Point taken...but if I like the orientation of the master to the great room to the nook to the kitchen to the dining...why make them guess? In my post I feel it's pretty clear I'm not simply paying someone local to redraw plans I could buy for $1300.

"I'm not simply paying someone local to redraw plans I could buy for $1300."

Then search here for a bubble diagram and how to lay one out.

Do a bubble diagram. Don't tie one hand of your architect behind his/her back before starting. Write up a list of what you like and want.

BTW: Are you ok with the master being right next to the living room? What about the noise from the living room if you're trying to sleep?

Things wrong with the Brentwood since you asked?

Having a breakfast nook, island seating and a dining room. Do you really need three seating areas?

The breakfast nook being too small to comfortably sit more than two people, especially with the walk through from the garage.

The dog leg island.

The whole kitchen layout.

No pantry closet

The washer/dryer being clear across the house and through the living room and kitchen/nook from the bedroom. Lots of shlepping of clothing.

The laundry room being too small to be a mudroom/laundry room, plus who wants to see clothes when they first walk into the house?

The main rooms of the house only having windows on one wall, so not much light entering the house.

The kitchen having NO natural light so it will be very dark.

The toilet and master bath having windows facing the front of the house. UGH!

The wrap around porch that will darken the front rooms and the master bedroom. Plus why the need for a porch on the side of your bedroom and bathroom?

The fact that with the loft upstairs, noise will travel to the upstairs bedrooms and visa versa.

The lack of windows on at least two walls in the upstairs bedrooms.

Hey but other than that, it's a good starting point...not!

I feel like the laundry / utility room is too "close" to the breakfast area. There's no separation, and everyone entering through the garage will walk through the breakfast area, full baskets of clothes though there reducing the island seating space (kitchen needs work on it's own) and breakfast to be interrupted by the timer in the dryer... I'd like more separation and use more of the space behind the garage for a laundry / mud / back entrance.

I have a "similar" layout to this in my existing home - 2 story great room, loft, 2 upstairs suites, Master behind the great room, master bath in front, closet in the middle. We're just 2 people and it works. If we had kids, not sure it would provide enough separate activity space for them.

I don't like the dining room this separate and I think that it goes against what I think of farmhouse. (although admittedly, Joanna Gaines has shaped my farmhouse view!!!)

Thank you very much cpartist and jannicone...this is the sort of feedback i'm hoping for. I agree the dining room is problematic. Hadn't realized utility was likely too small and entry poor. Another Gardner plan I like has this utility/garage entry/pantry(Galway, source of rear elevation)which might be a better concept. See below:

As for natural lighting, I think the two story great room with a rear elevation as shown(not brentwood's) and a loft letting light through upstairs from the front will provide quite a bit. Is that wishful thinking? Upstairs bedrooms would be reoriented to have two windows, easily done by tweaking loft and removing one upstairs bathroom.

With the Galway, the laundry is going right through the working part of the kitchen. It also has more room to drop shoes and backpacks so y may end up using that entrance than the one by the powder room, so people are also brushing past the stove and dropping stuff on the counters. You could reconfigure the laundry to add a door to the foyer, for a more direct route to bedrooms including upstairs.

The Galway is worse.

Do yourself a huge favor and don't try and find a plan that is generic. Otherwise you'll be trying to fit your needs to the house instead of letting the house fit its needs to what you need and want. :)

Looking at plans is a good exercise to try and teach yourself what does and doesn't work in them. Even better is to go to open houses in your neighborhood and figure out what does and doesn't work.

Then do bubble diagrams, put together idea books, what you absolutely must have in your new home, what you'd like to have, and what would be a pie in the sky dream to have in the new house.

Think about how you want to feel when you come home each day, and what home means to you.

Then bring all that to your architect.

Unless you are on a square / narrow lot, why build a square house?

Who at Don Gardner gets a deal on the dogleg islands? ;-) BLECH....

Think about taking this plan and stretching it side to side and letting the rooms drop into a more thoughtful place only 2 rooms deep.

