Part 1 – 1400 sqft 3 Bedroom Condo, Illinois

Posted on: September 7th, 2009 | 8 Comments

1400 sqft 3 Bedroom Condo, Illinois (PDF)
1400 sqft 3 Bedroom Condo, Illinois (JPG)

  • Terri

    Good Labour Day to those North American Slow Homers!

    This condo has quite a lot of wasted corners due to all the angles, but given the overall pie-shape of its “footprint,” it manages to be not completely wasted. Most of the main rooms have ample light. The kitchen and dining have longer views to the bright end of the room. But that dining room is in a bad spot, right in the middle of traffic zone for door, laundry, and kitchen.

    The bathrooms all have problems: the powder room is too close to entry, plus it seems redundant since the main bath is so close to the living and kitchen areas anyway. The main bath is just plain awful with its weird layout and wasted space. The master bath again is too big with the fixtures laid out awkwardly.

    The third problem is the lack of storage. The bedrooms have adequate cupboards but the main closet is far too small. Perhaps the laundry/furnace room could have storage, though it would have to be well organized so that traffic to the washer/dryer isn’t impeded.

  • Grace

    I’m all aslant! Perhaps once we’re in the living room, the odd shape of this unit won’t be so apparent, but, to get there, we have to stumble through the dining area. That’s my #1 negative. Next is the overly large laundry/utility room. I want to reconfigure the entry/kitchen/dining/utility room/master closet/powder room/maybe even the family bath to make more sense regarding space and traffic.

    This unit takes an irregular shape and highlights the irregularities. There are right angles and squares that could have been emphasized instead.

    Meanwhile, switch the door swing on the family bath.

    Happy Labor Day, a beautiful day on my section of the east coast.

  • James Scott

    To paraphrase that old beer commercial from the 70′s…”It’s hard to get your money’s worth”.

    What’s with the two sinks in the guest bath?

    Is there really a dining area? We all know they’re going to eat in front of the TV. Save the money and invest in really good TV trays.

    Every time you exit the shower in the master bath you’re going to take of your left hip. Ouch!

  • Cat

    [img]wwwth291.jpg[/img]

    I like most of this triangular condo. I don’t think they’ve done too bad a job of dealing with the angles. The worst things are the dining area (or lack thereof) and the amount of space dedicated to traffic. The kitchen seems a little odd with its angles. Seems like there will be nice light — though not in any of the bathrooms.

  • Jim Argeropoulos

    The guest powder room is small and awkward in access.
    The master bedroom shares too much common wall with the living space. There will be little privacy there
    There is a general lack of coloset space.
    While the entry has a closet, it is going to be very small for anything over a single person. Stuff will just be stacked in the kitchen/dining area.
    I wonder if the West most bedroom will have sound/privacy issues with the ajoining unit.
    There are two very small vanities in the family bath. One is cut off by the door.
    The family bath is nearly as big as the kitchen.

  • Belle

    The three things for me that don’t work are:
    1) Lack of dining space.
    2) Good size of the family bath but poor design with a lot of wasted space.
    3) Terrace – yes there is one but what could you do there except if there was a smoker in the home who could whip out for a quick puff?

  • John Y

    1. The family bath is a nightmare. It would be the worst thing about this place except for…

    2. …the lack of a real dining area. The kitchen is awkward too, but it would be tolerable if there were somewhere to eat in this place. They could have straightened out the kitchen to the main apartment wall, made the family bath a bit smaller (since it’s just wasting space now), and then had room for a real dining area. Alas.

    3. The wasted powder room in the front, stealing space from the front closet — and in Illinois, that coat closet is going to be very important. I actually don’t mind the large amount of space in the laundry room, that allows for storage of large items and perhaps for some laundry drying racks to be set up. But nobody’s going to walk all the way to that powder room from the main living space, might as well use it for something useful.

  • John

    I think it actually isn’t too bad. Of all the “what’s wrong with this house” examples, this is one of the better ones. It was a difficult (triangular) space to work with and all things considered this is better than many of the blank slate designs where the designers really had no one to blame but themselves for the bad designs.