Just like our first house floor plan and our current house floor plan from yesteryear, a bunch of you have requested a new house floor plan. So here ya go! They definitely help visual people like us see what walls are where, and what flows into what. So we whipped this up with floorplanner.com (which is, as the name might suggest, a free floor planning site). One big difference from the last two floor planning posts that we shared? This time there’s a second level. Who’s got two thumbs and a set of stairs? This girl.
The funny thing is that when we shared a video tour of the new house, some people said “wow, the new house seems so much bigger!” and some other people said “wow, your new house seems so much smaller!” so that was interesting to us. I think it’s hard to judge room size without furniture, so since the new house is empty – and covered in blue trim and wallpaper – it might be throwing people off. In reality the new house and the current house are almost exactly the same square footage (there’s literally only a 20 square foot difference). The new house just looks a lot bigger from the outside since there’s a visible second story instead of a hidden 1000 square foot addition off the back of the house that you can’t see from the street.
As for a few first thoughts about what we’d like to do to alter the actual footprint…
- we’d love to convert the big triple window in the eat-in part of the kitchen into a big french door that leads out onto the deck
- there are a bunch of doors closing everything off on the first floor (they block the flow between the dining room and kitchen, the kitchen and foyer, etc) so we’ll be taking those down to open things up
- the wall between the living room and the kitchen will come down, but we’d love some built in bookcases on each side with a large centered opening (sort of like the built-ins in our current dining room but perhaps with glass doors and lighting)
- we’re planning to fully renovate the chopped up bathroom and sink nook in our bathroom so they’re all one space with a nice big double sink and a soaker tub
- someday we’d love to fully finish the unfinished storage space at the end of the hallway (right now it’s just a raw space full of exposed beams and ducts, but maybe down the line we can floor it and drywall it to create a movie room/bunk room for Clara, potential Bean #2, and their friends when they’re older) Update: due to lots of questions, I wanted to clarify the stairs you see in the unfinished storage space – those lead to the attic, but the area labeled as “unfinished storage” is on the same floor as the bedrooms (no walking up or down to get to it).
This video tour of the new house will probably make more sense out of those bullets, and of course we have a bunch of other stuff banging around in our heads (we change our minds every minute) so we’ll be back with a big ol’ List O’ Planz for all the items on the agenda. Get ready guys, we might break 3,000 words with that baby. Oh wait, we forgot measurements! Here’s an extremely approximated rundown for ya (tape measure + three year old = immediate mayhem).
- Foyer: 9.5 x 8′
- Office: 16 x 13′
- Dining Room: 13.5 x 13′
- Kitchen: 21 x 11′
- Hall Bath: 4.5 x 5′
- Living Room: 20 x 13.5′
- Sunroom: 18 x 12′
- Our Bedroom: 13.5 x 19′
- Our Bath + Sink Nook (since we hope to combine ’em down the line): 8.5 x 7′
- Possible Future Nursery: 11.5 x 13.5′
- Clara’s Room: 13.5 x 12.5′
- Hall Bath: 8.5 x 7′
- Guest Room: 13.5 x 11′
- Laundry Nook: 3 x 7′
- Unfinished Storage (with exposed beams, ducts, etc): 17 x 19.5′
Ever made a floor plan? Ever been so excited to have stairs? Tell $herdog all about it.
Lisa says
I love to draw out the floor plans and I’ve even cut paper to size to try out furniture placement for a new space. It’s so much easier to do this with the cool websites that let you do prepare floor plans by entering measurements. Fun!
Elisa says
I do the same thing! I have ziplock baggies of all our rooms and furnishings clipped out so I can rearrange. Lol!
Cara @ Chic Meets Healthy says
So exciting! I grew up with a friend whose family had a similar layout and they made the upstairs area into a loft/playroom and we love it! It was almost like a secret hangout place.
Katie Baker says
Ohmygosh! Ohmygosh! I’ve been looking for a program to plan out our back yard/front yard remodel! I’m soooo excited to use this website! Thanks!
Megan @ Monroe Makeshift says
That is a great floor plan. Weird how it is kind of similar to your old house. The office in the front, the sink outside of the shower and toilet in the master bathroom, the sunroom add-on. I can really see you putting your stamp on this house and I’m so excited to see what that’ll look like!
