Ultimate House Plan (Take two)

On February 14th I posted my idea for the ultimate house plan that wastes little space and is efficient. People weighed in with their comments. I incorporated many of those comments in the new design and drew it so you can see it. Your comments included:

1. The kitchen and laundry rooms should have views. (Done)

2. Laundry rooms next to bedrooms would be too noisy. In the new design, the bedrooms are separated by a closet, so there would be two walls to block the sound. One bedroom is across the hall, but still near.

3. The pantry is right off the garage, for all those warehouse store purchases.

4. The big storage room is wasted space for heating and cooling. I moved it adjacent to the garage, where it doesn't need to be heated or cooled, depending on your climate and what you want to keep in there.

5. Move the bathroom away from the kitchen. (Done)

6. Add a cat's bathroom. (Done.)

7. Update: I made the downstairs bathroom more private and added a front entrance.

8. Update: Okay, okay, I added a straight stairway and pushed the bathroom further from the TV area.

Remember, a big part of this concept is that you can change the function of the all-purpose family room by switching out items from the storage room. You can pull out your holiday decorations, add tables and chairs to the dining area, or more seating for watching a movie on the big screen. All of your party and entertaining items would be in that handy storage room. You could even keep your exercise bike in there and push it out when you want to use it (which is easier than it sounds).

Click the two floors to enlarge

How’s it look now?

Comments

[Ivi]

I think it's a great idea. The only thing that i dont like is the fact that in the all purpose family room the big screen tv is the most important thing in the room. And since the family room is right next to the entrance everyone who come to that home will only see the tv. you should put it in a less obvious place.

[David]

It looks exactly like something an IEEE standards committee would come up with. I am sure the first prototypes will be huge successes.

By the way, not air conditioning a storage area will most likely cause anything stored there to rot (unless you are lucky enough to live in a desert).

I have two questions:

1. If you are such a busy person, how do you have the time to come up with this nonsense?
2. Why am I reading this nonsense?

[JPAC]

So where are you going to hide during tornado warnings?

[willie]

what's this supposed to be? architecture by a lot of people?

its obviously a good idea to bring one's ideas to paper, but from then on, hand it over to an expert you trust. might be hard to find in your case, though :)

re round staircases: i have one, it is a dream, saves a ton of space, looks good. is centrepiece of house, gives adjoining rooms interesting curved walls.
an architect came up with it, of course. i remember my wife having all kinds of objections to it, (e. g. can't carry laundry basket on a round staircase).
all forgotten once finished.

[seb]

what is it you people have with bathrooms and laundry?

don't you do other things than shower and wash?

Why not have a toilet beneath each bed a master bathroom, and a separate bathroom for each person in the household and one for guest and of course one for the cat, the neighbour and the neighbour's cat.
You could think about a spare bathroom and a spare toilet in case one in cloaked or broken...

seriously... two toilets and a big bathroom are sufficient for a 4 people family. Or does the look of your naked wife coming out of the sower make you throw up? In case you tend to a Yes, leave the bathroom she might feels sick as well when she sees you sitting on the toilet resting your paunch on you thighs.

[seb]

When you do a real concept planing like this one you should look into
- natural lightening of rooms to reduce the need for electric lightening
- central heating/cooling in combination with proper insulation of the house (outside walls)
- natural air/room conditioning
- natural, regenerative venting of rooms to regulate humidity/moisture/freshness
- solar hot water systems
- slope of the roof and orientation of the house in regard to the points above

Keeping the footprint of a house closer to a square shape reduces the outside surface area, thus reducing the need for heating/cooling.

What about a room for your Server, Cable/DSL model, home hifi media centre, patch panel? the house will become a more and more networked place.
what about a cellar or a wine cellar... don't you have that sort of thing in the states?

keep in mind that you might want network cabling in some rooms, much better than wireless

what about a panic room, a terrace, a pool?

[The Muffin Princess]

Very nice. How do wheelchairs get up the spiral staircase? Oh! You've got flying chairs at your house! SO COOL!

[TomB]

Your casual dining area overlooks the family room without any buffering wall or sound barrier. I believe this will be problematic. If you have kids in watching TV or playing with their Wii, it might disrupt the adults having a quiet coffee in the dining area. If you have some boring adult coffee klatch meeting going on, you'll probably disturb anyone watching a movie.

It would be better to have some sort of wall and door between these areas (vs. a wall with just a doorway). This doesn't impact the multi-purpose use of the family room, but it would make the dining area more cozy and help to provide sound isolation.

Worst case, hanging some sound baffling material at the interstice between these two rooms could be quite useful.

One other note: Unless your garage is a really decent width and/or depth, you might have some fun getting things from a vehicle backed into it into the pantry entrance. Most garages I've seen built into commercial budget housing are very limited in extra manouvering space - you might have trouble getting a hatchback open or a swinging gate (as you have on some SUVs) open with the vehicle inside and the garage door closed. This matters most in winter climate locales where doing your unloading with the garage door open in -25 C isn't a terribly fun idea (plus it gets snow into the garage).

[Bill Hanz]

This thread reminded me of a comic I cut out of the paper possibly 25 years ago. I am sure it is at home somewhere in a box down in the basement. I finally found it online today. All I could remember was the cool car, secret submarine base in the basement and the moat. It's still my dream house.

bill hanz

[Kohana]

I don't know if anyone said this, but I just love that you drew the big screen TV and marked it on the floorplan. ^_^ Do you have a big screen set yourself?

[Chris]

Where is the backyard?

I see the covered patio on the side but thats an odd place for a backyard

[Adam Williams]

1. The two non-maters bedrooms need a bathroom. (turn the office into one).

2. You can probably add a basement

3. maybe have the storage also lead outside (90 degrees to the left of its current entrance). Adding the entrance to the garage would kill too much storage space i think.

4. Unless you add windows to the garage or storage, the front of the house will look funny (window-sparse, at leqast on the first floor)

5. draw the windows. Thats a major part of any house design.

6. Either shrink the bathroom or patio or extend the family room out in order to get a bigger entrance way to the house (if you have more than a few guests, you'll need the room).

7. just something small: because of the fountain in the corner, there will be a weird wasted space beside it that will probably look funny (at least thats how I imagine it would seem).

8. what the hell? Did you add bathrooms to the second floor WHILE I was typing this? Creepy. (or I wasnt looking close enough before)

9. looking at the top floor again, Id say to change the office into bedroom 1 (due to the extra window space, and change bedroom 1 into a shared bathroom/shower for bedrooms 1 and 2. (you'll have to move bedrooms 1's closet too I guess)

10. switch the master bath and master closet. The bath should have the extra window space. Also, it would be nicer to have the bigger bath.

[JPS]

----> View

----> View

I wish I just draw a line and write view with my house and instantly have a nice view.

