The Plan Modifications

Once we found a builder, we started discussing what changes we wanted to make to the plan.  As I said before, the plan was almost perfect.

The first change we had to make was to flip the entire plan so that the garage would be on the left side of the house.  This needed to be done because of the layout of our lot.  The next change we made was to push back a wall two feet to make the second and third bedrooms bigger.  This also increased the size of the closets for both bedrooms.

We also reconfigured the Jack and Jill bathroom area so that both vanity areas opened into the tub / toilet area.  We have also changed the doors to the tub / toilet area to both be pocket doors.

In the Laundry Room area, we moved the door to the laundry room to the wall by the door to the garage.  I wanted to be able to go directly into the laundry room from the garage to avoid someone tracking in a lot of dirt.  To accommodate this change, we had to move the entryway system to the opposite wall.  More info to come on the Entryway System.  While planning out the entryway system, we also decided to change the door to the garage to swing to the left instead of the right so that we can make the entryway system longer without having to worry about the door swinging into the system.

Other cosmetic changes we made include:

• Remove the set of doors to the den that are closest to the front door of the house.  
• Straighten out the walls for the Master Bedroom Closet entries.
• Reconfigure the island to put the sink in the middle of the work triangle. 
• Move the fireplace out of the corner and make it into an indoor / outdoor see through fireplace.  This was suggested by our builder and we thought it was a great idea.  More info to come on the fireplace.

We made several energy efficient upgrades to the house as well.  We have decided to go with a Geothermal HVAC system, blown in insulation, and Low-E glass windows.  The Geothermal was an expensive upgrade, but we should get some of the money back due to a tax rebate from the Federal Government.