Anyone want to give opinions on plans for an addition?

[Cheerio]

Originally, DH and I worked with an architect for a large addition. Unfortunately, the cost of that was prohibitive, so we've been working with a designer to see if we can get everything we want within our current budget. She came up with a design plan, we made some tweaks, and this is the result. I don't have a plan of the current layout, but this plan adds on a little over 8 feet to the right hand side of the house, which is behind the garage. The white space where "addition" is typed is our current two car garage. We really want a mudroom, as our door from our garage currently comes directly into our kitchen. Additionally, our current kitchen is very small, so we'd like to expand it, add storage, and preferably have a place to sit at a counter. This plan adds all of those things. While the view has a washer and dryer in the mudroom, I would prefer to have a closed coat closet. Our laundry is currently in the basement and I don't mind that. However, we have discussed stubbing in the plumbing for a washer and dryer in the room eventually, but it would potentially add $10-15k to the project.

One concern I have is that, coming in the front door, you will see the backs of chairs at the table but not the table as a whole due to the entry walls when looking towards the back of the house. I'm also concerned that there really isn't enough space for the table and chairs where it is currently place. Another question I have is that she currently has a window above the range. She says that losing the natural light from the window will make the house darker, which I agree with, but I'm concerned about the splatters on the window and am considering asking her to remove the window and put a vent hood there instead.

Anyway, I would appreciate any and all thoughts on this plan. It is in our budget and blowing out the back of the house and adding on isn't, so while that may be a better plan, it isn't currently feasible.

Attachments:

[Cheerio]

More renderings.

Attachments:

[Mrs.flang]

Nov 13, 2018 11:53:48 GMT -5 Cheerio said:

One concern I have is that, coming in the front door, you will see the backs of chairs at the table but not the table as a whole due to the entry walls when looking towards the back of the house. I'm also concerned that there really isn't enough space for the table and chairs where it is currently place. Another question I have is that she currently has a window above the range. She says that losing the natural light from the window will make the house darker, which I agree with, but I'm concerned about the splatters on the window and am considering asking her to remove the window and put a vent hood there instead.

I don't think seeing the back of the chairs when you walk in is that big of a deal.  I definitely understand having little things like that bother you - I was obsessed with not having the refrigerator on a wall where you would see it when you walk in, even though a lot of people here said it wouldn't bother them. 

I'm not very good at this stuff, but would it work to move the island across the kitchen into a peninsula coming out next to the sink, and then you could move the table where the island is now?  That would also give room to expand the table longer into the living room if you have parties or holidays there. 

I agree that I wouldn't be thrilled with a window over the range.  Everything seems so open though, so I'm skeptical it will really make the area THAT much darker.

[lilac05]

Is this a home you plan to live in “forever”? Talk to your real estate agent if you think you may sell within the next 5-10 years. It may be worth the extra expense to have the main level laundry option.

Being able to see the chairs might be something that would bother me if it was MY house, but it wouldn’t even occur to me if it was someone else’s house.

In addition to the lighting, I also wonder if I’d like just one off-center window in a room. It may be just fine, but I’m having a hard time picturing it right now. What’s the natural light like in your house now? Our house faces east/west, so we need all the windows we can get. Our last house was north/south, and we had better natural light with fewer windows. To test the lighting, you could hang black garbage bags or something else that would completely block the light and see what it feels like.

[fryjack2]

Are you set on the dining room being where it is? Do you need two sitting areas?

Would you consider moving the dining room to that area to the right of the door behind the island?

Put the family room where the dining room currently is? Might be nice to have that space for the kids to be hanging out in while you and your H are in the kitchen and laundry room.

I would 100% want a hood over the range. You have a window and a door in the kitchen, plus its open to the rest of the house that appears to have lots of light.

[froggy76]

I would put the dining room in the front of the house instead of having two sitting areas. It doesn't look to me like there's enough space to move around the table where it's currently placed. By doing that, you could even make the bar area a little bigger.

The dishwasher could go to the right of the sink or in the bar if you want the range to be between the two windows. I'm planning to move my range between two windows and I've looked at a lot of pics like this that are really pretty. You can do a nice, big wood range hood that way. However, I have a friend whose range is in front of a window, and she has a mostly glass range hood that doesn't block much light at all. It looks really nice, so I wouldn't rule it out if you otherwise like the kitchen layout.

