momee Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 If you homeschool, entertain and have more than 3 children I'd love to see your house plan. I'm looking and looking and looking. Hopefully it will have plenty of room, lots of storage, and you love it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Χά�ων Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 I only have one child and I designed my floor plan to accommodate how we live. For example I did not put closets in each room, but have a large closest off the laundry room. The shower is also off the laundry room. Why? Because I do not want to spend an extra second gathering and putting away clothes. My kitchen is larger than my living room. But the living room could be bigger but I divided into three areas, music area (piano and drums), lounging area (couch and chairs), and a game area. I put up a game table and DS does his school work there and we play board games. The kitchen is fairly good size and I have a wall for a wall garden for herbs and greens. I drew up my plans online, would you like to see a walkthrough? The link will give you the option to join and create your own plans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angie in VA Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 I don't meet all your criteria, but I love my house! It's an open floor plan and we used energy-efficient materials and oriented w/ passive solar heating, cooling and lighting in mind. Now, the more I see other houses, two older houses on which the owners added a great room are my favorite floor plan. I know something like this exists, or an existing floor plan could easily be modified to include it, but w/ our open floor plan, we lack nooks and crannies for kids to go in one room and adults in another to talk. It can get loud depending on how many people are here too. For our day to day purposes, the open floor plan rocks. For entertaining, it'd be nice to have smaller rooms and one big one for huge gatherings. Best advice for building a house, consider alternative heating sources, even if that just means a generator wired up to your house for emergencies, or a wood stove, or a portable generator. After hearing an acquaintance's high cost of propane, we are glad we have a woodstove. We got it as a back up heat source, but heat exclusively w/ wood. Of course, the Lord and a good friend have blessed us w/ wood, so that makes it even better. Also, today it's rainy, so we have to turn lights on, but w/ all our glass on the south side of our house, we don't use lights on sunny days. All that helps to keep utility costs low. Probably not what you were looking for, but there ya go. I love talking about houses and construction and alternative construction. I have found myself at more than one party far away from the ladies and all their talk and right in the middle of the men talking construction. The last time? I asked the host to show us his wood furnace. I love that stuff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berta Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Queen, I'd love to see that website! In my old house I had two washers and two dryers. All clothes came out of the dryer and got hung up or put away RIGHT THERE. None of our clothes were in the bedrooms. At the time I had all four of my kids at home and it made it so much easier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Χά�ων Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Queen, I'd love to see that website! In my old house I had two washers and two dryers. All clothes came out of the dryer and got hung up or put away RIGHT THERE. None of our clothes were in the bedrooms. At the time I had all four of my kids at home and it made it so much easier. Can do I will get a link Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeninok Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 We love our house plan, downstairs it is a big open kitchen and family room, with a den off to the side that can be closed off with french doors. There are 3 small closets plus a pantry downstairs. There is a large storage space under the stairstoo. Up one half flight is a small guest room, a linen closet, the main bathroom, and my sons rather large bedroom. Up another half flight is the laundry room, hvac closet and then our gigantic master, with two clsets and a bathroom. Either our bedroom or the one my son is using could accommodate several kids, the master could also easily be bunkbeds and playroom. We use it as a master and gave plans to put in a small seating area and desk. It isnt a big house but they have made great use of the space, we host co op here, and have lots of friends and get togethers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Our house will be designed after my grandmothers. The house was in 2 sections separated by a long hallway, with the bedrooms in the back half. You could have a party in the living room and not wake anyone up. On one end there was a huge kitchen that covered both the front and back halves of the house, like an end cap. On the other end was a massive sunroon, doing the same thing. The tiny laundry room, baby library, and pantry were accessible only through the hall, creating a sound buffer between the bedrooms and living area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 I only have one child, but he has the attic dormer for his room. I think if I had more children, I would love for them to have their own floor. That might not work for little kids, but for an older one it's great. We have an older bungalow, so it has a door to the stairway, so he has a lot of privacy. He's in charge of cleaning, decorating, and hauling his laundry (he does his own most of the time). I rarely even go up there, it's a great teen space. Also, I think a kitchen island would be necessary if you entertain a lot. I like people gathering in a kitchen and an island with seating makes it cozy. I also would want a designated homeschool room. Even if you homeschool all over the house, it could be set up as a library. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 If you homeschool, entertain and have more than 3 children I'd love to see your house plan. I'm looking and looking and looking. Hopefully it will have plenty of room, lots of storage, and you love it. I love my house plan. Dh is also in construction so I see a lot of home designs. I'm not sure if I can still find a link for my house plan, though. If I were building a new home right now, I would make it smaller than this; this one is quite large and we could clearly do with less space. I'll try to link a couple I have tabbed as current favorites. This one is my current favorite. As far as open concept plans go, I think I'm unusual, but I don't like plans to be overly open. I don't want guests to have a clear view of the kitchen that will inevitably be somewhat messy if I'm cooking. It's true I don't want it to be a closed-off cave, as many kitchens once were, but I don't like the "not a wall anywhere" fashion you constantly see on HGTV shows. For example, I like this plan, but I would put up a wall between the Dining and Great Rooms and would extend the kitchen wall to have a bar-stool area providing some separation from the Great Room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momee Posted February 3, 2014 Author Share Posted February 3, 2014 Quill, I was hoping you would respond. Can I just say you have provided me with a plan with the kitchen I've been looking for forever in your "current favorite" link. 20 x 8'8" with a dining room adjoining it. Love that. Our (potential) builder told us those Don Gardner plans are very popular but usually involve some type of special trusses or something that have to be specifically ordered. He said they are nice but EXPENSIVE to build. Of course. Your suggestion is pretty although it an entirely different exterior than I've been thinking of :) Here is one of my favorite kitchen links ( I read you don't love the open great room idea - and I don't necessarily either but do love this space) http://www.houzz.com/photos/1764312/Las-Lomas-Residence-contemporary-kitchen-austin and exterior links http://www.houzz.com/photos/160883/Olde-Park-Exterior-traditional-exterior-charleston I can email you our plans if you're interested in looking at them and giving me your thoughts...I know some people like to do that for fun. To me it is like plucking my eyebrows, a necessary evil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Quill, I was hoping you would respond. Can I just say you have provided me with a plan with the kitchen I've been looking for forever in your "current favorite" link. 20 x 8'8" with a dining room adjoining it. Love that. Our (potential) builder told us those Don Gardner plans are very popular but usually involve some type of special trusses or something that have to be specifically ordered. He said they are nice but EXPENSIVE to build. Of course. Your suggestion is pretty although it an entirely different exterior than I've been thinking of :) Here is one of my favorite kitchen links ( I read you don't love the open great room idea - and I don't necessarily either but do love this space) http://www.houzz.com/photos/1764312/Las-Lomas-Residence-contemporary-kitchen-austin and exterior links http://www.houzz.com/photos/160883/Olde-Park-Exterior-traditional-exterior-charleston I can email you our plans if you're interested in looking at them and giving me your thoughts...I know some people like to do that for fun. To me it is like plucking my eyebrows, a necessary evil. Sure, I can give you my thoughts. It is true that Gardner plans are often expensive to build. All the different gables and angles are more expensive. The second home I posted is the one dh likes more because it has a more rectangular shape and not as many gables. In reality, dh would take off some of the extra gables that are meant to enhance the exterior facade and not much else. Not sure if you understand what I mean, but sometimes, there is a little bumped-out gable that contributes exterior style, but isn't crucial to the space or shape of the rooms. I really love the way the kitchen and dining room are for that first plan, too. I would be happy to look at your plans. I'll look at the links here in a minute, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Okay, I looked at your links; very nice. What appeals to you in particular about the kitchen space? Is it the set-up, the materials, the colors? All of those things? The exterior of the house - that is beautiful. Very Southern Living style. Gardner makes a lot of plans in that style. :o I don't think the house I live in is available anymore. I looked for links using our specs and couldn't find it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrissiK Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Oh, well, I do have more than three children and I do love my house, but it wish it had more bedrooms. So, I guess I won't showing you my floor plans. We have an open floor plan, a nice sized kitchen, high ceilings. But, we need at least 1-2 more bedrooms and there is absolutely no way we can add on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Okay, momee, wait until you see what a house plan geek I am. :tongue_smilie: I picked some out for you, based