Meredith Matthews says
$herdog – You kind of look like Amanda Peet in your video tour!
YoungHouseLove says
I’ve heard that before. So funny!
xo
s
Lindsay P says
I love love love floorplanner!
When I bought my first place last fall I made one from a mls image from a previous local sale with the same layout. It was really helpful in working out where to put my existing furniture and dreaming of things to be in the weeks till closing when I was all excitement and tied hands.
It continues to be great when I’m at work and see something beautiful in a limited-time sale screaming ‘one left!’ at me, and can quickly pull up the plan to check if it is meant to be.
Dan says
Protip: watch the house tour in one window and have the floor plan up in another at the same time. It make so much more sense that way.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha, I love it!
xo
s
Brandy says
I know you answered the stairs question…but there appears to be two sets in the unfinished storage. Is the space between the stairs and the guest room just dead space??
YoungHouseLove says
The stairs turn, so you go up about four of them when you walk into the storage area if you want to go to the attic, and then the staircase turns and you go up another 8 or so. As for that box under them, that’s the closet for the guest room :)
xo
s
Christina P (NS) says
Love it! I am so jealous that sun rooms are such a standard in your neck of the woods.
I live in a climate (eastern Canada) that we don’t get to enjoy the outdoors as many months of the year as I would like so a sunroom would be such a welcome addition but they are very few and far between in the homes here!
Enjoy!
Stacey @ Likes to Smile says
I’m so excited for you!! I can’t wait to see how you transform everything. I became a reader about the time you were working on your office in your second house. Am I correct in assuming that Sue the Napkin was purchased at the beginning of the house journey and you based the color scheme off of that? And if that assumption (eeek…) is correct- is there a similar plan for this house?
Can’t wait for the list of planz and to see what you are envisioning!! Congratulations again!!
YoungHouseLove says
So far we haven’t found a new sue, but we’re loving all sorts of color mixed with lots of white, so we’ll have to see where we end up!
xo
s
Chasity Grome says
I am so incredibly excited for your new house, you can’t possibly get the posts up fast enough to satisfy me! I personally would like to one day buy a fixer-upper but my husband isn’t really on the same page as me. Hopefully me following your progress from step one of this house can help me change his mind! ;)
Steph says
Oh $herdog, if you wanted stairs I could have given you some of mine. I have 4 floors (including garage/laundry room) and 5 sets of stairs.
Kidding! What a great layout though. I can’t wait to see what you guys do with this house. :)
Kelsey says
I love that there’s an office AND 4 bedrooms…my office is one of our bedrooms.
Lisa in Seattle says
I have a question that I don’t think has been asked yet. Have your new neighbors figured out who you are yet, and are they as excited as you are about your plans to show the house some love?
YoungHouseLove says
A few folks on the street have figured us out, but some others have no clue. It’s going to be fun to get to know them all – and so far the ones who know seemed psyched since this house was actually unoccupied for a while, so it needs some love, even when it just comes to the front :)
xo
s
Michelle says
Seems like bean number 2 has been mentioned a lot lately . Wondering if the nursery is going to be used in 9 months :)
YoungHouseLove says
Man, this question is coming up a lot again after this post seemed to quell it for a while.
xo
s
Del says
Maybe it’s because you’ve been using the word “nursery” a lot……? Hmmm. Stop calling that room a nursery, call it a spare bedroom (which is what it is), and your problems will likely dissipate. No offense, but you’re bringing this on yourself by constantly using that word.
YoungHouseLove says
Here’s the thing, Del. If we call it a “spare room” – even in just one post – we’ll get a bunch of questions from people asking “hey what will you use the spare room for?” and we’ll say “we hope it’ll be a possible future nursery someday.” Which is exactly why we thought calling it a “possible future nursery” outright (like we did in this post and on the tour video) would cut out that step while indicating that although we’re not currently expecting, we hope a child will be in it someday :)
xo,
s
Stacy K. says
I love the layout of your new house! Hubby and I are starting the process of buying our first home this summer and the market is getting crazy here in California.
My question is WHY in the world did the previous owners have so much unused space??!! Do you know what they did with the unfinished room? I don’t think I could live in a house for many years and have a completely empty unfinished space.
