Revised Floor Plan Feedback
kentthompson
| Posted in Plans Review on
Hello everyone!
A few months ago I posted an early draft floor plan and you all had lots of wonderful feedback. I’d like to thank everyone, especially rockies63 and Malcolm Taylor for their time. We used your advice and clustered the bedrooms, separated laundry from the mechanical room, brought the stairs inside and made several other changes. Here’s the first Q+A with the first draft plan and more details of what we’re going for:
https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/question/floor-plan-feedback
Attached is the revised draft, does anyone have thoughts?
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Replies
Kent,
Is there anyway to remove the floor coverings from your plans? The hatched and darkened areas make evaluating the spaces difficult.
Hi Malcolm, I've asked for copies without the hatching and dark area. I'll post when available.
A couple of thoughts:
I’m not sure if there is a reason that the elevator is on the exterior wall but I would shift that south (based on project orientation). And reclaim that 6x6 square in the bedroom, maybe a desk nook or more closet. Shift those doors for br and bath to hall. Maybe you want that landing, but feels like a little bit of wasted space.
There is no good access to elevator from garage.
Shift garage doors toward corner as much as possible. I’m assuming the designer (or whoever drew this) gave the 4’ for shear but this is not required. Make up the shear elsewhere on the wall or make that a strong wall. You want to get your cars as far from the entry door for maneuverability.
If you decide to reclaim that space over stairs for master bath, I would make a concession and shrink the shower or vanity to make it fit in that nook with toilet and shift the whole bathroom toward kitchen so that you can continue that Kent closet. I think it feels a little tight in the master BR, esp with that chest of drawers at end of bed.
Switch master bath door swing.
You might consider a wall mount toilet rather than a separate urinal. I’m not sure it’s purpose as I didn’t read through that other thread, but maybe this could reclaim some space.
Ask designer (whoever drew) to halftone tiles on fp, they are very distracting.
Thank you freyr! Great suggestions, we'll incorporate them into the plans.
It might not be apparent from the plans but there is a passageway under the stairs connecting the entry to the elevator. So, currently, access to the elevator is through there. In an earlier draft we had a door on the north side of the east wall of the garage. We debated whether that was necessary. What do you think?
The purpose of the urinal is to reclaim the urine for fertilizer. I imagine that's a little far out for most folks on this forum, but I can discuss it if people are interested.
Oh I see I did not realize you could access via entry, that seems fine, the less doors the better in my opinion.
Urinal sounds cool, I’d be interested to learn if you have a link to a site.
Oh also, as everything has gotten a bit tighter on this plan, I would increase your depth by a foot and add it to your hallway, and if two feet give one to the rooms. Anything close to 3’ hallway feels cramped.
The urine collection is pretty informal. I'll have a branched drain greywater system, then plumb in a waterless urinal. The urine makes it not code compliant, but it's not a big deal, imho.
We'll think about the hallway...the house is feeling pretty big for us as is. We currently live in 1000 sqft place so this new house is already feeling extravagant.
Hello again! Well, I like this plan a lot more than the first one. I've copied your images and will study them tonight. I do have a couple of thoughts about the stairs and upper floor long hallway, and some of the door swings and window locations but I'll do an image for you rather than paragraphs of words (after a while written suggestions just get confusing).
One question, is the size of the house dictated by lot setbacks? Could it be slightly bigger (maybe 2 feet this way or that)?
I forgot to mention that we haven't really dived into windows yet...the ones that are there are just placeholders. Happy to have general comments on windows, regardless. Updated plans uploaded shortly.
Yes, we can add or subtract a few feet in any direction. We're feeling like it's already a pretty big house, but happy to hear your thoughts.
Thanks Rockies.
Kent,
Before getting down to final refinements - especially of window locations, work up an elevation. Architecture is a dance between plans, sections and elevations.
I mentioned this in a reply to Rockies above, but the window locations are just placeholders in the plan. We haven't given them much thought yet. Happy to hear your input though as we move into that. The cleaned up plans should be uploaded.
Thank you Malcolm.
Edit: Elevations might take some time but I can post them when they're available.
Elevator implies accessibility, the only washroom that could work is in the main suite, you might want to add some more space to the one between the two bedrooms so there is at least an accessible toilet near the living space.
I would move the closet for BR2 to beside the elevator to add a bit more buffer space/noise separation.
The 8' garage door will be tight. Either go for the full width or two wider ones since you have a bit of extra space.
