I'm apologize in advance for my very looooong response. :-) We purchased 25.67 acres in June 2009, and didn't start our home until April 2010. We had almost a year of time to plan, prep the land and get permits and permissions in order. In hindsight, another year would have been great. Take advantage of the time you have to judge things like rainfall, groundwater, floodplain if you're near water, etc. This will help you determine ideal location of home, depth of foundation, etc. It will also let you see where windows would take advantage of sunrises/sunsets; where winds and snow are coming through the trees, etc. so you can make house plans for that specific location, or plant trees now as a windbreak or snow fence. One of the first things we did, was get permission IN WRITING from township regarding building permit, roadway permit, fencing, etc. We also contacted the Conservation Authority. Much of property is considered significant woodlot, as well as being protected due to bordering cold water creek with abundant wildlife. (You mentioned being near/adjacent to National Forest, so this may apply to your situation.) We also asked the Conservation Authority for WRITTEN PERMISSION on what we could do with the land, where we could build a home, etc. We were so fortunate that our Conservation Authority suggested applying for grants for reforestation. Although over 20 acres is already forested, they planted over 4000 trees, with at least 3000 being norway spruce. Since we began with the grants only weeks after buying the land in 2009, we had a year to work with the forester to determine which trees the deer or rabbits loved and which they avoided. Now, we have over a year of growth and they are coming back to help us apply for more grants to continue planting. WE DIDN'T PAY FOR ANY TREES OR PLANTING. Well worth the time to research any grants available to landowners! We began clearing trees at the building site ourselves. (my husband has at CAT backhoe, so this saved us lots) The first major thing we did in 2009 was put in a well. If you can't get good water, building may not be possible. As 'brickeyee' suggested, we also hired an engineer in 2009 to do our site plan, which included test pits for perc. He was able to do two pits in two different seasons. This allowed us to see where the groundwater was during spring and fall, which helped us determine the foundation depth. We also knew the type of septic system required, which allowed us to get quotes and set a budget for our future septic system. We started to build relationships with the utility people. This paid off. My husband was allowed to do the trenching - which saved us thousands of dollars. I have to stop typing now. Good luck. Sounds exciting!

I agree with much of what's been said, and I think you can improve upon this layout: Garage: A back entry garage is going to require a turn-around type driveway. Do you have space to make this turn comfortably? I'm thinking this back garage concept is only workable if you're building on a corner lot. Your kitchen isn't spacious. Does this fit with your cooking style? You have something of a door log-jam around the garage-kitchen entrance. I'd consider having the garage-entrance door in the utility room and eliminating the broom closet altogther -- nothing's going to fit in that tiny triangular room anyway, and you have a good-sized utility room right there. Opening up that corner will not add functional space, but it will add visual space. Your dining area is tiny; really, it's the same size as your laundry room, and your master bath is larger. PLUS the dining area IS the walkway from the garage. In reality, the table you've pictured will not fit there; you'd comfortably be able to have a small 4-person table in that area, but it still would be a bit cramped. I think this is the biggest problem with this layout. I totally agree with the poster who says that the dining room French doors should become windows. You still keep the light, but windows are cheaper, and they are one less set of doors to secure every night. And with another set of doors right there in the living room, the dining room doors are not necessary. You asked about cost-effective. All those angles are the exact opposite of cost-effective. And for little purpose; for example, the triangular linen closet by the secondary bedrooms isn't even going to hold towels. Your public living spaces are quite cramped, yet your foyer is spacious. This isn't where I would allot my square footage. My best suggestion for opening up this public room space: square off the back wall of the house. That is, extend the living room /dining room area a bit. Since angles are so expensive, this will probably end up being almost a wash financially. This'll give you space to breathe in your dining room area (remember, this is a main walkway too), and it won't hurt the living room area. You can still have the back porch -- and without the angles, it'll be more serviceable. Unlike lots of people here, I do like the jack-and-jill bathroom concept, but that's personal preference. IF you were to change to a hall-bath, you could elminate the half-bath. If you were to eliminate the half-bath and take a little space away from the master closet, you could use that area as a small office. If you place the desk against the wall, you'd have a small but usable space. Why? Because then the current office could become the dining room, solving the biggest problem in this layout. Six doors in the master suite is an awful lot, but I would eliminate only one: The bathroom door between the linen closet and the sinks. It's only a few steps to the right or the left to enter through another door -- this door isn't needed. Plus it eliminates that seeing-the-shower-from-the-foyer problem. Still on the subject of doors, I would get rid of the silly little double-doors in two places: They pose a problem when it comes to light switch placement, and mixed doors in the same space are just odd. I think you've allotted too much space to the master bedroom closet -- too much, that is, in proportion with the rest of the house. This closet is as big as the kitchen, larger than the dining room. I do, however, love that one spouse can go into the closet, turn on the light and make noise without disturbing the other sleeping spouse. I think the layout of the whole bedroom area will function well. The master closet, though, is far from the laundry room. Carrying laundry baskets through the living room and kitchen/dining area, threading your way through furniture, is going to get old. With all that space, you could include a stack-up washer/dryer in the master closet and eliminate the carrying. One note of caution about the location of this master suite: Where will you locate the TV /stereo in the living room? If the answer is above or beside the fireplace, you're going to want to include extra insulation or gyp-board between the living room and the master. Otherwise a person going to bed early is going to be disturbed by the noises in the living room. This isn't a design problem -- just a detail of which to be aware during building. I would take the window out of the shower and move it to the toilet room. Actually, I wouldn't have the toilet in a separate room -- closing oneself in a tiny cabinet to use the toilet feels too enclosed -- but that's an unpopular choice around here. My overall impression of this house: It's okay, but nothing great. It looks like a starter house (in terms of size) but with a nicer master suite. With some tweaking, it could be much nicer.