YoungHouseLove says
I think 2500 square feet is big! So we love the unfinished storage for now! And if our family grows and we have more tweens hanging around or something, it would be fun to “grow into” that space down the line :)
xo
s
Devon @ Green House, Good Life says
MORE tweens?! How many tweens do you have hanging around now? : )
YoungHouseLove says
Ha! Good point.
-John
Carmen says
when I was a teenager, I made a floor plan dreaming of my future house, lol.
Love the new house floor plan, congratulations!! I can’t wait to see the new projects <3
robyns says
I knew all those extra doors would be coming down! I’m actually excited to see how you tackle the pantry space. I love a pantry…..and I’m envious of all the unfinished space, we only have a one car garage that we are contemplating converting to a working space for me. How will you decide what to tackle first? Besides the obvious of the upstairs floors?
YoungHouseLove says
We’re writing out a full list and then we’ll just do what we have to do first (like put in floors before we move in) and then just jump around doing whatever we can afford/feel like tackling first. There’s not much science to it :)
xo
s
robyns says
and to quash someone’s earlier attempt at taking the pantry and making it a mudroom, trick out a space in the garage! Pinterest is full of those and ya’ll seem to be the sort of people who will use the garage for an actual car instead of junk storage like the rest of America. I would be so overwhelmed with the possible awesomeness…..good thing $herdog can handle it!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes, I love that idea! Just gotta keep it spider free!
xo
s
Mari says
Will you reuse your current dining room table and wicker chairs in your new dining room? Or will you be Craigslisting those and searching for a new dining set?
YoungHouseLove says
We definitely hope to use them in the new house – although knowing us we might use the table in the dining room but the chairs in the sunroom or some other configuration. Things tend to evolve and live nomadic lives in our house :)
xo
s
Lil says
“tape measure + three year old = immediate mayhem” made me laugh. Our little will be three in July and you CANNOT take out a tape meausure without her hijacking it.
mribaro says
Which direction do the main entrance doors face?
YoungHouseLove says
We think it faces West :)
xo
s
Mary | lemongroveblog says
I LOVE these posts. Maybe it’s because I wanted to be an architect when I was young ;) Seriously – I am so very excited to see what y’all do with this place!
Barb D says
Does the square footage that you are comparing to your current house includethe unfinished space above the garage? Just curious if that space is considered like a basemenmt or attic (not part of the “official” square footage).
YoungHouseLove says
Nothing that’s not finished counts (so the basement in our current house doesn’t count, and that storage space in the new house doesn’t count either). Hope it helps :)
xo
s
Gabby says
You are awesome! Being able to work together and love it is amazing. So happy for ya’ll. I do think you are both a little(just a little) crazy for doing all this. My hubby and I can’t even make a decision on a kitchen wall color(two years after buying our first home). LOL!! You are all very inspiring.
You have inspired me to start making plans… I just don’t want to share with hubby. He might pass out! :-)
I do want to knock out a wall. Maybe I will just put hard hats on my daughters and see what happens. ;)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha! Good luck Gabby!
xo
s
Emily says
What a cool website, I had no idea there was such a thing. Very cool. I was very excited to get into my very own place after being a live in nanny for 2 years before my husband and I got married. We’ve been married almost a year and are enjoying fixing up our house and decorating it and sharing it on our blog lovepastatoolbelt.com Thanks for all the inspiration you guys give!
Joseph says
Ooooo, unfinished space, exciting! I’m hoping to add stairs and finish off the attic in our new house. I don’t know why I find unfinished spaces so appealing. Maybe it’s the completely blank canvas, or maybe it’s the appeal of getting to increase square footage from seemingly nothing. Either way, that space looks really fun.
Ve101 says
Possible future nursery. :)
kristen says
https://www.younghouselove.com/2013/03/state-of-the-uterus-address-2013/
Kimberly @ Turning It Home says
That’s so neat that you have a whole other room hiding upstairs, the possibilities could be endless!
I have made a floor plan before at Floorplanner (http://www.turningithome.com/2013/04/a-bed-in-living-room.html), but it was only for my tiny living room/kitchen. It was tedious measuring every wall with my toddler trying to “help”… props to you guys for doing your whole house (3 times!).
