If you're planning on having an architect design your house, you don't need to come to the architect with internet plans. Put together a must have list, a nice to have list and a pie in the sky list. Then find pictures of houses, styles, rooms, etc that make your heart sing. If it's important that certain rooms are near one another point that out too.

So for example when I designed my house, I knew on our narrow SW FL lot, I wanted to recreate the feel of the Mexican courtyard homes I had been in years before in college. I didn't want a Mexican style home, I wanted a craftsman. I knew DH's study needed to look out on the courtyard as well as the kitchen/dining area, great room and master bedroom. I also knew that I wanted my laundry area near the master.

Have the architect come and walk the property with you so they can see where the best views are, where the best light is, etc.

As for this plan, it's bloated and will require a huge roof and just about every room will be quite dark. Ideally you want a house that is no larger than 2 rooms deep and with most of the rooms having windows on 2 different walls. That allows for nice cross breezes in good weather and lots of natural light.

1. What was your first step in planning? Did you find the plan and then meet with the architect?

Make sure you find a person of real design talent or an architect. I believed my builder and used his "designer" who turned out to be a draftsman with no design talent. Great engineer, but lousy designer. I do have a design background but also had a lot of help from the architects who frequent this forum.

2. In this plan, is there a way to make it look more "farmhouse"?

No, because the roof is massive and bloated. See what I said above. :)

3. Is there a way to put the garage along the side of the house so it does not dominate the focus of the house?

There are lots of excellent ways to incorporate a garage but let your architect work with you to create something that is farmhouse like and works.

4. In the back, where could we put a screened porch so that it would not affect the natural light in the great room? I love the idea of having a wall of windows in the back, but we really, really want a screened porch.

Even without the screened porch the great room will be dark.

Welcome to the forums, Miss Laura!

I strongly agree with everything Artist said above. :-)

If you want to browse plans just for fun, to kinda figure out what you like and what you don't, then go for it! Just don't get married to any of them, lol. And don't take anything to an architect unless he's interested in seeing maybe 3-6 plans that you like.

Trust the architect to work his creative magic. :-D Which should be easier to do, after you've met with several, to really get a good feel for personality compatibility.

Have fun!

Do some searching here and look for threads on what to do first, how to choose an architect, how to orient a house, passive solar energy strategies, etc. There's lots of discussions and comments on these and similar threads which should be useful and educational. Good luck on your journey--exciting times ahead.

No way this kitchen will have enough light, and you like to cook...

Bedrooms 2 and 3 need windows on the other side, but although that is easy enough to fix... the Master as this plan has set it up only has one side with windows. The master bath has more potential for windows than its bedroom!

I can't see how this design will provide a farmhouse look. Bring your needs to an architect and see what they can design.

And if you opt not to do that:

What zone are you located in? (Affects climate, affects what you can do or not do)

Which way north on your lot?

How many of you, and what ages are the children, if any?

What are your hobbies/interests that will need storage/using space?

What is the general topology of your land? You may have 7 acres, but practically-speaking, you may well have a smaller building area.

Do you want/need/or allowed to have a basement?

My first thought is that the exterior style doesn't "look" like a farmhouse. If I drove by the home pictured, I would not think "farmhouse." More like contemporaryish. I don't know if that is important to you or not, and opinions may vary, but just thought I would add it since that is what you are going for.

I have to jump on the bandwagon: This plan isn't going to morph into a farmhouse well. The issue is that it's a "deep house", and that forces you into a monster-sized roof, which is more European instead of farmhouse.

This is a pretty common layout. You can find (or design) a similar floorplan that's better suited to 7 acres of country land. Here are two examples from Don Gardner -- both have the same feel as your current interior, but they place the kitchen on an exterior wall, making the plan less deep and giving you a more reasonable (and less expensive roofline):

Both of the versions mrspete shows are better than your plan. Well except for the front garage.

And definitely get anything in writing with your BF. For example if your parents are gifting YOU the land, then the cost of what you contribute needs to be modified to reflect that. Get it all spelled out with a lawyer.

Get married or get a lawyer. Now. This will be a train wreck if you end up like most unmarried couples in a few years.

Yes, a legal understanding of the property and project protects both of you. Do it because you love one another.

Hi there! Thanks for the comments.

The funding for the project is all coming from my family's end and it will be my house on my land. We have a cohabitation agreement and have been living together for a while now. Thanks for the advice, but I'm not worried about that.

Thanks for the advice regarding the size of the roof, windows, and topography.

The land is flat - it's been used for crops for the past 10 years. It has excellent drainage as well. It's located in Eastern Ontario, CA

Mrspete: that's exactly the exterior look I was hoping for. I don't like the exterior of the plan I had initially picked at all.

I'm definitely not too attached to that plan, and will follow your advice to seek out an architect. I thought searching for a plan might help give me a better guide to show an architect a general placement of rooms. Looks like this plan is a total bust! No problem.

I only started searching for plans because I prefer to go into meetings with professionals feeling as prepared as possible. I'm just hoping for as much info as possible in order to get my money's worth and make good choices!

cpartist: thanks so much for the advice re: the roof size - that's something I had not thought of. I didn't think about cross-breeze either. Our apartment in the city is in a stacked-townhouse and really doesn't get much airflow. We're total newbies on what we could expect or even hope for

Great point about the windows, everyone!

I'm interested in having a basement, and that's the most popular option in the area.

Ok, back to the drawing board! Thanks for sharing your advice.

Oh some other advice?

Go to as many builder open houses. Not only in your price range but in all price ranges from lower on up to million dollar mansions. Look at the details and what looks well done, and what looks cheap.

Then do the same thing with houses for sale with the features you want. So if you want 3 bedrooms and 3 baths, try and find some open houses with those details. In both sets of houses walk through them imagining how you'd do everyday activities from bringing in groceries and putting them away, to cooking to doing laundry, to even where in the bedroom the bed goes and how easy it would be to get up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.

See which rooms you prefer in terms of windows and light, etc. In other words, do lots of research by spending some weekends going in and out of houses.

At the same time, start houzz or pinterest idea books with what you like and don't like. Don't worry about if it's over budget right now. All you're trying to do is pin down your look. By doing both, you'll start to get an idea what will/will not work for you.

For example, today I went driving around to some open houses checking where the AC/pool equipment was placed on the property and how it sounded from inside the house.

Make lists of things you like, and things you absolutely hate.