Your ideal home layout

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

I have a bathroom (should be a half bath … there’s a story) right next to the garage and the place we hang coats. It’s a nice place to wash up if I’ve done anything dirty. I generally wash my hands when i get home if I’ve been dancing (holding hands with everyone in the room) or if i took public transit, or, of course, if I’ve been doing yard work and have actual dirt on my hands. It’s also convenient when we have contractors working outdoors, i can invite them to use the bathroom without worrying that they’ll tramp mud through the house.

That’s in addition to the bathroom that’s handy to guests on the living room.

I quite like my bonus bathroom. (And I’d like it more if the prior owner hadn’t squeezed a shower stall into it, but it still works fine.)

22

The house we live in now is pretty close. One story, which was very useful after my wife got new knees and a new hip, and which will be more important later. There is a wing with the five bedrooms, two of which are offices, the master bedroom with bath, and a full bath the kids used when they lived here. Then there is a dining room we seldom use. A pocket door separates the foyer from the kitchen, and two more pocket doors separate the kitchen from the laundry room which has a half bath and the living room. The pocket doors are great since they don’t take up room and they can allows someone to watch TV while someone else plays the radio while cooking or cleaning.
The only thing I would have liked is a finished basement, like our house in NJ had, but that isn’t feasible in the Bay Area it seems.
Another good thing about the layout is that we able to set up zoned heating, so we can turn off heat in the bedroom wing when we are in the other wing and vice versa. When we have lots of people those in the living room don’t disturb those in the bedrooms.

23

Pocket doors is actually a really good idea for when you need sound isolation between common areas.

24

Ideally, yes, I would want to have sound insulation between rooms in my “ideal” house. I think mineral wool batting is used for that along with staggering alternate studs.

Also, I like the idea of underfloor heating, particularly where the floors are tiled or wood.

25

We have that in our kitchen and master bath. It’s really nice.

My ideal house is pretty close to what we have now. A large modern, open kitchen. Master suite far enough away that we don’t hear a thing when the kids are grandkids are visiting. Water views from almost all rooms. Fireplace in the bedroom, another in the kitchen/dining room.

26

2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and I’d basically make my home a mini-museum. All kinds of displays of national flags, world maps, airplanes, insects and animals, and a huge wall poster showing the immense size of space and the universe.

27

If I ever build a house it will be like houses used to be. Every space divided by walls. I hate open floor plan… I cannot understand why everyone thinks that it is a great idea to have everything in the same damn room. It’s like being in a hanger or something like that. Kitchen should be separate from the living room and closed off, so if you cook something stinky or burn something you can vent it out side before it stinks up the whole house… dining room is a dining room and living room is a living room and separate rooms. And bed rooms are to be upstairs away from public space. And any “public” bathroom is down a hall and around a corner, where it belongs not immediately off the living room or dining area… Victorian house type floor plan… what ever happened to service porches? And scullery rooms?

28

We know someone who rebuilt their house after a fire with an open floor plan. It was a disaster. If someone wanted to watch TV while someone was in the kitchen cooking they’d have to wear headphones to block the noise and not be annoying.
We are grateful to have a door to our kitchen, because often if you take something you have broiled out of the oven it sets off the smoke detector in the hall. Closing the pocket door solves that problem. I’m not talking something burned that sets it off, just a steak properly cooked, or something on the stove that produces a lot of steam.

29

'Round these parts a feller can’t have too much roof.

So. My ideal home would be a large ranch style. Single story. Attached garage. Big covered porches.

It would have a large kitchen designed for cooking, not looking good for Instagram photos or to emulate the latest issue of House Beautiful. It needs to have full-sized Bosch double wall ovens with a Miele six-burner high BTU gas range with a pot filler over/next to it piped from a line with a dedicated filter. A huge, very deep single-basin sink is a must. Room for two refrigerators (really, a full-size refrigerator-only unit and a stand-up freezer – one of each in the kitchen, please).

It would have a proper walk-in pantry big enough to store multi-months worth of dry goods, hundreds of quart jars of home canned goods, and cases of canned stuff from Costco. So the pantry would be the size of a large-ish walk-in closet.

It would have a proper dining room with either a large built-in China cabinet in the dining room or a butler’s pantry between the kitchen and dining room.

The living room wouldn’t have to be big but big enough for a few bookcases and a couple of La-Z-Boys and a couch. It needs to have a freestanding woodstove in one corner, though. A pot-bellied stove or similar. Plus a celing fan to help move the warm air around.

