Here's the first floor plan:

exterior view from driveway:

I like this very much. It's very well thought out and refined so as to look simple but it certainly is not. The zoning, from public to private is excellent and there is a strong connection between indoors and usable outdoor areas. Only negative is that the kids can come down the stairs, leave and return without the old folks in the MBR being aware! I'm sure your kids are not that sort! It's encouraging to see a house that isn't extravagant in so many of the "modern" ways! Congratulations!

Very nice looking house! I really like the modern farmhouse look you're going for, and the walls of windows will be gorgeous.

At least in the photo you posted, I wonder if anyone would ever use that front door. It sort of looks less welcoming than the side entry and it is sort of hidden under the upper floor.

How do you intend to use the study?

Where will your tv go?

Virgil Carter Fine Art - thank you so much! I love your comment about public to private...we were aiming for that. About the kids, we live on 140 acres and our kids can get into all kinds of mischief out of view on our property, so I guess I figured the floor plan won't be the thing that makes them behave. I'm not sure what will, but fortunately they're young still and we have some time to figure that out. :)

Butternut - thank you! I agree about the front door and side door...it's really ok for people to use either door. We're pretty informal. Great questions about the tv and study--those are exactly the things I asked our architects to think about in this version (there's another version of the plan with fewer windows on the bottom/south with a fireplace and tv over it, but I think I prefer this one for all the southern light). The study is because my husband and I both work at home a lot, but loosely. We like to have a space for computers, but we work while watching tv and hanging out. We could enclose it and make a very small office for us, but I'm not sure we'd like the separation. One thing I suggested is a 4' high bookcase/divider to separate the space vs. the partial walls they currently have.

I like it too!

With all that acreage, will you have a shed or similar for things like yard tools, bikes, etc? If not, your garage looks tight. It might be tight even if you have other storage, depending on the size of your current or future vehicles. Measure your cars with the doors open to see how easy it will be to get in and out while parked in the garage. Look into the sizes of SUVs or pickups if you might want one of those some day.

Nice! Just a few thoughts about the outdoor spaces.

Would you like one or more doors to the deck/porch from the living area? I also might consider whether you would want to be able to access the deck/porch from the front area.

Does the garage face west? If so, think about the sun in your kitchen when dinner is being prepared. More farmhouse than modern, but you could explore having a covered walkway/porch past the kitchen connecting back to the entry area. Put steps along the whole thing and it would make a nice spot to sit outside and watch the kids playing in the driveway court or visitors driving up.

Good luck!

chicagoans - great input! I will measure our cars to make sure the garage works. We do have a storage shed on the property. It's not pretty, but houses our tractor and other stuff. May need another one or bigger one, but hopefully they won't be right by the house.

Oaktown - thanks! The garage opens to the west. I know it'll be an issue with the west light coming in to the kitchen, but the architect tried to address that with small windows on that side, plus we will leave some trees on that side. Good point on additional doors from living room. The architect told us we could replace any windows with french doors or other doors, so that's something we just have to nail down.

numbersjunkie - thank you! Yes, I like your comment about the powder room. I'd thought of that, too, and am still waffling. I'm pretty protective of my kitchen space when I'm cooking, and having the powder room opening where it is now means people don't have to go through the kitchen to get to the powder room. It makes the master bedroom less private, though. It's a toss-up! I think even if we move the door to the powder room to the mudroom side, we'd leave the bedroom door where it is. The architect is purposely making it not flush with the kitchen/dining room to create a bit more privacy. To make the closet bigger, I think we'll make the laundry room smaller and shift the bathroom left a bit.

I like your plan too; straightforward with little wasted space.

How do you envision that "middle" door being used? Will the family most often enter the house from the garage? Who will enter from the front door? Who will enter / exit from the middle door? Will the kids most often play in that space, or to the back of the house?

It's a nice space on paper, but think about how you would use that front space in daily life. Maybe get rid of that door; maybe change the orientation of your front door to face the west side of the house.

One of the challenges when folks post a floor plan is that seldom is a site plan also posted so that viewers have a good sense of how family and visitors approach and enter the house. Such is the case in this thread. Rather than everyone making comments that the front door will or will not be used, we should ask the OP to post a site plan for better understanding. I find it hard to believe that a house design as well thought through as this one has neglected to consider the arrival of family and guests.

Nicely done. Congrats.

If you look at the rendering, there is a parking area to be used maybe for visitors near the main entry door. Then, there is the family entry thru the garage. The other doors are just access to more private outdoor and porches and for indoor/outdoor connection.

If I wanted to be picky, or maybe just for your consideration, I'd get rid of the door from kitchen to garage corridor and place the powder room door at the corridor. I do not like it when doors overlap, then you can shift the master door a few inches.

Can you share who your architect is?

Thanks for the comments. I really appreciate the feedback!

We really have given thought to the doors, and the architects have been great about incorporating our real life into the house flow. Also, this house really doesn't have a front/back/side, it uses all sides, which is fine because we're not on a regular lot and I didn't want it to feel like we were. Here's probably more info than you want, but:

marthaelena is right, there's a parking area in the front of the house. So front door is for people who park there, namely guests and my kids when they're old enough to have their own cars (which makes me break a sweat just thinking about it). You probably can't see it on the plan, but there will be a low stone wall or concrete wall directing people from the parking area to the front door. We need to add an entry closet.

The mudroom door is for people parking in the garage.

The side door on the west side (facing south) is especially for my husband. He gets dirty farming, plus has a farm truck that will be parked outside the garage, so that's a great place for him to enter with his muck boots on. In fact, I've talked about having an outdoor shower by that entry so he can clean up right there. That would be awesome!

The door from the laundry room to the north is so I can carry laundry out to a laundry line. The line should be fairly out of view if I put it on the north side.

The main outdoor area will be to the east. We haven't finalized it, but it'll either be a big deck (as shown) or a deck outside the dining area with steps leading down to a patio outside the living room area (steps will go down about 6'). If a deck, then we'll have doors from the living room and dining room out to the deck. If a deck/patio combo, then just a door from the dining room out (because the living room will be up 6' from patio).

Just figured out how to do this. Here's site plan. You enter our property at the bottom/south. The road currently goes to a shed (in middle of plan). We will add the road up the hill to the house.

Seems clear that visitors will park adjacent to the front door, while family will continue around to the garage. Although not shown, it would be easy to add a paved, but uncovered parking area, adjacent to the top of the garage, if additional family parking was ever needed in the future. It would be hidden from sight of approaching visitors. Excellent siting for the new house--congratulations!

Virgil Carter Fine Art - really like the suggestion about additional paving to the north of the garage. That would be a good location for the farm truck and other family cars.

We're building a farmhouse as well ( only on 45 acres, though) and I have to say I'm bitterly jealous of your looking driveway!! We wanted to putt house on the top of our hill but it would have been 30k to run electric, as opposed to the 8k we're paying. Have you gotten a figure as to how much yours will be or are you doing solar?

Hi Amber - We haven't gotten a figure for extending electric yet, but I expect that it'll be just awful. Of all the potential build sites on our land, though, the hill is going to be most practical in terms of extending utilities because our neighbor to the south is also on the hill. So we'll just be extending a .5 mile or so from them, directly north. We looked at building further back on our property and it would've been over a mile, so this makes more sense. I'll have to check out your posts!

I'd totally put in a garage shower and skip the middle door. We added a door from the mud room to the master closet sowhen we come in filthy is a strait spot to the shower.

Good looking house overall.

There are no closets on the first floor except the master? Which is also small. ..

Is really think through that. What do you store on closets now and where will it go in the future.