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I need help with a floorplan, please!
We are in the process of building a new house, but we have a couple of tweaks we'd like to make to an existing floorplan. I really wanted first floor laundry with a mudroom, but the builder we like in the neighborhood we like doesn't have anything like that. My first idea was to cut an extra study in half, with a mudroom on one side and laundry on the other. The problems (according to the builder) are that 1- a door in the middle of the garage would be awkward, 2- that a laundry room at the front of the house is strange, and 3- that it is more awkward walking in further away from the kitchen, especially if you have groceries. Here is a mock-up of our idea (sorry, my 3 year old kind of destroyed the paper)
Any thoughts?
I do have another question, too. The entire first floor has 9-foot ceilings, and the staircase is in the back of the family room so there isn't really even a raised space for stairs anywhere. We don't like 2-story family rooms, so we are going to close it in and add a bonus room upstairs. We would have a coffered ceiling in the family room for interest, but we will still have 9-foot ceilings anywhere. Will this feel cave-like? Here is a pic of the room.
Re: I need help with a floorplan, please!
I don't see that moving the door 6 feet is really that big of a deal with carrying groceries to the kitchen.
I also don't really think that having a laundry room toward the front of the house is that strange.
If he doesn't like the door to the garage being in the middle of the wall, can it be moved toward the front of the garage - about where you drew in your washer/dryer?
I don't know what it is about the way he's drawn the "mud room" but I'm just not a fan.
I prefer your alterations. I think a door in the middle of the wall (we have had one, we had rubbish and recycling between back door and garage door) is less awkward than the corner thing he has going on.
I don't understand your question about a raised space for stairs.
I have another question - the den vs dining room. Wouldn't you want dining room next to the kitchen?
I just mean that in most of the houses we have looked at, there is some space in the middle of the floorplan that has a 2-story ceiling somewhere, usually for the stairs. With this floorplan, the stairs are shoved to the back of the family room, so when we get rid of the 2-story ceiling in that room, every single room will have a 9 foot ceiling. I just haven't seen many floorplans where every room has flat, 9-foot high ceilings since the early 90's. Usually there is a vault, or a staircase, or something for interest. I just hope dropping down that ceiling doesn't make everything feel too low.
The dining room does connect to the kitchen, there is just a little pass-through between them. I do actually like the dining room being at the front of the house though.
Here is the original floorplan, if anyone is curious. I don't really like that there is a hallway full of doors, and I really would like to have a mudroom/first floor laundry somewhere. Really, we love the kitchen in this house which is why we keep trying to make it work.
And here is the 2nd floor. We'd be adding a bonus room where it says "open to below," so that's why I'm concerned we would be closing off that first floor so much. I just really don't like 2-story family rooms at all.
And this was my inspiration for my laundry room, as we have it drawn in-
Just a lurker coming out from behind the curtains again, but just something I threw together on Paint.
Take the study completely and make it the mudroom/laundry room. Yes it means moving the door from the one corner to the middle of the garage. With the garage door on the right side instead of front of the house. Moving everything to the spots on the paint version shouldn't be that difficult if they were going to have a powder room in that spot. Along the wall by the garage you can have the hooks and garbage corral area and the bench on the other side. Just an idea if you want a first floor laundry and mudroom all in one.
Just my two cents, the original with the closet by the study, all the blank space is a waste of space. And with you closing off the 2nd story family room you can use that bonus room however you want, even as a study/work out room/game area. The upper squares above the W/D and sink are cabinets/storage with one closet to store a movable iron board and/or drying rack.
Thank you, I like that workup. I did originally think about having it all as one room, kind of like this-
However, I started thinking I might not want to look at laundry clutter every time I walk in through the garage. I remembered seeing another floorplan with it split in half, and I thought maybe I could use the laundry room more for hidden storage by dividing it? I don't know, I'm open to either really.
Well I'd have a laundry room either way, but this way it would be on the first floor instead of the second floor, which I actually prefer. It's not totally up to the builder, but he was really, really hesitant about my idea. He's afraid if the sale falls through he won't even be able to resell it. If I really want it I can push for it- or we even talked about doing it this way later down the road when the kids are older. I just wasn't sure if I was crazy for wanting to sacrifice a whole room for basically a utility room. I'm glad to see that others don't seem to think I'm as crazy as the builder acted like I was.
