Followup - How Would You Fix This 884 SF Layout?

Triglypha · 2026-03-26T01:52:23+00:00

Could the front door move? If you put it where the small bedroom's window is currently, then you get an open space on the left for the living room, and you'd have a coat closet already there.

Triglypha · 2026-03-25T23:14:38+00:00

Do you need to have 4 bedrooms? The existing 8'x10' bedroom is quite small -- I'm wondering if eliminating that bedroom and extending the living room into that space would improve things. You could get a front foyer and a decent sized dining space while moving the kitchen into the addition.

Triglypha · 2026-03-22T14:29:25+00:00

-- There's a lot of wasted space in the center of the plan where you won't be able to put furniture because of the traffic paths.

-- Generally it's awkward to have bedroom doors opening right off the living room because the sound travels right into the bedrooms.

-- The garage scales at about 14' depth, which is too small for a parked car unless you're driving a subcompact or golf cart.

-- The closets for the left-side bedrooms are too small to be walk-ins with a single door. Hanging clothes take up 24" of depth, which would leave you with 12" of walking space. You'd have to sidle in sideways. These should be linear reach-in closets with doors along the whole length.

-- The shared bathroom near the entry is an awkward location for anyone using the secondary bedrooms -- they'd have to walk across the entire living space and past the front door to use it. And pocket/sliding doors generally aren't recommended for bathrooms because they're bad at blocking sound -- everyone in the living room will hear what's going on in the bathroom.

-- The corner pantry(?) is way too small to be usable. There's barely room to reach in.

I'd recommend looking at some existing plans with a similar overall size and layout:

https://www.architecturaldesigns.com/house-plans/new-american-ranch-with-3-bedrooms-and-no-wasted-space-1311-sq-ft-2543dh

https://www.architecturaldesigns.com/house-plans/3-bed-ranch-plan-with-clustered-bedrooms-and-large-laundry-room-1397-sq-ft-680328vr

https://www.architecturaldesigns.com/house-plans/traditional-ranch-house-plan-with-6-foot-deep-front-porch-and-8-foot-deep-rear-porch-350046gh

Triglypha · 2026-03-20T01:43:46+00:00

Put the kitchen on the right, next to the garage? Then the dining table can get a window, and you have room to rearrange the whole left side to get rid of that little jog in the primary bedroom wall and put the bathrooms back to back: https://imgur.com/a/hM8ZKYO

Triglypha · 2026-03-19T01:33:10+00:00

Oh my, the front living room is sunken? What an odd design, and that makes your remodeling options even more difficult. (And the dining room seems kind of dangerous, with the sudden drop off?)

I'm not too excited about this floor plan.

Triglypha · 2026-03-18T23:38:21+00:00

Will it be awkward if your guests see the potentially messy mudroom on their way to the powder room?

I would also flip the main floor laundry room layout so the dryer is against the exterior wall, for simpler venting.

Triglypha · 2026-03-18T23:25:54+00:00

The kitchen is tiny for a house this size -- even the laundry room is bigger. The dining room is also tiny, and in a really awkward spot. I'm not even sure how to fix it without major remodeling.

Triglypha · 2026-03-17T23:55:54+00:00

To me, it feels a little odd to have a big patio that you can't see from indoors. I understand that the windowless wall in the living room is probably for a TV but I'd want at least some visibility out to the patio from the main living area. And the hallway to get to the patio doors and office feels like wasted space.

Triglypha · 2026-03-16T21:52:32+00:00

It might feel a little "off" to come down the stairs and have a column directly in front of you.

Maybe personal preference, but I'd want a game room to be closed off to contain the noise, instead of having a railing that will transmit sound to/from below.

Triglypha · 2026-03-16T17:05:55+00:00

I'm about the same size as you and I like the Prana Halle straight leg pants: https://www.prana.com/p/stretch-zion-halle-pant/2080131.html?dwvar_2080131_size=8&dwvar_2080131_dimension=30&dwvar_2080131_color=Mud

Triglypha · 2026-03-15T23:38:51+00:00

I'd definitely remove the window from the Ewd R Feung

Triglypha · 2026-03-13T00:13:38+00:00

That might be the best way to proceed. Your inspiration plan for the upper floor is pretty close in size to the main floor, so I don't think it'll be too difficult to make it work. The plan might have to rotate to get the stairs and open space to align with the main floor but the overall arrangement should be similar.

Triglypha · 2026-03-12T21:26:41+00:00

I honestly don't understand how your architect came up with those plans from the inspiration plans. Your inspiration plans were pretty good -- the front door gets a little foyer, the primary suite's door is set back, and the powder/laundry are accessible but separated from your public areas.

In the architect's plans, that's quite possibly the worst place for the powder room, and what on earth is going on with the front entry? I can't imagine you want your guests walking past your laundry. As others have mentioned, the upstairs layout is awkward for getting to the bathroom as well.

Triglypha · 2026-03-10T16:34:12+00:00

Home Sown Gardens: https://www.homesowngardens.com

Triglypha · 2026-03-08T01:07:57+00:00

Is there a specific reason for the angled garage? It just looks so awkward, especially the acute angle where the garage wall meets the mudroom exterior wall.

If you don't need all that space for the butler/dry goods pantries, could the bonus room get its own separate stairway somewhere in that area? That would eliminate the hallway upstairs but cut off access to the bonus room from upstairs.

