Congrats on finding land you love! Below is a link to an old Gardenweb thread you might want to read before closing on the land purchase. If there are things mentioned that you haven't done before you close, they should definitely be at the top of your list to take care of ASAP. As for doing part of work on the house yourselves, it is certainly possible but how successful you'll be depends in large part on just how 'handy' you really are and on how much time and energy you have to devote. You don't mention having any children yet but, since you mentioned wanting 3 or 4 bedrooms and that you're in your late 20's, I'm guessing that you may plan on having a child or two eventually. A pregnancy WHILE you are in the midst of building can severely cut into your time/energy for devoting to the build while simultaneously putting a sense of pressure on you to 'just get the darned house finished!' LOL! So, my advice is be careful not to bite off more than you can chew. But, if you have some actual building experience already... like maybe having volunteered extensively with Habitat for Humanity or having done some major renovations on a previous home... and can accurately judge both your skill level and the time you'll have available to devote - then go for it. Nobody else will ever put as much CARE into building your home as you will! Getting a contractor who is in charge of finishing the entire house to agree to let you do certain portions of the work yourself MAY prove difficult. Contractors are much more likely to prefer to hire 'professionals' under the claim that they can rely on professionals to get in and get the job done and that having the homeowner do part of the work could delay the overall progress. It also puts you and the general contractor in a rather odd relationship in that, the general contractor works for you but, to the extent you are acting as subcontractor for some portion of the work, you work for him. It kind of blurs the lines of authority. It is also possible to enter into a contract with a builder to him do the foundation, framing, rough plumbing, roofing, and finish the shell (up to dried-in stage or to the sheetrocked stage or to whatever point you decide) and, once he has completed all the work he was hired to do, he gets paid and steps out of the picture leaving you to finish the rest of it yourselves...either by directly hiring subcontractors or by doing the hands on work yourselves. Getting a bank on board with this kind of plan can be a bit difficult though. Banks typically want the house to be finished and ready to be lived in when the last of the construction loan money is drawn down. Plus, if there are any warranty issues once the house is fully complete, it can be difficult to nail down responsibility. Another option would be to go the owner-builder route so that your are your own general contractor for the entire build. That way you hire can subcontractors or do specific jobs yourself, as you desire. You're in total charge. There are consulting companies that, for a fee (which is much less than a general contractor's typical percentage) will guide and assist you as you owner-build. They lead you thru the applicable laws so that you get all the necessary permits and inspections, advise you on the order in which to do various jobs...including how far in advance one usually needs to order certain materials, provide you with lists of pre-vetted subcontractors which you can choose to hire, etc. They'll even help you find banks that will give construction loans to owner-builders. Working with such a consulting company can give you the same clout with subcontractors that a volume builder would have because the subcontractors know that, if they don't do a good job for you, they lose all future business that might come their way via the owner-builder consultant. (And owner-builders tend to pay subcontractors ON TIME so, once they've worked for an OB, many subcontractors actually wind up preferring it.) Be aware that, as an owner-builder, YOU are responsible for any state mandated warranties if you sell the house to someone else before the warranty periods have expired. My sense, from being on this board for more than 5 years now, is that owner-building is MUCH more common (and much more accepted) in the south than in the north...maybe because we tend to have fewer laws that protect homeowners from being victimized by unscrupulous builders here in the south so, to protect themselves, more southerners decide to owner-build. Or, maybe it is simply because having warmer weather most of the year just makes owner-building seem more attractive. Let's face it, most of us know that we don't want to be freezing our buns off hanging sheetrock or installing tile in an unfinished unheated shell in the middle of the winter! We don't even want to have to be closely inspecting a sub-contractor's work when it's 20 degrees outside. LOL! I know at least a dozen different people who have owner-built custom homes (with guidance from one of several different owner-builder consulting companies) and every single one of them says that they saved money, got a nicer home, and would owner-build again in a heartbeat. As for plans... you have several options for finding a plan and there are pros and cons to each: 1) If you want a custom design, hire an architect and have them create one just for you. Expect to pay anywhere from about $5/sq foot to 15% or more of your build price for architectural services. Price depends how detailed you want the plans and specs to be and what services, if any, you want the architect to provide beyond just rendering basic plans. If you want the architect to oversee the build process (i.e., ride head on the general contractor) expect to pay quite a bit more than if you just want them to render plans for you. At a minimum, if I hired an architect, I would want them to provide plans and complete specifications and then agree to be available (perhaps for an hourly fee) to settle any disputes regarding interpretation of the plans. And I would also expect them to provide, for free, any additional architectural services that proved necessary due to any flaws/omissions in the original plans. 2) Find a design online or in a house plan book that you generally like, purchase it along with a CAD version, and have it modified as needed to meet local codes. Some of the online plan sources now ask where you plan to build. I assume they do so so that they can advise you on whether the plan you have chosen already meets the building codes in your jurisdiction or can be modified easily to meet codes. Unless you find a plan that needs very very little modification to suit you perfectly though, you may wind up wasting significant time and money going this route. And apparently a lot of architects really don't like being asked to modify a pre-existing plan. You may have more luck if you hire a younger architect who is hungry for work. Alternatively, take the CAD to a draftsman to revise then have it the revised plan reviewed by a structural engineer with knowledge of local code requirements. Note that, in this case, if there are any flaws/omissions in the final plans, you're on your own hook to work out an acceptable solution with the builder. 3) Find a house built locally that you like, track down the architect and find out if he/she will license the plan to you. Be aware that if the house was fully custom, the architect may have contracted with the homeowner NOT to re-license the same work within a certain distance from the original build. (Folks who have paid for a truly custom design may not want another home exactly like theirs being built a block away!) Building a house from a plan that has already been successfully built minimizes that chances that there are undiscovered flaws/omissions in the plan. 4) Hire a design/build company that has an architect/draftsman on board. The really major potential problem with going this route is that, once you have a satisfactory plan, you can't put the design out for competitive bids. You are locked into either accepting the price the design/build company gives you for building the house or starting back over at square one. And, if midway thru the build, you find you have to fire your builder (it happens) or he goes bankrupt (it also happens), I'm not at all sure what legal right you would have to use the plans to finish the build. 5) Hire a volume builder and just choose one of their designs. Typically the only customizing that a volume builder will allow is in the finish work. I.e., you can choose paint colors, carpet colors, and choose from among the a limited palette of tiles, hardwoods, plumbing fixtures, and lighting fixtures. Don't go in thinking you can ask them to move walls or add in a window or two. Probably won't happen! 6) Design your own home. This takes an immense amount of time and study. It is definitely NOT for the faint of heart or those who are unwilling to learn one heck of a lot about architectural design and building codes AND be willing to learn to use a reasonably good CAD program. It also probably helps to have a good knowledge of basic physics and, even then, you'll probably eventually want to have your design carefully reviewed by a structural engineer. And of course, if there are any flaws/omissions in the design, coming up with a way to fix them is all on you. Here is a link that might be useful: What do you need to do/know if buying raw land