Where are your views? what is your family makeup? how do you "live" - what's a day in the life like for you and how could a well designed house make that better?

Two rooms deep- this sounds like excellent advice. Thanks for this...I think that probably would be more cost effective anyway. I'm not short on real estate, so rectangle should be better than square.

I'd previously nixed most of the Galway, but put it here as an example of better garage/utility mud entrance and location of dining room. Especially if it had alternate entrance.

Nope it wasn't better. And as Janni said, ideally you want rooms only 1 or 2 rooms deep.

For example, I'm now building my house in SW Florida. Can we say hot and sticky? When I was last there we had some 95 degree days. Yet, because my house is basically one one room deep (It's a U shaped house), when the windows were opened, there was a nice breeze that was keeping us all relatively cooler. I'm not saying it was wonderful, but certainly cooler than if we had no breezes coming through. Cross ventilation is a wonderful thing.

Which way is north? Do you have a site survey? What are on the adjacent properties? Do you have any outstanding features on or near your site? Where are the utilities located? What part of the country do you plan to build? What do the other houses look like within a half mile radius from your site? What is your educations? What are your professions? What are your kids ages? Where will they be going to college? Are all your parents living? How far away do they live? What do you do in your spare time? How many siblings do you have? How many siblings does your spouse have? Who cooks? What type of vehicles do you drive? Why are you showing someone else's floor plans if you want something designed for you?

You guys win. I met with designer at property, and she tried to make me happy by making adjustments to tweak starting floor plans(didn't work) Ultimately we had a very good conversation and we will be starting from scratch with exception of elevations, with our list of needs and negotiables, primarily due to reasons mentioned above by all of you.(no reason to not build longer, kitchen belongs on exterior wall with window, etc.)

Thanks all!

Actually, you win. ;-)

Spend time looking at pictures and houses and features that stir your soul.

Make sure your designer takes into consideration the land, the views, the orientation, the local vernacular, the ability of local trades to execute the details, your current and future needs, etc....

What you'll get is a house that looks like it was "meant to be there" and something that will enhance your life. It will possess that quality that you can't put your finger on, but you can see / feel / spot on a well designed house on a well developed site vs a production plan plunked down on a plot.

You will get a better home if you start from scratch. Throw the elevations away too.

Glad you've had such good advice here and will be getting a home designed for the real way you live. I wanted to make sure, on that note, that you're also thinking about how a farmhouse works, if your intention is for this to be a working farmhouse, rather than just farmhouse in style.

Both of these plans have the kitchen and utility rooms being entered conveniently from the garage, which is great for normal, car-centered city families. But at our working farmhouse, the main traffic is from the garden to the kitchen, wood storage outside to the woodstove, chicken coop to mudroom/pantry, yard to dog washing station in the laundry room, etc. In the generic plans you posted, that kind of daily routine would be a nightmare.

Do make sure that you are thinking about how you want to live on your whole property and bring that to hour desinger as well. Good luck!

Also make sure your designer doesn't design one floor at a time and then the elevations but designs it all as a whole. What happens on the floor plan influences how the exterior works and what happens on the first floor influences the second floor, etc.

Very first conversation was making mud room bigger and direct to rear of house.

When the front and rear elevation of the main structure will be this(not necessarily the garage), it's kinda hard to start from scratch...

What is your site like?

I am a big advocate of designing a home to fit the site. The best home design occur when there are. This is a great example how a home can grace the landscape. It is a delightful home to be in.

Here is the other part of the view.

She isn't an architect, that's okay though. I don't want to spend my time explaining things like why flat roofs are a very poor idea...everywhere. Architects tend to gain licensure and feel the need come up with ideas like flat roofs and pawn them off on those who don't know any better.

Architects tend to gain licensure and feel the need come up with ideas like flat roofs and pawn them off on those who don't know any better.

Obviously you haven't talked to architects. An architect works for you, and creates what you want. Good luck with your "designer". I had a "designer" and I would have gotten what I needed much faster with a real architect. (And I have a design background!)

You know better, so you will be fine with an architect.