[Nate]

I think having an unfinished space below the house (not a basement per se) right under the living and dining rooms would be a better place for a storage room. Then, just have a large section of the living room floor on hydraulics so that it can be lowered down to access seasonal/special occasion furniture. ...like an aircraft carrier.

[Stu]

It is considered bad feng-shui to have a toilet directly connected to a bedroom, especially if it faces the bed. You might not believe in feng-shui but you can see how this could be unpleasant. I think the way the master bathroom connects to the master bedroom now is good but how about a separate bathroom for bed 1 & 2?

Also I agree with the following points made by others: - not having the master bed over the garage. - paying more attention to where the sun rises and sets and how that affects heating, sleeping in and big screen reflections.

[Keith Petrus]

Read the book "A Pattern Language."

[Bill]

To the person with the bedroom over the garage, I believe that's also a problem in an earthquake. I took an earthquake survey, and you deduct points for rooms over garages.

[Abbie]

The storage room scares me because it would become a horrible fire hazard if it were mine.
Make the foyer/entrance hall huge, with long closets on either side. Let all the crap accumulate there so by the time you make it into the actual living space you've left the crap (books, jackets, helmets, etc.) behind.
The master bedroom must have his and her bathrooms, and each has a hall so it's not directly adjacent to the master bedroom. This is so you can't hear your spouse in the bathroom when you're in bed.
At least two utility sinks for washing the dog, washing out paint cans, grooming plants, etc.
Definitely two sinks in the kitchen plus a small wet bar type sink, all in the kitchen.
Two refridgerators in the kitchen.
No vaulted ceilings so you're not freeziing all the time.
Skip the heat-sucking fireplace.

[LSK]

I think that it could be problematic to have a second-floor laundry room. While certainly, this positioning is most convenient, there are often large water quantities deposited from washers that lead to many a wet basement.

[Hoopty]

One key component in a house is the concept of "wet walls". That is, you want as little plumbing as possible in a house. (Fewer pipes to break, less distance for hot water to travel, etc, etc, etc...)

In your house, you have no shared wet walls, really. (Except for having the laundry room above the kitchen. As long as the sink and dishwasher are placed on the same wall as the washing machine (probably the external wall), then all is good there.)

So you have plumbing at the extreme ends of the house (bathrooms) and in the middle of the house (kitchen and laundry rooms), all separated by at least one "non-wet" room.

This is where architects really get to hate the amateur home planners. No practical considerations at all.

Consider power as well... Your appliances in the laundry room require high-voltage outlets (220v), and that power has to be run through several walls and floors to get from the garage (where I assume your break-out box is) to the laundry room. The farther that power runs, the greater the liability.

One suggestion for fixing the "wet-wall" problem: Go with instant water heaters mounted in the bathrooms and under the kitchen sink. This means you only have to run cold water all over the house, and you gain the efficiency of an instant heater.

Of course, now you have to run a natural gas line to every one of the instant water heaters....

Nice house, though! Shame you'll have to use an outhouse... ;-)

[Mark]

You forgot the thickness of the walls, Scott.

Do some sketches with sizes on them and figure out the INTERNAL size of the rooms you want. Add 1/2 foot for the wall thickness for each wall internally and 1 foot externally.

With five internal walls and two external, that's nearly five feet wider than you'd think when you figure "a bedroom at least 10ft by 15ft" You also find that your upper floor doesn't match your lower unless part of the Bedroom 2 floor is the cover for the patio downstairs.

As for the loss of head through the front door, one thing you may want to do is a 5ft square "room" outside the front door. One door external to the outside (doesn't need to be locked, so parcels can be left inside) then the REAL front door where you have it. Meters for electric/gas/water/etc can be put in this room too. Could make it a little wider than 5ft.

And you'll find that the profusion of crappers doesn't fit unless you have an unfeasibly large house.

I'd also drop the straight stairs because you're losing too much available space and have too steep a stair to be safe. Unless, again, you have a really large house in mind.

I have a figure that if the garage is about 15x20ft, about right for a double garage when you have to have space for the spiral stair, your house is something over 55ft longest dimension [plus walls] and thirty foot deep [plus walls]. The main room is about 15x30, kitchen about 10x20, store 10x10 and pantry 5x20 (basically a walkway beside a lot of cupboards.

Though the upstairs cannot fit like that because unless your closet is really shallow, you can't fit bedroom2 in unless it's considerably thinner than 10ft. You have problems fitting the bogs in where they are too. Unless, as I say, you have Bed2 sticking over the patio.

[splint chesthair]

Marco said: "It looks like a normal house."

That's what I think, save for the laundry room upstairs disaster, and the inefficient bedroom over the garage design, this is my house and I live in a cookie-cutter McMansion.

[Mark]

Just hd a thought: Scott, how much pissing and shitting do you expect to be doing? Four bogs???

I would suggest on a more serious note that you think about the frame and fit the place into a steel box so that you can build the place sturdy enough to hold up. Not a big thing in America, but it will keep your house upright for a long time and will allow you to make it as soundproof and as open as you need without worrying about 20-foot loading walls suspended over your head.

[lucydance]

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[black spot]

I see you have two staircases (unlike most commentators) but I would change add a family bathroom as the cover for your patio. Additional room without compromising your design and having the pleasure of naked kids shocking visitors when streaking through as they are wont to do.

The one thing I do like about having a separate lounge and dining room is that the family can be noisy in their own why in either – we have the computers and game consuls in the dining room to allow people to watch the television in relative quiet in the lounge. You either lose your spare room by making it into a games room, or have an only child, or possibly scream at the kids while you try to answer that all important quiz question off the telly. Oh, and get rid of the toilets in the kids’ rooms – your wife won’t thank you for the extra yucky cleaning and the plumbing bills when unexplained item get flushed down (admitting personal habits as a child).

[aphid]

One thing that your design lacks is any kind of flow for a party.

In my experience, it's really nice to be able to "walk in a circle" which gives you alternative routes to the entertaining areas. Also, two staircases is too many for such a small house.

As an aside, an interesting idea to do would be to adopt a technique similar to what Donald Knuth did when he designed the kitchen in his house. He made a graph of all the items in his kitchen to make an efficient arrangement. An approximation to his method would be to write down all the things you want and then draw lines to each connected thing. For a kitchen, you'd write down things like toaster, trashcan, counterspace, sink, stove, oven, etc. and then draw the lines for things you tend to use together. For a kitchen, it turns out that most things want to be next to the trashcan, so for his kitchen, that's what he made the centerpiece.

Why don't you try that to see what you want to have adjacent in a house?

For example, I know I like the kitchen to be next to the dining area, and the living/entertainment areas, and your idea of putting the laundry next to the closets is a great idea.

