Most of your changes are fairly minor, except eliminating the upstairs. That will completely change the outside appearance unless you build the second floor but don't use it, which would kind of silly. The thing that concerns me is moving the garage forward. While I love (require) windows in the kitchen, I think it will spoil the wrap-around porch and create a dark dead zone between the porch and garage. I don't know anything about the original plan, so I don't know how far you moved it. While I love garages, they sure are hard to incorporate into a design.

It seems to me that you need an architect. You could contact Don Gardner to see if they would work with you, but without the second floor, it really is a completely different house.

Mushcreek- yes, we don't need upstairs, and I know that will completely change the elevation, which I'm ok with. The original plan had a three dormer front, and i am hoping for something like this

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I did move the garage quite a bit. I could live without a window over the sink, but the more Windows the better. I thought it would work because I saw . Similar plan where the garage was pulled forward, but I agree, it concerned me too. Hmmm...

Jdez- our current laundry room is located in our mudroom attaching the garage to the kitchen. I actually love it and that was one of my requirements for the floor plan. I do despise laundry though and wish we didn't have a need for a laundry room at all. But I'm trying to keep my wishes realistic

Here's the original plan

I am no designer, but could you make the garage deeper but narrower, and have the garage storage in front of where the cars would be? That way you could slide it forward without impinging on the look in the front, with the wraparound porch.

Our current house has a walk-through laundry room from the garage. I will admit that it gets a bit tight at times, especially when the dogs are eating in there. But it's a very efficient use of space. I have never folded clothes in that room (neither has anyone else in my family, including my mother when I was growing up) - isn't that what the family room is for? :) So we never have clothes sitting around (though I do have a hanging rod over the sink).

Goodness, that banquette area looks TIGHT! You end up with that odd, useless area on the left, and the island so close to the banquette. I am not sure you will be able to walk between the island and table. I would definitely have the architect check that.

I like the look of the house, but I think the exterior picture without an upstairs looks "squatty". You'll definitely want an architect to help you with that roof.

I agree that I don't love the upstairs. I do not like the idea of the balcony overlooking a two-story great room. Too expensive to heat, too dangerous with small children (yes, I was a jumper and a climber, and my children are all just like me).

I share your great love of a banquette, but I don't think this is a banquette done right. If you want it in the spot where it is now, I'd go with a straight banquette against the wall OR an L-shape. I think the U-banquette is going to restrict entry to the seating. OR consider keeping the bump-out and go with an (expensive, though lovely) bump-shaped banquette. And what's the empty spot in the back corner?

Since a window above the sink is important to you, you might consider bringing the banquette "in" so it's on the interior /sharing the laundry wall ... and bump the kitchen to the back of the house so it could have great windows toward the back. The negative, of course, is that the kitchen would be far from the dining room.

Do you really want/need the banquette AND bar stools AND a dining room? Plus probably an outdoor eating area? Without a pantry, I'd opt to skip the bar stools, and I'd go with a deeper island so you could have standard cabinets on one side ... and a row of 12" cabinets alllll the way down the "backside" of the island -- it'd be a ton of storage.

You have plenty of space here to have a great kitchen and banquette, but this isn't quite it yet.

How will you arrange furniture in the bedroom? The windows and multiple doors will restrict you somewhat.

In the bathroom you're using every bit of wall space -- where will towels hang, especially for the shower? And the toilet closet looks awfully small.

I'd consider extending the study/bedroom bathroom and the master closet "forward" a few feet. They're both fairly minimal, and a few more feet could add some comfort in both places.

OR you could do away with the powder room and open that bathroom to the hall. That's a huge money-saver, and I'd definitely go that way.

I am with you on the mudroom/laundry entry from garage. That was one of my must haves also. It will just be used by husband and I and I REALLY wanted a drop zone for him to keep stuff off the kitchen counters where everything lands now. And it will be great for bringing the dog in and out.

Vwtyler- I thought about something like that for the garage as well. I'm definitely not sold on having it as far forward from the house as it it's now.

I'm considering making the laundry room just a little wider so there's room for more than one. I do love that there's a door going out to the front porch, and I imagine that being useful when I'm gardening. I feel like the location of this laundry room had a lot of potential and I want to use it. I seem to read often here that many people wish they had made their laundry rooms bigger. I don't want to have that regret.

Nini and Mrspete- I forgot to change the dimensions on the plan, oops! so it would actually be more like 19' x 17'8". I added about 5ft. But it can definitely be adjusted. I was thinking something around 5x8 for the banquette? I've found a few pictures on Houzz that have the dimensions and that seemed like a good size, does that sound right? Something like this- minus the built-ins.

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Another option would be to move the banquette all the way to the left maybe? I change much on the kitchen aside from the sink & island, but I do need to figure out a pantry solution. I just never added anything to that area left of the banquette but I'm thinking maybe a narrow pantry, it would be about 5ft wide.

I could care less about bar stools. I do want a formal dining room, we love ours now. And I think it's clear how I feel about the banquette . My plan was just that Mrspete, continue the cabinets on both sides of the island. People just stand around it anyway, they don't usually sit down.

I had thought about the idea of getting rid of the powder room and just having access to the bathroom from the hall, and adding Another sink, but I couldn't think of a good layout and figured this was fine BUT if it's going to save $, I'm for it!

You guys are giving me lots to think about. Thanks so much for your imput!

I'm not even going to try to wrap my head around the elevation situation. I'll cross that bridge with an architect when I get to it. I know what I like and hopefully they can come up with something wonderful. I just can't see having a extra floor that I don't need, when we are going to have a full basement.

I agree, the front looks too squaty when eliminating the upstairs. It might be better to find another plan where you don't have to remove the upstairs to get the one story you like.