Just a few preliminary thoughts- Your room sizes add up to 50', which tells me you haven't included wall thicknesses. At a minimum of 4-1/2" thick walls, the 6 walls add up to 27". How are you going to get into the BR in the upper left hand corner? Center the doors on 8' wide closets so you have hanging space on both sides. And a 10 X 10 closet has wasted space in the middle. Cut it down to 8', or even 7' wide. What is that huge storage area for? Consider where windows will go, and what the potential view will be. We live in the country, and it's hard to express just how much impact our windows have on our overall feel. We don't even have window treatments except in the bedroom and bathroom because we have such privacy. If you are planning to work with an architect, don't spend too much time on lay-out, but instead consider what your wants and needs are, and then let them run with it. It is VERY important to design and site the house in proper relation to your property. I'm not much good at floor plans, but what you have seems to need a lot of work. Good luck- I'm looking forward to what you come up with!

Thank you for your response. We had two structural engineers come out and look and both said they weren't load bearing due to the large trusses that extended to the outside walls. the outside walls are load bearing. I honestly didn't believe the first one which is why we called a second one out. It is a tri-level so the bedrooms and basement are on the other side, nothing is above this level except for the attic/roof. I think most people want to remodel on a budget. We are fairly simple people so we aren't looking for everything high end and with my husband being a full-time pastor we don't make a lot of money. Maybe I shouldn't have included that in my original post. I don't even know what kind of money we are talking about here. I am just looking for a place to start. My family will most likely be helping us out. My dad built his own home and is an electrician so we have some others able to assist us. Ultimately, I am just looking for some ideas. I thought I might be able to get some traction here for ideas on a layout. Thanks.

Depends on what you want. Plan one has a serpentine aspect : living /kitchen /dining are removed from each other and the prob is that none of the three spots are large enough to accommodate what I would want . Perhaps that is what you desire in that people will be splintered off but I see continual back and forth and not in a good way. Plan two w probably a reduction of island somewhat offers the one lg space and I would plan for the couch and around fireplace to also contain a couple chairs once the island is adjusted for that. And you still have the front room as a separate area which will evolve as far as your use dictates. Can't comment on storage ......it can be worked out .....looking at more long term possibilities and comfort/enjoyment for day to day living. Good luck

I would do two bedrooms right now and a modest bathroom and leave the rest open as a loft space/kid's play space. You can always add walls later if needed, especially if your DH does this for a living. The thing is that life rarely ever goes according to plan. We had one son with the intent to have a second child when the first was 2-3 which didn't go according to plan. When he was 4.5, we had TWIN girls (surprise!) so stopping at two was never an option. Now, we have four! Plan your house as reasonably as possible but leave enough leeway so that if things don't happen in the order you think they are going to happen, you still have options :)