r/houseplans

Simple house for a simple, minimalist life

Hi all
I own this house with my wife. https://imgur.com/a/A1eNgNI

My parents are getting very frail and don't own their own place and we are thinking of having them move in to live with us so I can take care of them.

We initially bought this house with that idea in mind.

What alterations could I do to the floor plan to give an "us" and "them" section with privacy for both parties. Maybe throw in 2 walls and would need to add a small kitchen too somewhere on their side to make it work.

We have previously lived with them, and honestly it was very hard for my wife as she adores privacy. So I want it set up in a way where they can live their life and have their own friends over, and we can live ours and have hour own friends over.

We have 2 kids as well so our side will need to be bigger (parents will need 1x room, 1x bathroom, 1x kitchenette). We can share the laundry.

The front entry is separate and the stairs in the middle go to a separate downstairs entry FYI.

Thanks in advance!

We’ve bought a small house that hasn’t been updated since the 70’s when it was built. We have 2 months to change the kitchen and bathrooms and would also be open to taking walls out. We plan on removing the door in the kitchen to make more wall space as well as the small wall between the fridge and laundry area.
Some other changes we are mulling over:

-extend the entry closet which would create a longer living room wall where a couch could live and more closet space

-remove the wall between the kitchen and living room - but other than opening up the space I’m not sure what it would be

-move the laundry into the hallway and lose some closet space

Thank you for any and all suggestions!! Our renos (which we are doing Ourselves start in 2 weeks!!

Please, without just bashing what we have (because I know it’s bad which is why I’m coming here for help), can someone please give me ideas. We are using an existing plan from our builder and want to keep the dimensions the same, which means the garage cannot move. We will have a walk out basement so we also cannot add “jut outs” to the back. We are building on 50 acres and the land is totally secluded/private. We are going for a farmhouse feel. This is just the main floor. My MUSTS are dining room, island, walk in/hidden cabinet pantry, laundry room, master with walk in closet and separate tub/shower, and we plan to add a tub shower to the powder room. Ignore the stairs in the garage. Those will move. Can someone PLEASE help me with ideas to get the pantry closer to the garage entrance. We would also love to have some type of sliding glass door along back of house to lead to the back deck. I am open to moving the dining room out of the “jut out” if needed. We also cannot put anything underneath the stairs and we will have stairs leading to basement. I am open to moving the placement of the stairs as well. Pleaseeeee help!

We're considering putting an offer on this house, but just wondering if any sober second, third+ eyes can spot any issues we'd be dealing with.

One possibly annoying thing missing is a defined "getting ready to go out" space. The front door has a closet at least but it's a little far from the door, and the back door which is closer to the garage just abruptly leaves the kitchen/living room.

Laundry room is a little small, and I figure if we're going to hang any delicates to dry it would have to be in the foyer.

Basement is intended to have a rental suite but it seems a little convoluted. Two separate crawl spaces seems odd and accessing storage in the left crawl space seems very difficult.

Any other thoughts?

Can't move any external walls but curious to know people's thoughts on the space, if any changes or improvements could be made that we've not thought of

So my wife and I are having a hard time finding plans that we both like. The one that we did like is WAY too big. (Plan # 1070-119 from houseplans.com) The one we did find ends up being over 5000sf after adding a basement (Similar to #1070-253). We want a walkout basement and we have 3 kids so we definitely need 4 bedrooms. We would really be happy with 3000-3500sf but can't find anything in that range that looks similar to this plan that we liked. Personally, my favorite part of the plan is the look of the front exterior with the gables and rooflines.

We want all the kids on one floor and then the master on the main floor with maybe a guestroom/"office" space for when someone is visiting. A decent size kitchen/ livingroom space for family gatherings is also kind of important but not 100% necessary. We liked the idea of having bedrooms on a second floor and then the basement be for a built in safe, large longterm food storage, media room, and a couple other things but I don't think that's a very efficient use of a full basement. If we have to put bedrooms in a basement and cut out the 2nd story then it is what it is.

Hopefully this kind of post isn't frowned upon in this sub.

I guess I'm just hoping someone has seen some alternative plans that I haven't come across yet. Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

These are plans I drew up two years ago and had a local draftsman put together for me, here I am two years later about to start building at the end of this summer. But after seeing more options I fear this layout isn't optimal

The main views of the lot are out the rear and left side, so I've tried to capture as much of that in our main living spaces as possible, with Bedroom #3 being my partners hobby space.

My main hesitation is while I feel like this has everything I want, it doesn't feel like it has very good flow, or a particularly good use of space, and the great room feels like it should be rear facing, I fear it's time for a redesign.

Things I need

• 3 Car side entrance garage
• 3 bedroom + office or 4 BR
• Walk in pantry
• big master closet
• screened in patio with view to rear of lot
• Utility with Dogwash

We're considering putting an offer on this house, but the living, dining, kitchen area feels like it needs some work.

The kitchen feels small with all these angles in it, and the stairs to the basement Are pretty far out of the way.

The living room is long and narrow, which I expect would be difficult to o change but could be more comfortable with better furniture arrangements.

There is a fireplace in the living that is not able to be moved.

The black and white is the basement.

The layout as is is workable, but not ideal, and I lack the creativity to imagine what we could do with it.

EDIT: Thank you everyone, we ended up not offering on the home. Back to the hunt!

Lost our house in the LA wildfires last year and we’re now deep into the rebuild process.

We’re close to finalizing our plans and would really appreciate feedback.

Main house - 2055 sqft

JADU - 273 sqft

Thank you!

We’re building 3600 sq ft house in Idaho. The lot is located near a lake set on a 1 acre lot that overlooks a wooded stream.

Our spec was:
- 3-4 bedrooms
- orientated around a front courtyard
- back deck is more for evening drinks / fire pit looking into the woods
- master and guests on different sides.
- great room + separate tv area
- small area for desks.

I’d feedback about what we’re overlooking and what could be further improved. Many thanks.

I would like to remove this door from the plans.
Any idea of how to arrange the rooms to not have a ‘dead end’ hallway, or even what to put in the area to make it look nice??
Thank you, PS I’m Irish, hence the different floor plans and no garage

I want to make it three bedrooms and reduce the overall footprint to 176 m2..I want to remove the study also and make the boot room and utility the same room...thoughts?

Hi everyone, I’m building a house in Ireland and really struggling to visualise the spaces from our 2D floor plans as I’ve no construction/architecture background. I’ve been quoted €400–€600 just for 3D images/design help, which is sadly out of budget for me as a teacher.
Does anyone know of any affordable people, apps, websites or budget-friendly options that could help me visualise the house better? Would really appreciate any recommendations — thank you!

Big Three on this House plan

1. 8 or 9 foot high ceilings (If I have the cathedral in the living, kitchen, dining area, peak will be around 11' 8")

2. Bulkheads above the cabinets, how will this look in the cathedral ceiling

3. General Layout?