Julie F. says
Omg, I’m having way too much fun with floorplanner, thank you for sharing this great tool with us. I can’t stop my self now!!! Got… to…. work…. :s
Joel says
I think it’s safe to stop calling the room on the second floor “unfinished storage space” and call it “awesome potential living space”. Can’t wait to see what it turns out to be.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha!
xo
s
April B. says
Yay!!! I love it!!! and I’m so glad you want to throw in french doors onto the deck, that is the first thing that came through my head when I saw that space! I can’t wait to follow along and see how this house comes together. You guys always do a spectacular job!!
Monica says
Have you considered swapping your office and guest room? That way your guests would be on a separate level and have their own bath. Just a suggestion!
YoungHouseLove says
It wouldn’t have a full bath down there (it’s just a sink and a toilet) so I think it makes more sense to have them upstairs near the hall bath with a shower/tub. We also like the idea of an office on the first floor, so when we go upstairs for the night, we can try to leave work behind us :)
xo,
s
Sarah says
DUDE!
How cool would it be to put a small, hidden opening in the back of Clara’s closet so she can crawl through into a magical kid zone/play room. I know this is probably a terrible idea in terms of keeping your kid in their bed at night, but it would be the coolest thing on the planet from a kid’s perspective!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha! I’m with you on thinking she’d love it, but as parents we might grow to hate that sneaky little door. Haha!
xo
s
Ashley says
I’m so jealous of that HUGE extra storage space! You guys now have no excuse for having a cluttered playroom ever again! ;)
YoungHouseLove says
Amen!
xo
s
Lindsey says
We had an identical layout for the master closet, dressing room, and bath when we moved into our house. What we did, which worked fantastically, is moved the entry to the closet to the wall adjoining the bedroom and sealed up the old opening. Then we joined the dressing room and small master bath into a huge bath. We actually had a contractor cantilever the floor joists 3 feet and and rehung that section of the roof for the bump out so we could fit a corner shower, a toilet room, a jacquzzi, and a double vanity. You don’t have to go that far but it really worked well for us!
YoungHouseLove says
Wow! Sounds awesome!
xo
s
Ann Marie says
Your other houses were really nice, homey, cozy and cute but for some reason THIS house feels like it is really your BIG GIRL HOUSE!!!!
YoungHouseLove says
Wahooo! All grown up!
xo
s
Annie says
Maybe I missed it…but where do your water heater and furnace hang out? I come from the land of basements and can’t imagine where else in a house those things would go!
YoungHouseLove says
The furnace is in the garage and the attic (there’s one for each floor) and the water heater is in the garage :)
xo
s
Nicole says
So… how many of those walls are getting knocked down to promote an open floor plan? Lol!
It almost looks like it might be better to convert the dining room into the office, then use the whole other side of the house (in an L-shape) for “public” areas.
YoungHouseLove says
We thought about it a bunch of different ways and still like the office to be separate (so we can leave work in there and run away). Who knows where we’ll end up though!
xo
s
Karen F says
I love your new house! I just realized, the floorplan for the main level is almost identical to my parent’s house (minus the sunroom). I hope you all have many happy years in your new home, just like we did (and still do) in my parent’s house! It’s still where my entire (huge) extended family congregates.
I’m dying to make a floor plan of my current house, now! For no particular reason other than to see it on “paper”…
YoungHouseLove says
Aw that’s sweet!
xo
s
Julia says
So excited to see what you guys do with this space! The floorplan reminds me so much of the colonial I grew up in (in Northern Virginia) and just seeing all your posts about the new house makes me feel so nostalgic!
Also, am I remembering correctly that Clara got to pick out her own room? If so, I noticed that she picked the room with the biggest closet. Way to go girl! She’s a diva-in-training for sure! :)
YoungHouseLove says
Yes, she totally picked that for the closet! Such a smartie!
xo
s
Riss says
Thanks for sharing the floorplan!
Nicole Y. says
Would you guys ever consider making the dining room into the living room? The dining room seemed really small, but it just makes so much more sense to just walk in and then turn to go into the living room rather than having to walk through the kitchen.
But I gotta say… I’m SUPER excited for you guys!!!