Also, do you have a 1st floor powder room? I don't see one, but I'd rather have that than move the washer and dryer to the 1st floor.

ETA: Do you mind sharing how much you expect this project to cost? I feel like our project is potentially very similar. We were looking at an 8x11 addition plus a full kitchen renovation and removal of some walls, and we got two estimates over $150k, which shocked me.

[zarapipe]

I also don't love the dining room placement and would prefer it in the front room. Our dining room set up is similar to your proposed- right in between the kitchen and great room. It's just weird. Weird to make it larger, weird to walk around, etc. I would prefer it in an actual "room" or at least a wall or two around it, but for us that isn't possible.

We have our laundry room in with our mud room and I really like it. Is's so easy to switch out laundry, etc with it being right off the kitchen. It would probably cost less though to put the washer and dryer on the back wall, the same wall as the fridge?

[munkii]

There's no triangle, which is slightly awkward, but not a big deal. However, if there's not going to be a triangle, there needs to be an order to things, which means fridge, sink/prep, range. Right now, you'll pull stuff from the fridge, move all the way down to the sink area for prep, and then go to the range. If the sink is moved to the window where the range is currently located, the range can move down to where the sink is currently located, and the window can go away since it's next to a big sliding door.

WRT the dining table: it's awkward. It looks like there's about 42" between the end of the island and the edge of the table, so it should work, but visually it doesn't. If you move the table to the front room, you have two options: 1) keep the same table and have a small sitting area near the front windows, or 2) get a bigger table and more dining furniture, like a buffet.

[Cheerio]

Nov 13, 2018 12:50:37 GMT -5 Mrs.flang said:

Nov 13, 2018 11:53:48 GMT -5 Cheerio said:

One concern I have is that, coming in the front door, you will see the backs of chairs at the table but not the table as a whole due to the entry walls when looking towards the back of the house. I'm also concerned that there really isn't enough space for the table and chairs where it is currently place. Another question I have is that she currently has a window above the range. She says that losing the natural light from the window will make the house darker, which I agree with, but I'm concerned about the splatters on the window and am considering asking her to remove the window and put a vent hood there instead.

I don't think seeing the back of the chairs when you walk in is that big of a deal.  I definitely understand having little things like that bother you - I was obsessed with not having the refrigerator on a wall where you would see it when you walk in, even though a lot of people here said it wouldn't bother them. 

I'm not very good at this stuff, but would it work to move the island across the kitchen into a peninsula coming out next to the sink, and then you could move the table where the island is now?  That would also give room to expand the table longer into the living room if you have parties or holidays there. 

I agree that I wouldn't be thrilled with a window over the range.  Everything seems so open though, so I'm skeptical it will really make the area THAT much darker.

One of the other design options was similar to your suggestion, but it was too tight and really cut off the access from the kitchen to the backyard, which is important because DH grills a lot. We would also lose our largest counter top run because we'd need to move the sink over.

[Cheerio]

Nov 13, 2018 19:54:58 GMT -5 fryjack2 said:

Are you set on the dining room being where it is? Do you need two sitting areas?

Would you consider moving the dining room to that area to the right of the door behind the island?

Put the family room where the dining room currently is? Might be nice to have that space for the kids to be hanging out in while you and your H are in the kitchen and laundry room.

I would 100% want a hood over the range. You have a window and a door in the kitchen, plus its open to the rest of the house that appears to have lots of light.

Our original plan had our dining table between the sitting area and the island, but it's really tight there, too. (Also, we only have one kid and he's seven, so we're not really worried about having eyes on him all the time.)

We really like having two sitting areas, because our family room (upper left in the plans) doesn't have enough seating for anyone but our family. When people come over, we sit in the living room and chat.

[Cheerio]

Nov 13, 2018 22:43:09 GMT -5 froggy76 said:

I would put the dining room in the front of the house instead of having two sitting areas. It doesn't look to me like there's enough space to move around the table where it's currently placed. By doing that, you could even make the bar area a little bigger.

The dishwasher could go to the right of the sink or in the bar if you want the range to be between the two windows. I'm planning to move my range between two windows and I've looked at a lot of pics like this that are really pretty. You can do a nice, big wood range hood that way. However, I have a friend whose range is in front of a window, and she has a mostly glass range hood that doesn't block much light at all. It looks really nice, so I wouldn't rule it out if you otherwise like the kitchen layout.

