GBA Logo horizontal Facebook LinkedIn Email Pinterest Twitter Instagram YouTube Icon Navigation Search Icon Main Search Icon Video Play Icon Plus Icon Minus Icon Picture icon Hamburger Icon Close Icon Sorted

Community and Q&A

Looking for Floorplan / Design Input

igrigos | Posted in General Questions on

We’re working our way toward a final design on our house and are looking for some input. Attached (hopefully) are two designs that we like. We might pick and choose things we like from either design, so this isn’t an either or decision. 

Some background / goals:
Looking at Pretty Good House insulation levels, ERV, ductless splits, HPWH with a total area of ~1600 – 1800 SF plus a basement. 
It’s just me, my wife and 6 year old, but there is a small barn to the right / north of the house where we will have our chickens / goats
Wife really wants a porch and an unheated porch space as well (thinking wood stove / fireplace in there so we don’t overheat the house)
We want 2 bedrooms on the 2nd floor and one on the first for older in-laws when they stay over (will double as my office the rest of the time)
Storage is a must (been living in 200 year old houses most of our lives with zero closet space)
Views are to the south and east, but driveway comes from the north/east

We prefer the mudroom in front of the office space, but really like the look of the porch off the front gable side so we’re having trouble rectifying those two preferences.

I know plenty of people on here are involved in architecture or house design so happy to hear thoughts, opinions and experiences.  Thanks in advance!
-Isaiah

GBA Prime

Join the leading community of building science experts

Become a GBA Prime member and get instant access to the latest developments in green building, research, and reports from the field.

Replies

  1. walta100 | | #1

    I understand you have spent hundreds of hours getting to this point and are hugely invested in this plan. I see the thumbnail image of the one and a half story home and my heart falls and I can’t even bring myself open the plans.

    I say loose the half story it is a design flaw the will drive every other choice in this building. It sounds like your lot is large so you have the space to put what you need/want on the main floor. If you are lucky you will get old and live long enough to hate the stairs. If you must have the second floor, go all in and do a full second floor. The half story makes it very difficult to air seal where the upper stories floor stops and lower ceiling continues, the sloped ceilings make for lots of useless floor space upstairs, the sloped ceiling do not give you enough space to properly vent the attic or room for low cost fluffy insulation, this forces you to make the risky choice of not venting the attic, the risky and expensive choice of using spray foam insulation, the poor choice of code minimum R values.

    Walta

  2. igrigos | | #2

    Noted, but not really the advice i was hoping for. I've got details and sequencing worked out so we can maintain a good air barrier, even on the cathedral ceiling. We're using primarily cellulose in the (vented) ceilings and walls, although I'm going back and forth between double stud and exterior reclaimed polyiso for the wall assembly. Additionally, the design is nearly full height on the left side for the entire length of the house (no wasted space), while the sloped portion on the right is great storage an may be used for mechanicals.

    My wife was dead set on the bedrooms being on the second floor so that's where the design went (you're welcome to try and talk her out of it if you'd like!)

  3. AlexPoi | | #3

    You could always wrap the porch around the corner and have your main entrance where you want it and still have the porch on the gable side.

  4. Expert Member
    Michael Maines | | #4

    It looks like a nice layout. While 1 1/2 story homes pose some challenges regarding air sealing and insulation, with proper planning it shouldn't be too bad.

    Do you need a basement? They are relatively cheap square footage, but it takes extra effort to make them warm and dry.

    1. Robert Opaluch | | #6

      An insulated slab would save excavation, concrete, and labor. Most use basements for storage or perhaps a not great playroom space for kids during the winter. What's your goal?

      Martin has noted that above ground space is comparable in cost to basement space, so why not add to above ground space instead? Maybe a garage or additional room? IAQ likely benefits also. I renovated my late mother's house and the basement was full of old accumulated stuff that nobody wanted, just spent time sorting into recycles and trash, and cleaning up. Especially with mini splits, less need for basement space to isolate fossil fuel central heating equipment from the living area.

      I try to design homes that are rectangular (typical colonial, Cape, ranch) which is cheaper to build, more energy efficient, and less vulnerable to water issues. Martin recommends a simple roof shape. Yeah more boring looking. All those extra corners, roof intersecting second floor walls, intersecting roof valley, add visual interest but a lot of extra work and risk of water intrusion. You might try to reduce the complexity of the exterior yet keep specific features you like the most. If they are the result of designing the floor plan from the rooms out to the envelope, you might increase room dimensions to eliminate some envelope complexity.

      In the engineering world, one design principle is KISS (keep it simple, stupid!). Complexity adds to the risk of defects, unintended/unanticipated consequences of complexity, cycle time intervals, and costs unrelated to customer satisfaction.

  5. Expert Member
    Akos | | #5

    I would reach out to an architect to get feedback from them. Scott Wilson posts on here and his input is very informative when it comes to layout. Well worth the cost.

