How big is your lot? Which way is North? You are obviously in the north, if you're thinking about snowpants.

I think it would be more useful to show us what the architect came up with, and describe what you don't like about it. My first impression of your footprint is that, even with a lot of windows, you are going to have dark spaces in the middle. But if that's where the stairway is, it may not be a problem.

You don't show us a plat of your land with the topography. You don't show us if your land has any distinguishing features. You don't show us the setbacks on your land. You don't explain why the garage and the front door are stuck where they are.

What you are showing us is a house that will have a fat roof and a dark interior. I see no real relation between outside and inside.

What you are asking us to do is move boxes around. That is NOT how a house is designed. A house is designed both inside and outside at the same time. Do you have all the elevations, the interior and exterior views?

Are you sure your architect is a licensed architect and not just a draftsman? And if you're not happy with your architect, why not fire him?

Do you have a full sketch of what your architect designed, so we can see what you DON'T like? Any maybe photos of the proposed elevations vs. the style of home you find visually appealing.

The lot is about a third of an acre. The town limits setbacks and what percentage of the lot can be house. IIRC the dotted lines on the picture are what we need to build within.

There's a compass at the bottom of the image showing directions.

I see what you're saying about moving boxes around, but that was also what I was trying to avoid by posting his sketch (that, and I feel kind of weird publishing his work). Rather than "fix" the current iteration I'm curious what other people would do if starting to scratch. I realize that may not work.

I do not have elevations, etc., we're in the very very early stages.

Yes, he is a licensed architect. I checked that before hiring him.

I don't know yet that I'm unhappy with him. Right now he hasn't given me a design I like, but I don't know that I've given him enough information to do so. I want help in doing that.

Plus I'm building in an established neighborhood and he is architect the builder uses for all/most of the houses. I did hire him myself rather than through the builder so I can fire him if I need to, but I want to try to make this work first.

The houses are all similar visually, and we like the look, so there isn't a whole lot to change there.

I'm going to be out for the day but I will check back later!

Can you post a pic of how the houses near by look?

I do not have elevations, etc., we're in the very very early stages.

Look at architectrunnerguy's idea books. He gives his clients elevations immediately in the very early stages along with rough plans. Here are two examples.

He is able to do it because like any good architect he thinks of both at the same time. If your architect isn't doing both at the same time, then maybe he's not the person to be designing your house.

In fact here is his first very rough sketch he did for Bethohio3. Notice how even as he was sketching room layouts, he was also thinking of how the exterior should look, including the landscaping?

I don't know yet that I'm unhappy with him. Right now he hasn't given me a design I like, but I don't know that I've given him enough information to do so. I want help in doing that.

Did you sit down with him and give him a list of your wants, needs, must haves, and it sure would be nice to haves? Did he ask about your family and your lifestyle? Did he go out to the site with you to discuss why he thinks the house should be situated a certain way?

Plus I'm building in an established neighborhood and he is architect the builder uses for all/most of the houses.

I'm in a new development of 18 custom homes. Every one of the homes going up so far have used the architect that is the hot name here in town. Everyone wants him to design their sugar cube house (That's what I call them. They all look like modern sugar cubes. LOL)

I wouldn't give you two cents for his work, even if I did like his contemporary designs. At this point his ego is large enough that he's stopped really listening to his clients, which is why I wouldn't hire him. I know that because I've spoken to two of his clients and while they say they are happy with their house, they would have done this and that differently but the architect insisted.

I would love to design your house, but it sounds like you're giving up on your architect way too soon. If you don't know what you don't like about the design they came up with, it's really hard for them to know either. Determine what you don't like about it and let them know. "Something different" is not very good direction. "I want a big cube that is orange and black, ya, one of those Halloween houses"; now that is good direction, (poor design, but direction non the less). Keep giving them information and let them know the things you like about their designs.

"Did you sit down with him and give him a list of your wants, needs, must haves, and it sure would be nice to haves? Did he ask about your family and your lifestyle? Did he go out to the site with you to discuss why he thinks the house should be situated a certain way?"

