You won't know how many bumps you have until you rake away all the wood chips and mulch. The really good news is your soil has been covered in wood chips and mulch. It doesn't get much better than that. You probably don't have clay soil. Search for "Jar test" and do that with the photos at 1 minute, 1 hour, and 1 day. That will tell you that you have a sandy soil or loamy but there isn't much clay in Texas. There is clay-ish soil that has excess magnesium in it. That tends to make soil act like clay. There is a soil treatment made by Medina that, if you use too much, will give you that clay-ish soil. Pick a variety of St Augustine that works in shade and cold weather. Floratam is the really popular one but it is not the best performer in shade. I'm thinking Delmar is a good one but I'm not really that up to speed on the varieties. In general I know St Aug is the one to have in the shade. As a matter of fact I have Floratam in heavy shade and it's doing great, so I can't imagine how well the better shade varieties would do. When you pull the mulch and wood away, drag a piece of chain link fencing around and see if that doesn't do your leveling for you. It should be at least 4 feet wide and 6 would be better. Put some weight on it so it will scrape off the high points. That tool should do all your leveling for you by removing soil from the high points and dropping it into the low spots. If you need to fill low spots, my favorite material is sand. Whatever you do, do not rototill the soil. That will give you a bumpy lawn that continues to get bumpier for 3 years. You really do have ideal soil right now with the mulch on top. When you bring in St Aug, it only comes as sod. Roll the sod down with a water fillable roller. Be sure all the sod buts up against the pieces of sod. There should be NO gaps. Good installers know how to fit it in around any obstacle. Down here they use a machete to chop it in. With the really good installations, you can't tell they were just installed. There are no slow options for shade in the south. St Aug is about the only grass that will thrive. There is one other. It is called Shadow Turf. It is slow to establish but aggressive once it does. It is a variety of zoysia developed in Abernathy, TX along with Texas Tech. I've tried it and am not thrilled with it. It has all the drawbacks of zoysia. The big one that I consider to be a deal killer is that once it goes dormant, it remains dormant until the following spring. In 2011 I made the mistake of waiting for rain so it would come out of winter dormancy. It never came out of dormancy and remained brown all summer. Looks like new, now, but that was a long brown period. Also zoysia cannot fight back against bermuda like St Aug can. So that's the background for why to go with st Aug.

Everyone has their own approach to this situation. As a retired architect and educator, let me give you the architect's side. You have put yourself in the hands of an experienced professional for a situation which you have little expertise or experience. Your role is to share your "Needs" (essential) and "Wants (optional), as well as information about your site and your budget. If you have preliminary ideas about the architectural character of your house you should share them in an initial discussion. Your architect should listen well and respond with preliminary design studies, explaining what the studies do and do not. Preliminary design often works best if you and the architect work on the designs together in the office, s/he sketching and explaining, you listening and responding, until a sound direction is established. Once the preliminary design directions are established and agreed to, the project becomes more and more specific and the process tends to move more and more to automatic. By the time of the construction drawing and specifications, the process will be largely automatic by the architect and any necessary consultants. Like working with any professional--attorney, accountant, architect--you must establish a relationship based on mutual respect, trust and understanding. Some humor also helps. If you disagree over something, discuss the pros and cons, and like any adults arrive at a mutually acceptable decision and move on. You may question your doctor's advice, but you do not question her/his expertise. Same with the architect. Arrive at a decision and move on--there's a lot to do in the design of a house. Finally, as for aesthetics, the design of a house is a balance (read, compromise) between interior functioning, exterior massing and detailing, and siting. All of these must successfully be integrated with one another for a successful house design. The great mistake many consumers make is to spend inordinate amounts of time initially studying and resolving the floor plan frequently resulting in a large, complex grouping of interior spaces without a parallel and similarly rigorous study of the exterior possibilities and the important siting of the home. This approach is a mistake because by the time a highly detailed plan is fully completed it's often impossible to hang any sort of reasonable exterior design on it. One is left to simply put a roof over it and some exterior materials on the walls. This is why so many tract home appear so similar and appear so large, overinflated and out of scale when viewed from the exterior. Thus, work early with your architect to explore and develop both the inside, he outside and the site plan together in the preliminary stages. You'll be glad you did later when the project goes on automatic and the construction drawings and specifications are produced. A final word: seriously consider retaining the architect as your representative during bidding and construction, unless you are a construction expert yourself. Lots of things happen during construction and you (and most consumers) need a knowledgable and experienced representative looking out for their best interests. Good luck on your project!

A 6-foot porch is not really usable. Double that and you have something you and your friends can use for visiting. Do you know anyone in Minnesota who lives in a pole barn structure? Will you be financing the project with either a construction loan and/or a permanent mortgage? If so, you'd better talk to lenders about whether or not they will finance such a structure as a permanent residence. If you have to have a building permit (or other approvals) before you can begin the project, you better talk to your local building department. I suspect both of these entities may have real reservations about building a pole barn for a residence. And you understand that the price you have been given is a dirt floor shell with no foundation, flooring, interior partitions, finishes; no fixtures, fittings or equipment; no systems for lighting, heating/cooling, plumbing, sanitary, etc.? Perhaps you need to do some more research?

Love the 2nd drawing, but I wouldn’t waste space on the dividing wall.