Off of the living room there needs to be a sunroom/conservatory. Preferably facing north or south to catch both the sunrise and sunset.

It must have a dedicated library and office. Big. Because I have thousands of books. The library would likely be the largest room in the house after the garage.

I want it to have a guest bedroom with an ensuite bathroom. This doesn’t have to be big but I want it located where it doesn’t share a wall with the master bedroom, for obvious reasons. In the 24 years my wife and I have been together we’ve had guests stay maybe half a dozen times but we have kids about to fly the nest and I want to make sure there’s room for them to come home to visit. Having two guest rooms would be even better. Each one set up like a simple motel room would be ideal.

I want a master bedroom with big walk-in closets. The room doesn’t have to be big but I’d like built-in cabinets and drawers so I don’t have to find a place for a dresser or wardrobe. The ensuite bathroom needs to have lots of cabinet storage and a step-in shower. The toilet needs a power source next to it for a bidet. I want either a shower that’s one of those plastic modular ones you find in hotels or a tile enclosure that has heated matting behind the tiles. Tile showers are cold in the morning, hence the desire for the plastic one-piece enclosure.

A small community bathroom in the hallway for guests would be necessary, but a half-bath would be fine.

I want everything but the kitchen and bathrooms carpeted. I despise today’s trend of putting faux hardwood flooring every-fucking-where. It makes the home cold and echoey and is a PITA to clean. (And this is a hill I will die on, to wit: carpets are easier to clean and keep clean than hardwood or linoleum or especially tile.) I hate it with a passion.

I need natural light so there would be many windows, skylights, and doors with windows in them, even the door to the library (I’d be happy with the bedroom doors having windows in them, with of course curtains for privacy when needed. My wife would not go for this).

I want a dedicated laundry room, not a closet or corner of the garage. Admittedly having the laundry in the garage is nice when the washer springs a leak, but there are safeguards to combat that when the washer is placed in more habitable parts of the house. I want room in the laundry room for a sewing machine and an iron and ironing board.

This whole thing would be a closed floor plan. It needs doors between rooms and a long hallway leading to the bedrooms and garage.

I want a garage large enough to park two cars comfortably with enough room left over for a workbench and storage – lots of storage. We don’t do basements around here so garage storage is it. The garage needs to be finished and climate-controlled. It needs several dedicated 240v outlets for various power-hungry equipment, as well as a 50a circut terminating near the garage door for any future electric car charging needs. Because of the near-constant rain we get for ~8 months every year, I want the garage to be attached to the house. There would need to be an area next the entrance from the garage to the house to hang rain gear, umbreallas, and to store wet boots. Sort of an ersatz mud room.

I want a large covered front porch and an even larger covered back porch with a hot tub. Under the porch I want a dedicated 120v outlet for a pellet grill.

Both porches need to have both hot and cold hose bibs.

A freestanding deck in the back yard would be good.

I want a nice garden, heavy on the roses.

So that’s my ideal home. But this is my fantasy home, never to be attained but always in my dreams.

30

Now that I’m getting older my ideal home would be a single-story bungalow. But what I have now suits me fine except having to go up and down the stairs.

I object to those who dislike open kitchens, and I think of particular importance is an open area between kitchen and family room. The first house we bought after my wife was expecting our first child was a beautiful new suburban house that had a big kitchen and family room pretty much combined, which was ideal because traditionally that’s where most inhabitants and guests spend most of their time. On the wall in the family room opposite kitchen, and clearly visible from it, was a big masonry fireplace. Anyone separated from the group and preparing snacks in the kitchen could see the cheery fire and talk to the guests. It was a very pleasant design.

One feature of the current house that I love, though, is the upstairs laundry room. Since the vast majority of things to be laundered come from the upstairs living area, doesn’t it just make sense to locate the laundry room there? How come it took designers decades to realize that this was a really good idea?

31

Because when the washing machine leaks, you damage the whole house, instead of just mopping up a bit of the basement.

32

They have gizmos you can install behind the washing machine that keep the water shut off, except when the machine starts. That should minimize the risk of a leak. (In my experience, the leak happened when the rubber hose to the machine burst.)

33

Most places I’ve lived has had the washing machine in a wet room, so if there was a leak, the water would just go down a drain.

34

AFAIK, that’s code in most (all?) of the US and has been for several decades. Old houses, non-code construction, etc., put some leaks in that tidy situation.

It’s also the case that a burst hose may burst anywhere along its length, so the water may be spraying up at the cieling or down a wall. Which will be less well-contained than would e.g. a steady slow flow from a leaking seal inside the washer itself.