Akos, thank you! This is such a great observation. We should probably do some more in depth reading on universal design to get in the right head space. You're right that we need better bathroom access.
This is MUCH better than the original. A few comments:
Ground level -
1. move the doors to the storage 14" towards the center (assuming they are currently 4" off the wall). This will allow you to have storage on the side walls of the storage room, and also on the garage walls behind the doors. Look at every door in the house with this consideration.
2. Work on the concrete walks - you need an "Entrance" - the walk from the drive feels crowded.
3. What is the rise on the stairs? - you have 19 risers, so even at a low riser height of 7.5", you have >11'10" floor to floor height. You might need that if the hot tub is sunken on the 2nd level porch and you want alot of height in front of the office/guest area.
4. Plan to build cubbies under the stairs behind the bench
Main Level
5. Hallway needs a bit more width, and kitchen 7'0" is much too wide counter to counter. If you can eliminate a tread or two, make the kitchen narrower.
6. Consider a pair of 2x 1'4" or 1'6" doors on the laundry which will also let you make the hall wider at that point. You can use a coordinator to have both leaves open at the same time, or you could install lay flat bifold doors that don't stick out into the hall.
7. Revise door door handing from bedroom into master bath for door to open against exterior wall
8. You can definitely use the space over the stair landing for the master bath. This really depends on whether the stair is supposed to provide an architectural entrance with the window over the landing at the upper level. If not, rearrange the master bath. Even if you need the height in the landing, there is opportunity to rearrange the master bath.
9. Feels like too much counter space in the kitchen and not a big enough island, but that is up to you..at min I'd limit the cabinets under the island so that you can place a stool on either end if needed - move the trash to elsewhere.
10. Switch the handing of the coat closet door for easy access when you get to the top of the stairs.
11. Audrey may prefer a walk in closet. Currently, closet is shown as 6'8" = 80" of hanging space. The hallway is also 40", so you could continue the bedroom wall at the plan north side of the bedroom across that alcove, and give Audrey a single door in the center (or a double 1'4" door with coordinator) to have a walk in closet/ changing room. There will be 40" of hanging space on each side, 2'8" in the center, and some things can be hung on the far wall. There are all sorts of possibilities for improvement of Audrey's closet once you draw this out.
Wow, thanks 594! Lots of good comments, we'll make good use of them.
Re: stair height, I'd have to check with the architect to see what height was thought of. That's a clever way of finding a bit of room. It's not for the tub, I believe the hot tub will be 'regular' i.e., not sunk into the deck.
Yeah the kitchen needs work. We're going to do a more detailed study of it to dial it in.
You must be psychic about Aubrey wanting a walk in closet!
Thanks again!
MY Turn!
Hello! Well, you’re overall plan is pretty good, although I do have some suggestions. First off, I widened the house by two feet, and also lengthened it by two feet.
The extra length:
A. One foot of extra width is added into the Master bedroom, your wife’s closet and bedroom #3. The reason I did this was because you just didn’t have enough walking room between the end of the bed and the dresser.
B. One foot of extra width is added into the living room and dining room. They were just a little bit tight, and now you have space for a console or buffet/hutch on the left dining room wall. Personally, I’d do a low console with a wider window centered over it (and centered on the dining table and chandelier). I also put in double outswing French doors out onto the deck.
The extra width:
C. Eight inches of extra width is put into the long hallway. This space serves a variety of uses but it is also the main access point to the living room from the downstairs entrance and therefore I think it needs to feel more spacious.
D. The remaining 16 inches of extra width is taken up by two floor to ceiling recessed storage spaces in the hallway. These areas can be made up of tall storage cabinets, shallow low base cabinets and upper wall cabinets, or base cabinets and upper shelves. I would suggest a combination of all three – you can locate a shallow broom closet and linen closet in one, display shelves for decorative items, family pictures, a library wall, etc in the other. By adding these features you will have turned what would have been a long, boring, empty hallway into a destination in it’s own right and will give you and your guests something beautiful to look at when they come up the stairs.
The second bedroom has been rearranged so that the person sleeping there can easily stand next to the large window and enjoy the view.
The main bathroom has a longer vanity with storage drawers – any used linens can be stored in the laundry room and clean linens in the cabinet in the main hallway.
