Coastal, it's much easier if you post the plans here, as large as possible for easy viewing. Also, what part of the (I'm assuming) US do you live in?

Here's the Astaire,

Don Gardener Astaire

These are two very different house plans and neither has a particularly "coastal" feel to it - certainly not the Astaire.

The Farmdale Cottage is very strange - TINY MBR, huge DR that is larger than the Great Room, small kitchen. It looks as if blocks were tossed in the air and where they landed was how the plan was designed.

Remember, cottages were small, somewhat dark places. They were built for workers or those of lesser means. If they were in a coastal area, they were built as far from the coast as possible as those near the coast were far more expensive and were usually seasonal houses. r

How about just looking for a house plan that works for your family of 4, which includes what are now, young children. But those young children will be teenagers before you can blink and you want this to be your "forever" home. Hire an architect who can make the best use of your 3 acres of family farm land, and don't build a house that was designed for a suburban subdivision that has a very small lot.

Remember also that your taste may change over the years. Whether a house is formal or traditional should be left to the furniture, not the architecture. You may want everything "open" now so you can better watch very young children, but when they're teens, they will want their privacy and you will not want to hear the deafening noise of video games being played while you fix dinner. They will also need a place to entertain their friends, and you will need a place to retreat while they do so.

My own DD bought her house 19 years ago later this month. She had been wed just less than 2 years and they were moving back from NYC and an apt. She really did not know what she wanted or needed, but by pure serendipity, I found a house that I told them about (in Oct - way before they were ready to buy - I was just telling them I thought they would find something when they were ready!), and they jumped and bought quite impulsively. I kept saying, "This is not a blouse one can return to Talbots!" but they said I was picky and if I thought it was a great house, they knew it must be.

And it has been. They now have two boys - one almost 18 and going to college next fall, and a 2nd who is 15 1/2 and a HS freshman. This house has worked for them through all the ages of their boys and still does. Why? Because it has rooms for various purposes and also a finished basement. Trust me - no one wants a bunch of 17 year olds anywhere but in a finished basement! And the house will still work when they are "empty nesters" in just a few years.

There is a reason why houses were designed in a particular way for so many hundreds of years. We appear to have forgotten these reasons in our obsession to have the latests and greatest, which today means "open concept" everything.

Southern Living's Farmdale Cottage:

I was also thinking we could enclose the back screened porch as a sun room for more interior space. I don't think we'll end up doing a basement and hopefully the boys will be outside on the farm as much as they are inside.

What part of the country are you in, and what's your climate?

We live on a farm and my kids are between the ages of 17 and 21, with the younger two at home. They spend a lot of time outdoors for chores and for fun, but they also spend time indoors -- homework and other activities, and family time at the end of the day. It seems sort of obvious, but kids as they get older physically take up more room -- we need more room in the kitchen because everyone likes to cook, more room at the table (especially when they bring friends, boyfriends, girlfriends), and more room in the living room. Yes, you can make do, but you're going to be building a house -- why not make it fit YOUR needs, current and future? This is also a good time to mention that an off-the-shelf plan might not be the best fit.

If this is going to be your 'forever' home as you write, I'd give some serious thought to what life might look like in 10, 20, even 30 years. Some things you can add later, other things -- like a basement -- are considerably harder or less feasible. And the one thing I know about kids is that the more you try to plan ahead when they're young, the more life laughs at your plans later on : ) .

Don't build a house with a vaulted ceiling - you are paying for under-roof space that cannot truly be used. Better to have it unfinished upstairs and later finish it. Get the bones right - you may not have the money to remodel down the road. DD thought they would at some point enclose their deck and have a big, informal room on the back of the house where they could eat/all watch TV together. It didn't happen. Why? Because after their boys started school, they quickly realized that they have two very smart boys and those boys deserve to go to the best possible school into which they can be admitted. This has meant that every single extra penny has gone into the College Fund. And they discovered that they really didn't need that room anyway. They have a large DR, they do often eat at the island in the kitchen (mainly because DD travels so much for work and it's usually just DH and the boys there). They have a nice study - she decided to update it a few years ago and now they all watch TV together there instead of in the finished basement, which is now the official "teen hangout". The study is small but big enough for a small sofa (leather Chesterfield - DD and a boy or two will fit), and a comfortable club chair and a small wing chair. It's a very pleasant room - the English would call it "the Snug".

Think of rooms that can be used at different stages in the lives of your children and in your own lives. Porches may be charming, but they make for dark interiors and they are expensive to build. They also are rarely used - too hot, too cold, too buggy.

This is the time to think forward - how will you live in 10 years? What will your needs be? Will you need parking for multiple cars so that no one must more a car to get out in another car? They will drive someday! But they don't need a garage - too expensive when one is on a budget.

Also, look at existing houses. Even if you don't want one, you may realize that there are things in them you DO like and can incorporate in your own house.

And hire an architect. Those on a budget are the ones who need this the most.

Your best bet is not to find a generic plan that doesn't work for your family or your site. Your best bet is to find a person of design talent or an architect to help you design a house that will work for you now and into the future. And a good architect in the long run will be cheaper because they will spec all that is needed and be able to build smaller but more efficiently.

Spending 500K on a house that isn’t a home and that you have to settle and made do a life in it, is spectacularly wasteful of resources. If you are going to build a custom home, it should be exactly what you need. And no more.

Do yourself a favor and hire a local architect/designer. It is money well spent and you will get exactly what you want. These generic internet plans are soulless.

How wonderful to be able to build on family land! Ideally your house would work with the site to best capture views, sunlight, etc. An architect could help with that.

Re style our house is lowcountry-inspired so I spent a lot of time looking at plan sites for inspiration. A couple of other places you might like to browse if you have not already seen them are the sites with concept sketches created by Frederick+Frederick Architects and Historical Concepts. For example, I realize both of these are more sq ft than you are thinking, but maybe interesting?

http://www.hothumidsolutions.com/walnut

http://ourtownplans.com/pdfs/otp54.pdf

When I hear Southern Living, cottage, and budget I often think of P. Allen Smith's house. Wondering if folks really believe he built it for less than $150,000 with Marvin windows, Hardie siding and a metal roof?

https://www.southernliving.com/home-garden/decorating/cottage-style-home#smaller-smarter-cottage-style

http://houseplans.southernliving.com/plans/SL1859

Good luck and have fun!

If you are going to build a home for your family, do yourself and your family (past, present, and future) a favor and hire a local architect to design a home for you that meets your needs and fits your site. Take the architect a list of rooms you would like, a site survey, and a good idea of how you want to live; answer their questions and you will be on your way to a home you will enjoy for years to come.