Actually the gabled roof looks a lot better than the cut off hipped roof that National One is suggesting. One thing I didn't see mentioned is which direction is north? Your exterior is mixing various styles of architecture with nothing that creates a cohesiveness. I realize how frustrating it is to work on something for a year and then to have it torn apart. It's like telling you that your baby is ugly and not smart. It took me well over a year with help from this forum to get my house to a stage that will really work well. And I do have a design background, but still needed so much help to make it work well. It probably would have been faster and cheaper in the long run if I had let an architect design my house. The problem with internet plans is most of them are fairly generic without really considering how the family really lives. For example, in your home, do you really need 3 eating areas inside the house plus the one I assume you'll have outside? When designing a custom house, everything can work for how you actually live vs how a generic family would live. The fact you're on a couple of acres means you can move the garage from the front of the house, and have the house oriented so it takes best advantage of passive solar heating/cooling. Designing for electronics also needs quite a bit of skill regarding creativity, but it is a heck of a lot different than trying to design a house, which also needs a critical eye for design, layout, flow, etc. Someone who does architectural design will be able to think outside the box, just like you think outside the box when you're doing your work. You trained for years to learn your job, and then have spent years trying to perfect what you do. It's the same with an architect or person of design talent. Please consider taking what you've done and refining it with the help of someone who has the years of training to make it work even better for you. Let them suggest ways to make it more visually pleasing and flow better.

Having landing space behind the fridge on an island is convenient if one has a French door fridge. I have a single door fridge, but I find the island convenient if I am laying out multiple items--packages of carrots, celery, and meat for soup. Todd, I was thinking about your 'stadium seating' at the island. Since you have a long back wall, you could put the fridge on that wall, then have two seats on the short side of the island, which would also allow you to make the aisles a little wider, and would be more conducive to conversation. Downside is that the fridge will be more visible from the dining room. I moved the hall opening back, if that is feasible.

Take some graph paper and sketch out your kitchen using Doug's measurements. Sometimes just because you have the same length of cabinetry doesn't mean that it'll function the same depending on how it's divided (one run vs. 2 equal size runs vs 1 long run and 1 short run, etc.). Your fridge will definitely have to go at the end of your sink wall as you'll have no space leftover if you crowd the short wall with your fridge and stove. You might consider converting the triple window into two separate windows and put your range between the windows. Then you could put your sink in the island (not ideal with being directly across from the range, I know, but that configuration works in my BIL's house. Then you'd have space on the short wall for your fridge and upper/lower cabinetry. If you sketch everything out, it'll help you to see what works/doesn't work before finalizing the floor plan. Good luck!

Start with a site contour map. The rise and fall and run of the property determines a lot about what shape home fits on it. You fit the house to the property, not the other way around. A fixed in the mind shape just plopped onto a site leads to cost overruns to make the house fit the site, and doesn’t take advantage of any special conditions. Think about the approach from the street. The parking and home access for the family, and for guests. Which way the traffic approaches. What you envision the home saying. That could be “welcome”, or it could be “Go away, we like privacy”. Think about the sight lines and views. Good and bad views, If the best views are in the worst direction for energy efficiency and comfort, (west) what is going to be your strategy to minimize the negative effect of western exposure, while still framing the view? If you have cold winters, and the house faces that way, what type of windbreak or berm can be created? What’s the solar path through the seasons? Where are the utilities going to run for entrance into the home? Where is the logicsl place for a outbuilding? What materials for paving are allowed? What are the native materials on site? Rock? What size and color? Lumber? Timber framed? Mud for Adobe or brick? How can you incorporate locally sourced and native materials so the the home fits its surroundings? Think of what the immigrants 200 years ago had with which to build their shelters. Start with the site. Not the house. Understand the site over the seasons before you ever think about a structure on the site. A house is not a layout. It’s a living breathing 3D response to the site. If you want eastern morning light for your bedroom, the push and pull of the volume as a whole demands that some other room not get that eastern exposure. The roof and foundation shapes and volumes only stretch so far before becoming hideously misshapen by a floorplan. Think of a house as a big globe of silly putty. You stretch this here, and it takes away there. You push and pull the whole glob, with every change that you make. Sure. you can buy and add more silly putty to get the shape that you want. It’s only money. But creating a pleasing silly putty sculpture out of only so much silly putty is a really really hard thing to do. The floor plan isn’t done in isolation of the effect that it has on the whole volume.