Building in a specialized highly regulated location will be a lot more stressful than a build in flat farmland type situation. Be sure that you have your ducks in a row as far as the environmental issues, including the FEMA requirements and wetlands issues. Good luck.

To be honest Sunny, while I could recommend further on specifics, for better or worse, it sounds like we're down to the "where do I put the towel rack?" stage, you already know pretty much what you want and any more "big idea" discussion would be pointless. And that's entirely ok. More often than not when I do these "pen to paper" exercises I do them for the lurkers rather than the OP anyway. And for the lurkers, at least one of my three points above has been addressed, that of house area. For a house with basically 4 bedrooms and the support spaces here, 2100SF is plenty. That number might represent a challenge to achieve but that's what a good residential designer does. The other two points, that of maximizing views and circulation remain largely untouched. Two bedrooms are looking elsewhere (one onto what I think will be a largely unused covered patio) and parts of the circulation paths look like the white squares in a crossword puzzle. In concluding, let me get back to Sunny....I guess in a larger sense what I was trying to illustrate is your house has no soul. Sure it has all the pieces (place for piano CHECK......screened porch.....CHECK.......pantry.....CHECK......place for hutch.....CHECK.......walk in closet.....CHECK....etc.) but add all those pieces up and the sum does not make for an inspiring whole. And inspiring wholes do not cost a dime more to build than uninspiring wholes. Designing a skyscraper, where there's a lobby floor with 50 identical floors above is in many ways an easier task than coming up with a well designed small house. Let me reference some threads you might find helpful before you spend a healthy six figures of your hard earned money in an endeavor with no "do-overs" (and again, I'm keeping lurkers in mind here). Read up on what makes good design. First here's a great list of book suggestions: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3281434/book-suggestions?n=10 Second, here's a bunch of great suggestions from others here on what makes good design: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3285825/what-makes-a-house-have-good-design?n=39 (And Sunny, if you thought some of my comments above might have been a tough read, note #31 in my post here). And third, get someone local of talent to sit down with you for a highly interactive "brainstorming session" on the design of your house. And this doesn't have to be expensive or time consuming. Just look at the idea I drew above.......which took an hour. I do these all the time and call them "design charrettes". And don't think I have a horse in your race as I only do these locally, face to face, and I'm plenty busy with the locals anyway (some I even reference here!). In lieu of doing another big retype here's a coupla threads that explain those: Not my first post here but the photo heavy one further down. In the charrette photo that's me pen in hand with the builder flanked by the owners (and from the photo you can see I'm a piano player too). http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3178541/question-for-architectrunnerguy-or-others?n=24 And a colleague of mine wrote the process up in his blog http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/design-in-a-day/ And again Sunny, the best of luck with your build.

