Eliminate your 2nd floor balcony and just have a 2 story foyer. I don't know what exterior look you're going for, but your upstairs doesn't have to sit perfectly on top of your downstairs. I would shave some sf from the playroom and bedroom #3. Another option would be leaving the playroom unfinished and finish it at a later date. I can't see the exact dimensions, but it looks like that would cut over 400 sf.

To cut square footage and make it the most cost effective, it should come from downstairs. Do you need the living room? If not, I would eliminate that in favor of one main living area and put the guest bedroom where the living room is.

Your foyer is huge and is a great place to cut. You could make it much shallower and narrower if you reworked the stairs. Again, focusing on the downstairs is the way to save money. In comparison, upstairs is much less expensive!

If you square up the home and have less angles to the exterior of the house, it will save money as well. I did away with our formal living room in our present house and have not missed it. We also did away with the two eating area setup and made the main dining area bigger. It works great for parties. Eliminate the fireplace and that only saves thousands.

If it were my home, I would start by eliminating redundant spaces. Question every area, how often you'd use it, could another space serve the same purpose, can the size be reduced?

Your plan shows a dining room, right off an 'eating area', right next to a large island. Do you really need 3 different places to eat meals?

Family room and Living room. Will both those spaces be used frequently enough to warrant having 2 rooms?

Guest room and guest bath. How often do you have guests? Often enough to have a dedicated room, and its own bath? You could eliminate the half-bath if you made the guest bath accessible from public areas.

Along that thought, if you made the half bath a coat closet, then the current W.I.C. off the kitchen could become a very large walk in pantry. Doing so, you could eliminate some cabinets in you kitchen, as well as reduce its size. Kitchens & Baths are among the more expensive areas to build.

Upstairs, you could leave the playroom above the garage as unfinished storage space. I personally wouldn't put a play room so close to the sleeping areas. Depending on how & when your kids play, that could translate to a lot of noise near where others may be trying to sleep. If the house has a basement, the playroom could be down there. (and finished basements don't contribute to taxable living area, at least not in my ares)

Does the MBR need a study attached? What function would it serve, and how often used. If as a real study/office, could not the L.R. downstairs serve that purpose. Again, depending on schedules, one person in the study might disturb the other sleeping in the bedroom.

Does the MBa need both a large tub and shower? How often do you use a tub?

Can you eliminate a bathroom? Baths are more expensive to finish that regular living space. Could the 3 child bedrooms share a single large well-compartmentalized bath? (You would turn the MBR study into a WIC, move the laundry to WIC1, then combine the laundry and adjacent bath into a single multi-user bathroom)

Oh my! You're 20% over on bids...that means you'd be 40% over at the end! (Very few houses come in as bid.)

Where are you building? Who will live here? How long will you live here? Please show us the elevations? Show us the lot dimensions with North indicated. Do you own the lot? Are there any municipal or HOA rules we need to know?

My first thought is to drop the extensive front and side porch. It's 'window dressing' on most houses -- unused and a pain to maintain. I prefer a useable *screened* porch (in my climate), or a terrace instead of a maintenance-heavy 'deck'.

When I see 'Playroom' I think 'little kids', who need supervision by Mom. Maybe the room will be used differently -- or you have a nanny.

OK, I can't go on without knowing more about your needs v your wants.

The master suite is ridiculous. A complete house could fit in that space, and could be built from the scrap materials left over.

The total area of the master suite and 2nd floor balcony is 1,500 sq ft.

Start with a rectangle 14' x 40' and fit your master suite in that rectangle. I promise there is plenty of space in a 14' x 40' rectangle to fit all the necessary amenities you really need: 14' x 17' for the main room, 2 walk in closets 7' wide x 11' deep, and a bathroom 9' x 14'

Those dimensions are ample: You will have more than 4' on either side of the bed. There is planty of room for the fireplace at the foot of the bed, with 6' of clearance. The closets, as I propose, would have 44' of lineal storage, which is a bit more than you have in the plan. And you could put both a shower and tub into a bathroom 9' x 14' Remember that no more than 2 people will ever be sharing the space of the master suite. If you really need 1,500 square ft for the 2 people, those 2 are probably not going to make the best of roommates. Better off designing separate spaces for each person.

Exactly what chisue said. If your bids are 20% over now, then your build will be 40% over by the end. It would be best to look at cutting out more than just 500 feet. I'd target more like 1500-2000. With so much wasted space, that should be easy to do. And it would leave you pretty much on target for the final numbers at the end of the build.

Your master suite is way too large. You could cut 500 feet just there. Same with the porches. No one uses that many porches. They are decorative only. Your entry/stairs/balony is also greatly oversized and doesn't add any true functionality for that added space.

There are lots of opportunities to cut space, but some feedback from you as to your musts and the previous suggestions is needed.

You have a *lot* of hallway space - eats up square footage and very inefficient use of space.

You can make your front hall and upstairs entrance hall much smaller with the same functionality by reversing the stair case. We did this and it saved us lots of square footage. It is not in yet but here it is framed:

And this is similar to how it will look when done:

Is there some reason why the architect wouldn't be the best person to suggest changes?

I would not only be looking at floor area reduction but roof complexity, number of windows, etc.

It would be easy to narrow the foyer, turn the kitchen island and pull the rear wall in, etc.

For other suggestions I would need to see the elevations or 3D rendering.

In what market is the house? Near Boston, Worcester or Springfield?

I have used a builder for 25 years who lives in the Jamaica Plain part of Boston. Let me know if your project is close enough for him to bid on it. He is often tied up for a year or two at a time but he has been taking small jobs for a year while waiting for a large project to start. Now would be a good time to grab him so let me know soon.

The cheapest house to build is a cube like the American Foursquare. Square up the design. Every change of wall direction costs money in framing, and in fitting drywall on the inside.

Check the roof angles - can you eliminate some of the changes in slope?

I recommend the following steps:

1. architect makes suggestions, contractor prices them
2. contractor makes suggestions, architect reviews them
3. new contractor makes suggestions, architect reviews them
4. new architect makes suggestions, new contractor prices them

It is also helpful to start some of these steps with a meeting of the owner, architect and contractor.

Houseinma, I have a plan that might work for you. Let me know if you are still interested.

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions. We had tried to develop the plans as a multi-generational family home that we could grow in to. The first floor guest room for example would serve as an office + playroom now when the kids are toddlers and the grandparents who visit often can still walk upstairs. The living room is not too large and is a nice quiet space downstairs. 10 years from now, the guest bedroom downstairs will be used by the grandparents and the playroom/bonus room upstairs can be used by the teenagers as a hang out spot. Clearly we went overboard with it. Our architect has showed us a couple of alternate floor plans that we will probably go with.