Yes to all of this. Because of the garage configuration we want/need this is the only lot that will work and the orientation that will work. We picked the lot because of it.

Mark, I'm not giving up on him at all! I'm soliciting input here to help me solidify my own thoughts so I can better guide him to what I want.

I understand why you're asking for his current sketch but I really feel like that will turn into just shifting things around rather than a new approach that he or I may not have thought of. I'll think on it, though.

Here's a google street view shot of a couple of the houses in the neighborhood:

So you mentioned to us in the OP a list of your wants, and you mentioned them to your architect. Presumably, the drawings he has shown you have most all of those things in them, or as many as he/she felt could be added given the constraints of the property/budget, etc.

Thus, The problem is really about being specific about what you don't like. This can be really hard, and you may feel like you don't want to offend. But trust me that they won't be offended with your likes and dislikes (and if they are, it simplifies the argument to move along to someone else).

We collectively can't really tell you what you don't like about it. We can tell you things we don't like about a plan if you showed it to us.

Instead, we have the shell... But I don't really think taking that shell and putting rooms into it is useful at all. It all needs to be imagined at the same time, together.

So, I think you'll have better experience by posting a plan you don't like and us helping you to figure out what you don't like about it (and maybe what you do like). This will help you give feedback to your architect.

Did he design those houses you posted?

Thanks, I do appreciate all the advice here even if it doesn't seem like it. ;)

We did give him a lot of feedback, which did not offend him (and I didn't have any concern that it would) and have not gotten another iteration back yet.

cpartist, I think so.

I'm anticipating blowback on the "garage first" nature of many of the houses. They're relatively small lots, so there's not a lot to do about that (although we're looking to minimize it for our house).

Neighborhood & being in town is one of our top priorities so while we could easily buy an acre or more outside of town and build anything we want orientated any way we want, that's not what we're interested in.

Actually the garages don't bother me so much because they are set back from the front of the house and are not necessarily the first thing you see. Plus they are not 3x the size of the house.

And another positive is the brick actually looks like it's part of the foundation and it looks to continue around the house. Two plusses.

What does bother me is each one looks like a builder's idea of what a craftsman house should look like and not what a real craftsman house looks like.

Every house has pork chops, the same detail at the gable, and shutters that would never work on a real window because they're much narrower than the window.

If they are actually architect designed, I'd really expect something a bit more inspired and more in keeping with the look they are trying to emulate, or to go to the other extreme and play off the idea without doing the cheap builder tricks.

I'd post the floor plan your architect gave you, along with a "pros and cons" list for it.

What are pork chops?

(Other than tasty?)

(I'm out of town this weekend so I may vanish, but it's not me storming off because I didn't like the answer!)

Link showing pork chops

No.

Ok, we've gone several rounds and are starting to narrow down the design. We're still going back and forth but I wanted to get it out here early to make sure I can incorporate feedback.

We're using a separate kitchen designer and she hasn't gotten her hands on the kitchen yet so there will definitely be changes there. Likely the sink will move to under the window on the east wall and the island will get a prep sink near the fridge & a second dishwasher, and a window behind the cooktop.

We're going to ditch the linen closet in the master bath for a double bowl vanity.

I know pocket doors limit where you can put light switches so once we get closer to complete I'm going to lay out light switch locations and probably change some of them to traditional doors.

We're designing for aging in place to a degree, but not necessarily wheelchair friendly. I know that's controversial, but we're only 40 so I'm not going to tweak the house too much based on something that's not really very likely. If we can do it without sacrificing anything else than we will, but not if it's a detriment to what we need now.

I don't think I'd want the view from master into the bath to be head on to the toilet.

Thanks for your thoughts!

We don't do anything in the laundry room other than wash and dry laundry. No folding in there so I don't want to waste floor space on it. There's a second laundry closet upstairs which is where the machines will be until we move to the downstairs master in 10-15 years. If we stick with this I will ensure there's a plan for venting.

The TV is in a basement rec room, not the living room.

