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Plan notes

Read from Kelly Pearo's 7-sheet set dated 03-26-26 ("Nitz 2026 0326b"). Plain-English summary plus things worth asking about before framing starts.

At a glance

3 bedrooms and 3 full baths, plus an office, a school room, a loft with a piano area, a den, and a future rec room over the garage. The garage is turned 30° and joined to the house by the mud room.

Floor by floor

• Main floor. 9 ft ceilings. Front door opens to the entry, with the living room (gas fireplace) on the left. Straight back is the dining room and the gathering room: 14 ft walls, a beamed vault open to the loft, a wood fireplace, and an 8 ft patio door. Kitchen has an indoor Chicago Brick Oven (CBO-750), a small island, a snack bar and a walk-in pantry. Bedroom 1 is a main-floor suite with a tiled shower, a freestanding tub and a walk-in closet with laundry. Bath 2, the den and a drop zone sit by the garage door.
• Upstairs. Bedrooms 2 and 3, Bath 3, the laundry room, the office, the school room and the loft. The front rooms have sloped ceilings under the roof, and Bedroom 3 and the school room sit in the two front dormers.
• Garage side. Mud room with concrete floor and vaulted ceiling, 3 steps up into the house, and stairs up to the bonus room. The plan labels the bonus room "future rec room with pool table". The garage isn't built yet; the Garage button shows the house with or without it.
• Below. As built, the whole main floor sits over a 5 ft crawl space dug into the ground: a poured concrete basin with 5 ft concrete walls below the dirt, a concrete floor and 18" floor trusses overhead. The plans drew a 548 sq ft basement under the stairs; that was dropped. The garage and mud room sit on frost footings.

Worth asking Kelly or the builder

1. The plans still show the old exterior. They call for asphalt shingles, vinyl siding all the way around and a 5/4 wood porch. The real choices are a standing-seam metal roof, LP board and batten on the front, vinyl on the sides and back, and a cedar deck. The permit set and the lumberyard take-off should match. Board and batten also changes the trim around the front windows.
2. Snow sliding off a metal roof. The big front roof runs straight down onto the porch roof and drops off right in front of the porch steps and front door. The mud room roof sits in a pocket between the house wall and the garage. Ask about snow guards over the steps and doors.
3. Dormer windows sit low on the porch roof. By the section heights, the sills of the Bedroom 3 and school windows end up only about 6" above the roof surface. Confirm there's room for metal-roof flashing and snow.
4. An open question is still printed on the plan. The master bath has a note reading "FULL? OR HALF? WALL" next to the toilet. The model shows a half wall.
5. Three laundry spots. There's a washer and dryer in the master closet, a stacking set in the hall closet, and a full laundry room upstairs. If all three are intended, each needs water, a drain, a dryer vent and a 240-volt circuit.
6. Three fires. The brick oven, the wood fireplace and the gas fireplace. The oven needs its own insulated chimney and 36" of clear space in front. In Minnesota, a range hood over 400 CFM also needs a make-up air system. Worth one conversation with the HVAC sub.
7. The gathering room patio door opens onto nothing. No deck or patio is drawn, and the floor sits about 2' above the ground. Plan at least steps.
8. Upstairs laundry label is a copy. It reads 6'-6" × 11'-2", the same as the office. The room as drawn is about 9'-7" × 7'-10". A harmless typo, but worth fixing.
9. The kitchen island is 24" × 56". That's small for a 16 × 15 kitchen. Aisles are 4'-1" on both sides, so a 36"–42" deep island would still fit.
10. No coat closet at the front door. Coats would go to the drop zone by the garage door.
11. No engineering on the set. Trusses, girders and beams are "design by supplier". Make sure the truss package covers the in-floor girder carrying the upstairs wall over Bedroom 1, and the 30° garage tie-in.

Checks that came back fine: 17 stair risers at 7½" with 10" treads is within code. The porch sits about 20" above grade, so "no railing" is OK as long as it stays under 30".

What the 3D model assumes

• The front faces south. There's no site plan or north arrow, so the sun angle is a guess.
• The ground is flat, about 2 ft below the main floor.
• Roof heights are read off the stair section (ridge about 26 ft above the main floor). Window heights are estimated.
• Finishes and furniture are a modern-farmhouse take for feel and scale. Carpet versus vinyl follows the plan's room notes.
• Garage, bonus stairs, mud room closets and the drop nook are simplified.
• With no basement, the well tank and water heater sit in the crawl space, and the space under the stairs is a closet.
• With the garage switched off, the bonus-room stairs and the roof bump over them are hidden too, since they only lead to the bonus room.