It's very simple and straightforward. It'll be economical to build. I do see a few tweaks that might be good: - As for losing the back porch, it's probably going to be more functional than the front porch. I'd cut the front porch down to 1/3 the width of the house. This'll allow more light in your windows, and it'll still give you the look of a front porch . . . without the whole width. - I'd prefer to see the back porch coming in on the laundry side. This would allow you to enter closer to the pantry. - I think I'd lean towards trying my best to keep the back porch now, but add the garage later. The garage is a whole separate entity, and it won't affect the quality to do it later. - I would never build a nice porch between the house and the garage -- it'll kind of be in a dark spot. I'd let that space just be yard, and I'd go deeper with the porch on the other side. - I would flip-flop the master bedroom and the master bath. This would accomplish several things: 1) The bathroom would provide a sound barrier between the living room and the bedroom, especially because you're probably going to have your TV on the wall near the fireplace and your bed "backing up to" the fireplace wall. 2) It would allow you to have windows on two walls of the master bedroom, and I'd rather have the nice windows in my bedroom rather than my bathroom. 3) It would bring your master bath plumbing closer to the kitchen and the laundry, which means less plumbing in your walls, and that's a cost-saver. - In the master bath, I would not do two small vanities /sinks. As shown, this requires that you have a door bisecting one of your bedroom walls. This will inhibit furniture placement. In contrast, if you use one long vanity, your door can be at one or the other end, and you'll preserve wall space for a large dresser, built-in bookcases, or whatever. - I think I'd turn the island the other direction. Why? Because it should run parallel with the longest leg of the L. - What is the safe room? You say budget is tight, and this looks like an expensive room. Is this for tornado areas or something? - I love a large pantry, but this one isn't particularly functional. Having a walk-in area but only shelves on one side isn't good use of your square footage. If you could work the pantry / laundry / closet all into one room, you'd only need "walking space" once, and you'd have more storage space. - A sliding glass door is less expensive (and more secure and more energy efficient) than French doors. You can get sliding glass doors with "dividers" in the glass. - I'd move the front door to the other side of the living room. You always want to enter a door and have something lovely straight ahead of you -- preferably a window, another door, or a focal point (like the fireplace). Walk in your front door, and you see . . . the kitchen. Move the front door to the other side of the living room, and your straight-ahead view is of your dining room table and the doors beyond.

On the lower photo I vote the left wood floor choice. It has enough gray to complement the island and also enough lightness in the floor to complement the white cabinets. What's your thoughts?

Thanks for the feedback on this everyone. Just wanted to update in case anyone else has such a dilemma. I DID find the material I was looking for (grey with white veining) after searching inventory systems all over the country for weeks. The material is a marble, and called Blue de Savoie. I ordered a sample of from a slab and fell in love. Sadly, the slabs were only available in NYC and I was outside of their delivery range. I tried everything to get the slab or something similar sourced through local vendors and could not make it work. I ended up going with a Carrara marble instead which wasn’t exactly what I was looking for but did turn out very nicely. I think the fireplace complements the kitchen and other finishes we chose well. Please see attached for initial Savoie de blue marble I found, how our fireplace turned out and a photo of our kitchen which is located at the other end of the room that the fireplace is in. The house is still under construction hence some incomplete finishes. Thanks everyone for the feedback.

Absolutely what they said 👆. Randomly plopped beds in the yard look just like what they are: randomly plopped. Watch those beds this season to see what’s there; after plants bloom is typically a great time to move them to a nice new bed adjoining/showcasing the house foundation. For example, irises would look great in front of the porch. And FYI - make sure the beds are big enough. A bed (measured from the foundation out to the yard) should be 3’ at the very minimum. Also FYI it’s usually a poor idea to plant next to a tree trunk. Scrap the “tree rings.” If you’re inexperienced, take it slow and plan your end goal.