The Master bath door should swing in, and I can tell you from personal experience that no one will ever feel comfortable using a bathroom that has a door in it that opens to the exterior – especially one that opens onto a main deck. I turned that exterior bathroom door into a window (rain glass might be a good idea for privacy) and changed the Master bedroom window to double outswing French doors (or they could be a slider). If not double doors, then a single door and a window would look nice.
As to the kitchen……..it’s smaller. Yes, that’s right, smaller. In the previous plan the distances between counters and appliances were just too vast. You’d be exhausted from walking around it trying to make dinner.
First, I moved the stove to the center of the right wall. Using it in its previous location would have been a little dangerous because any kids who come barreling in through the exterior dining room door will run right past whoever is standing at the stove on their way to the fridge – it’s an accident just waiting to happen. Stoves should never be in or near a circulation pathway through the kitchen.
The pantry has been moved to the end of the sink run of cabinets across from the island. Pantries really get accessed only a couple of times a day so using it shouldn’t interfere with the circulation path to the dining room and it’s still near enough to the prep zone to be convenient. I also wanted to move the pantry so that you have a “landing zone” (open countertop) right next to the fridge so that when you take things out of the fridge you can put them right down.
The sink and dishwasher move to the left a bit, and the trash/recycling area is now right next to the sink (where most of the trash is generated).
Now you may still be thinking – “But the kitchen is smaller!” Well, it still has 7 feet by 10 feet of open floor space – so 70sq’ – and that’s a lot of open floor. The most important thing with any plan is that the appliances are conveniently arranged and close enough together that you won’t have to be doing a lot of walking when you’re making a meal.
Now, the entrance staircase. It was just too tight and honestly, a little dark and depressing. Your downstairs foyer is actually quite a nice size, but then you’re funneled into a long narrow staircase (11 steps to a landing!) and then another 9 steps to the main floor – and there are walls on both sides! By pulling the kitchen stove wall 30 inches to the left you now open up the main floor foyer and staircase to the second floor. There’s an open balustrade on the left side of the stairs and I put in a larger window to help light the space but if you really want a wonderful entrance I’d consider putting in a skylight. Imagine walking in the front door and looking up towards all that light, and then ascending the stairs and seeing a gallery wall at the top!
Based on your furniture layout you’ll still have to work out final door and window sizes and placements but you’re certainly on the right track. In major rooms like the living room try to keep windows centered on the walls – in the dining room center the bottom window on the open wall space and the left window on the console, dining table and chandelier. In your Master bedroom, I think the high window over the bed will compete against the narrow, tall window next to it so maybe smaller windows flanking the bed are a better option.
Next, the basement. I don’t know what kind of work you’ll be doing in the workshop, but if it’s wood-working you might consider installing a door between that room and the sewing area to keep dust out of your wife’s work area. I would also have the mechanical room door open from the shop so you can add storage along the wall that is against the stairs.
Finally, you might consider relocating the cistern. Since right now it’s very close to the shop door it might be difficult to get around it if you have to move long items in and out of the shop.
Hopefully you like my suggestions. Please let me know if you have any questions :)
Rockies! Amazing! Thank you for the time you've taken. You've given us a lot to think about. I think your changes, especially around the entrance and hallway make a better design. I especially like the gallery/storage wall idea.
Many of your other suggestions are great and we'll take them. We're going to have to make a spreadsheet of all the great feedback we've gotten to try to synthesize it all.
The door to the exterior from the bathroom is to deal with dragging in water from hot tubbing...if the door was in the bedroom then the area in front of the door would become wet pretty often. I agree from a privacy standpoint it's much nicer to have just the one door. We'll think about that.
The cistern location is a bit of a placeholder at the moment, we'll move it so it's the most out of the way, it can kind of be anywhere nearby.
Here's a few questions for you. What do you think about switching the dining room and kitchen areas? My wife likes it because it puts the kitchen more in the middle of things. I, in classic energy nerd fashion, grumble about the enlarged plumbing rectangle. Ultimately though, I don't have very strong feelings about it.
Also, any thoughts on the size of deck? I think it could be smaller but don't know what a good size would be.
I don't think you could change this without increasing the total width of the house, but personally I like a hallway to be at least 48" wide so moving furniture, mattresses, etc isn't such a pain. Also, as someone that love to cook the kitchen being in a nook isn't my favorite thing in the world, but at least you can kind of see the living room (again, not really sure how to adjust that).
I will say I love how you placed the two linen closets, I always struggle with adding those, and I'm super jealous of your bottom floor with a work space, sewing room, tons of storage, etc.