Are you on the Virginia side? If so, I might be able to help with referrals to reasonably price contractors and handypeople. PM me if you don't want to publicly post info about the specific town you live in. Also, you might consider a tact my NoVA-dwelling sister recently took to fix up a lot of stuff in her house for sale prep. She posted specific projects on CL, from replacing grout around a tub to removing a tree to a bunch of drywall repair to painting her entire house. She also had a slew of handyman jobs. She posted a photo of what needed to be done, specifics on timing (needed to be done in the evenings when she was home), and asked for bids. She got lots of emails, ranging from hacks saying "I can fix this for you, text me" (which she ignored) to bona fide contractors looking for fill-in work. She picked a couple with the best responses, talked to them further on the phone, and then hired one. All did excellent work. I'd consider starting with your plumbing stuff, and let them cut holes in the walls to access the pipes. Once you're done, get a drywaller to come in and patch everything. Paint it yourselves. Find a concrete person to redo your walk and stairs. Get a handyman to replace your light fixtures, doors and repair your deck. Find a window company to replace your windows (if that's what needed). Piecing out this stuff will be less costly (and faster) than finding a GC to organize it all. You may not be handy enough to save on labor by DIY-ing the work, but you can DIY the hiring of specialists and save on the middleman. In the meantime, work on your plans for kitchen and bath remodels by using the respective forums here. We can help you design spaces that are functional, beautiful, and budget-friendly. Nice kitchens can be had for way less than $60K. Start watching CL in the "materials" section and snag stuff that you can use in your work. People sometimes post entire kitchens, you can find brand new vanities or tops, and you might luck into some ceiling fans. Ebay often has good deals on faucets and other bathroom fixtures, so troll the listings there.

amunk01, the people selling fear, have sold you on this. First , I did what you said to do, and I found a plethora of results from dubious sites selling the fear. I don't trust any of it. And Second, I found this at Snopes Snopes debunks using herbicide as drying agent, say no actual wheat farmers have ever heard of anyone doing this The number of people selling fear, has mulitplied with this great invention of the internet. IDK, maybe they want to drive traffic to their site to increase ad revenue. Evidently its good business, because these people flourish. Lets go down the list GMO , and btw, CBS edited out a segment of their piece on GMO's, where they discredited the organization represented by the so called woman scientist they interviewed. It was in the piece originally aired. And when the science community says GMO safe, they move the goal posts to glyphosate. This is common strategy for the fear sellers, they scream about an issue and when discredit, they morph the issue into another issue. Organic farming, which now the organic farming business is twice the size of Monsanto, that has people driving across town to over pay at Whole Foods. And has also led to the near destruction of the restaurant chain Chipotles, when the chain tried to be organic with locally sourced food, and their customers almost died from e-coli. Then lets go to other areas .... like that evil FRACKING or pipelines Oil/gas industry can't do anything without having to beat down the fear sellers. They have the public scared of doing anything, we have to study everything 10X's over before anything can get done. This can't continue. Then there's the anti vaccine crowd, led by Robert Kennedy Jr, who is also opposed to FRACKING , whose law firm currently has several suits filed against Monsanto over glyphosate , and is opposed to vaccinating our children, when he's not out preaching about global warming. This fear selling , must be good business for his law firm. The internet has been the greatest invention in my lifetime, its added so much to our lives ............ but there's a downside, and its made the proliferation of rumor and flat out lies from fear sellers, much easier. I see so much fear, this is not what the last two lines of our National Anthem , speak to ..... Land of the free, and home of the brave. We are not that any more, and we've forgotten what FDR said at his first inauguration , " We have nothing to fear, but fear itself "