I am so sorry for you and your family experiencing such a traumatic event. I see in your Ideabooks, exterior elevations that seem to lean to a two story farmhouse kind of style. Of course, you need a licensed architect to bring your new hopes to fruition. However, you can do some good homework first. Start a collection of pictures from Houzz, magazines, home tours and get a large 3-ring binder and save as many hard copy pictures as you can to help “communicate” these looks to an architect. This is very helpful. Your architect will need a survey of your property and a trip to your site to help determine “siting” and then h/she can begin designing rooms and overall layouts for your new home. There are a thousands of decisions you will be making over the span of many months so having as much definition as possible will help ease that crunch. Start also interviewing architects and vetting their references. You want some competent but also someone compatible with your personalities. You will be spending a lot of time with him/her so make sure it feels right. I have developed a document I call “New Homebuilders Checklist” that I would be happy to share with you. It will give you a kind of roadmap of how many items are coming toward you. Just email me at manganflo@gmail.com and I will send it to you. Hope it can help.

I do think the wall that backs up to the utility room is the best place for the tv. I would change the uses of the rooms. The gorgeous zone becomes the entertainment area and the long cabinet would become the focal point of the room. The long cabinet is unusual, both the design and the wood used. I would not paint it. Without seeing some up-close photos, I can’t be certain, but it might be crafted of (solid) walnut. I would float shelves on the TV wall as in the photo provided. A portion of the bookcases can be relocated to the back wall in the entertainment area. For wall colors, I would consider something like Sherwin Williams colors SW6525 Rarified Air or SW6238 Icicle to suit the airy mood. I would change the former formal living area into a formal dining room. The fireplace is awkwardly located, with a modest mantle. It is not unusual to have a fireplace in a dining room. Eventually, I would want to expand the kitchen into the adjacent area, with a large island for casual dining. The kitchen designer can design a server that makes the column less noticeable and creates a buffet space for guests in the adjacent dining room. This plan would require a big budget, but could be done over a number of years to keep the cost manageable. I would split the utility room into three spaces. A storage closet could be constructed in the front of the house and enter from the garage. Since the space in the middle has a notation indicating that there is water, it could become a future laundry room. The space at the back of the house could become a mud room. Get a storage building for your lawnmower: it is a lower cost per square foot. The current stacked laundry area could become a future linen closet or give room to expand the downstairs bathroom. I need a lot more closet space than the downstairs bedrooms have. On the marked up floorplan, I expanded the closets in both bedrooms. Putting a closet in an area with a window is a challenge that can be overcome by a good closet designer. Click to enlarge my marked up floor plan.

This design is very typical for older home, however I agree it may not up to todays standards. Somewhat it reminded me of https://www.monticello.org/ with the BIG reception area at the front filled with muskets, lot's of smaller rooms around the perimeter. This floor plan designed to your family needs and wants so it is impossible for us to judge. Honestly no clue why garage needs a laundry room and why make a large pool room with a shower [people to wait while others take shower?], is the thing with a blue button supposed to dub up as a pantry? I like to hear constructive criticism and suggestions, however some people on this forum posting same nonsense and overly aggressive towards others. Most designs today involve hallways removal [you do not want dark narrow spaces] or at least targeted use of hallways, making a house one or two rooms deep, large windows, removal of unneeded walls, flooding the house with natural light, open staircase. This also helps safety, where you can observe entire house; grand feeling. Making areas just in case you need them not only waste of money, adds to taxes, can make home feel lonely, difficult to clean and secure; I would avoid a lot of partitions, allow a kitchen to somewhat participate in a gathering [unless you have kitchen staff => but than that hallway could be a nightmare for staff]....

It never fails to amaze me how people think they can design (what is generally) the largest investment of their lives without any expertise in said design. Please find an architect. My grandmother designed the farmhouse in which I grew up using nothing more than graph paper and good ideas. It's sheltered our family for a century now and is one of the best designed houses I've ever seen. 3 kid sized bedrooms and bathroom upstairs How big is a kid-sized bedroom? Don't skimp on the kids' closets. Basement will be spare bedroom If you're building a minimal house, why do you need a spare bedroom? Minimalism would say, "Put the occasional guest in the kids rooms" and have the kids double up. We like small, functional spaces. We like minimalism. I do too, but it's not a popular concept on this board; some of what you've drawn looks reasonable -- other parts are wishful thinking. Thoughts on your plan: - Your laundry will be better on an exterior wall /not a wall shared with the garage; specifically, venting your dryer directly to the outside will be cheaper and more fire safe. You could easily flip-flop the laundry and the pantry. Also, the washer/dryer appear to be undersized in your picture. - The half-bath must increase in size. 36" is your absolute minimum width for a half-bath in this layout, and 36" not really comfortable. - You have a pinchpoint -- less than 3'? -- between the cubbies (cubbies?) and the laundry corner. Three kids crunched together in this area will not be pleasant. - I'd lose that wall in the middle of the mudrooom-pantry-laundry-half-bath area -- instead, just go with a pocket door between this multi-purpose space and the dining-kitchen area. - I'd like to see a cleaning closet somewhere. If you don't plan a space to store your vacuum, mop and brooms, extra light bulbs, extension cords, bulk-purchased paper products ... they'll become clutter in your other areas. - Overall, you need a little more space in this heavy-use area. The function of this space will make-or-break your house, and a few more feet of space will make all the difference in the world. - This area will be dark -- I'd go with a glass door at the bottom AND add a window to the half-bath AND put a glazed glass door on the half bath. This will bring some light in from both ends of this utility room. - You're in a cold climate -- will you have coat hooks on the wall shared by the island? - In the kitchen you've drawn five stools at an island just over 5' -- in reality, you can have two comfortable stools or three cramped stools in this space. - When people are seated at the table, they will block access to the only door to the back yard. - With apartment-sized furniture, this living room will work, but with three kids it'd be more comfortable with just a few more feet of space. Realistically, you're not going to find an 18" coffee table. - I don't see a spot for the TV in the living room. - A bay window would open up the living room a bit /give it the visual feel of more space. - The bedroom and closet look small-but-workable. I'd like to see an exterior door in the master for fire safety. I'd move the bathroom door "up" a bit so it could "park" in a little entryway /not in the bathroom itself. - Windows on two sides of the bedroom would make it more pleasant. - The bedroom door and the stairs are cramped together. What size doors are you planning? - Realistically, this bathroom can't afford duplicate sinks ... you're looking at two sinks in a 5' vanity, which means -- at most -- a narrow stack of drawers between the sinks. And NO other storage anywhere in the bathroom. If you go with a single sink, you can have a full stack of drawers for each spouse. - You're talking about having a renter above the garage ... but your lot is fairly small. Have you accounted for never-blocked parking space for this renter?