[Andy]

My wife and I both love the idea of laundry being convenient to the bedrooms; after all, that's where you get both dressed and undressed, so rather than dragging clothes all the way downstairs (or to the basement, like many houses in Northeast US) for washing and all the way upstairs to put away, it makes sense to have it all on the same level. For those who have the ability to use outside clothes lines, it's not great; but where I live (and where many other Americans, and probably many Europeans), there are 4-9 months out of the year that it just isn't possible (try drying clothes outside at temperatures between 5 Celsius and -20 Celsius). Beyond that, many places in the US (at least in urban areas) have homeowner's associations that explicitly prohibit the use of clothes lines.

A possible solution for those that can use outside clothes lines: use those pulley system lines seen in old movies, strung between buildings, and have the access through the laundry room window.

Oh - and for those who are concerned about having laundry machines on upper floors for leakage/vibration/support issues: I've lived in 2 different apartment buildings that had laundry machines in the apartments, and in each case I lived on an upper floor. If they can solve the problem of laundry machines on upper floors, surely a home builder can do the same...

[Stan]

Not bad, but still needs some work. Unfortunatelly, you are not hitting the conservation of materials as well as you should and your heating/cooling room selection and layout could be fixed somewhat. Like comics, each house plan is liked by 1 out of 10 people. Not bad though.

[Andrew Gall]

Seriously, Scott, I want your job.

[madking]

My current house has the master bedroom over the garage and it is probably the feature we most dislike about the house.

The first problem is noise. My spouse and I are light sleepers, meaning we can't sleep through the garage door being opened. This is an issue if one of us stays out late, or needs to leave early.

The second is temperature. In the summer, our master bedroom is the warmest room in the house, and we believe this is due to being above the non climate controlled garage. This makes for inefficient use of AC when trying to cool the room at night for sleeping.

[Mike]

You need an Autoflush Urinal in the Master Bedroom.

That way you can just get up and go pee in the middle of the night without having to try to hit the bowl or forget to flush.

[DM]

You must take into consideration the sun IMO. Kitchen is fine in that you'd get the sun first thing in the morning, which is good for kitchens. But the covered patio could do with being more south-westerly faced to get all the sun most of the day, plus into the evening, very important. Front doo and garage entry should face east to catch the first morning's sun, in order to quickly defrost any ice around in the winter. Big screen could be moved up to the north of the house where you don't need any windows and where sunshine reflection will not ever be an issue. South-facing downstairs bathroom is a waste of a nice south-facing room IMO, place a nice conservatory there :D and "grow your own" ;)

[The Chief]

Q: "How's it look now?"

A: Like a house deisnged by a not-so-funny-anymore comic writer....

[Adrian Rodriguez]

Nice!!

I'm gonna build a house on my own, and you just gave a couple of excellent ideas

Well done Man, Ay fuckin Caramba!

-Adryan

[Zzyzxmo]

concerning house design: google "Bill G. Perry" and you will find a website for an architect who specializes in the type of house you want. Shoot him you rough draft, and he will probably already have something (house plan or floor plan) that you can use. He has a lot of floor plan designs you can review online. He has designed at least a third of the homes in and around Oklahome city for the last 50 years. He specializes in designing home for lots in citys with narrow lot widths.

[Midwest Mike]

Scott,

Great looking plan. I might steal a few ideas myself. I have to chime in on the mud room concept. I've seen it posted a few times, and I strongly feel you need it between the garage and the rest of the house. Living in the midwest, there's a lot of snow/mud seasons. I also find that when you're hot and sweaty from working in the yard, it's great to have a small toilet off the mudroom so you don't track grass/dirt/mud through the kitchen to get to the john.

[The Samurai Radiologist]

Just 2 suggestions for an otherwise nice-looking design:

1. Add skylights liberally, even in closets for a light, airy feeling. Remote control skylight openers rule! We never use our manual skylight, but the remote-controlled skylight is in constant usage all summer long.

2. Have the master bath entrance door open directly into the master bedroom, so one doesn't have to stumble around a corner in the dark.

[Derek Bargaehr]

It looks like your floor plan could accommodate a balcony off of Bedroom 2 (you could make the dead end of the hallway a door out to a balcony/sunbathing/reading area). It would be directly over the covered patio (which I guess is a little redundant, but to anyone who says it, get humped).

[Bill Tkach]

I think you need a Pit of Despair to get rid of things you don't need. Or annoying house guests, or blog posters.

[Jeff]

I think you have done a pretty good job designing a house from the male perspective. There has been very little discussion of the common female perspective: what does the house look like on the outside? My wife wouldn't care if the inside of the house could instantly configure itself in any style and layout and was self-cleaning. She would still hate the house if the outside was ugly.

[Sondra]

I'm stickin' by my guns. If you're not going to make it a single story dwelling, put in an elevator. And don't forget that you might end up in a wheel chair and need to access the shower.

[Rich Steckel]

When my wife and I finally bought the lot to build our house, all of our previous "dream house" plans did not fit the site. We redesigned to take advantage of the light, view, slope, etc.
We also designed it to fit us as we age. Master bedroom, kitchen, laundry, and garage on all one level so we don't have to contend with stairs in our later years. Kids' bedrooms, bath, and playroom upstairs and out of sight :)
The house is steel framed, the deck made out of Trex, and we use geothermal to heat and cool. I tried to make it as low maintenance and green as possible (and this was in 1996). We put a bedroom, bath, and kitchen in the walkout basement with 3' doors so if one or some of our parents moved in (which one did last year), it would be all on one level, doors wide enough for walkers, and enable all of us to get away from each other occasionally!
Good luck on your house!

[jocky]

Surely you are all missing the point. If this was the ultimate dream house where are the fireman poles for getting downstairs? Where are the indoor (specially ventilated) stables to keep the donkeys in? Well you need donkeys to carry you from the front door to the TV room after a hard day at work!! Where is the water slide from the loft to get to the 10 person jacuzzi which is pre-filled with champagne and playboy bunnies? There are no cotton candy dispensers in the walls!! The chair doesn’t appear to fold flat to shoot you down a tube to land perfectly into your car in an underground garage; that can double as a base to take over the world!!!!!!

I could go on but so far your ultimate house is lacking imagination.

[jocky]

Surely you are all missing the point. If this was the ultimate dream house where are the fireman poles for getting downstairs? Where are the indoor (specially ventilated) stables to keep the donkeys in? Well you need donkeys to carry you from the front door to the TV room after a hard day at work!! Where is the water slide from the loft to get to the 10 person jacuzzi which is pre-filled with champagne and playboy bunnies? There are no cotton candy dispensers in the walls!! The chair doesn’t appear to fold flat to shoot you down a tube to land perfectly into your car in an underground garage; that can double as a base to take over the world!!!!!!

I could go on but so far your ultimate house is lacking imagination.