1) Recessed outlets behind furniture -- nightstands, wall-mounted TVs, fridge https://www.google.com/search?q=recessed+outlet&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAmoVChMIibiwo-H5xwIVlVqICh1vewte&biw=1333&bih=658 2) Adjustable depth outlets (the ones with a screw that you can tighten or unscrew to move the entire outlet box forward or back within the wall) in kitchen, bath, and anywhere else that would be relevant. After your walls/tile is finished, it is so easy to get the adjustable outlets to be flush with your tile/backsplash, but it so hard to get non-adjustable ones set to the right depth ahead of time (before any walls/tile are in place). 3) Two-way switches at the entrance and exit of every hallway, staircase (indoor and outdoor), and large room. 4) If you are getting dimmers, go handle some dimmers at a lighting store. Some of the controls are super annoying (the buttons, the slides controlled by a tiny nib) and some are a breeze (the slides with larger handles). Make sure you like what you're getting. You will handle these things every day. 5) Think about glare on the TV and try to provide for at least some lighting that avoids that. My husband hates the glare from our lighting on the TV so much that our entire living/dining/kitchen has to be dark when he is watching TV. I rarely am watching TV with him and do not want to do my activities in the dark. Many arguments have sprung from this. In some large rooms or rooms with several different types of lighting (like the kitchen), you might want to break up some of the lighting into different switches. Think that through. E.g., in the family room, maybe the table/floor lamps are on one switch and the overhead lighting is on a different switch. E.g. #2, we have seven can lights in our kitchen, and they are controlled by two switches -- the two cans over the sink on one switch, and the five others on the other switch. I don't ever really want dim light in the kitchen, but sometimes I am just getting a glass of water and all I really need is the sink illuminated, but I want that light to be bright. 7) If you do not already have your light fixtures chosen, quickly choose as many of them as possible. For example, one light over the bathroom mirror requires one box, but two lights over the bathroom mirror requires two separate boxes. You may think the former will be fine but then in practice down the road, you cannot find anything you like that is both pretty and bright enough in one fixture. Now you wish you could get two, and you're stuck. Place boxes with actual fixtures you already know of, like, and an can afford either purchased or in mind.

Take a look at something with all the spaces you're considering in a more consolidated, better laid out design with a proportional roof: https://www.thehousedesigners.com/plan/southborough-cottage-house-plan-5558/ Make a couple changes -- note image below: - Pull the (green) great room out so it receives natural light ... put in a single French door between the great room and the covered porch (purple), which is now more square /less rectangle ... better for setting up an outdoor seating area, and it doesn't block your light. With this in mind, I would add windows to the SIDE of the kids' rooms. I'd then add a patio, which could be accessed from the screen porch, the great room, or the master bedroom. - Re-do the master bath (red) and master closet (blue) so that the bath receives natural light. You could also have a door connecting the closet and the laundry -- so convenient. I'd probably make the laundry /closet a bit deeper to allow for a folding cabinet opposite the machines. - Add your second garage (yellow) to the side ... the yellow garage would be slightly larger than the existing one. (I actually wouldn't do this, but you say it's a must.) - The breakfast area isn't 'specially spacious, but you could easily stretch your table out into the great room when you have a big group. - With the hall bath available for guests, I'd make the half-bath into a lovely little desk spot ... so convenient off the kitchen. Or a pantry. - It's not perfect, but it still gives you your craft space in the area that's now a dining room ... or you could use one of the kids' bedrooms as your craft space and put the other kid in the upstairs bonus room. Note that the flow works better: the hallways aren't long and twisty-turny.

Thanks for the feedback all, MB Custom especially. I’m going to try to sketch up those changes over the next couple days and get them to the builder. The only suggestion that I’m back and forth on is the doorway in the living room to the deck. I have it positioned there so that you go out under the covered portion of the deck. I know it will limit furniture position. To be honest, we aren’t really living room people. We spend our time between, kitchen, bedrooms and deck. Same with dining room. That table is more for collecting mail. It will be a small 4 person table. Regarding not making changes. I’m know I can still make changes but at the end of the day, I have 100’s of hours into this and looking at other layouts and this is the best I could do to meet our wants. My main goal with this design was to keep as much on the back of the house as I could. I’m sure I should have hired an architect but the builder seemed confident that the engineer could draw it up. I am going to try to incorporate suggestions and I’ll see what you guys think. Cheers.