It looks like a good, practical plan, but I wish there was somewhere else you could put the garage. It's probably just me, but it seems like many subdivisions these days that's all you see is the garage, like it's the focal point of the building. Just my $.02.

There is a lot of wasted space in my opinion. Some of the things that jumped out at me were the huge half bath, the 36" deep coat closet, and a large unusable space between the dining room and the breakfast area.

The garage is huge. While I am a fan of oversize garages, yours seems really large in relation to the foot print of the rest of the house.

Lastly, the stairs can't possibly work as drawn. You do not have near enough headroom under that landing.

Seems pretty good. I agree about the garage. It will overwhelm your elevation. Anyway to make it side entry? For a house that size I would use the dining room as a study/office, but the space is there and you can decide later how you want to use it.

As others have said the garage is nice and big which is fine but does overshadow the rest of the house somewhat. If it can be sideloaded it might help. The windows appear to be casement ..which is fine but you have somewhat narrow windows. I would suggest considering double hung windows. You can usually get them a bit wider and also operable but they are usually cheaper than casements. Im just not a fan of too many narrow windows that you see more frames/sash than you do glass and view. The wrapping porch is almsot worthless. I would consider just taking the house straight across and changing shape and orientation of the closet. The stairs does apprear to be very tight and may not work well. Im not sure of ceiling heights. They should be 42" wide MINIMUM in a scissors stair configuration and the landing should be that deep as well. You have to consider getting furniture up and down. Then you have to consider when its on an outside wall the foundation sticks at least 4 inches further into the landing and if you want to furr it out and finish it you lose another 4 inches. So possibly you may want to add a bit of space there as well. The family room is a bit narrow/shallow at 13'-6" or so. lay out some furniture and you will find it fairly tight Im guessing. The other area that is tight is the laundry. You will be walking through it quite often and clothes and shoes laying around will make it quite tough to keep organized. Its always tough to judge because we arent aware of your restrictions and budget but if possible consider making a seperate laundry room. Good luck

Thanks everyone! Like I said, this is our very first draft of the plan, so I'm sure we will be making many changes.

I agree with the garage size. In the original plan it was very small and we told them we'd like it a bit larger, and they made it a lot bigger! I definitely don't want the type of house where all you see is the huge garage sticking out in front.

We are going with double-hung windows, so those widths will end up being larger for sure. And the formal dining room will probably be used as an office or playroom somewhere down the road.

Thanks for the suggestions so far, I really appreciate them. I'll include a link to the outside of the house if that helps picture it...

Here is a link that might be useful:

.....and they made it a lot bigger!

Who is drawing that plan? To my eye, it doesn't look like it was done by a design professional.

It'll be nice to know where the views are and the orientation of the house to better help you.

The first thing I noticed is the misleading dimensioning.
If you are building in the country, I agree that for a house this size there is a considerable large wasted space (good catch) and that the garage could be concealed a bit, maybe you can place it at the back of the house or at least place the doors on the side but this will change the garage roof line.

The front porch is 4' deep! In a farm! I would not want it to be less than 8' deep. You will not be able to place any decor/art in the foyer, just doors and openings.
It'll be nice to have windows at the staircase. By the way, I did not follow the comments about the headroom (maybe there is something that I am not seeing?) and looks to me that the landing is 48" and the stairs are 42" (maybe 44) wide minimum, but as a disclaimer, I am only using my eyes and of course, it'll be better if they were 48" wide.

Maybe the biggest issue is the wasted space, which you could use at other areas like the mudroom, the great room or better yet, a bigger pantry since you are in the country side. The kitchen looks good to me, but the wall cabinets are missing, if you want the dining room bay window as in the exterior picture, the drafter needs to show that on the plan.

Good luck!

"By the way, I did not follow the comments about the headroom (maybe there is something that I am not seeing?)"

No, I just failed at math today.

The staircase headroom is fine under the landing, assuming a reasonable rise.

If you are going to have an office, then I would do away with the desk in the kitchen and make that area all pantry.