[Michel]

My impressions:

1- The kitchen appears to not have enough places for stuff. First, let's place the standard appliances: in the south side of the east counter, we have fridge, dishwasher and microwave. In the east, we have from the corner-up, counter space (for appliances and such), sink, an actual "spice rack", oven. I assume the bar will have no overhead storage on the south side, or else the "bar" wouldn't be a well presented feature I think. So we're left with cabinets. Clockwise from west to east, we'd have cabinets above and below on the west, then an open concept area for the south of the bar, then moving to the east counter, we have just a touch of cabinet space above the fridge and microwave, some more underneath the remainder of the counter (one third of the south-to-north length), and under the sink (which would be for soap etc.)... Not a lot of storage. The pantry is somewhat nice, but in the little space I've just described, one would need a row of drawers for utensils and stuff, a place for pans and salad bowls etc., a place for plates etc., a place for cups etc., and another overhead for "everything else". So let's say we managed to squeeze that all in there: where is someone going to chop vegetables or prepare meat? Also, in a strange opposite problem, what will you put in the center of the kitchen so it doesn't feel so empty? I'd suggest additional counter space and cabinets along the north side, in a \___/ type shape.

2- What would someone without a cat do with the cat bathroom, if it is in fact a "works for 90% of us" accomodation? Place for ironing board, or broom closet, or something like that? Also, that laundry room looks absolutely huge. What would be in there other than washer and dryer? And where would they go? East-side? That might hurt the view, but if you go that way, then I guess you'd have cabinets for the rest of the lower part of the east-side... that could work, but it should be drawn in.

3- Why does the bonus room stick out like that? I guess it is possible, but to make it part of 90% of constructions... not very friendly in places with earthquakes. I'm guessing that's not what you had fully intended, because there's something off-putting dimensions-wise about where the stairs are placed, where the covered patio is, and everything else in that area.

4- Those bedroom toilets are pathetically small, and in fact I'm pretty sure they break code in most places according to an episode of a show I saw about it. There needs to be more clearance. Anyway, who really needs that many toilets?

5- The view given to the master bedroom would be hurt by seeing the side of the house (the master closets). You might be able to flip this detriment on it's head though by also featuring windows on the west side. I don't know what that'd feel like, having a bedroom with windows coming in two directions... it won't feel private? Or maybe instead, it will just feel mega awesome! Who knows. Either way though, make no mistake, the selling point of the master bedroom will have to be the east-side windows, not the west-side ones., because no one wants to look at their own house sticking out.

6- The storage is an interesting idea, but for 90% of people? I know I would dig it, and maybe young people and active older people would like it, but forget lazy people (most people imo), and especially forget seniors. The most likely outcome is that things will be put in storage never to see the light again. Which is fine. But if you're a real estate agent, you can't boast about how you'll be moving things in and out of the storage room. Your golden feature would have to be unmentioned, which is tragic in a way.

7- I was just looking at the front door, and I was like "damn, I need to go to the bathroom!" But you already thought of that, you dog! But then I noticed... where's the door to get into the bathroom? I hope you won't say "under the stairs", because I seriously doubt you'll get the head clearance required.

8- The front door is awfully far from the garage. Seems weird to me, but maybe just because I'm not used to it. But suppose someone parked in the driveway, assuming there's one, it would be a long walk to the front door. Again, I guess it doesn't matter.

9- Though you put that straight-staircase, it still looks like a tragic experience to put anything in the master-bedroom that is, say, long and heavy.

All in all though, if I were to personally purchase this place if I had a comfortable amount of money to do so? Sure. I don't need that much space, but I might some day, and this design does have a lot going for it. I hope you continue to refine your design, and have it looked by some pros who I'm sure would give some excellent advice.

[Robby]

I don't see doors leading into several important rooms, e.g. downstairs bathroom, nor do I see where that one in particular could be located. Doors are INCREDIBLY important in floor-plan design. Consider making certain all rooms have at least one.

[Neil Mix]

My wife prefers first floor laundry, so she doesn't have to run up and down the stairs 500 times to switch loads. Just haul the laundry down once at the beginning of the day, and back up at the end of the day. Laundry is done while watching our kid and amongst other daily household activities. I have to agree with her reasoning; second-floor laundry would be pretty inconvenient. So I think an ideal floor plan would have *first* floor laundry, with a laundry elevator of some kind. (Just an enhancement of the old laundry chute concept.)

[Jeffrey G. Harper]

Not bad, but a couple of comments...

I'm sure it is just an oversight, but it appears that there are a couple of bathrooms without any doors -- might be a bit tough to use them.

On a more serious note, however, there's that spiral staircase. It goes approximately from the kitchen to the master suite. I can see kitchen odors and sounds traversing up that staircase. I'm very sensitive to odors, so it would be something I would notice.

[Mike D]

This is boring.

[Citrus]

This design doesn't work for me. My first requirement is that everything be on one floor. I don't want to ever ascend or descend a single stair to either enter my house or to go from any one part of it to another. I *may* be willing to settle for an elevator, but those are pricey, and I'd need stairs in the house as a backup, anyway.

Nope, you can't please everyone.

[DF]

Scott, do you always give into the whiners?

Wait, that's right, you're married now, never mind. I answered my own question...

[Matt]

Are you building yourself a new house?

[Matthew Kovich]

I need a roomy basement to play D&D in.

I mean.... for the kids to play... in.

But seriously, need a D&D basement.

[Bundy]

I'm actually in the market for a house, and that looks pretty good to me. I love the fireman's pole idea that someone mentioned. If you build one of these babies in Houston, then I'll buy it.

[dsg]

Hi Scott,

You'll never please everyone. I like, it is bigger than my house, probably bigger than I would ever need, but I'll take it. Of course I am not that hard to please. I've lived in my house since 1999 and aside from fixing some bad plumbing and wiring, we have only painted one room. I still use some window treatments the previous owner left behind.

dsg

[Marco]

It looks like a normal house.

[David]

Why doesn't the storage room have direct acces to the garage like the pantry does?

Is this a corner lot? Its just that the front door is typically on the same side as the garge door.

[RogerWIlco]

The basic plan is pretty cool.
Small issue with the Master being above the garage you just need to be sure that there is extra insulation or sound deadening material in the floor. I've had a house with the bedroom being above the garage and you can hear the door open when someone leaves though normally its pretty quiet. Just a small nit. The other thing to consider is kind of radical, Personally I'm a fan of modern architecture and while I didn't get it built due to change in my life I had a house designed that from the outside would fit in with the neighborhood (It was a master planned community) but on the inside pretty cool, the interesting feature was that the walls on the inside of the house were arranged on angles, but it really cut down on wasted space. If your interested I'll scan in a copy of the drawing so it can be posted. The house was designed for about 3000 sq ft.

[Phil]

Dude, there's no way into (or escape from?) the ensuite crapper in Bedroom 2!

[Jeffrey Ellis]

You should make it a round house. Like the Jetson's. And put it on big stilts too, like the Jetson's. That would be kewl.

[Eric]

You need a game room. Something at least 15x20 which can fit a standard size pool table.