    I would be temped to put the living space in the 1 story section, raise the ceiling there with a straight staircase from that side going up to the 2nd floor.

    You can have the kitchen area in half of the two story section and bedroom/bath in the other half. A porch along the side of the house could now be an outdoor space accessible from both kitchen and living room.

  6. rockies63 | | #7

    I heard I was needed lol.

    Hello, in looking at your two floor plan options, I think option B has a lot more problems so let’s start there.

    Plan B – Main Floor

    1. Starting with the front facade, I know the front porch seemed like a good idea when drawn in plan view but when you see it in the elevation view the house doesn’t look as nice. The main problem is the porch roof – it’s a hip roof and since there is already a dominant gable roof and a large shed roof on the house there are now too many different roof styles.

    2. The porch location also doesn’t work with the internal layout of the house. When you walk into the house (plan B) there is no sense of arrival. Yes, there’s a bench and a window on the right but just a blank wall on the left. More importantly, where do you and your guests put their coats and wet shoes? Someone will have to carry them all the way down the front hall to the closet by the sun room.

    3. With the living room cut off by that entry wall you’ve really limited yourself in regards to furniture placement. Basically the way it’s set up now you can’t put chairs against the bottom window wall so at best only four people can sit in that room. It just feels cramped.

    4. The addition of that wing wall between the living room and the dining room is making the dining room look cramped. The table is way off to the left and even though there’s a seating bench against the wall in this instance it’s wasted because you’re basically building about 12 feet of bench just so one person can sit at the end of the table. It’s better to pull the table back towards the center of the space and put a built-in buffet under the windows. You’ll get tons of storage.

    5. The kitchen is too wide. Usually you should have no more than about 9’ between major appliances and the sink. With this kitchen layout there is quite a long walk from the fridge to the sink (also the edge of the island cuts into the path a bit). When laying out a kitchen try to have the sink between the stove and fridge. That way when you’re preparing a meal you can move from the fridge to the sink, wash the food, do prep work and then on to the stove (it cuts down on a lot of leg work if the sink is in the middle).

    6. The back entrance into the kitchen is too cramped. There’s no place to sit or put down groceries and the back door is rather exposed on the back side of the house. If you make the kitchen a bit narrower you could expand the back entrance and create more of a mudroom. The full bathroom could also shift over to the left a bit. I would add a wing wall next to the fridge to create a proper mudroom, put a smaller closet where the back door is, put a seating bench with coat hooks and a shelf above it next to the closet and move the back door so that it opens from the east (where the closet is now).

    7. I’m not thrilled with the location of the bathroom in relation to the guest room. No guest wants to walk through the entire house to have a shower or use the toilet. The only thing that might work is to flip the layout of the bathroom so that the tub and vanity change places and add a second door into the guest room. Put a smaller desk beside this new entrance to the bathroom and build a closet into the wall behind where the desk is now.

    8. In this plan the hall to the sun room is dead space. Nobody will ever use this space other than to walk through it heading somewhere else. I would change the single door to the sun room to a double glass door to make the sun room feel more connected to the rest of the house though.

    Plan B - Upstairs

    9. Upstairs is pretty good, although I HATE a window in the tub/shower area. If it opens you’ll never climb into the tub to open it and if it doesn’t open it will still be a breeding ground for mold (you’ll never caulk all those seams around the window well enough). What to do with this bathroom? I’ll think on it.

    That’s Plan B.

    Now for Plan A – Main Floor

    1. Plan A has a much more logical flow. The front facade is clean and elegant. It has a presence. It’s commanding without being overbearing….ok, enough with the arch-i-speak. It looks great.

    2. The shed roof over the front door is welcoming and sheltering, two things all front doors should have. Plus the door is in the corner of two wings, which in itself is more sheltering. I would extend the porch and the porch roof to the right about 8’ (but not to the end of the main roof).

    3. In this plan you walk into a natural front hall. There’s a console table, a window, a coat closet. Perfect. Then it goes downhill a bit. The entrance to the living room is way too narrow. Get rid of the little wing walls and open it up.

    4. The living room itself is large and inviting. Now there is space for not one but two seating groups, one based on the sofa on the left and another one (maybe two club chairs) by the console on the right. Great.

    5. You got rid of the wing wall between the living room and dining room. That’s great, although I would turn the dining table 90 degrees and put a buffet console under the window.

    6. The kitchen is still too wide. If you ask me, I would narrow it by about a foot (not much) and turn the island 90 degrees and lengthen it by about two feet. Put it about 4 feet away from the edge of the back countertop. Have a 3’ walking space between the end of the island and the left exterior wall (you’ll be getting rid of all the cabinets on the left side of the kitchen). WHAT? Well, they’re just a couple of base cabinets and a couple of uppers (You’ll have plenty of storage in the longer island). Put the sink in the island (more towards the left exterior wall). Now you have a much better work triangle and room for maybe 4-5 counter seats (also get rid of that other wing wall between the dining room and kitchen). Lastly, I would get rid of the counter (?) next to the powder room and put in a 15” deep floor to ceiling pantry cabinet and a broom closet. People always forget the broom closet.