To declutter a laundry room you could always have a built in unit with baskets to keep the dirty clothes separated into separate baskets, and when you are doing laundry you can set everyones individual baskets onto the bench next to the w/d. Having it all as one room allows you some flexibility in how you use it. You can always "hide" the w/d units with doors too.
It's not like you are adding a dog grooming area where you have a basic shower stall without the walls and a sprayer. Your builder should be more concerned that you'd walk if you didn't get what you want.
I know people consider Atlanta to be hot all year round but it still gets cold enough in the winter for plumbing to freeze in exterior walls. I'm working on a project in Atlanta and the design low is 18 degrees. You should have no water lines in exterior walls and I see a lot of that in this floor plan. Big big issue. Don't let your builder talk you into think this is OK!
Hmm, interesting, every floorplan we have with 3 different builders has exterior plumbing, as does our current and previous house. I wonder why they do this so frequently here?
I like your plan, except I think I would make the door into the laundry room come from the mud room, not right next to the front door. I would rather have a nice blank wall there than a door.
Our garage has the door to the house in the center of the wall that you face as you drive in (assuming that you actually park in your garage...we don't), so it doesn't seem weird to me at all. We've seen a lot of homes where the entry from the garage was closer to the front door than to the kitchen.
I disagree with your builder. I don't see anything wrong with having the garage to house door in the middle of the wall. I see lots of plans like that. I don't see much difference between it being on side of the garage or in the middle. Unless this is a regional thing?
I also don't see anything wrong with a laundry room at the front of the house, as long as it's done properly. If your layout allows for a window in that room on the front of the house and your plumbing isn't in an exterior wall (like Fox pointed out) then it should be fine. We have a laundry room at the front our house and it's part of the mudroom but separated by a door so I can close off the laundry room if it's messy.
I think you are fine putting a room over the family room so that it's not open to above. That's just personal preference, IMO. I think that spaces like that tend to be wasted space and are sometimes echo-y. I don't think it will make your family room seem to low or closed off. But again, our house is like that so I might not being giving the most objective advice.
However, I started thinking I might not want to look at laundry clutter every time I walk in through the garage. I remembered seeing another floorplan with it split in half, and I thought maybe I could use the laundry room more for hidden storage by dividing it? I don't know, I'm open to either really.
Could you turn the existing powder room, walk-in closet into a laundry and powder room space?
ALL of this. I agree with your builder that having a middle door on a front load garage would be awkward, the reason for this is you will most likely have a car about 3-5 feet from that wall, when you open a door (assume 30" door) that will give you 6-18" between the edge of your door and your car. If you are carrying anything I would feel like its cramped to make sure that you don't whack the wall or the car with whatever your carrying.
Change it to a side load garage like above, with the door central and open up that area to a mud room. I would add a small powder room/water closet into the mud room so that any children (or future children) don't have to run across the house to go to the potty when you get home. When its an emergency 5 minutes before you get home, being able to walk in and duck straight into the toilet without worrying about shoes is a great thing.
I'd also incorporate some kind of recycling center into your mudroom.
Because Georgia probably doesn't have a section in the code that says you can't put plumbing in walls so builders will do whatever is cheaper and easier. That doesn't make it right or good building practice. It's just one of the million ways builders cut corners without the standard home owner ever knowing the difference. Is is possible to look at using a smaller more custom builder? Or do you have to use large scale crappy builders?
How about going and looking at some 80's/90's houses and see how they feel to you? Personally they don't feel cramped at all to me, although given the choice of ten foot ceilings that what I'd choose.
ITA about two story spaces. One other aspect of them is the heat loss. If you're in a cold climate having a staircase in your living space will make the room harder to heat, if you're in a warm climate it will help keep the downstairs cool.
ETA: I'm pretty sure hooked on houses did the closing off the two storey room and adding a bonus space.
http://hookedonhouses.net/2010/08/19/our-playroom-gets-a-new-look-with-board-and-batten/
http://hookedonhouses.net/2010/02/01/the-two-story-family-room-trend-out-or-in-for-2010/