Talk to me about "taking advantage of southern exposure". We have views to the east and west which the architect was working to take advantage of with the kitchen and LR/porch placement.

Great point about the toilet. Our kitchen designer is doing the bathrooms too and I will make sure we rework that.

Regarding the fact your main public room is on the west side, means it will be harder to cool in summer, and that porch and living room will be almost impossible to sit in during the late afternoon because of heat and light glare.

You need to read up on passive solar heating and cooling. Lots of good articles

Talk to me about "taking advantage of southern exposure". We have views to the east and west which the architect was working to take advantage of with the kitchen and LR/porch placement.

I have learned a lot from these forums about southern exposure, passive solar heating, and floor plans that will be dark versus those that allow for natural light. I enjoy reading all of the advice and am grateful for those who take the time to share.

While I am certainly not an expert, I will add my personal experience as my last home faced west with the office/dining room in front and kitchen/great room/master in back facing east. Since we had a two story foyer/great room, sunlight from the west streamed through into the great room in the afternoon as well.

I LOVED IT. The house was so light and bright. I never felt that any rooms were unusable in the afternoon/early evening and our heating and A/C bills were "normal." We don't watch a lot of TV, and will say if we did, late afternoon probably would have had glare from the sun on the TV. We are in the Chicago area, so I'm sure geographical location makes a difference on this one, but for our home that exposure was great. I miss it in my current home which faces south.

I'm interested in what folks will say about a window behind the cooktop. This doesn't sound great to me and I've been specifically avoiding it in my house design.

Ours isn't behind the cooktop but flanking it and that is fine. Not sure a window directly behind would be a good thing?

Windows behind cooktops are often against code. I'd post your un-designed kitchen space on the kitchen forum here. There are some really smart people there too!

Just from a cleaning perspective, I would not want a windows acting as a backstop for all my cooktop icky stuff.

I am thinking steam and oils creating constant streaking and grime - always looking dirty plus the code part.

Where in the country are you cevamal?

So summers can be quite warm.

Yes. But not as warm as in tidewater Virginia. And winters quite cold....and very windy.......(coming from someone who spent five years in Blacksburg.....yes, Va. Tech)...that drill field might as well been Siberia in February.

I keep hearing how western exposure is to be avoided. I just had to say I made about a million mistakes in my build but my western exposure isn't one of them. Part of this is that my views are to the west but also I love the sunlight that streams through my west windows. It's approximately 100 degrees below zero out there right now (ha ha) but my house is filled with light. I live in the frozen tundra of NY though so that's probably a factor. Either way I love my western light in the winter and it shuts out pretty easily in the hot summer.

Actually when I was up in Syracuse, I believe my dorm faced west and I loved it during the winter afternoons. What little there was of winter afternoons.

But generally, you want to limit the west exposure not only because of the heat and sun in summer, but for most that is also the direction storms come from. However, if you build facing west, and plan for it, it can be done. My house was originally going to face west and I was planning for lots of ways to avoid the sun in that direction.

Here's a link to post here discussing the stove in front of a window 'dilemma'.

[https://www.houzz.com/discussions/range-and-hood-in-front-of-window-great-idea-or-terrible-idea-dsvw-vd~1207813[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/range-and-hood-in-front-of-window-great-idea-or-terrible-idea-dsvw-vd~1207813)

I agree with CP, while a southern orientation may be optimal there may be lot restrictions or considerations that make a different orientation more desirable. Our Florida home faces east with great westerly views so we mitigate the effects of westerly exposure with trees, a deep porch, low e glass, and available blinds. We rarely have problems with the sun, sometimes the low winter rays cause temporary glare, but it is great to have sunshine on our pool from late morning until sundown. We certainly would not exchange these sunsets and views for a southerly orientation.

As with most aspects of home design, one size, or solution, does not fit all!

My3dogs

"Here's a link to post here discussing the stove in front of a window 'dilemma'.:"

That was one of the threads I read. It seems like most of the naysayers are predicting what would happen, whereas there are several people with that setup who like it.