If you're set on using a packaged plan I think this is much better than the other two you posted, as it will do more to take advantage of your view.

The front porch shown on the plan and the elevation don't match. The large rear lanai will make the interior of the house very dark. The bonus room above the garage would have much better natural light with two dormers on the long side of the space. It's still a very long haul from the kitchen to the dining room and back.

Overall, this design is certainly better than the previous two you posted. Commissioning an architect, however, is still your best and most productive option.

Good luck on your journey!

You are making a very basic mistake in thinking that this is a ''2600 foot plan.'' This is a 5400 foot plan under roof. Just because only 2600 is heated and cooled doesn't mean that the rest of the 2700 space is free. It has to be paid for as well. You will never build this house for 550K anywhere in the US. Certainly not in high wind and flood prone regulated FL. Double that budget, or halve the space, and you might get there. Just. And that is only because of using some cheap labor.

The dining room could be turned into a playroom or bedroom, then change the jack-n-Jill to a hall bath. I'm not sure you are likely to use a dining room on the front of the house as all you plans show, and this one is far from the kitchen and from the outdoor cooking.

Expand the rear dining space towards the right. It will be a lovely spot, easy to get to from everything.

The master bath has a lot of open space in the middle; by putting the vanities along the closet walls, you could make it a little smaller.

I don't much care for walking from the master bedroom between the breakfast table and the kitchen sink, but it seems to be pretty common.

Give both bedrooms windows on the side walls.

Run the kitchen by Kitchens forum, they are so good.

Is it possible to put skylights or solatubes in a seamed roof? They would go a long way toward lighting the kitchen, hallways, laundry, and the windowless interior portions of bathrooms.

You are being sold a red herring by getting a square foot price. What does that square footage include? When we started and were also green under the collar, we too asked about per square footage pricing. Well guess what. We're over $100 more per square foot than we were quoted. And he wasn't quoting using garbage materials or bottom of the line appliances. However, it's amazing how things add up quickly.

Builder grade carpet with barely any padding or something better? Even luxury vinyl tile and better than HD on sale floor tile is going to cost more.

Brand of windows? In Florida especially, I'd want a better grade of windows. The first time a hurricane comes through, you'll be thankful for that.

How about the kitchen cabinets? Cheap Chinese crap as Sophie is fond of saying or something that will last you more than the life of your builder warranty?

Or what will go on the counter tops? Formica? Nothing wrong with formica, but if you're hoping for a beautiful granite or quartz that's going to add to the price.

Plus you have lots of cabinets and countertops. Those are going to cost more. Even for the cheap Chinese crap.

What about the roofing? A metal roof is a heck of a lot more expensive than a shingle roof and that's a lot of roof for the house. Yet in FL, I wouldn't want a shingle roof because of the heat.

Want any trim work in the house? Around the windows? Maybe you want crown molding or even base molding larger than clamshell size. That's going to cost more.

I see there's a fireplace. The cheapest fireplaces are unvented which are proven health hazards. Upgrade to a vented fireplace and you're talking several thousand dollars. Of course you could do an electric but then it won't be two sided.

Sophie also is correct. Builders are not giving you three car garages, bonus space, lanai's porches, outdoor fireplaces, outdoor kitchens, etc for free. They cost extra money.

What part of Florida are you in?

It seems to me that you've reached the limit of the advice you're going to get on this forum. It seems you're set on using a pre-packaged plan despite explanations and advice about the benefit of a custom design. In that case this one is a reasonable fit to your location (both lakeside and FL), potentially with a few tweaks as discussed above. I agree with others that this may be more expensive then you're expecting (I'd argue the garage and patio areas may not be $180 per square foot, but they aren't $0 either), but I don't think we're going to convince you, and you won't know for certain until you get actual bids. Hopefully you'll be right and we'll be wrong. Good luck to you

If you are looking for honest opinions, I think that is an ugly house. I think you could do better.

It is an ugly house and it will cost a lot more to build than $180 a square foot with all those bump outs.

OP - I'm really having an issue understanding your costing. The house in question has 2609 + 332 of heated/conditioned space and/and 1649 sq ft of unconditioned, under roof space. It appears your costing and certainly your calculations are based on building only 2600 of conditioned space. What about the cost to build the rest of the house? What happens to the plans for the garage and the under-roof patio? Are the additional sq ft being costed separately, or are you just not building them? I doubt a house with no garage and no deck will have much resale value in your area.

First, you have 2941 conditioned sq ft. Second, if the builder is quoting $180 sq ft including garage and deck, you have to add their area - 1639 sq ft x $180 to your total costs. 2941 + 1639 = 4580 x $180 = $824,000.

Hate to tell you but hurricane doors are around $1500-$2000 EACH.

My guess is your pricing for windows is too low for hurricane windows too. Same with the garage doors. They need to be hurricane rated.

And as mentioned a shingle roof is about the worst roof for Fl because of the interior heat it generates and I'd hate to see what happens to it in a hurricane or wind storm.

Additionally I can tell you from experience that the costs are too low. Costs like plumbing and better fixtures? Only 6k? That's HD level plumbing fixtures with plastic interior fittings.

$4700 doesn't begin to pay for high hats and fixtures for a 2600 square foot house. Well it does if you use the cheap HD fixtures and don't use LED at all. And forget LED under cabinet lighting too.