[TAO]

I have delivered furniture to many apartments because I own a furniture rental business. One suggestion is that you use a standard stair case instead of a spiral. Spiral stair cases look great, but they are extremely hard to get the furniture up. If you use a spiral stair then have a balcony on the master bedroom with French doors and enough room to get a box van beside the balcony. A balcony over the garage would be great. Make sure the balcony has a gate in the railing.

[jojo]

how do you get large furniture items up the spiral staircase?

[LA Clay]

After much deliberation I have decided that you are a cheap bastard. First you get comic ideas from us, then make us write a hit song, now we design your freakin house?

Get over it and break out your fat overstuffed wallet!

[Marc A Cohen]

It looks GREAT, with one caveat...

I live in Massachusetts, and it is illegal to build a multi-story dwelling in this state with only one staircase. There have to be two staircases, separated by a certain distance at both the top and bottom. In case of fire, if one of them is blocked, you can use the other to get out.

So, we're going to need two staircases, at opposite end of the house.

[KP]

Not sold on the circular stair case. Have you ever tried moving large pieces of furniture up one of those!

Otherwise the new changes are pretty good. I'd recommend the laundry room floor be tiled with a central floor drain to protect against any costly leaks or overflows.

I'd also recommend adding a finished basement: a place for the kids to play when adults are on the main floor during parties/gatherings plus a good space for those big-people toys like a pool table. I don't care how easy things move from the storage area - some things just really aren't meant to be pushed in and out of a closet!

[James]

Just a thought, could the stairs possibly be moved closer to the front door.
I can't remember the number of times I have had to run in and upstairs for some item I've forgotten...

Aside from that, I'll take one to order, do they ship abroad :)

[accessbob]

It needs a fireman's pole from the master bedroom to the garage for those mornings when speed is of the essence.

[John E]

If those are bathrooms in the bed rooms then you have to go into a bedroom to get to the other bathroom. Not good. I thnik you best plan is to have a master bath and then one bathroom on each floor accessible to the rest of the house. I grew up with 6 siblings and three bathrooms and it was never a problem. Granted I only had one sister. Also I don't think a spiral staircase is your best bet. Sure it looks good and takes up less space but will be hard to carry things up to second floor. Other wise looks good.

[DF]

Not to be critical, but the garage and the front door seem to be pretty far apart.

And does there have to be a toilet in every bedroom? That seems to be asking for trouble, especially if there are any younger kids in the house. I would suggest one bathroom for the master bedroom, and one for everyone else upstairs.

Otherwise, it seems sound. And I guess you disproved your theory that you could design a house that would make 90% of the people happy. Everyone wants something different, or to tweak your design, judging by the comments anyway...

[Ian]

The second floor laundry has a closet... but the last bedroom (bottom right on the plan does not have one. Interesting. I'd still like to see a media room, workshop and a place for a telescope added.

[Mark]

PPS: if the thingy around the table in the main room is seating, at least have the table able to drop down to "occasional table" level. Make that seating recline a little and allow it to be set "up" for eating and you've set up two rows for your home cinema, all you need is some chairs to put between those two levels of seating.

Mind you, having the table retract FULLY (you'll need a flooring-level of durability on the tabletop but you'll cover it with a tablecloth anyway, so no loss in aethetics there) is a BIG wasted opportunity. Especially if you've got several kids and it's christmass. Just drop the table, turn the freestanding sofa around and you've got someplace to sit down while the kids get heart attacks at the cool presents.

Perfect for any parent.

[Dane Brammage]

For heating and cooling, the concern is not so much space as exposed wall area. The rate at which you loose or gain heat is proportional to the exterior wall and ceiling area. By choosing not to heat the storage area, you may actually make things worse - now you loose heat through three walls rather than just one.

[Edwin]

Well, I'd use the storage room for stocking up canned beans, which I need to transport from the garage to the storage room and from there to the kitchen. The storage is in the right location, but I'd add a few doors.
I don't like the front door being so close to the living area for the reason that, especially in colder climates, you will get a huge loss of warmth every time the front door opens. Maybe you can extend that area slightly to have some sort of hall? Same applies for your now non-heated or cooled storage room and garage. Every time you enter either of these rooms the rest of your house will either heat up or cool down. I am missing the indoor swimming pool, the billard table and the bar. You have place for a cigar humido as well?

[Dave]

I would recommend giving another thought to the spiral staircase in the middle of the house. Unless it's a HUGE spiral staircase, it's going to make moving furniture up or down the stairs inconvenient, to say the least.
Of course, they DO look cool, so there is some argument for keeping it...

[Mark]

You'll need access to the upstairs for items that won't go up a spiral stair.

Drop back the angled wall from the master closet and the constriction doorway beside that and the stairs. Drop Bedroom 1's lavvie and you've opened up the interior so that all you need is access to either Bedroom 1 or Master Bedroom from the outside.

Personally, I would make the view outside the Master Bedroom a full length doorway, put a stair outside and you can make a balcony area outside the master bedroom, increasing its size in good weather. Treat that doorway as a standard opening door, so toughened glass and a good frame and lock.

PS NotSoShyJan isn't wrong, all you need to do to fix that is make it soundproof (at least to the level of noise you'd expect from a lavvie.

PS: downstairs cloak may be better left off as a three-wall area, so it is opened to the main room unless a draught from the front door is a problem. It stops access to the main room being cramped and all you're losing is a little bit of storage (about enough for a coat or two).

[Stretch]

whats contained within the "Bonus Room"?! - is that like on TV quizes where they take a gamble on whats in the Bonus Box?! hehehehehee

[Tony O]

Scott,

Spiral Staircases are tough to move furniture up or down, Design in a wide staircase, a ramp or ability to access the 2nd floor from the outside etc...

Tony O

[Moberemk]

Interesting design; but one thing I have to question is the staircase. Spiral staircases like that may look cool, but they aren't very good for furniture moving or dogs, or at least we found out at our new place.

[caviar]

Couple of points:
1. What if the view on the back side is not good?
2. Its a little odd to have the front door towards one end of the house

Am no expert but I think the layout of a house should depend on more than just convenient placement of rooms. I think it should also depend on which side receives more sun (so that adequate sunlight enters), placing windows for cross ventilation etc

These might be the reasons why most houses do not have scotts dream layout.

[Gabriel Leow]

I was looking at your floor plans for the second floor and notived that the master bedroom is very far away from the other 2 rooms. Assuming that the house is used for a family purpose (living with kids), I think it may be a good idea to put the rooms closer. Closer rooms can foster closer relationships between parents and child? Of course, it kind of sucks if the parents and child are fighting!

[Dawud]

My god... Must be because I'm a European... But it really looks like the type of house were I don't even want to be found dead in.

Have you actually considered all the electrics and other conduats (spelling?), not to mention the measurements and the constructionframeworks?

Just asking...

