarities in the way the houses look and how they are laid out.

Great, r135. The master bedroom is now right off the kitchen. I suppose that is for the modern, servant-less lifestyle?

I will say the southern living exterior is much more attractive than OP’s or r99

I had commented up thread about all the different rooflines but I was responding to the majority of the plans on these websites, not to OP or the other posters in particular. Seriously, adding so many rooflines is practically a fetish with these architects.

The Southern Living house (again with the flower box for the garage windows) is pretty good for OP. The area around the “opt stairs” /desk/garage door entry/MBR door to bathroom on a diagonal resulting in useless linen closet needs to be rejiggered.

Rooflines are places where you get stuck with leaks, leaves, etc. because of the need to join things well. They also will look dated in no time. Simple rooflines, perhaps being broken with a functional dormer will be more durable and easier to maintain and won't look ridiculous in 10 years.

What R139 said. Forget how it looks. Just repeat the following: Every surface, every joint, must be maintained at the homeowner's expense.

After owning five different homes, I ready for a large one room poured concrete structure.

The floorplan at R135 is still fussy, IMO. Media room and dining room, I see as rarely used, wasted space. There's got to be some happy medium between open floor plan (living, dining, kitchen) and this separate dining room.

R137 it's hard to tell because it's an elevation drawing and not the way it will actually look in real life. I avoid hand-drawn floorplans and pictures because I prefer accuracy.

R138 I'm OP and I don't like the Southern Living floorplan. I like the one at r99.

What the fuck is a "Eurooean-style" house?

I should add I like some aspects of the Southern Living plan, it's nice and I wouldn't say no to it but it's missing some features I like, such as the study off the master. I do wish they had an actual picture of how the house would look in real life instead of a drawing.

The Media Room/parlor is nice, but makes sense if it was in a bigger house.

All in all, this house would be a nice improvement over OP's present split level.

R144 -

"European house plans have an Old World or European look that's not specific to any one style like Spanish or Mediterranean or French. European style home plans often use brick or stone and include high steeply pitched roofs, tall windows often with shutters, and traditional ornamental details like pediments and keystones. Arched openings are another common feature of European homes."

(The anti roofline people will hate these)

R139, I agree. But it is amazing how a dormer can improve a stretch of roof. But you're absolutely right on a functional and cost basis.

What part of Europe is this from? Georgia?

OP is a graduate of the Sheboygan Conservatory Extension School of Arkitecky History. "European Home" style was taught by a retired carpenter who built Ye Olde Worldy Lands at fundamentalist theme parks.

R149 It's primarily a Colonial style houseplan. Sometimes the architects that list these will put the same house in multiple categories, but there will be the main one it is actually categorized as.

R150 it's a category for a style of house used by architects, see the description in r147.

What style are these houses in Turkey?

This roofline insight has changed the course of my life.

But I have a question... is there any material difference in terms of leak risk between three small dormers across the front of a house (see below)

vs. one long dormer (see below)

I do like Colonial houseplans, and they have simple rooflines, but I was never able to find one that had a floorplan I liked. Plus they are usually larger than what I can afford.

^Obviously more places to leak in the first. A good builder renders all of that irrelevant.

Three dormers=6 sets of joints, look at the crevices. I long one=2 just two and they look simpler. Relying on the builder's being good=no guarantee. Just naive.

R144 It is a spelling error …and there's no need for angry 4 letter words.

Bump