And in what universe do you think you can get cabinets and vanities for under $15,000 total? You really have no clue. If you're lucky, with the kitchen you're showing and the vanities, you'll be lucky with Ikea level to get away with double that price.

And if you want tile and wood floors, you'd better up your budget for labor and materials. $20k will get you cheap tile and carpet and no wood floors.

BTW most GC's are charging 20% of the house build price in FL.

Sorry but you are fooling yourself. But go ahead. Instead of playing around with online programs, why not take these plans to the builder of your choice and have him price it out for real. Give him the level of finishes you want.

That makes no sense - with the pictures you've shown and the setbacks from the lake you've discussed, there's no way you're going to fit two houses there.

Munzer, did you move to FL and come back to troll again?

Third is better than the first, and far better than the second. That being said, I believe I asked about the people who'd be residing here... how many children and their ages? This really does have an impact on building your best custom plan. (Although seeing recent posts on this thread, one would want to review setbacks since you plan to put two homes here...)

This current plan: bedrooms 2 and 3 cry out for cross ventilation windows (that will also provide views you mentioned wanting) on the right walls.

Enlarge the Nook, and delete the dining room since the dining room is both distant from the kitchen, AND small. How many places do you need to set up for dedicated dining purposes indoors??? Yes, I can see since a lanai is not always cool enough, your wanting indoor dining in Florida (okay, that's my distaste for high heat environments speaking) but a better use for space can provide one, maybe two, great indoor places near the kitchen that are dedicated for eating.

I remember you saying in another thread that in Florida people don't need to wear clothing, so no need to have a coat closet... I did chuckle at that, because my two Floridian nieces would probably agree considering their choices of wearing as little as legally possible when they can... but... BUT. It rains down there. A coat closet to put wet overgarments in, now THIS would be nice. Your plan lacks this basic amenity. ALL your plans do.

That lanai makes things dark. Yes, you can put in solar tubes for extra lighting in the dark areas, but I thought you want to accentuate lake views? Right? Not in the dark, I'm thinking.

Please don't discount cpartist's comments. She's building in Florida. I'm completing a build in western MA, so I'm not entirely building to hurricane standards (not completely, but we do get hurricanes, hi, Irene, up here) I think you are severely underestimating prices. You are getting numbers for basic builds, and you need, especially since you are doing custom, and also since you are needing to consider severe weather such as hurricanes (insurance!), please consider what she's saying. I don't get the sense from having read her posts over time that she wants to pay more than necessary for anything just to pay. You need to consider quality, and not having to replace things in a year or two after construction, just ... because.

I have no knowledge about online pricing calculators. In fact, I didn't know they existed until I saw your post above. I'd be leary. I'd check to see what people in your neighborhood are paying and pricing out, and if you want custom items - and some custom items are severely worth it!, factor that in.

I'm guessing that for gallery2000 housing is simply an equation. Unfortunately, s/he appears to be using the wrong numbers for the equation. Shock time may be not far ahead! :-)

Well, I'd just point out that gallery2000 didn't even plug in the right house design when he did the numbers. He used one of the designs from his earlier posting. So I'm not sure how serious he is.

And for someone who owns 5 currently and has flipped 50 houses, well I just don't get it............

I'd sure be sorry if I'd bought one of his flipped houses! I'm betting corners were cut right and left and poor quality everything!

Perhaps if the OP is a flipper and has connections and also wants the most basic of everything, it can be pulled in at that budget. I have been in houses that were built purely for cubic footage, and they may have 3.5 bathrooms but they all have $75 toilets and $175 Bootz steel bathtubs, and the kitchens have utility type cabinets and basic appliance packages. I know people who have had bathrooms gut remodeled for $6000, not $20,000. Some people have very utilitarian expectations.

I'd actually be surprised if the OP is in fact a flipper. He seems a little shaky on the concept of permits, for one thing.

To judge by some of the things the experts have pointed out, though, it's not just a question of going cheap: there are issues relating to construction standards and regulations in Florida (roof structure, windows, distance above flood tables) that he simply isn't taking into account in his costings. Not to mention his confusion over how many square feet he's actually building.

This person is so full of cr*p it's out of his/her ears. I say that because his/her story keeps changing. Don't waste your time anymore.

For example in one of their other threads they said this:

"This lot is over 4 acres, but unfortunately only half an acre is buildable (above the 100 year flood line) no no wet land."

Now in this thread the OP is saying this?

"I am dividing the lot into two so a rectangular plan is the best plan for that lot. I will build two houses. One to sell and one to live."

So does anyone really believe the OP is going to build two houses on 1/2 an acre in an area of supposedly million dollar homes and on land where the majority is unusable because it's wetlands?

And in someone else's thread the OP said the following:

Ok, if you live in TN then you don't need Feng Shui. In Florida, a lot of houses were bought by Chinese buyers and they relied heavily on Feng Shui. One time I moved the back door 3 feet over so that way it is not a direct line of fire of the front door and that house was sold three weeks later after 8 months on the market.

I think we've all been had. I'm also guessing this person has never built, owned or sold anything.

I'm guessing the 2000 in Gallery2000 refers to his year of birth.

If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.