What is the orientation of the plan? All of that glass will lead to a lot of solar gain and make it difficult for your HVAC to keep things cool in the summer. I'm not at all a fan of the double gable on the left front. It only adds expense, and looks odd on the exterior. And the central peak is out of proportion with the rest of the home.It needs to align in height with the central mass of the roof, not become taller and more prominent. It's a secondary component, not a primary one. It's being given a prominence it doesn't deserve and throws the balance off. That, along with the hip roofs make things much more complex and expensive than they need to be. A simple standard gable over the garage that intersects with a simple gable over the main structure and a less prominent central forward facing gable would be much more attractive. Perhaps a higher pitch and removing the hip on the central roof mass would do the trick of integrating the elements better as a whole rather than the bits and parts it currently presents as. Think about switching the dining room with the office. Then rework the kitchen to place the pantry together with the laundry room as one larger space. You can then have a door in the kitchen to the foyer. If you use obscure glass, you can get light into the kitchen from the entry and have an easy way to serve to the dining room across the hall. Or switch the kitchen and great room. Most people find it more objectionable to have a kitchen on the front (public) side of the home than they do having a living space on the front.

Agree that the "official" names of,the rooms mean nothing, notice how the PO used the first room as a home office! We rarely see people want to gather in a formal LR, but in the cozier room. You could do as I have seen done by many families: the dining room becomes a playroom (handy to the kitchen, toddlers love to watch the cars and bikes and dog walkers go by, and look at that wonderful windowseat you have, just toddler-height!). Then the room to the left of your front door is the dining room. Between playroom and dining you could put in a door or, more easily, hang a curtain (I'm picturing a drop-cloth curtain). As baby gets older, like school and teen years, you might even turn this into your own sitting room/mom central/"butler pantry". The cozy room is for family tv and reading time. I'd put the TV next to the fireplace so you can see it from the kitchen. And the sunroom is for everything, reading, gathering, playing. My friends' boys had all their Lego bricks in the sunroom, they loved the light, and there was no furniture to get in their way! The flat floor was good for building, spilling, rolling trucks. And when moms gathered, the kids played happily in the sunroom while we chatted in the connecting family room. I,really expect that even if you want to entertain in the LR, you will be shooing people out of the FR and kitchen, so why fight it?

I would like to thank everyone who took the time to read through these posts and to post advice and suggestions and constructive criticism. I am taking all of it into consideration and some of it was not what i wanted nor expected to hear, but what I needed to hear. I feel as if a little more explanation is needed. We found a builder that we really like and everyone that he has built for has been really happy. He had several plans that we could look at or if we had any plans he could build whatever we liked. He has a gentleman that could draw and customize a home for us. We thought it was architect at first and the price was so good because we were going through him and he would then be able to have our house plan to use in the future. Upon our first meeting with the gentleman that was going to draw up of dream home so we could make it a reality, we learned that he was not an architect, or designer. He's retired now from 40 years of experience woking on/building homes and is good with the software. He is very kind and has been very patient with the many changes we have made along the way. However, we soon discovered that he really has no design ideas or suggestions. He just draws whatever we ask him to or whatever I draw to send to him. If we wanted something a changed, the standard procedure was to just make part of the house bigger, we had gotten up to almost 4400 square feet! If we didn't like the way something worked and asked for a change, he would fix that issue and cause 2 more. I got so frustrated that we are trying to build our dream home and pretty much the only person I had for design help was myself. Uhm, I really want someone with much more skill and talented and better taste to design my home. I know what I want, I just do't know how to get there. We have been working on this for 8 months. I got so frustrated that I gave up for 3 months. Our neighbors are using the same builder and they had difficulties getting their design as well. However they had found a floor plan that they liked and just had him make changes to it and add a mother in law plan. I firmly believe that we are his first truly start from scratch home. Again, this is the guy the builder sent us to to have plans drawn, not our builder. Giving him credit he has taking my very very basic sketches and turned them into something the builder can build from, but pretty much the design is about 99% me, not that I wanted it that way. Here is where I'm at, so you can see that he is doing all the builder type stuff. We don't want to be difficult, but we want a good design. We don't want the builder to think that we are difficult or indecisive because we just can't get there with his guy. I'm at a loss! Several people wanted to know the lot dimensions. So here they are: It is at the top of a ridge, has some slope to it and has a nice open are in the middle. Of course we want the house to sit about at the arrows part of the lot. There is an utility easement of 20 feet on the right side of the lot, but the utility poles are more like 30 feet inside the property. I really do appreciate all of your insight. It has been eye opening. I'll make another post addressing questions and comments. Sorry to be so long winded.

Hi all, thanks for the inputs and perspectives, definitely appreciate Y’all taking the time to help me think through this! I’ll post a picture of the downstairs layout when I’m at home And try to get a better picture with dimensions added. But for now I’ll speak a little more to the background: This home was built in 1977- it shares a wall (the right side) with ahome that’s the mirror image of it. In fact every home in this neighborhood is the exact same layout so character isn’t much of a concern here @cpartist. This is one of the cheapest areas to live in the city and anyone Purchasing isn’t expecting custom cabinets, high end bathrooms etc. that said 2 showers seems to be a huge perk just from talking to people in the neighborhood with family’s and their issues with the home. When I labeled master bedroom and bathroom, I use that term as the owners bathroom and en-suite, please don’t think of it as what a luxury master bedroom/bathroom might be. This is a modest home and will have modest renovations. It’s just the largest bedroom of the three. There is a closet in the bottom right above the stairs and it will still be a closet in the large bedroom- no plans to change that except to maybe add built in shelving in the future. @misecretary The furniture in the third bedroom represents an office/music room because that’s what it will be used for initially. It already is pretty small so I don’t want to make it any smaller Even if the hallway includes wasted space (Plus the added expense of moving the entire wall, that’s just how it’s set up now). @zannej thanks! Lots of good input and dimensions to consider. I’ll post more info tonight, the plumbing goes directly beneath the toilet. the kitchen is in the top right corner under the third bedroom. I have run this by my realtor as well, moving forward we’re going with a 2 bathroom plan. While I realize a big con means smaller living spaces and smaller bathroom, here is our reasoning for sticking to the 2 bathroom idea: 1- Useful now, trying to coordinate the shower use with people who get ready around the same time is Not convenient (that second bedroom will also be occupied) 2- Useful in resale -I’ve spoken with my realtor who has provided input based on this neighborhood and the type of buyer it would best market to - it seems most people who have kids in the home will greatly appreciate a second bathroom, from a utilization perspective not luxury space -This is a modest neighborhood and a modest starter home, anyone looking for luxury space and finishes would likely not be moving into this neighborhood Our scope is focused on adding a second functioning bathroom and keeping most of the footprint as close to what it is because a) added cost to make big footprint changes and b) we aren’t making changes for a forever home perfect layout, just trying to improve within reason and get experience (very likely we’ll be renting or selling within 5 to 10 years). There’s a lot of wishlist items that will have to wait (bigger closets new kitchen cabinets etc)