Is the elevator intended to provide wheelchair user access?
Yes. I talk about it a little in my earlier post, but yeah.
What's your vision for wheelchair access? Is this a 'forever home' for a full time chair user? Or is it intended for 'good enough to weather a broken hip'?
If it's the former, I suggest spending a lot of time on Youtube seeing how other chair users have laid out their spaces.
There are compromises that must be made between chair and ambulatory use, so you'll want to define your priorities early.
Also important to consider--optimization for chair use is not the same as optimization for aging. There's some crossover, but also some aspects that create tension between those two visions.
Hello Andy. Thanks for commenting. We're trying to optimize for aging. I mentioned in the previous post that my grandmother had an elevator in her 2 story + basement home and was able to stay in it until she passed at 99 years old! She was unable to use the stairs for many years. So that's the inspiration.
Do you have any comments or recommendations for resources? It sounds like you're knowledgeable on the subject.
There are a wide variety of guidelines from various government regulations and nonprofit agencies. These guidelines may focus more on public or private spaces. I will link some of them in a later post.
Speaking more broadly, in terms of design framework (this is not an exhaustive list...I could write something more organized in the future):
Beyond ADA or other regulatory compliance, it may be beneficial to imagine how a chair user might move through a space, and what they would need to touch in order to use the space. Spaces can be fully compliant with regulations and still be awkward to use.
Consider the level of expected independence for daily, monthly, seasonal, and yearly life activities and maintenance tasks. For example, under what health and ability conditions do you expect to be able to cook, clean, bathe, get dressed, do laundry, change bedsheets, change HVAC filters, etc, independently? And what proportion of those conditions do you expect during your lifespan?
Finally, there are always compromises between designing for different use cases. Lowered cooking surfaces for a chair user can be awkward for a taller adult. A design that seems generous and makes a full-time chair user's experience much more convenient can create spaces that feel overly large and 'institutional' or 'commercial', and of course, more square footage means more expense.
For example:
Kitchens are fairly easy to adapt to chair users with some foresight, but they still require compromises between ambulatory and chair use. If you were planning to prioritize ambulatory use but wanted to prepare for either an occasional chair user e.g. broken hip recovery or are betting by the time you need a chair you'll be near your end of life anyways, you'd need some modifications and evaluations to your existing plan.
These modifications would be designed to make chair use possible without incurring dramatic renovation costs during a hypothetically vulnerable life period, but ultimately prioritize ambulatory ergonomics.
One way to approach this is to rent a wheelchair and try to do your daily routine in your existing kitchen.
Otherwise, a non-comprehensive list of necessary modifications and/or evaluations to your existing plan could include:
-a landing area for the refrigerator adjacent to it (swap the refrigerator and pantry?),
-a section of lowered work surface that is preferably close to the sink and stove (In some kitchens this might be the end of the island that is dropped lower with a larger overhang than typical. But your island is not that close to the appliances. The standard 36" height for stoves is actually a bit tall for stirring food as well as kneading bread, but people like having everything the same height so it ends up this way. Also, most ranges only come in 36" heights)
-under counter clearances for critical areas such as the sink and a work surface (this can be accomplished by building these sections to be self-supporting, and then adding in cabinets that removable)
-checking to see if controls like faucets, cooktop and oven controls, light and ventilation switches, outlets, etc are at least chair user safe (reaching over hot burners to turn off the cooktop is less than ideal)
A list of 'nice to haves' might look like:
-considering microwave placement
-pull out landing surfaces near major appliances, if that's your style
-side-hinged oven door
-a raised height dishwasher (or just plan to swap in a dish drawer later)
-optimizing placement of controls to make chair use more friendly
-some way to grab and scoot along common travel paths
At some point, if you make too many changes for chair use, it gets more awkward for ambulatory use. So that's why it is important to consider the framework first.
Another example:
Many accessibility regulations concern circulation paths for accessibility. Using ADA as the benchmark for this discussion: Right now, a chair user would exit a car in the garage, go through a door, then skirt through a somewhat narrow, but compliant opening to get to the elevator. For BR2, the door clearance is not ADA compliant with the existing furniture layout (not enough clearance depth in front of the door). It might be with a smaller bed, or with the bed pushed towards the closet, but you would want to evaluate if the chair user could do the aforementioned activities like getting dressed (closet access), changing sheets (clearance on side of bed), etc. The bathroom looks minimally viable (I didn't check in detail), but would not be pleasant for a chair user.
