Steps = tripping hazards.

What are the ages of yourself and your children?

Can't say I love the angles that are mostly wasted space or the oversized bedroom with weird angles.

And honestly, I see nothing that reads shingle style. Maybe the turret?

Is your architect friend an licensed architect or a designer?

The reason I think they are weird is because I feel like they'll be useless spaces or you'll have to plan some unusual storage solutions.

Again, is your friend a Licensed Architect or a designer? There is a big difference.

I don't think the stairs are so bad, they're kind of cool. But it's a long way to get from the bedrooms to the garage, and I assume the laundry is down there, too? That part I wouldn't like. How many kids are there? I wonder if their bathroom could use more counterspace and storage as opposed to two sinks.

Are the main floor ceilings all the same height, or is there steps on the top floor between the left side and right side bedrooms?

Does it have to have a round tower? Could it be square, or eliminated?

Your architect should be able to give you lots of interior renderings, and a "fly through," which is like short CGI movie taking you through the house. You can also have a model built, but that's expensive.

Another alternative, for specific rooms, is to do a mockup. Take masking tape and boxes, map out each room on the floor of your garage, and use the boxes to represent furniture or cabinets. That's particularly effective in kitchens.

I circled in red the wasted spaces inside the closets. But more importantly looking at it this morning, I see more things.

1. This house will be very dark. You have almost no light coming into the house.

2. You enter the house and what's the first thing you view? Your kitchen! (and dining room.) Not a view, or even a wall with a pretty painting or the living room, but your kitchen.

3. I can't read how large your guest shower downstairs is, but it looks tight.

4. The window placement in terms of how it looks in the interior/exterior seem to have very little relation to one another.

5. A straight run staircase is an accident waiting to happen.

6. If someone needs to use the guest bathroom downstairs, they practically need to run an obstacle course to get there and if they're in the family room, it's quite a distance plus stairs to get there.

7. This house will be very expensive to build with a lot of wasted spaces inside. If I'm paying to build a complicated house, I certainly want almost all my interior spaces to be usable.

Here's the wasted closet spaces.

Split levels and raised ranch homes are the hardest to sell. Just a thought.

"the living room becomes a temporary bedroom with its own door and full bath."

And while I do understand you're building the home for your family and hope you all enjoy excellent health for many years, things can and do happen. I'm assuming your parents live nearby and you'll never have them staying over?

I say that because the way the downstairs bathroom is designed it is useless for anyone who might need a walker or wheelchair. It would be absolutely impossible to use and maneuver in. Even someone on crutches would probably have a difficult time in there.

Again, you have a problem with lack of light in the house and the fact your back faces south, and you're not even taking part use of passive solar?

The most elegant room has the grand piano and a bathroom opens right there. I could not live with that kind of tinkling so close to the ivories. xp

Casey

You have small windows on a large house. Yes I think there is not enough light coming into the house.

I will ask our architect friend about widening the guest bathroom by 6" and replacing the entry door to 36" (from the current 32"). That should create a 3' x 4' clear area between the toilet and vanity. The shower door is currently 30" wide and the shower has a 36" diameter space inside the walled area. The plan is to use a curb-less shower design.

That's all fine but it's an obstacle course to get around the toilet to the shower and there is not enough room on the shower side to get in and out of the shower. A wheelchair needs 60" turning radius. And go watch people sometime who use walkers and how hard it is to maneuver. This bathroom as drawn will NEVER be friendly for those with disabilities.

Look others have been treading lightly. JDS who is an excellent architect in your neck of the woods tried to say it nicely and so did Casey. I'll be more blunt. It's not a very good design as it is now.

Now having said that, I will say I feel your frustration. I've been adjusting and changing my plan for a year now, partly because of zoning miscues, partly because we just decided to add more land and mostly because I started on here like you with a very poor elevation that read nothing like the craftsman I wanted.

Of course my needs are different than yours. My house is in SW FL and this is our forever house in that we're both in our 60's already.

Here's the thread that gives links to all my threads (second post down):

Link to the Saga of Cpartist's craftsman home

And here's the link to the latest since we bought additional land:

Cpartist's latest saga

My point being to take all the offered advice and really think through what you need and want. It can only get better if you're open to changing what is there.

Also one other thought. I might be wrong but I was under the impression that underground garages are harder to keep dry, etc?

The house reminds me of a friends house. One thing I would do is have a dumb waiter where that odd closet is behind the pantry. If you have 4 kids, that's a lot of groceries to haul up from the garage. If possible have the dumb waiter go up one more floor for laundry. Of course that would require reworking that upstairs hall and bath so may be too much to change, but from the garage up should be doable.

I want to say something positive. On other threads, people are often criticized for focusing on a floor plan and not thinking about the entire design (inside, out, lot) in a holistic manner. You should be commended for designing this, with your architect friend, as a holistic unit. I also think you're doing a good job being thoughtful with the advice being given here, as well, that's very admirable. Good luck on your home journey!

The design looks contrived. If the shingle style is something you are looking for, find someone that is better well versed in the style.

There are no important design characteristics in common between the Shingle and Craftsman styles other than shingles. Try a multisided tower with battered walls, a gambrel roof and get rid of the belly band that wraps awkwardly around the tower.

It's a completely unsuccessful, ridiculous, plan. Seriously, it is one of the worst plans that we've seen on here. Bar none. Plenty of self designed plans have had better light, air, and circulation space. No actual architect is likely to be responsible for that Frankenstein. Not at all salvageable in my book. Fire the guy and move on.

Hire JDS. He's in MA. And he understands shingle style well. Your draftsperson is clueless.

I understand not liking a front load garage, but on a 1/4 acre that might simply be the best way to make use of the space. By fighting those basic constraints you are creating a convoluted and odd floor plan. The key with a front load garage, is to make sure you have enough budget allocated for higher end doors (maybe even custom) and tie it into the whole design.

Sophie is definitely blunt, even more blunt than I am, but so far Mark, Sophie, Virgil, Casey and JDS, five of the professionals on this site have let you know that this plan is not really worth pursuing. Mark, Virgil and JDS are architects. Sophie is an interior designer and Casey is a builder. I would listen to them.