Floor Plan - would this annoy you?

[cuadrado]

We're working on the drawings for a renovation on our house. We're building an addition to the back of the house which will include a garage, mud room, and then an additional room that would either be the family room or the kitchen. The mud room will have a drop zone, sink, and probably a cabinet or two for storage.

We are taking the existing galley kitchen + family room and knocking down the wall to make it an open room. It will either be the kitchen or family room depending on what we decide to put in the addition.

Would it be annoying to have the family room connected to the mud room / garage? We prefer this option for a lot of different reasons, but it would mean we would have to walk through the family room to get to the kitchen when we're carrying in groceries. It's not a straight shot either... the kitchen entrance would be on the front corner of the family room and the mud room would be on the back opposite corner. 

We don't have kids but we do want to keep the floor plan family-friendly just in case we sell this house later on down the road.

[nicolewi]

At first glance, I would hate this. No way do I want to be walking through the family room (and not directly) every time we come in from the garage with groceries.

That said, maybe it's still your best option if you look at all the factors? But this definitely wouldn't be my first choice!

[tacokick]

I don’t think it’s a deal breaker. I don’t have a garage so walk through the front door, through the living room to the kitchen with groceries. I’ve never lived (or honestly, really been in) a house where you just walked directly into the kitchen. Even my friends with garages and big suburban homes have floor plans that pop you into the living room or a mud room, not the kitchen.

[Susie]

The first thing that occurs to me is flooring choices, and how they may or may not be impacted.  My family room is HW floor with area rug.  I wouldn't want to be walking across that, especially in winter, back and forth to get from the mudroom to the kitchen (which is vinyl tile, and we plan to eventually do ceramic tile) whenever I'm hauling stuff in.

If you plan to have the kitchen in the same flooring as the rest of the house that would not be an issue, but I don't do HW floors in rooms with water sources.

[dr.girlfriend]

I don't think it's terrible. Like the other poster said, we don't have a garage but we walk in the front door and go either through the living room or dining room to the kitchen. In reality I bring all the groceries in and leave them in the hall by the front door, then take my shoes off and unload them the rest of the way in the house.

[purplepenguin7]

It wouldn't be a deal breaker for me per se, but if I were designing a layout from scratch that wouldn't be my first choice. I would prefer mud room --> kitchen access as I feel like thats what i typically see in houses and makes the most sense to me. 

My old house we walked directly into the kitchen from the garage and my new house we use the side door (no attached garage) that enters into the kitchen when we have groceries so I guess it's just what I am used to. 

[SusanBAnthony]

It wouldn't bother me. I've lived in a lot of houses with much less ideal setups. The worst had the garage on the far end from the kitchen. You walked in a mudroom/laundry room, then down a long carpeted hallway (light cream carpet of course!), Across the foyer, across the dining room (more cream carpet) and then into the kitchen.

I would just put in hard flooring that could easily be mopped.

[cosmowife]

This would bother me. In fact, it is the main reason why I am hesitant on adding a similar garage addition to our house. There is no good way to get from the potential garage to the kitchen, which to me makes it not worth spending the money in the first place. My solution to the problem is to build a much bigger addition which includes a new kitchen, but I also don’t want to spend like $400k on an addition.

[lessel]

Wouldn't be a deal breaker. Our garage opens to our family room. But our kitchen is like immediately adjacent. So it's not a walk through the family room to carry groceries or whatnot inside, but we do enter into the family room first.


ETA: Here’s a pic. Door with windows goes into the garage. To the left you walk to the kitchen.



Also, coming from a neighborhood before that had a lot of carports where they connected via an overhang to the front door, a lot of those houses you walked through the living room to the kitchen. Never struck me as odd.

[InBetweenDays]

I've never lived in a house with an attached garage so this would not be an issue for us. 99% of the time I park on the street and walk the groceries in the front door and to the kitchen. I don't have to walk through a family room but the front door doesn't take me right into the kitchen.

I'd rather have the house layout I want and deal with having to walk a few extra steps with the groceries. As a PP mentioned - you can put all the groceries in the mud room, then take off your shoes and bring the groceries into the kitchen.

[wanderingback]

Well considering ever since I’ve been an adult and half my childhood houses you walked through the front door and then through another room before reaching the kitchen this wouldn’t bother me at all.

And these days I don’t even have the privilege of driving to get groceries! I’m hauling them multiple blocks in my 2 arms and then have to take more steps when I get home!

[macmars45]

H and I bring all the groceries to the mud room, take off our shoes & coats and then take them to the kitchen. Our garage connects to a mud room which connects to a hallway then open dining/living and then the kitchen. So not ideal but not a deal breaker. In my entire life I've only lived in two houses where the garage/mud room lead basically directly to the kitchen or dining rooms. Every other home had you traipsing through the living and/or dining rooms to get to the kitchen.

[rooster222]

At first, I was going to say yes, but then I realized we practically have to do this and I've never even noticed it. Our garage connects to a hallway and that hall opens to the family room/kitchen. We have a peninsula in the kitchen so we basically have to walk the length of the family room to get in the kitchen.

Our pantry is in that garage hallway but that is a whole different issue. I guess it's closer for unloading groceries but my pantry isn't in the kitchen which is not at all convenient.