YoungHouseLove says
We actually love a living room in the back (tucked back so no one can see you watch TV all night long, haha!).
xo
s
Lesley says
Wait it ot on the unfinished space to find out hpw cold/hpt it gets from the open cavity of the garage below. There will likely also be code restrictions for the use of the space above a garage; fume / carbon monoxide related. It may require special barriers or construction materials required.
That is likely why it wasn’t finished by the builder.
I love the idea of the secret entry from Clara’s room to the space, but many municipalities don’t allow sleeping rooms to be adjacent to or above garages.
I put all of this because I was in dream mode with you then came to a screeching halt. Find out before you make too many plans, real or imagined.
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks for the tips! Many of our neighbors have that area finished so our guess is that it was an option (some paid extra for it finished and some folks only needed four bedrooms and liked storage and saved money going with that). We’ll definitely look into everything before we do it though! It’s so nice to have neighbors to ask about theirs too!
xo,
s
Del says
Almost all houses where I live have the garages built directly into the house, with living spaces above. We don’t have the ginormous lot sizes to have garages be separate.
K says
Our room was built out before we moved in – and the room is nice, but it is warmer/more humid in summer and colder in winter (see space heaters) than the rest of the house. As for fumes, we haven’t noticed those, but….. maybe it could explain a lot (kind of like the “special kind of crazy”?!) ….. haha K.
Shelby says
Aw, I think it’s too bad you’re going to make the master bath one big room. Perhaps you don’t see the value of having the rooms be separate? In college our bathrooms were laid out like that and it was fantastic. Someone can be showering or doing their bathroom business while the sink and mirrors are still free for someone else to get ready/do their thing.
I suppose it’s probably not as big a deal with a married couple (maybe?) but my husband and I would still benefit from a lay out like that bc he’s not so keen on sharing the space when I need to get ready and he needs to have some privacy.
YoungHouseLove says
Yeah we actually have the same separate setup in our current house and we’d prefer one big space :)
xo,
s
Rhune says
I’m drooling over that unfinished storage space. It is over the garage, right? That space could be so many things, like a game room, movie room, or even a MAN-CAVE if John is into that type of thing haha.
Maybe add a stairs leading to it from the garage, so people can access it without going through the upstairs hall.
Toni says
So fun stopping by your site every day– congratulations on the new place and impending sale of house #2! I’m having such house envy towards all my friends with single-family homes (we own a townhouse condo…. and lately I just want a fenced-in yard!!). It makes me happy when folks find a great place such as yours.
Would you please remind us when the new house was built? I’m also curious about workshop space: without a basement to work in, does your two-car garage give you enough space to saw and paint and all that good stuff?
YoungHouseLove says
Oh yes since we only have one car it’ll be great. It was built around 32 years ago :)
xo,
s
Mary Ann says
Sherry & John,I am so glad you bought a house with 2 floors. We have one and the upstairs hallway is awkward. I am looking forward to how you redo the stairs and decorate the upstairs hallway.
I would also like to know if you are going to connect the office to the living room with a door. It’s so exciting to see what you will come up with.- Mary Ann
YoungHouseLove says
We actually want to keep the office separate (so we can walk out and leave that behind us, haha!). So it’s nice that it’s in the front and the part of the house where we’ll relax in the evening (kitchen and living room) aren’t just a doorway away :)
xo
s
dani says
i am sort of hoping that this is your forever home – i love the layout and it’s potential and would love to see you go maybe a bit higher end on some of your projects. of course i know you guys like to do things as cheaps as possible to stay within a budget but it’s just my own thought but there were areas that i thought maybe you scrimped on in the past and maybe it was b/c deep down you didn’t think that it was going to be your forever home. can’t wait to see what you guys come up with.
my home has a similar floor plan only in reverse – kitchen/dining/garage on the right side…
Krystle @ Color Transformed Family says
Seeing the floor plan really helps me to visualize how you want to reconfigure the upstairs master bath. It’s kind of odd they didn’t make it that way to begin with.
I also love the idea of removing some of those doors downstairs. It will definitely help to open things up.
Leslie C says
Since you have stairs going up to your attic, have you thought about finishing off that space as well?
Love your blog! I check in every day during breaks at work. You guys are totally my jam. Super excited for you and the new house!