How We Modified House Plan 14679RK

We found our dream home when we found house plan 14679RK from Architectural Designs! I (Cheyenne) and my husband Kyle looked through hundreds of plans online before finally finding the one. Choosing a house plan is no small task and when we found this one, we were thrilled to be one step closer to living in our forever home. 

Though it was the original house plan that we fell in love with, as we settled on the plan, we knew there would be a few modifications that we wanted to make. When building a house it is pretty easy to start making tweaks to the plan. Those tweaks will increase your costs and soon the paradox of choice starts to set in. When we sat down to make some of these final decisions, we made a list of all of the changes we could make and then began to narrow down to what was necessary, and what we felt would improve the overall flow and style of the house the most. 

What Modifications Did We Make?

First and foremost, I should make it clear that we did purchase the reversed version of house plan 14679RK. The way that our home will be facing, it makes much more sense to have the garage on the left side of the house as opposed to the way it was drawn on the right side. 

To make our modifications, we used the architects at Royal Oaks Design after we purchased the plan. They made these updates very simple and their turnaround time was shorter than expected. Because I have seen the popularity of this house plan, I wanted to share the modifications we are making in order to help other 14679RK builders with their modification choices as well.

Closed One Side of the Walkthrough Pantry Door

The pantry in this house plan is one of my favorite parts of the kitchen. It is drawn in the plan as a walk through pantry with pocket doors on either side. The pantry is fairly large as it measures 6’ by 9’. However, we thought closing off the door closest to the pocket office would allow us to make the pantry shelving “L” shaped and give us just a bit more storage. We chose to close off the door on the side of the office, opposed to the side closest to the garage, because we imagined it would make more sense to be able to walk right into that side of the pantry when we brought groceries into the house.

My Pantry Inspiration

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Pushed the Kitchen Into the Garage a Few Feet

We saw on @lords_creek_homestead that they pushed their kitchen into the garage a few feet when they got rid of the garage bathroom. Katie, said in an Instagram Story tour of the first floor that she was so happy with that decision because of how much bigger it made the kitchen feel. We loved the idea, and found a way to do that, while still keeping the garage bathroom. By pushing the kitchen a few feet, we will be able to have our ovens on the back wall of the kitchen similar to theirs. @Hidden_glory_acers pushed their kitchen into the garage as well. Below you can see two renderings they shared on their Instagram.

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Extended The Garage

Aftering seeing the size of Monica’s barn, my husband Kyle wanted to extend ours by about 5 feet as well. This would give us additional space to park a lawnmower or other lawn equipment, store a workbench, my husband’s grill and smoker collection, as well as park our cars comfortably. We were also able to keep the garage bathroom by making this modification. We just moved the bathroom further into the garage when we shifted the kitchen back. 

Added a Staircase in the Garage to Access the Unfinished Storage Space Above the Garage

The original house plan did not have stairs to get into the attic. We have seen some house plan 14679RK builders finish the space above the garage and make it into a media room. We opted not to do this and just use it for additional storage. To make it easier to get boxes or whatever else we plan to store up there, we added a staircase on the far side of the garage as opposed to adding a drop down ladder. 

The Back Porch

We are so excited to sit on the back porch on warm summer days, but living in the country means that the bugs were something we had to consider. I have always been the one in any group of people to get absolutely eaten alive by mosquitos when others only get one or two bites, so, having the back porch screened in is going to make it so much nicer for me to relax on the porch, especially at night.

On the original plan, there is a door on the back porch that will take you into the garage from the porch. We decided to move this door off of the porch and place it next to the garage door on the back. This way if we are out doing yard work and are dirty, we can just walk through the garage to get to the garage bathroom and not have to go into the screened in porch. By removing that door on the porch, we also will have more space to put a table or even an outdoor couch on that back wall.

Living Room Fireplace

The living room is a space we really went back and forth on when deciding what changes to make. One part of the living room that I knew we would have to change, was the built-in shelving on either side of the fireplace. In the house plan, the built-in shelf on the right side of the fireplace was noticeably smaller than the left. To many people, this would not be an issue. However, considering the home’s symmetry,, I thought there could be a better layout. 

Monica and I discussed different options for this space. Some options included having a built-in on only one side, expanding the fireplace, removing both built-ins, or having one built-in and a bench seat. We thought we had finally made up our minds when one night Monica suggested we think about expanding the hearth and making room for seating on it. We are having a fireplace insert versus an actual wood burning fireplace, so we would not have to worry about getting burned if we sat next to the fireplace. She suggested expanding the hearth and then having a built-in on one side of the fireplace.

We looked through photos on Pinterest and Instagram to get some inspiration, but didn’t see exactly what we were thinking. I decided to sketch out what we were envisioning to get a feel for how it would all look together and we loved it!

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Rearranged the Master Bathroom

We completely rearranged our master bathroom ourselves. We valued more space in the bathroom over the large clawfoot bathtub that was drawn into the plan. Monica and her husband Paul sat down with us one afternoon and drew the space to scale. We made our water closet slightly larger at 60” by 60” so we would have room for a bidet as well as a toilet. We also separated the double vanity and removed the walk-in part of the shower. The shower will now open with a glass door. 

We plan to have a bench seat below the windows that I can move in front of my vanity if I want to sit down to do my makeup.

Toilet Placement

One thing that Monica learned from working with interior designers in the past is that if you can strategically hide the toilets in your bathroom, you don’t have to see it if the bathroom door is left open. We were able to place the toilets in each bathroom behind the door so that the first thing you see when you walk in is the vanity, not the toilet. This was a relatively small adjustment that we just needed to communicate with our builder, but one that I am so glad she thought of for us.

Loft and Upstairs Bedrooms

The 14679RK house plan is drawn with the potential for 6 bedrooms (four upstairs and two downstairs). We knew we would not need 6 bedrooms, so we decided to restructure the second floor layout to expand the loft space and finish the two unfinished bedrooms.

How did we do this? We simply will finish the two bedrooms labeled as “future space” and remove the walls for the two bedrooms toward the front of the house. This will expand the upstairs loft into those two bedrooms to make one large space. The two unfinished bedrooms will be larger than what the two finished bedrooms would have been so our future children and I, will be happy that we were able to make those rooms a bit bigger. 

With the additional loft space, we are planning to use this as a movie room with space for games and toys. We plan to add a desk that my husband can use when he works from home in the evenings as well.

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Where are we in the Building Process?

With all of our modifications finished, we are very close to finalizing our contract with our builder. Our well was completed last week. We will be breaking ground soon on our home, and we could not be more excited to see these drawings come to life over the next several months. 

Are you Building House Plan 14679RK?

Follow along on the blog and on our Instagram page, Pinterest and Facebook page for the latest updates on our home!

Until next time…

From the HartLand with Love,

Cheyenne, Monica & Brittany