You have very unique needs. Have you considered finding an architect to design a house that will work for your special needs? I'm not usually quick to jump on the "you should get an architect" bandwagon, but, in your case, I don't think you're going to find anything ready-made that's going to fit your very unique needs. Specific thoughts on your requirements: Open floor plan – we have two children with disabilities and they use walkers and/or wheelchairs to get around. Every door opening needs to be at least 36 in. wide. I think this is your easiest requirement. Open floor plans are very much "in style" because they are less expensive to build and require lesser square footage. As an extension, I think you should think carefully about your eating area ... plan it so that two wheelchairs could "pull up to" the table. 4 bedrooms, master, and three kids bedrooms. We’d like the kids rooms to be at least 12x12, without the closets being in the rooms. Standard twin beds for the kids? Where do you see the closets? Opening from the bathroom, or a family closet off the laundry? Tread cautiously here ... lack of traditional closets in bedrooms could be problematic if you're borrowing, and they could be the kiss of death for resale. Preferably 3 bathrooms, one in the master, one for guests and our daughter, one of the bathrooms needs to be fully accessible, tiled shower with no transition, something they can roll into and has enough room for one of us to help them while in there. We’d like it big enough for a table for one to lay on, they have incontinence issues and where diapers. This may be a jack and jill set up. I think the kids' bathroom may be your most difficult item. Have you seen wheelchair accessible showers in nursing homes, etc.? Consider a Tornado Body Dryer; they allow you to dry off after a shower without a towel. Consider storage space for the diapers, etc. How old are the children, and will they need to lay on the table as they grow? Could this table be a part of the vanity? I usually like a jack-and-jill, but, in this situation, you're going to be involved in the toileting ... and you might not like to go through the bedroom every time you need access to this room. I also think it'd be important that this bathroom isn't visible from the main living areas. Personally, I'd be glad to sacrifice bedroom space for bathroom space. A large mudroom room for the shoes and different accessories we have such as summer clip on fans for the wheelchairs to winter covers, shoes for wearing with leg braces and those to wear without, etc.Yes, for a while my grandmother used a walker when she left the house ... but didn't use it IN the house. So she needed a space near the back door for her walker to be stored. I can see that you'd need a good sized mudroom with well-planned storage. Something my now-RN daughter liked when she worked in home health: She liked it when the family set up an information basket for her near the back door. Typically such a basket would contain a clipboard with notes from previous home health care workers and contact information for the family. You might consider a spot in your mudroom where you could have such information for any home health workers who might visit your home now or in the future. Another thing she mentioned was that all her clients -- they were adults, not children -- seemed to enjoy sitting in a place where they had a nice view of the outside. One lady she worked with lived in a horrible tiny house, and she insisted that her wheelchair be placed in the front door all day long so that she could look outdoors ... even though it was very inconvenient for her family. The other thing my home-health daughter would say to you: Consider fire safety. She's big on that. A ramp preferably in the mudroom as well, but if not then in the garage, this is a must. What I'm hearing you say is that you need one good, comfortable entrance for the kids. Be sure it's covered /out of the elements. A good master suite, large shower and walk in closets, we need a retreat area. I like the plan above that has a sunroom off the master. It was arranged so that the sunroom was accessible from the main living area AND the master ... looked ideal.

"My only concern is that they all seem to have many jigs and jogs, multiple rooflines, etc. I want something that is somewhat simple and not too much going on." While there's a tipping point as to the number of corners as it relates to excessive costs, just because it's an easily quantifiable thing(stick out one's index finger and go clockwise, or counterclockwise around a house....how hard is that?) doesn't make for anywhere near of a complete analysis of a designs cost. I don't design production housing anymore but when I did, the builders (and unlike the folks here, they are professional clients who know a lot more about what they are looking for) really didn't make a big deal about corners, even for very price point sensitive entry level housing. As an illustration, below are plans of entry level housing going up in my area (which is about $350K here, the land being the significant cost driver). This is real stuff in a real market with real costs, real risks and real profit margins yet corners are abundant. And the financial model for a typical builder building cost sensitive houses in a competitive market is a lot more constraining than custom housing. Sure, everyone has a budget but building a house to hopefully immediately sell at a profit is a whole lot harder endeavor than a building a house that won't be for sale any time soon. Sure, there's a point where increased complexity has merit as it relates to costs but the "corner thing" tends to get too much weight on this forum when compared to the attention it gets from folks who are concerned with putting bread on their tables by building speculative housing. As another example, we are temporily in a rental now, having sold our Annapolis house faster than e thought. It's an entry level 1300SF house and it's got 10 corners. Interestingly, I'm working on a project now where the order of the day was "very simple and cost effective" as well as passive solar. I came up with this only to be told "This is TOO simple!"...LOL! So in the second "go around" I'm working on dressing it up a tad: I think it will be fine now!! Disclaimer: Thought about not posting these thoughts on corners because it might look like I was trolling for work. I'm not and won't be working with the OP. Just trying to offer hopefully helpful advise to her. And good luck in your build, Exciting times ahead for sure!