Second Draft of Preliminary Floor Plans
After we sent our feedback to the preliminary draft, we waited several days and our designer sent a second draft. We were able to shave some square footage off the plan, and this was when we really decided that we probably didn’t need to squeeze any more square footage, and instead focus on the actual layout and details.
The only change we requested on the site plan was to center the house more on the lot - giving us a good balance of side yard on each side. This also allows us to avoid the slight slope we start to have on the left side of our property, positioning the house more on the flat area. We may tweak this a little as we start to consider landscaping, but generally, this feels like a good placement for us.
When it came to the floor plan changes, our designer was able to accommodate pretty much all of the changes we wanted to the general layout. At least as it stands right now. There are several things we really love about the layout where it stands now:
We love that the entrance to the master bedroom is through a small alcove. This helps with two things: privacy as you go out to the backyard, and centralizing the door into the room on the wall in the bedroom, making it so that you aren’t walking into the room directly into a nightstand. Behind the door in the alcove will likely be some built-in shelving, making a great storage place for extra bedding or even decor.
We love the large closet in the laundry room as opposed to having a bunch of cabinetry. When considering where we might store vacuums and brooms, it is always tough when you have a laundry room with a bunch of base cabinets and countertops because you lose a lot of space for storing those tall/long items.
We love the shelving on each side of the tub. One of the biggest complaints we see often about freestanding tubs (which is what we plan to put there) is that there’s no ledge or space to put your products. And then you can’t reach anything from in the tub. The way I see most people overcome this is by putting a side table or a shelf near the tub.
I love the little corner next to the shower that looks like it would be a dead corner, but because the last several houses we’ve lived in have never had a good place to put towel hooks, this is something I’m really happy about seeing. It shows you the level of attention our designer is already putting in as he’s designing things. I know you can always put suction cup hooks on the shower glass or something like that, but that just isn’t the vibe I necessarily want.
We love how many cased openings there are in the house. It’s little details like that that make the boring doorways more interesting in a final build. And while we may not trim them out during the initial build, it is something I will enjoy doing as a little DIY later. People will come at me for already planning DIY projects in the house, but I look at so many of the little areas and think of things I can do that will be so fun! Including the yard! Call us crazy, but we’re stoked to have an acre to work with!
The main initial concerns we had with this draft were whether or not the corners/hallways would be a challenge to get furniture into the rooms. The hallways are oversized, but there are still a couple tight corners. So our designer made a few changes and took an extra measure to show us that larger furniture pieces could fit through them.
We’re at a point with this where we’re going to simmer on it for a while - probably until after the holidays. Because even just in the few days we’ve had this revision, before writing this post, we’ve started to compile a list. It also will give me some time to start to “place” furniture and map those things out to see how it feels. All of these things will play a role in decisions on the general floor plan and whether or not things need to change from what it is.
Most importantly, we know this is very close to what we’ll want in a final plan!