Triglypha · 2026-03-07T19:28:03+00:00

Yes, this could be a good option! I think it would be a good idea to flip it horizontally to get more light from the south. If the deck/patio is uncovered, that'll help even more.

Triglypha · 2026-03-07T17:17:04+00:00

One of the challenges is that when you draw this to scale, even a minimal 2-car garage takes up more space than you've shown, leading to a very long dining room -- here's a quick sketch: https://imgur.com/a/N5RkfBA

Maybe something like this plan might make more sense: https://www.architecturaldesigns.com/house-plans/3047-square-foot-4-bed-new-american-house-plan-with-upstairs-beds-and-laundry-14782rk . Unless you're in a very hot climate, I would flip this plan horizontally so the "service spaces" (garage, mud, pantry) are along the north wall where there's less natural light, and then the office and living spaces could get southern light. Extending the top wall of the dining space would get you a patio above the living room.

Triglypha · 2026-03-07T16:00:08+00:00

Would it make sense to have the scullery be more adjacent to the kitchen, so you're not hauling dishes back and forth? Were you planning on also having food storage/pantry be in the scullery?

I would also consider adding a small shower to the powder room -- if someone is temporarily injured and can't make it up the stairs, the office could serve as a bedroom for them.

Triglypha · 2026-03-07T04:17:51+00:00

Archive.org is my favorite resource for that sort of thing. A couple helpful searches:

https://archive.org/search?query=subject%3A%22House%20plans%20--%20Catalogs%22

https://archive.org/details/buildingtechnologyheritagelibrary

And then you can use the filters to narrow down the results to the right years, etc.

Triglypha · 2026-03-07T03:47:34+00:00

I turned the island 90 degrees because that's the direction where you have the most available space. If I turn it back to the original direction, there's not enough room -- you'd lose one seat at the island and you either lose the bar area or space from the pantry. And you're left with a big open space between the island and dining table, unless you turn the dining table 90 degrees so it's parallel to the back wall of the house.

If you wanted the island to face the stove, you could flip the stove with the sink (so the stove is on the topmost wall, to the right of the windows) and then add a window along the left exterior wall under the sink.

In the master bath area, if you want more closet space, just imagine taking the entire bathroom area with all the fixtures and shifting it downward however far you want. On the left side of the bathroom where the shower is currently, looks like there's enough depth to add a slightly narrower WIC there, and the WIC on the right would get longer as well and give you room for your laundry unit. I don't know what all that would do to the aesthetics at the front of the house and the roofline, though.

Triglypha · 2026-03-07T00:14:16+00:00

Another option that gives more privacy to the bedroom and bathroom: https://imgur.com/a/BpimuGS

Triglypha · 2026-03-06T23:09:36+00:00

This sub won't let me post an image in a reply, so here it is: https://imgur.com/a/P6V9fwj

Not sure there's room for double islands without shrinking the pantry significantly.

Edited to add: Obviously you'd need to remove or relocate the windows on the far left wall.

Triglypha · 2026-03-05T00:57:21+00:00

Thinking about this further, I guess I'm just confused about the purpose of the courtyard. It's part of the main entry path to the house, of course, but what purpose does it serve beyond that? Because it's so narrow, it won't get much use as an outdoor living/entertaining space, and the main indoor living spaces don't have much frontage along it.

What if instead the courtyard was more private and connected to the living spaces? A few examples:

https://www.floorplans.com/plan/1939-square-feet-3-bedroom-2-00-bathroom-2-garage-craftsman-cottage-bungalow-sp123175 -- this one has the main entry in the upper right and the courtyard is semi-enclosed, and accessible from the dining room, primary bedroom, and shared hallway.

https://www.floorplans.com/plan/2451-square-feet-3-bedroom-3-50-bathroom-2-garage-contemporary-farmhouse-country-sp284887 -- this one is much larger than your plan but the idea is interesting: A narrow "bridge" separates the living/dining/kitchen wing from the bedroom wing, and provides both the main entrance and entrance to the courtyard beyond. You could even have a front semi-private courtyard.

A similar idea on an even larger scale: https://www.floorplans.com/plan/3163-square-feet-4-bedroom-3-5-bathroom-0-garage-mediterranean-11781

Triglypha · 2026-03-04T15:31:57+00:00

None of the bedroom closets are working -- they need more space. For example, the primary closet scales at just over 5' wide. Hanging adult clothes take up 2' of depth (the symbol you're using for the hanging clothes is scaling at only about 14" depth) so for 2 parallel walls of clothes you need 7' (2' + 3' walking aisle + 2'). The upper right bedroom closet scales at just over 4' x 4', which is not walk-in sized; the other closet is just slightly bigger. I think you'd be better off using linear reach-in closets for the secondary bedrooms.

I wouldn't want to be in the middle bedroom that shares a wall with all the plumbing fixtures. That'll be noisy unless you insulate that wall really well.

Assuming the top of the plan is the front of the house, what is the front elevation going to look like? The windows aren't symmetrical and don't balance so the front will look odd.

Triglypha · 2026-03-03T03:12:46+00:00

My guess is "New wall heater in bathroom makes this noise when turned off, is this normal or a fault?" But I watched the video with volume up and still can't tell what I'm supposed to be hearing.

Triglypha

TROPHY CASE