If they are using the master bedroom and master bath, the doorway clearance to the master bedroom and the master bath door are not ADA compliant. And if they were headed to the master bedroom, they would have to enter it in order to turn around and go back down the hallway if for example, they remembered they left their phone in the kitchen as they were entering the hallway.
Another example:
Mechanical rooms are often exempt from accessiblity regulations. So one specific question you might ask yourself could be: Am I planning to always do basic maintenance on mechanical systems regardless of my health condition? Or would I rather save the money I might spend on more accessible mechanical systems and budget it for future routine service technician visits instead?
There are many more examples in the plans similar to these.
If you moved the downstairs bath to right beside the entry it would be below the master bath, meaning the master bath is not above a bedroom so much, and also give a quick path to go pee after a long ride. I am not all about saving feet of drainpipe, but stacking bathrooms avoids having pipes over the living spaces and the attendant noises.
Or you could put it next to the elevator[under the hall bath] and then it would be close to the garage but not so convenient for guests
"quick path to go pee after a long ride" Ooh, I've been there before. We'll consider that change. It would mean a longer walk from the workshop, but maybe that's not a big deal.
Actually I hadn't noticed the two doors in that bath. flipping it so it is against the stairs, you can also have two doors which make a short path from both the garage and the front door
Option Two: A Further Refinement
Hello! I was looking at your plan again last night, and the one area of the second floor I didn’t really look at was the Master bathroom and the laundry. However, after reading another person’s comment of perhaps just having a laundry closet rather than a laundry room, I thought that that was a good idea.
The laundry room as it is now is just a small, 6’ x 6’ room. In it is a stacked washer/dryer and a small base cabinet with a folding counter on top. These two items take up half the depth of the room, leaving an equal amount of empty floor area in front of them (which is just there so you can access the appliances and the cabinet). The same exact function can be provided in a 3’ deep laundry closet. Depending on your preference, you can either use bifold doors opening out into the hall, or there are some really cool hinged doors that open and then slide back on rails into the closet so they don’t stick out into the hallway when open (red lines on plan). You might feel concerned that without a private room the laundry will be “visible” to the rest of the house. The doors will only be open for a few minutes when you’re actually using the machines and if you go with the doors that slide back into the closet, when they’re closed they look exactly like built-in cabinetry – nobody will know there’s a laundry there at all.
Accuride makes some sliding pocket door hardware.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQl-Nwc6C5M
https://www.accuride.com/
So does Hafele.
https://www.hafele.ca/en/product/pocket-door-system-haefele-slido-f-park-71-16a/P-00875693/
I would like to use the three feet of empty floor space that’s now in front of the washer/dryer and put it into the Master bathroom. Basically, I recessed the shower into part of the laundry room and built a half wall on the left (with glass above) and a glass shower door (blue lines on plan). Then I put in a longer vanity and double sinks. I also moved the south wall of his closet 6” further south to get better depth for the shower and turned the toilet 90 degrees and hid most of it behind a stub wall or screen (green lines on plan). There’s a standing rack for bathroom supplies next to the stub wall. I think this layout will give you a more beautiful, functional bathroom.
One other note, I couldn’t quite see on your original plans what was in the main bathroom next to the vanity but I realize now that it was a urinal (I thought it was a laundry hamper lol). In any case, if you do want a urinal you can just shorten the vanity and put it back in – the room itself is exactly the same size as you first designed it so it will fit.
As to another comment about a possible walk-in closet for your wife – I wouldn’t recommend it. When I added the extra 8 inches to the width of the main hallway the depth of her closet also increased by 8 inches but that isn’t enough for a true walk-in closet (if you pulled the closet door wall south so that it lined up with the Master bedroom entry door wall the closet would only be 48” deep. Yes, you could put a 30 inch wide door in the middle and have two rods on either side (48” + 48”) but you’d still have roughly the same length of hanging rod that is in the closet now (92”).
As to switching the kitchen and dining room locations, I wouldn't do it. People sitting in the livingroom would rather look into the dining room rather than a kitchen, and it's better to keep the more formal spaces at one end of the house. The kitchen is tucked out of the way a bit, so that will make hiding any mess before or after a dinner party a lot easier.
I'd have to see a site plan to comment on the size or function of the deck.
Thanks for the response. I like the idea to shrink the laundry area and think it could work well. Honestly, you've really transformed the space with your ideas and we think made a lot of improvements, with an eye for both functionality and beauty!