on your links and what you said in your OP. This one - wow. I think this is gorgeous. The federal style is pretty similar to the grand, symmetrical facade of the house you posted. If I built this house, I would make the Sunroom the Dining Room, to achieve that open dining room we talked about. The existing dining room would become the Living Room (or music room, for us). The Living Room would become a study/library, with a wall between them. In the upstairs, the "Future Room" would be a homeschool room. This one is similar in appearance to your linked photo. If I were to build this, I would have the architect change the plans so that there is not a two-story kitchen/balcony upstairs. I would make it a homework loft with a built-in desk, perhaps. We had the two-story family room before and we didn't like the way noise (and heat) travelled right up to the kids' rooms. Future Room would be a homeschool room. I very much like this design, too. Again, I would make the dining room in the Family/Sunroom space and make the existing dining room a study/library. I would also seek to close the open balcony again. Take note with this design and the one just above - look at the roof. See how they end with a simple triangle? That is a gable end. Those are much less expensive than hip roofs - the type that looks like a trapezoid. Also, the more regular (as opposed to irregular) the "footprint" of the house is, the less expensive. A perfect rectangle on two stories is a (relatively) inexpensive foundation and roof. A design like this one or this one will be much more expensive per square foot because the foundation, roofing and exterior materials will be so complex. Also, two stories are usually less expensive per square foot than single stories (because of the footprint). P.S. Feel no obligation to be delighted with any of these designs. I'm just a weird home plan addict. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maplecat Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 Our home was custom built 40 years ago and the plans are rolled up in the basement. There are a lot of thoughtful features that I don't see in a lot of other homes I visit. Our garage is a 2.5 car garage. It looks like a normal size from the front, but there is extra space along the width in the back. This means that we can fit two cars and a ton of other things in our garage. We have an attached sunporch that has an indoor grill and vent. We can girl year-round despite weather. There are two full closets on either side of our front door. We always have space to hang-up guests' coats. There is a full closet by our back door so there is a place for our coats and winter gear. We have a laundry chute that goes from the master bath to to first floor laundry room. Our laundry room has extra cabinets and a long stretch of counter for folding clothes. We have built-ins in several rooms of the house. Additional storage and bookcases make our home look clean and less cluttered. We have a finished basement which means my kids have an enormous room to play in. Toys are kept downstairs and out of everywhere else. When they are older, the basement will function as an additonal living room for entertaining. We have a lot of closets and every bathroom has storage. I love my home and I feel like the original owners carefully thought out what kind of space they wanted for their large family. Forty plus years later, it is working well for mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aspasia Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 I meet all your criteria and I LOVE my house! http://www.khov.com/Home/VA/349830000/ModelsAvailable/1AK/Floorplan02.htm It's large, but not too big. I don't think I would ever want anything bigger than this (3,000 feet above grade, plus a full basement). I love center hall colonials, with the living room and dining room flanking the entryway. The two front rooms always look nice and neat because the main living areas are in the back of the house. But we still use the living room (mainly as a piano room, but also when we have guests) and the dining room (when we entertain...or when I'm working on a puzzle). My kitchen is insanely functional--love my pantry, love the counter/cabinet space, love the wall ovens, love the island. And I LOVE having my laundry/mud room right off the kitchen. I like our bedrooms on a separate level from main living space. All of our bedrooms have walk-in closets, which the kids don't really use yet, but there is plenty of room for us to grow. I agree with Quill about excessively open plans. I feel like space is more functional when it is sectioned off a little bit...but not too much. For me, our floor plan has the perfect amount of openness and separation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sbgrace Posted February 3, 2014 Share Posted February 3, 2014 We have a large laundry room with two large/family size closets. All our clothes fit there. Even better, the bath we use for most showers is right off the laundry room. Most "clothes activity"--dressing/underessing and cleaning/putting away--takes place in that one area. I really love this. Most of the other things we did are really specific to our family needs--perfect for us, but maybe not for someone else! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 Bucolic, I love that design. That is very similar to the house we had before our current home, except the family room was 2-story (which we didn't come to like much) and the masters suite extended over the garage. We even had that same type of covered entryway in the front! Very pretty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.