Also, do you have a 1st floor powder room? I don't see one, but I'd rather have that than move the washer and dryer to the 1st floor.

ETA: Do you mind sharing how much you expect this project to cost? I feel like our project is potentially very similar. We were looking at an 8x11 addition plus a full kitchen renovation and removal of some walls, and we got two estimates over $150k, which shocked me.

We really like having a living room and family room.

The dishwasher really needs to be next to the sink; it doesn't make sense for it to be across in the bar.

No first floor powder room, but our house is a ranch. The door way on the left goes down a hallway to four bedroom and a hall bath. I don't think a powder room near the mudroom would be that useful.

Our contractor gave us a ballpark estimate of $100-125k for this, depending on whether we could put the addition on a slab or needed a crawl space (the crawl space is what adds the cost for the washer and dryer).

[juliachild]

Could you have a long and narrow island with seating on one end and then move the dining area in between the island and front sitting area.

Something like this for the island.

[kermit]

What about ditching the dining table altogether and extending the island out a few more feet? You could extend it straight out or make the extension lower (table height instead of bar height). That way the extension becomes the dining table and saves space. If you aren't married to the idea of barstools I've also seen it where they extended the lower dining part out toward your living room. You wouldn't have barstools that way but would still have the counter space. I'm seeing pics on Pinterest but don't know how to link them here correctly - I googled "kitchen island with lower seating".

[froggy76]

Nov 14, 2018 13:04:21 GMT -5 Cheerio said:

Nov 13, 2018 22:43:09 GMT -5 froggy76 said:

I would put the dining room in the front of the house instead of having two sitting areas. It doesn't look to me like there's enough space to move around the table where it's currently placed. By doing that, you could even make the bar area a little bigger.

The dishwasher could go to the right of the sink or in the bar if you want the range to be between the two windows. I'm planning to move my range between two windows and I've looked at a lot of pics like this that are really pretty. You can do a nice, big wood range hood that way. However, I have a friend whose range is in front of a window, and she has a mostly glass range hood that doesn't block much light at all. It looks really nice, so I wouldn't rule it out if you otherwise like the kitchen layout.

Also, do you have a 1st floor powder room? I don't see one, but I'd rather have that than move the washer and dryer to the 1st floor.

ETA: Do you mind sharing how much you expect this project to cost? I feel like our project is potentially very similar. We were looking at an 8x11 addition plus a full kitchen renovation and removal of some walls, and we got two estimates over $150k, which shocked me.

We really like having a living room and family room.

The dishwasher really needs to be next to the sink; it doesn't make sense for it to be across in the bar.

No first floor powder room, but our house is a ranch. The door way on the left goes down a hallway to four bedroom and a hall bath. I don't think a powder room near the mudroom would be that useful.

Our contractor gave us a ballpark estimate of $100-125k for this, depending on whether we could put the addition on a slab or needed a crawl space (the crawl space is what adds the cost for the washer and dryer).

I meant the sink and dishwasher could move to the island together.

I understand the desire for two sitting areas- that's my preference too. I still think it will be tight around the table where it is in the plan. It might be tight if you move it to the front of the island, too, but in that case there are other ways to get around the house. Where it is now is right in the middle of traffic flow. You could also make the island a true island- move it over toward the family room 3-4 feet, and closer to the back of the house a couple feet. That will give you more of a "gathering" area around the island and also create more space in the front room so you can fit both your table and a sitting area.

That estimate seems reasonable. I have my laundry in the basement and I don't mind it so the cost of moving upstairs probably wouldn't be worth it for me. Then you need to keep the laundry area tidy lol!

[bellalynn]

Just as an FYI, we have a 1st floor full bathroom (also down the hall), however, we also added a powder room to our breezeway and it was well worth it. It's so good for guests or of someone is outside, etc. they don't have to walk through the house.

I agree a closed closet is pretty essential in a mudroom, however, that could be something that can be pretty easily built or worked around.

[fryjack2]

Can you knock down the wall between the living room and dining room? So you have a long rectangular space to use as one big living room or a little breathing room for the dining area.