Yes, getting rid of the wasted space in the laundry in front of the W/D & folding counter was what I was trying to express in my item 6. I'm not convinced it is the correct location to use the type of doors Rockie linked to because they are expensive, take a highly skilled carpenter to install (your standard resi door installer can't do it), things get caught in those tracks, especially next to a W/D that rarely moves and it will be difficult to keep things out of that crevice. I'd go with either a flat folding bifold like this:https://johnsonhardware.com/1601-full-access-bi-fold-door-hardware
Or to keep the door out of the hall, a pocket door receding into the hallway way (or a pair with coordinators if needed).
I certainly understand and share the concern about creeping size. I was insufficiently concerned about this when I built my house - larger costs more to build, is more to maintain, more to clean and costs more to heat/cool. But you also don't want it cramped. The 48" is something you should strive for, but if you can get even 44" without increasing the size of the house it will feel better. And you can get it by simply removing one tread in the stair from the lower section to the upper section. There is alot of not very functional space at the area marked "upper entry" which increases as you increase the width of the hall. Shifting a few treads won't impact that space at all but will open up all sorts of other possibilities. That would move the kitchen wall plan south, give you a wider corridor (and Audrey an even slightly larger walk in closet) and help solve the issue of the overly large kitchen and master.
I also share you concern about keeping the hot water rectangle as small as possible so would encourage you to look at moving the lower level bath.
Regarding switching the kitchen & dining room - in addition to the hot water triangle, another benefit of the current layout is the kitchen is still open concept, yet parts of it are somewhat tucked away - the line of sight for the area next to the refrigerator is blocked from the living room. You will come to appreciate that vs having everything totally visible from the living room.
Do learn about universal design, and consider a no step shower. Also put in ALOT of blocking on the walls - next to toilet, next to shower, next to tubs, etc.
For the kitchen, consider adopting Rockie's layout. You will want a counter to put things on next to the refrigerator, and it also gives you counter space not visible from the living room.
Please try to figure out why you have 20 risers from the 1st to 2nd level. Are you asking for an extra height garage? You already clarified it is not for a sunken hot tub. 20 risers at 7.5" is over 12' floor to floor, and at 7" (very generous), is still 11'8" floor to floor. Even if your lower level has 9' ceilings, and you allow 1' for upper level floor framing, that is only 10'. Why the other 1'8"? If you don't need that 1'8" you can eliminate 3 treads, which starts to give you more possibilities.
Deck - yes 16' is too deep, because it will be over your entrance AND it will block light. It will also require intermediate supports, which won't give a nice feel below. I'd consider having three connecting sections of deck - the part accessed from the master (and over the lower level the office/guest room windows) no more than 10' deep, the portion in front of the door/entrance area, no more than 6' deep, and the portion accessed from the dining room/ in front of the garage, also only about 10-12' deep. This might be driven by how you build it and what your max spans are - you don't want a column in the middle of your driveway.
Rockie's master bath layout is much better. Consider that with aging you may also need side transfer to the toilet. You will get that with his layout. Even if you don't widen the house, use a version of his layout without the urinal and you get side transfer to the toilet.
User-5946022: Thank you for your kind works about my layout suggestions. I didn't really get into the deck design because I haven't seen a site plan or a building elevation, but I do have concerns about it's depth.
One Youtube channel I follow is Brent Hull's on proper design proportions and details.
https://www.youtube.com/@BrentHull
He does a regular Wednesday video about how to fix a homes exterior, and one of the questions he always asks is, "What is the story of this house? What does it want to be?"
Now if that 16' deep deck were off the back of the house I think it would be acceptable, and even expected, but over the front door? I think it will look odd.
The image I get in my mind is one of those "southern" two story houses with the double height, 8 foot deep verandah and columns (but you'd have to be really careful of the column size and proportions). A more "modern" look would be an 8' deep balcony in front of the master bedroom with a covered porch below for the office. The deck for the living room would be better off the side of the house than over the garage doors (and no balcony over the front door).
I would still leave the main hallway at 48" wide rather than 44" (hey, what's 4" between friends) just for easier wheelchair access.
As to having smaller decks or balconies on the second level - it means moving your hot tub to the lower level. I would put it at the back of the house, along with maybe a small change room and shower shed and a fire pit and a grilling station and a......well, you get the idea, Any place where family and guest will be running around in bathing suits shouldn't be visible from the street :)