Burst supply lines to washers, dishwashers, toilets, or even sinks are pretty much worst case plumbing failures when it comes to ease of containment.

35

I had a hose burst once, back in the day. It flooded the basement in a couple of feet of water and caused a lot of damage, particularly to the contents. That was no fun. That’s why avoiding the catastrophe in the first place is key. Both of the installers who delivered my last washer and the previous one insisted on using armoured hoses as a matter of policy, regardless of where the washer is located. Which was no problem as I was already using them.

Armoured hoses pretty much eliminate the possibility of a burst hose. The only other realistic source of sudden failure is the water valve in the machine, which I might add also applies to dishwashers and nobody seems too worried about them. I don’t have the gadget you mention to turn off the water unless the washer is in use, but it’s easy enough to do manually – the water supply to the washer is equipped with two quick-action lever style valves – just a quarter turn from full open to full closed. So I could easily turn them off, but I don’t bother, just as I don’t bother with the much more difficult task of crawling under the sink and turning off the water to the dishwasher. Some potential problems are just overblown.

And now, a plug from our sponsor. The reason I mention “two” washers in this one house is that the fancy LG front-loader that I bought when I moved in barely lasted through its warranty period before its main bearing failed. I decided to go from “fancy” to “basic and reliable”, and have been more than happy with my Maytag high-efficiency top-loader.

Just thought I’d throw that in, and I know that some folks like LG, so let’s not start a washing machine debate here – this is about houses. And I cannot emphasize enough how important that upstairs laundry room is, especially to an Old Fart who I cannot imagine hauling heavy laundry baskets up and down stairs while holding on to the banisters with no hands at all.

36

That you don’t bother to turn off the water supply to your washer is an argument for an automatic valve like this one, at a cost of roughly $200-300.

Edited to add, there are little sensors you can install as part of a security system to sense a water leak. And I think in one episode of This Old House, they showed a system that was installed at the incoming connection to the house that could also detect leaks, by noticing out-of-ordinary draws.

Further edited to add, even a water sprinkler might be desirable and affordable even in a private home. In short, there are many systems you can add to avoid disaster, although increasing the building cost.

37

One story living, but with a basement. It’s only the two of us, but we want 4-5 bedrooms. Or substitute a study for one. When we retire, we don’t want each other under foot. So we each get our own office or study. That will leave rooms open for guest rooms.

The basement should be finished, or at least plumbed for a bathroom.

One or preferably two fireplaces.
3 car attached garage. One space will be for bikes and stuff and a workbench etal for me.

38

I’ve never seen a dishwasher upstairs with the bedrooms. The whole kitchen is full of things that might leak in bad ways.

Washing machines are also very heavy and stress the floor, especially when they are unbalanced, and full of water, and bouncing around. I guess if you live on a single-level home with concrete floors, it doesn’t much matter whether the washer is at the bedroom-end or the kitchen-end of the home. But my home is somewhat vertical, with the washer in the basement, the kitchen on the ground floor, and my bedroom above that. The hot water heater and the boiler that heats the house are also on the basement.

39

I’m not so sure it did take them that long for them to decide it was a good idea. I know very few people with an upstairs laundry room - in fact, I’m pretty sure the only one I ever saw was in my son’s apartment. Which I guess was kind of nice in that he didn’t have to use a shared laundry room or laundromat - but that building was built in 2019 or so. But there were also downsides to it. *The biggest was how much space it took up in a tiny apartment, and I suspect that’s a big reason for laundry rooms to be in the basement - the space. Sure, if you are building a house now on a large enough piece of land , you can have space to put the laundry room in the living area. You can’t do it in most of the neighborhoods around me, where the lots are 20x100 or so and the 1100 sq ft houses were built in 1920. Even if you knocked down one of those houses and rebuilt from scratch, there wouldn’t be enough space for a laundry room anywhere except the basement.

My ideal layout now would be all on one floor , with bedrooms at opposite ends of the house ( there’s a name for that, but I don’t remember it) . Which wasn’t my ideal layout when I bought this house almost 40 years ago. Then, I wanted bedrooms upstairs and living room kitchen , etc. downstairs. When I decide to move, it’s probably going to be to an apartment for a number of reasons but one is it will be hard to find a house all on one floor in a neighborhood with good public transit.

* I’m 90% sure that the washer was the main reason each apartment had its own hot water heater , which took up additional space in the apartment.

40

We have a washer and dryer in our (upstairs) main bedroom. We also have an upstairs dishwasher in the bar area of our living room. No leaks so far.