[wildrice]

I've never really thought about it before, but my current house is the first one I've ever lived in where the kitchen opens to the door where I'd bring in groceries. And this is because our kitchen is at the front of the house, which I think is fairly unusual and probably not my favorite layout anyway. So, I think what you describe sounds fine!

[ellipses84]

I don’t think it’s that odd if you family room kitchen area are one big room, especially if family room/ mud room go out to a back yard or side yard. Distance and layout matter though, for how far you’ll need to haul groceries and I’d make sure your floors in the path of travel are easily cleanable.

[cuadrado]

Thanks everyone for your input!

Another thing I was thinking about is if we put storage for things like paper towels and cleaning supplies in our mudroom? So when you're carrying in groceries, it's truly just kitchen stuff.

Susie, the mud room will be tile but the rest of the house has hardwoods. We will have an area rug in the middle of the family room, but you would walk around the outside where there are hardwoods. That's a good point about cleaning things.

ellipses84, they will be 2 separate rooms. I wish I could figure out how to post a picture! The front corner of the family room would connect at the back corner of the kitchen if that makes sense. We actually have an open floor plan in our current house and we HATE it! We're trying to keep an open feel but they will be separated.

nicolewi, these are some of the reasons we feel like it would be preferable to us:

- We could vault the ceiling in the family room, which is something we would love to do. The house is build in the 60s and the floor plan isn't very open, so I feel like a vaulted ceiling in the family room would make it feel a little more modern and fresh.
- We have a lot more options for adding in natural light while still maintaining privacy. The side of the wall faces our neighbor's house, but we could put smaller windows towards the top of the wall. That part of the house is also pretty dark so we're thinking about ways to add light. If you use the room for a kitchen then you start having to make the choice between cabinets and windows.
- The existing space has a perfect spot to put the sink at a window overlooking the backyard. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and love it when I can look outside when I'm washing dishes. If we use the addition for the kitchen then it won't be facing the backyard. Not a total dealbreaker.
- Probably the biggest financial factor: We could make the room as spacious as we wanted and it would be cheaper square footage since it's just an open room (vs. if we made it a kitchen, the larger area is going to mean more cabinets and countertop costs). We are trying to add on as much square footage where we can but as cheap as possible just to increase the value of the house some. This will be our second renovation and we regret not thinking of things like this when we worked on our previous house plans.

[ellipses84]

I’ve lived in a couple houses where the garage had a door in the center leading to a family room, then you’d turn right, go up a couple steps into the kitchen, which had a half wall overlooking the lower family room. Anyways, the length to the kitchen island was about the distance of one room, which I think is fine. Just make sure you have a fairly clear path and somewhere to easily set down your groceries as close as you can. I like the idea of mud room pantry storage for bulk goods/ paper products.

[dr.girlfriend]

Mar 1, 2022 6:53:37 GMT -5 cuadrado said:

Thanks everyone for your input!

Another thing I was thinking about is if we put storage for things like paper towels and cleaning supplies in our mudroom? So when you're carrying in groceries, it's truly just kitchen stuff.

We also have a second fridge in our mudroom/laundry room, and honestly a lot of stuff goes in that fridge/freezer -- all the extra gallons of milk, etc.

[af1212]

I have never had an attached garage. Also for the last few years I have been getting my groceries delivered so they come to my front door. I carry them through my living room, then dining room, then into my kitchen.

If I drove with my groceries they would either be unloaded in my driveway and then through kitchen door, or through my my front door so same as above. If they are taken through the kitchen I actually walk them to the dining room because our galley kitchen is too small to unpack bags and open cabinets to put things away.

So clearly this would not bother me.

As for walking on the floors that wouldn’t bother me either.

[nicolewi]

I get it, if it's what works best for you, go for it!

I'm coming from the perspective of having four kids, tons of groceries, and living in a climate that gets cold/snowy, so I don't want to be hauling stuff across my living room floor with dirty boots all the time, or tromping through where someone's watching TV. It sounds like it would work fine for you and for most people.

[Cheerio]

I think this probably depends on your area and, when selling, the floor plans of the comparable houses in your area. So, while people in this thread are saying that they don't have a connected garage so it wouldn't matter to them, it would likely be very different if most houses in your area offered a connected garage with a more ideal floorplan.

Ultimately, though, you should plan the house for yourselves and not for resale value as long as you're not doing anything completely crazy, which it doesn't sound like you're doing.

[cuadrado]

Mar 3, 2022 14:38:28 GMT -5 Cheerio said:

I think this probably depends on your area and, when selling, the floor plans of the comparable houses in your area. So, while people in this thread are saying that they don't have a connected garage so it wouldn't matter to them, it would likely be very different if most houses in your area offered a connected garage with a more ideal floorplan.

Ultimately, though, you should plan the house for yourselves and not for resale value as long as you're not doing anything completely crazy, which it doesn't sound like you're doing.

This is a good point. Most of the houses in this neighborhood are similar to the original house unless someone has come in and renovated them. This is also the type of neighborhood that is really desirable, so most people would just be happy to get into a newly renovated house there. 

[cuadrado]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. After sitting on it, we decided to place the kitchen beside the garage and mudroom, and extend an exterior wall on the existing house to make the family room a little more spacious. Deciding to extend the exterior wall solved a lot of problems with the whole design. Hoping it won't be too expensive when we bid it out since we're already building an addition right there anyway.