I am a little confused-- do you mean you would use the floor plan you have linked, but finish it like the facade you have pictured, and change the plan to a front-facing garage?

IMO, the pictured facade looks like it belongs in a suburban development, not a rural setting. I don't understand why you would want a garage in front when you have five acres.

I understand budget constraints. It sounds like you want a simple, economical plan. I'd look at some of the "modern farmhouse" plans out there, which are mostly simple shapes and finishes. If you want Craftsman, what about something like this: http://www.houseplans.com/plan/2520-square-feet-4-bedrooms-3-5-bathroom-country-house-plans-0-garage-33515

It is listed as "economical to build" and is essentially a simple rectangle plan. You could add a detached garage in back when budget permits. I think it's much better looking, and would suit the site better.

Good luck, your lot is gorgeousl

I like the Craftsman look for your build. It makes sense with your location. But I'm with jlc. If you've got five acres, you're not restricted to a typical subdivision design, unless you've got terrain that restricts the area of your building site, which doesn't appear to be the case. I like the foursquare, farmhouse-type plan jlc linked. I also like the idea of building the house and waiting for the garage. The other option would be to build a garage with a simple apartment above and live in it during the build of the house (saves money on rent during the building phase).

Thanks to both of you, to clarify, I was going for a floor plan similar to that linked, with a facade similar to the picture (neither exact, as they don't match perfectly).

It's hard to tell from the picture, but we have a very steep slope just past that tree line (we have a lot of work in our future cutting some zig zag paths down to the pond). That, coupled with a very deep front setback requirement (40 ft from property line, approx 60 feet from road), leaves us with a max house "depth" of about 45 ft (including any porch on front) before we get into prohibitively expensive sloping terrain. We can go as long as we want to go, but we're trying to stay with a 1500 sq ft foundation. If we do a side load garage, with our slope, we're talking about a significant extra cost in retaining walls along the side of the driveway. I'd rather spend that money elsewhere. In this area of Iowa, 95+& of garages (even on very expensive houses) face front. I guess that's why a front-facing a garage door really doesn't bother me.

Update - we have a draft of the first floor plan... what do you think? For context, top is north, view is to the north. Neighbor to the east (right) is quite a distance away, and there are trees between. "Back yard" would be to the east. My first thoughts - garage and dining room/living room area might need to be a foot or two bigger. Need to add a fireplace and windows to living room. We'll have 3 bedrooms upstairs (plus bathroom and possibly bonus room), and will eventually have a rec room/wet bar/in-law suite in the walkout basement. I don't have drafts of those yet I really want a first floor master bedroom, which coupled with my max depth requirement, lends toward a little different thought process for the floor plan.

Sorry, not sure why floor plan didn't attach. Also, attaching entire lot with contour lines for context (2 ft per line, drops off to pond, half of property is woods behind pond). Dark red line is the setback. Existing barn/shed is staying (will be fixed up a bit). It wouldn't meet today's setback requirements but is grandfathered. Removing it to place the house there wouldn't be worth it.