Some initial design ideas

In a previous post I outlined some of the general plans we are considering with regards to house design. As previously stated, we are looking at a simple rectangular shape. This is advantageous both from a materials standpoint as well as a construction standpoint, as waste should be minimized and construction ease maximized. From a usage standpoint, this approach eliminates any blocked views, and any given window will have a minimum 180º field of view.

Following this shape, the best living spaces would be at the 4 corners, where you can get two perpendicular walls' worth of windows (and therefore ample sunlight, cross breezes, etc.). The middle of the house can then be used for the kinds of spaces that are more utilitarian and/or less dependent on windows and scenery: garage, utility room, kitchen, bathrooms. (We are not "kitchen entertainers" and do not care to make the kitchen part of our living space; though we probably will have space for an eat-in kitchen.)

From these concepts we have been sketching out some rudimentary house plans, just to get some kind of an idea of how this might all come together:

In this example, each square on the grid is 2 feet, and north is straight-up. Here we are considering overall dimensions of 32'x64', giving a total square footage of 2,048.

• Estimating a garage of about 20' wide by 17' deep, this gives a total living area of 1,708 sq ft. 
• Across from the garage, in the middle of the house, are the kitchen and the utility room. These are placed strategically based both on the reasoning above as well as ease with which to get groceries to the kitchen and 50-lb bags of salt buttons to the utility room. Also, the dryer (in the utility room) and the range hood can be on opposite sides of one wall and can share the same exhaust.
• With this placement, the rest of the house is essentially divided up into east and west "wings": east wing for bedrooms (capitalizing on morning sunlight), and the west wing for living spaces. 
• The main hallway is currently planned to be 42" wide. While that seems like wasted space at first, we learned the hard way that skimping on hallway width can make life surprisingly difficult, especially if you find yourself maneuvering something like a wheelchair.
• We plan to have pocket doors or sliding barn doors at either end of the main hallway that can allow for each "wing" to be closed off. This is helpful for purposes of entertaining, heating, or even containing smelly food preparation.
• There is a full bathroom near the bedrooms, and a half bathroom near the main living area. This placement follows our living patterns but also makes plumbing very convenient, as all sinks, tubs, toilets, etc. are concentrated in the center of the house. The shower and all sinks are also therefore in close proximity to the water tank, so hot water will come on practically instantaneously. 

As you can see, we haven't nailed down any ideas of how to break apart the living spaces into rooms. We have sketched and erased some ideas for walls, but this was mostly to be sure that if we were to break up the east "wing" into 3 bedrooms that the total area would be large enough. Overall we are not sure how we will want it to work out. Part of the beauty of only having one level and truss construction for the roof is that we don't have any interior load-bearing walls. So, we might choose to start living in the house without breaking up the "wings" at all initially, and then see how the spaces work for us and go from there. 

I am not a big fan of "open" floorplans, but I can definitely get behind a "flexible" floorplan - especially because I find it very hard to predict how I will want a space to be until I have had a chance to be in it for a while. Also I like to be able to rearrange furniture, so it would be nice to have rooms that allow for multiple configurations. We can also feel free to adapt the rooms according to our place in life: have a kid, wall off a bedroom; empty nesters, take down walls and reclaim unused space. Since we plan on being in the house for the remainder of our years, this is a pretty attractive approach.

Which isn't to say we couldn't use a little suggestion and inspiration from an architect. Plus there are additional considerations like where to position outlets and light switches. We definitely need to get on the ball finding an architect so that we can benefit from some professional experience, advice, and knowledge of building codes.