Salam

Dawud

[RUBBA]

Scott,
It looks like the first level, front of the house will have a door and no windows. Where's the "view"?
Also, if the all purpose family room is the central gathering place and the largest room, it should be opened up with cathedral ceilings and windows.

[More]

The cat's bathroom need to be on the outside of the house for better ventilation. It would also be easier if it were next to some storage, for all the litterbox refils.
I actualy build a small space in the back of my house for this (and all other stinky things, like a frying pan for fish)

[eD]

I assume from the sketch that the stairs are circular.
Have you ever tried moving a king size mattress or a chest of drawers up a circular stairway? It doesn't work.

I suppose you could install king size windows in the bedrooms and hoist the furniture (and the washer and dryer) up with a crane.

[Sebastian]

Where's the turret? Games Room (basement perhaps)?

Circular stairs are space efficient but awkward to get stuff up/down. Also, if they are steel they can be noisy. Could put a fireman's pole in the middle which can be kind of cool.

Overall I think the plan is ok. Has to suit you and your family of course.

It can be useful to have the ability to drive through the garage to the back yard.

That kitchen looks awful small. Can you even fit 2 dishwashers in there?

Where are the clothes going to be hung/dried? The laundry should really be near that. Even if it is on the ground floor, with a laundry chute from above.

Also, I really think it needs a kids rumpus room so when guests/family come over the kids and the adults can have their separate activities without acoustic conflict.

Also I do hope the rooms will not have all hard surfaces (which would make them reverberant).

Also, my wife always wishes she had her own space/workroom (I have the shed, the garage and a study!).

[justsomeguy]

Look good, but I have to ask:
how to get into the bathroom next to
the second bedroom?

[Will]

3 bedrooms but no second bathroom upstairs? Are you expecting your guests to go downstairs, into the corner by the front door, in their pjs for a shower?

I think you should switch the laundry room and the bathroom, or perhaps make the downstairs bathroom smaller and just a toilet, and put in a second bathroom upstairs. I mean how big does a laundry room need to be?

[argenbert]

i know where the front door is. i'm special.

[argenbert]

mmm on the top floor, the master bathroom it's a little unacheivable for the bedrooms. 'sides, i'd care about putting that ever-used bathroom so close to the master bedroom. too noisy and probably "moisty".

i'd switch it for the masters closet.

i'd also switch the bedroom1 for the laundry room, but that's me.

third comment is not big, but maybe the central aisle in top floor is a little snaky. that would make the house look smaller or more complicated.

[Max Sang]

Ultimate house is right. In suburban London that'd cost you upwards of $3m.

[Andrew]

As a rule I love spiral staircases - but if it's a classic (i.e. smallish & narrowish) staircase you face a serious concern re: getting furniture upstairs (like a king size bed or a bureau)

[Amit]

Bathroom straight in front of front door??? Now I am really not on for that... Think of it ... Guests entering straight into bathrooms!!! Even the entrance to that is quite surprisingly at the entrance of the house itself. Now i have a problem with that.

Rest everything is quite useful, though a bit weird :D

[Chris]

When historians come to write the story of the decline and fall of Western civilisation, I feel the two words "cat's bathroom" will feature prominently, near the beginning.

[Andreas]

There's two things that i would want change although i can see why you maybe wouldn't want to:

1. the landing strip is too small. if you're a family of four (or more) coming home together, a little more space would be nice

2. I wouldn't want to place a big screen or anything expensive really in the way of running children - and they would be running from the front door to the kitchen to the stairs.

both of those problems can be solved by making the front door/bathroom/patio part of your first floor sketch a little taller and by mirroring it vertically. Your front door would be on the right and the patio a bit deeper. that way, the kitchen would face the driveway.

this would shorten the way from front door to stairs and create the living room in a dead end + patio (i always feel thats more relaxing)

[Sian]

If the laundry is upstairs, will you be putting your clothes on the clothes line or will you be tumble drying everything?

[Pzazz]

Ok, but not enough storage for my bunch.

[MaxDZ8]

For a house so big, the stairs look quite cramped. Stairs can become an awesome functional decoration when properly designed!
Although it's probably not an issue in US for now, putting a bedroom over an unconditioned garage may possibly require massive insulation, depending on how it's going to be used.
It would be nice to know where is the north since sunlight is part of the design (the suntube hint is great in principle).

[Laurens]

Looks great now.
I'd buy it. No questions asked.

[Laurens]

Looks great now.
I'd buy it. No questions asked.

[Lag]

Master bedroom above the garage? When kids come back from a late night, they wake you up with the qutomatic door and the engine noise. Not sure it is "ideal"
But not a bad start.

[Martin Stennert]

Great, except that it would bother me if everyone who wanted to walk upstairs (incl. guests) would have to walk through the kitchen. Couldn't the staircase go in the corner storage/kitchen/living room, instead of storage/kitchen/garage? That way it could be entered from the living room.

[Ben]

A lot of the complaints seem to be with the entryway bathroom, getting there, noises etc. I think I may have a solution for that.

I'd like to move the covered patio, entrance and bathroom Bfurther down to make room for a hallway or open space. This would improve traffic flow and place the bathroom further from the living room. The hallway is nice for highly trafficked areas but is mostly a waste of space and it breaks up the house. Open space is nice but like flat surfaces it tends to be a stuff magnet and will collect things and people ruining its intended purpose. One thing you could do is create a false hallway by dividing the open space from the dining and living areas with spaced planters that could have fake or real plants (great for air filtration and adding a touch of life), the planters would take up more width than a wall but it doesn't look odd to have them spaced apart for easy traffic flow, plus they have the advantage of separating the space while not being such a strong division in the house.

Bear in mind that I'm currently living in a dorm, so my experience is limited to moving my desk to the other side of my room and arranging beer-can pyramids to maximize their aesthetics and impressiveness (its a delicate art).

[Lukaii]

Pretty good!
I think that the stair location downstairs needs a review though. Having people walking through the kitchen to get to the upstairs level could be a nuisance

[ShaunL]

Looking better, but if you think my cat, Fraidy, is going to use a cat bathroom when there's a perfectly serviceable laundry room nearby then you don't know him at all.

[T.G.]

Looks quite fine, above all, it makes perfect sense.
I would like to know the possible dimensions you have in mind.
If you include metric on the dimension lines some of us would not need to do math and get an spoiled first impression.
I'll keep this as an starting idea for the time I'll have enough money to build something decent as 2nd home on my few acres.

[Sabine Dinis Blochberger]

All the "ugly noise" problems disappear if you sound proof the walls (doesn't need to be the same strength as for a sound recording studio).

[Ryan]

I think you're going to have insulation problems between your non-conditioned storage area and your living area with the TV, especially if its made with big doors for moving things in and out easily. You might consider putting in a small conditioned airlock room, with automotatic sliding doors. Like at the mall. Or Walmart?

