You have a lot of square footage but few rooms. This means that it'll always be expensive to change anything: Changing out carpet in one room will never be a couple-hundred dollars thing, for example. It'll always be a big expense. The kitchen and dining room are both huge, but to what point? Bigger isn't better -- efficient is better. What I see here is excessive steps. I like the size of the pantry, but I'd nix the hallway door. It saves only about two steps, yet it eats up probably 3' of storage space. I agree that I would not spend the square footage and the money for a switch-back stair that'll be hidden in a back hallway. If it were a focal point in the entryway or the family room, yes. If you do keep this stair, at least harness all that square footage underneath it for a half-height closet. It could hold all your Christmas stuff, for example. You have a bedroom-sized master closet. Are you planning an island in the middle? Or some other use of that middle space? The master bath has so much space, yet you're planning two sinks jammed side-by-side so close that it'd be uncomfortable to use them simultaneously. The other upstairs bathrooms have a similar lack of sink space. Well, no, a lack of counter space. You'll have no place to set a soap dish, tooth brush holder, no space to set a curling iron as it warms up. With all the space in this house, I'd definitely want more in the places that are used daily. The three upstairs secondary bedrooms all have walk-in closets, but because they're narrow walk-ins, they only have space for an L-shaped closet rod configuration. This is an awful use of square footage. You're spending the square footage for the necessary walking space, but you're only getting the storage of a reach-in. I agree that the mudroom is oversized. The hallway leading out of the mudroom, too, seems excessive for a space that's just a corridor. I'd open up the den to include the hallway space, and have that exterior door in the den.

Thanks guys! So you think the column should maybe look like the one I drew on the mudroom elevation? That is a square post (below). There are no existing columns in the house right now. The exterior is currently "brick" (masonry block) and white vinyl siding with colonial-style lighting and shutters. Our plan is to remove the shutters and vinyl, paint the "brick" to match new natural-light-grey-stained cedar shingles, with varnished wood doors... I guess that's Cottage style. The interior of the house seems like it will be happy with that aesthetic (don't want to force it to be something it's not) so the simple square column seems to fit, no? With just plain trim around the top and where it meets the counter or whatever? By the fireplace, I want all the storage that counter-height and 24" deep cabinets would provide, but I'm worried that it should be more delicate so as not to seem to much a part of the kitchen itself. Unfounded worry??

I actually like the layouts. Friends of ours have a second home where from the front, it looks like yours - long porch with entrance to the house and the MBR set back with French doors to the porch on the left side. That part of the porch is hardly ever used, and when they're having guests and someone might use it, they just close the drapes to the MBR. Their porch is continuous all around the house. As for the master bath and closet,a I always thought having the entrance to the closet from the at broom made no sense...until I lived in a condo that had it set up that way and I loved it - it was very convenient to go right tp from the shower to the vanity to the closet and back to the vanity. I would personally eliminate the door from the master bath to the laundry, but I also don't see it as a problem if you think it would be useful. Re the coat closet, you might consider moving the powder room to where the vacuum closet is now, and put the coat closet where the powder room is and the broom closet where the coat closet was.

@Naf_naf I only disagree as I don’t like to cook and barely need a kitchen...but I do like to have a big heated garage to keep my vehicle warm for those cold snowy and early mornings, and to store my kayaks, bicycles, and other toys! I won’t deny a house attached to a kitchen is (most often) more attractive than a house attached to a garage, though ;) OP: I am building a ~2,000 sq foot house. The kitchen inspiration you posted appears to be size of at least half my future main floor (at least my kitchen, dining area, and living room). You need to upsize house (and budget for not just extra square footage but an expensive kitchen) or downsize expectations. To scale that kitchen down to better for ~2,000 sq feet will result in a very different look and flow.