    7. The back kitchen entrance is pretty good but the closet is too big. Move it to the left 12-18”, make it about 3’ wide and use my suggestion about including a seating bench and shelves. The door location is great.

    8. If you decide to have a full bathroom connected to the guest room you’ll have to flip the tub and vanity locations and add a 2nd door to the guest room (you’ll probably have to use a pocket door to the guest room so the door swings don’t clash). If you’d rather have a powder room I would turn the vanity and toilet 90 degrees and then you could use either a regular swing door or a pocket door.

    9. Finally, change the single door to the sun room to a double glass door (as in Plan A). With the front porch now 8’ longer I would install a two panel sliding door similar to the other 3 panel exterior sun room doors (instead of the small inswing door).

    Upstairs – Plan A

    10. I’m surprised to say I like the upstairs layout in Plan B better than Plan A. The bedrooms are more cozy in Plan B (You don’t have vast areas of empty space) but, as always, the main problem in both plans is the bathroom. What to do about that bathroom? I thought about it for about an hour, and then I finally knew what to do.

    On Plan B, pull the upstairs bathroom wall with the door in it out into the hall about 12” (you will probably have to shift over the master bedroom door too). Put the bathroom door in the center of the room. On one side of the bathroom (whichever side you prefer) locate the vanity first and then put the toilet next to it (near the exterior wall). On the other side of the room put the tub behind the door and then have a glass shower wall coming down to the tub deck with a glass door opening out against the exterior wall. Put a nice sized window on the exterior wall and center it on the bathroom door. Now you’ll not only have a nice sunny bathroom but you’ll also have a beautiful focal point directly in front of you when you walk in.

    And that’s pretty much it. I enjoyed looking over your plans. Let me know if you have any questions. All the best!

    1. 4khz | | #9

      Scott,

      Really liked your critique/input. That is a wealth of information for this homeowner.

      Mike

      1. Expert Member
        MALCOLM TAYLOR | | #10

        Mike,

        I agree. Scott is very good at these critiques.

  7. paul_wiedefeld | | #8

    How many ductless heads are you thinking? If it's >2, I'd consider a ducted system because you'll likely have:
    a. 3 or more separate oversized systems (expensive),
    b. one oversized multi-split (inefficient and still expensive), or
    c. some combination of a and b.
    If it's one for the first floor and upstairs, you'll have the bedroom doors open/closed decision and the basement will remain unconditioned (which may or may not work).
    If it's a bank loan, they may have conditions related to heat sources in every room as well.
    One way around this could be a small low static system for upstairs, and a ductless option downstairs, but that's still adding ductwork and you'd still have two systems when one would likely suffice.

  8. rockies63 | | #11

    Hello, I realized after my last post I should have included a drawing of the second floor. As I mentioned previously, I prefer the upstairs floor plan for option B but after working on the drawing a bit more I have a few more suggestions.

    1. In order to make everything fit in the redesigned bathroom you’ll probably have to pull the entry door wall out into the hallway 18” or so (not 12” a previously suggested). This will give you more room for the tub/glass shower along the wall. As well, you might consider installing two sinks in that long vanity.

    2. Moving the bathroom wall that much will mean moving the master bedroom door to the right. In order to make this location work, change the door swings on the closet and storage rooms to inswing rather than outswing.

    3. The other change you’ll need to make is to shift the center wall between the upper bedroom and storage (?) room to the right (this will also shift the angled walls with the entry doors to the right). As a bonus, you’ll wind up getting a bigger bedroom with a bigger closet.

    4. I can’t really see what the function of that upper right room is (bedroom, storage room ?) but I would suggest using half the space for the laundry room and a linen closet. All the laundry is created on the 2nd floor so why carry laundry down to the basement?

    Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions.

  9. Mark_Nagel | | #12

    Is there a reason why you have to have a 2-story house?

    I've got what I believe is a pretty well-thought-out 1,800-ish ft-sq ranch design. I couldn't make a 2-story layout in this footage work: (in addition to having a mud room and a utility room) requirement was having the main bedroom on main/ground floor: have already lived in/owned a 2-story house with bedrooms on second floor (also hated cleaning the stairs!). If interested in a ranch layout I'd be happy to upload my design (scratch floor layout and picture of exterior front).

  10. RussEllisCQB | | #13

    Yes, I think you're right about the architect. When I was building a house, I showed my plan of the house that I saw in my thoughts. He said that the plan isn't bad, but it's still worth refining it so that everything is convenient and comfortable. He also told me that many people who hadn't previously applied to the architect from boutiquehomeplans.com made a mistake because their house became something they hated, although they just needed to change the location of the rooms or stairs. And there are a lot of such stories, so I think an architect is a good solution for you too.

Log in or create an account to post an answer.

Community

Recent Questions and Replies

  • |
  • |
  • |
  • |