[BobNL]

On today's comic: that is hilarious.

The similarity between the leaner and Keith Richards is really stunning. (Did you intend this pun as well?)

[Columbo]

Pretty good, I'm impressed. A few suggestions:

- Make garage big enough to store not just the car(s), but also other stuff (outdoor sports gear, bike(s), lawnmower, etc). You can never have too much storage space.

- Wide stairs. May seem like a waste of space, but makes moving bulky stuff like furniture so much easier.

- Ensuite for all bedrooms is good, but I'd still want a "big" shared bathroom with luxuries like big bathtub etc (Master bath would still have all that, too)

- 1st floor shower, preferably near garage (in your design, perhaps between storage room and garage). A "nice to have" that becomes "mandatory" once you have kids.

- Closet for coats, shoes, etc, near between living area and garage. That's where you actually leave / enter the house 9 out of 10 times.

- Space for cat bath can be used better for other purposes (storage etc). I don't want pets.

[Pete]

I like it!

I too had some thoughts about the ideal house!

Some things I would like:
- a secondary bathroom (not just 2 toilets)
- a possibility to close the kitchen: I occasionnally do some cooking and the vapors need to be confined
- the kitchen needs to be bigger and have a central workspace
- I would add a fireplace with holders for grilling
- double-shielded ethernet and phone in all rooms
- make a small, air conditioned, lockable and noiseless room upstairs in which to install central IT-equipment: internet router, network switch, network attached storage, media server, wifi access point
- don't use wood to build this - use something more robust, so the house doesn't collapse if it stands in Florida
- either upstairs or downstairs, I would add another bonus room. A family with 2 kids would need: master bedroom, 1 BR for each child, 1 (lockable and noiseless) room as an office, 1 room as a bonus/multi-purpose room, where kids have space to play instead of near the family TV when ppl are trying to listen to the movie.
- some kind of washing facility in the garage is useful
- make an attic storage
- have the stairs go above the attic, up to a belvedere/lookout which could be a perfect place to have drink, to lookout what's happening in the neighborhood or serve as a panicroom if the door is solid and the walls concrete.

[M-Doggie]

You wouldn't want the master bedroom above the garage. Garage doors always make noise, and its noisy when someone is driving the car into it. You need more bathrooms. Some of the rooms seem really small, and others a big big for their purposes.

[idiots_r_us]

You need a separate den / playroom / kids room. When you want to relax and watch the big screen, where are the kids going to hang out?

[Gyrofx]

I would move the stairs to the all purpose room as that is where most of the time will be spent, walking through the kitchen every time you go up and down would be a pain, the more central the stairs in a home the better.

While I like your idea of laundry upstairs, it's not practical in countries/areas where you hang up the washing outside.

In Bedroom one is that a toilet? If so the plumbing wont work or will run on the inside of the house... not the best idea, toilets pipes should always where possible run down the outside of the wall.

[el jefe]

1. Put the screen in front of the storage room door. Then make it retract into the ceiling. Put a fireplace where the screen was. Make the seating into an "L", keep the screen retracted, and talk to your friends!

2. Bag the whole laundry room thing. Put in a laundry dumbwaiter and put the laundry room on the ground floor as God intended.

3. Storage needs a door to the garage so you can get all that movable crap in there.

4. Take the patio around the right side to the kitchen, so that the kitchen has direct access to the patio. Makes outside entertaining easier.

5. No wine cellar. What's up with that?

[el jefe]

1. Put the screen in front of the storage room door. Then make it retract into the ceiling. Put a fireplace where the screen was. Make the seating into an "L", keep the screen retracted, and talk to your friends!

2. Bag the whole laundry room thing. Put in a laundry dumbwaiter and put the laundry room on the ground floor as God intended.

3. Storage needs a door to the garage so you can get all that movable crap in there.

4. Take the patio around the right side to the kitchen, so that the kitchen has direct access to the patio. Makes outside entertaining easier.

5. No wine cellar. What's up with that?

[Muppet]

I'm still struggling with having the laundry room upstairs. Doing laundry means having to check on it several times. If it's on the opposite floor that you spend most of your time in (downstairs), then you'll be doing twice the climbing up and down. Put in a dumb waiter to send the basket or hanging clothes up when they are done.
The bonus room/computer room should also be on the floor where you spend most of your time, first floor. Right?
Unless you spend a lot of time in your bedroom, which most people I know don't, all that space upstairs is just wasted. Put the exercise stuff in one room with a tv and stereo and fan.
For kids rooms; I don't understand why parents allow computers and tv's in their rooms. You can't monitor their computer/tv usage unless they are in the same room you are. Bedrooms are for sleeping and dressing, nothing else.
Yeah, I know, I'm set in my ways.

[Suchmaschinenoptimierung]

Thats looks like beautiful house.

[xorac]

man, even the house plan drawings suck. :P.

but seriously, the bathroom should be a bit away - no one likes to hear someone flush, when they're out in the living room talking.

[adora]

There are many problems with this plan. Scale is a big problem. You can't design unless you are aware of the size of things.
You also have to enclose the garage, unless you want it air conditioned. For most states, it has to be detached from the main house structure.
I'll send you a scaled plan when I have time later this week. You'll have better idea of what it really looks like.

[Vincent]

Looks very nice, and this is indeed a nice design.
I just wonder : a cat bathroom !!!!!
America is still very rich, I guess. If only all these was not paid by debt held by China ...

[Jimmy]

Good luck on moving furniture up and down those stairs.

[sarah]

why is the laundry room upstairs? do you not have to take your laundry all the way downstairs to hang your clothes outside to dry? or do americans dry all their stuff inside?

[Danial]

Burn it down and start over....I'm jus' sayin'.

[rd]

great, now if i can afford to buy a house
i like magenta!

[Greg]

Frank Lloyd Wright said a house is a machine for living in. I like your practical engineer's take on how that machine should look and function. But you have to have sufficient wall space for lots of books, lots of art and big patio doors or French windows - this becomes an exercise in magic rather than engineering...

Just out of interest, how much reinforcement do you believe the walls of the cat bath need?

[Surabaya Stew]

Hello again Scott,

Pretty good sketch there! I would estimate that this house is about 3000SF, which is quite moderate compared to most of the custom-build homes that I worked on for over 4 years. However, this is hardly middle-income housing. I would suggest that a single-level house is needed just to keep the house affordable to the majority of Americans. In the Northeast of the USA, this size house would cost at least $500,000 to build, exclusive of land costs and furnishings. I'm not sure what building costs are like elsewhere, but several things would have to be done to keep the price down. Thank you for indulging your reader in allowing him to list some of those idea (with comments) here:

1. The covered patio by the Casual Dining would presumably have to be made into a Screened Porch for the sake of the majority of Americans who live with blood-thirsty mosquitoes. Alternatively, it could be left out all together.

