Floor plan -- usability

This blog has been pretty dang stagnant since I returned to Japan. I'll invite Dad to the blog, let's see if he can get into the swing of posting photos here.

And now, a realistic "How to USE the space" floorplan: (Click to zoom in and read it)

Flooplan 2.Lance

Let's make our house better! Here's my idea the house can change: a new flooplan!



As you can tell from the next post, today I had some free time. Click below on Labels: floorplan to easily compare with other versions.

What do you think of my floorplan idea? The new parts are in bold. The big [?] is either a storage closet, or a stacked washer/dryer.

If you like, you can make your own version of a new floorplan. The easy way to do that is open this blank one, which also has lables for a few things with Paint (in Windows, Start > All Programs > Accessories > Paint. For Mac is it still called Paintbrush?) For those vector graphics artists out there, I'm happy to share my Inkscape *.svg files by email. (Me likey free Inkscape.)

Floorplan 2.0

This one isn't exactly to scale, but it is much much closer. Having a floorplan closer to reality helps you realize things like "Oh, that window doesn't line up" or "the man who built this house was on crack." You know, helpful things.

Floorplan

Here's a 5 minute sketch of the house as it is now. It is not correct, but it is close. The little marks against the outside walls denote windows, and the part with lots of little lines are the stairs. The windows marked with a "D" are dormers.

1F = first floor. There are two fireplaces: a small one in the SE corner "front room," and a very large one in the far west "greatroom." There is a huge huge window on the western wall of the greatroom. The room in the middle of the house is the kitchen. The thing with the four little circles is the stovetop (range) island. The kitchen sink is in front of the window. Between the kitchen and the greatroom are a lot of smaller rooms that we are considering to move: kitchen pantry, closets, laundry room, bathroom, and storage rooms. The view to the S and SE is very nice, and those small rooms block the view.

2F = second floor. The part with all the lines are the stairs. MB = master bedroom. (But it doesn't really have a bathroom in it, so the only reason for calling it "master" bedroom is because it has so many windows.) C = closet, but there is one small room which is mostly a separate closet for the MB.