2. Having a full Bathroom (as opposed to a "Powder Room" AKA: Half Bathroom) on the First Floor is generally a good idea in case you want to expand the house later, or use the Family Room is a sleeping area for guests. However, I would question its placement by the front entry. Perhaps it can be stacked with point 3....

3. You don't have to have 2 Bathrooms for the 2 Bedrooms on the Second Floor. (Besides, at this scale, they're way too small anyway!) Try placing 1 Bathroom at the end of the hallway, this way you can save money by stacking the First Floor Bathroom directly under.

Overall, you are doing a good job. I would be very interested in seeing the next revision to your Ultimate House. You will have a third take, right?

[Tyro]

A few more issues;

Where is North? This is a large component for placing windows/rooms and for heating/cooling.

Why does the laundry have a view and not the 2nd bedroom?

Also a 2nd story laundry means walking up and down stars every time you do a load of washing (to hang out, bring in)

Master bedroom above the garage = noisy

A tricked laundry sounds cool, but once the washer/dryer is going watching TV becomes a pain. Washing machine water spills = bad place for TV/electronics. Dryers generate a lot of heat - bad for summer.
Maybe a sound/heat-proof cubbyhole to put them in?...

No balcony on the 2nd lvl? (looks like the 2nd bedroom has one but not illustrated.

That master closet is Huge! how much clothing do you guys have?

----------------------------------------------
Actually, my wife and I + some friends recently stated in a holiday home that meets a lot of your requirements. (No tricked out laundry tho)
The whole house was raised and on the side of a mountain (with awesome beach view)

Under the house - car parking

1st floor all bedrooms + large bathroom + laundry. Master bedroom has en suite and own balcony.

2nd floor = one massive room! enough space for large kitchen + dining + lounge area. A small WC in on corner.
Once entire side of this room opens out to a huge balcony. 2nd outside dining area with BBQ (plugged into mains gas which is novel and awesome!)

My words do not do it justice, but we ended up spending most the week just hanging out in the house :D

[Aprameya]

The drawing of the first floor (the ground floor, as we call it in India) is all wobbly, you really should get better at drawing ;-)). Nice plan though....

[Otto]

In the drawings, it looks like the link between the floors is a spiral staircase. Put in a conventional staircase that has its 1st floor door a straight run from the garage and the 2nd floor door opening lengthwise into the upstairs hall. People neglect the stairs in house design, but it is important here since the master bedroom and the laundry are both on the 2nd floor. It'd be nearly impossible to get a washing machine up a spiral staircase, and don't even think about a California king sized bed.

From a traffic-flow standpoint, that front door entryway is tiny. It'll be a bottleneck when entertaining more than a couple people, particularly during cold/wet weather. This could possibly be mediated by putting a front porch on the house.

Speaking of porches, the floor-plan doesn't show the overhangs from the eaves. From an energy savings point of view, putting covered porches and long-overhang eaves on the 2nd floor along the southern wall are both good ideas. They'll keep the hot summer sun out and, if designed right, will still allow winter sun in for heat and light.

I'm not sure what to do with this, but the garage wall on the front of the house is going to be an eyesore for curb appeal. You could put windows along there, but the contents of most garages aren't the best to display, and they create easy break-in points.

Some nitpicky things: soundproofing is going to be crucial in this layout, from the 1st floor bath to the laundry room above the kitchen, to the bedroom over the (usually noisy) garage door opener. On the master bedroom, make sure and do good insulation between it and the unconditioned garage/storage areas, or it will be sweltering in summer and beastly cold in winter. Also, with the bathroom layout, the plumber's going to make a fortune. There's going to be pipes run all over the house, not to mention the noisy sewer line for bedroom 1's bath is directly above the coveted home theater seating.

Finally, I'd be tempted to do an addition to the master bedroom that goes above the empty corner formed by garage and pantry. It could end up providing another covered patio-type area that could be used for lawn-care storage or a play area for the kids.

[GracieMae]

I love it! Especially the cat bathroom! I'm ready to buy. :D

[James]

Where is the wine cellar? How can you possibly contemplate a house without a wine cellar?

Let's see:
A good red should be cellared for 10 years.
As you have a cellar full of good red, you can and should drink at least one a day.
That means the cellar must accommodate a minimum of 3650 bottles, plus a few for the leap years.
Add to that a few whites, the odd bottle or three of bubbly, a large reserve for when thirsty friends drop in unexpectedly and you should get away with space for, say, 5000.

So where are they going to fit Scott?

[Steve]

I'm a bit late to the party, but it seems the flaw of the first floor is that it lacks a *hallway* off of which the bathroom is located.

Most reasonably well designed houses I've seen have a hallway on each floor and rooms off of it. Your top floor is structured this way, but your first floor is just sort of all clumped together.

There is also the oddity of having the front door of your house located in the corner; conventionally, it tends to be in the middle. Stairs adjacent to the kitchen are also completely surreal -- they tend to be near the living quarters... you might go from your bed to your breakfast, but not from your dinner to your bed.

Here is what you could do to accomodate this: (1) Turn the living room around so the TV is not by the front door; then (2) now move the storage area to the kitchen space; next (3) move the kitchen/pantry to the former storage spot, but add in a hallway where people can easily access the kitchen, garage, living room, stairs, coatroom, and a 1st floor bathroom all at once from a central entry point; finally (4) the patio can stay, but you can use the coatroom space for something else that nobody's even thought of yet [small work desk for minor tasks, etc.]

[adora]

You will end up with a flat warehouse-like facade in the front. The view at the back seems nice. Garage are usually a little forward to break up this long flat wall. (I think you will end up with at least 80' wide.
Your plumbing is all over the place. Bathroom/Kitchen/Laundry room are usually along the same wall. Your design can work, but with extra cost.
Also, stair is way too small. You know, most staircase take up more space than one car garage. But the space below can be part of that storage that you want.
(I'm an architect. It's my job to tell you how you should live your life! muwhahaha!)

[exiledsurveyor]

I am sure you included a spiral staircase for space saving, but you might have a little difficulty moving a king mattress or couch up that.

Shows promise, you included most of the basics, but as you may notice, no houseplan is perfect, someone will always conplain.

[Wulf]

Scott, after reading all of the bathroom comments, I have to suggest an outhouse. Nobody wants the bathroom near anything else in the house, so this is the only solution.

Make sure it is faaaar from the garage - wouldn't want to hear poopies while I am fixing the car.

I like it! I don't think the downstairs bathroom is a big deal. Anyone who really needs the privacy will go upstairs. It's the upstairs bathroom situation that I would change:

-First, dump (ha!) the two in-room bathrooms from bedrooms 1 and 2.
- Bedroom 1 bathroom becomes a linen closet
- Bedroom 2 bathroom becomes a closet or is just erased
- Office becomes full bathroom with jacuzzi tub. It can probably be smaller than it is now.

Also, I