What an interesting question. I guess in your case, you would need to visualize using the space. If you use a trusted architect, that would be a way to start. From my limited reading, they don’t have to be on-site to come up with a design. But I believe they do need some topographical info. I’m sure someone with more experience and knowledge will chime in.

You CAN buy well-designed plans online. But you just need to have someone you trust execute them; plans can’t just be changed willy-nilly without some consequence somewhere. I’m sure there are more considerations and I would never attempt to design a home from scratch without the right professional.

This is a well-known architect who has written a series called the Not So Big House. https://www.houseplans.com/exclusive/sarah-susanka

Storage of all types.

We had the benefit (ha) of living in a dysfunctional space for many many years, so we had a pretty good idea of what changes would make it functional. It was on our wish list to have lots more storage, a one-level living arrangement (master on the main level), high quality windows and cement siding (a splurge, but woodpecker problems plagued our home) and work area zones (laundry/office/bathrooms) that were not open to the main living area. Those were our priorities.

The items that the previous iteration of our home lacked became the drivers for the addition we just completed. The house is now much more functional. :)

I suggest everyone in your family write down your own wish list...think of everything you need the home to be...take into account your age, family needs, and personal preferences (are you a serious cook? do you plan to retire in place? is there a fabulous view to capture? etc) and then prioritize that list to start narrowing your focus as you look at plans.

Then, you'll get an idea of where you want to go as you talk with builders and designers. Also, we hired an architect from another state, on an hourly basis, to tweak our plan and get the ball rolling, once we had a basic floorplan in mind. His comments, suggestions and advice were so valuable-- well worth seeking out.

And, FWIW, we have a central vac system in our home that the previous owner never, ever cleaned. It is useless--plugged up beyond repair. The hoses are huge, heavy and awkward, they require much more maintenance than it seems, and my little can vac is much better bang for the buck. LOL

Good luck!

I like the architect part.

Some of the things you listed are not necessarily about function, but level of luxury. To make a home functional it has to work for you and your family, both now and with future needs in mind.

Some homes function well until you get old and can no longer go up and down stairs. Some homes function well for a couple until they have a child and have no place for the child to run and play.

Before going to an architect or looking at designs online, make a list of what you need. Use your current home as a starting point. My last home had a formal living room and in 20 years I think we used it a dozen times, but my cats liked to lay on the back of the sofa and look out the window. I didn't want another formal living room when I bought my next home.

My house had no basement, a garage that was converted into an office and 20 linear feet of closet space. I knew I needed wanted more storage space. I also knew that I wanted a nicer office - I work from home and spent 40+ hours a week in the garage/office with a space heater and wall airconditioner.

My kitchen in my last home functioned beautifully. I had ample cupboard space a good sized pantry and a huge (3' x 10') breakfast bar between the kitchen and family room. It was perfect for baking and craft work and sitting at with friends.

Before house hunting I measured and studied every room of my home. I listed what I loved about my home and what just didn't work. I looked to my older siblings and their health issues to help guide me in my decisions for what I will need in the future. If you are older it is a good idea to look for aging in place information.

Once you know what you need in a home, think about what you like to do. A 7 acre lot may mean a lot of outdoor work or could be wooded and just very private. Is this fitting with your lifestyle? Some people like living in a city with lots of places to go and things to do. Some like to stay at home, curl up with a book and sit by the fireplace and others like to play outdoors with thier dog or horses and garden till the cows come home.

Examine the way you live. Do you need a mud room, a reading nook, a fireplace, a craftroom, an office. Just because you are moving doesn't mean that suddenly you are going to become a different person. Do you need large entertainment spaces or more intimate spaces.

Now you should have ideas of what is essential for you to live comfortably and happily in a home.

Go house shopping - look online at homes for sale, go to every open house, look at every new home community. Gather ideas that you may want to incorporate into your home.

You may or may not need an architect to design the home, but you will need a builder. You need the best builder in your area. Pick one and talk to them. They may work with a great architect. They may already have plans that would work for you. They may work with a designer that can help tweek a plan you found online.

Look on line for plans. You can buy them and are then able to tweak to some degree. At least you can get ideas.

All the things you mention like pull out drawers for pots and pans/rain shower are not obstacles if they work well for you.

Do you have a good builder in mind? One with many happy customers?

I liked the architect too... ;)

I wish I could use the like button. Sigh.

The bottom line is that without educating yourself extensively, you really cannot separate pretty and dysfunctional from pretty and functional. You don’t have the knowledge base, experience level, or ability to imagine and discern.

You can’t learn Swedish without being exposed to Swedish and making the attempt for a couple of years. Yelling louder in English isn’t going to do it.

Luckily there are people who have already been educated for 10+ years in home design, and you don’t have to spend the next 5 years 16 hours a day trying to get to that knowledge level to be able to DIY anything.

I "tried out" kitchens everywhere we went before designing our current kitchen. While at my mother in law's house, I would offer to help around the kitchen to see what I liked about her kitchen. Same at some friends' houses. I also asked tons of questions to understand why they had such thing in such area and why such area was being used for a purpose. I also asked questions about maintenance, cleaning, and other practical aspects.

It allowed me to see what I liked and guided me towards what I wanted and what would work in our house. It also opened my eyes on what I didn't like.

I'm currently having the same approach for our upcoming bathroom remodel. Observing, trying and asking lots of questions.

Hope that helps.

Well, Jen, did you sleep on it and start a wish list?

I'm interested and want to hear more about what your family consists of, what your lot is like, and what style/size home trips your trigger? :) I love looking at and talking about floor plans, but without information about you/your situation, we can't suggest things that would make sense for you.

Here is a link to a very good (imho) discussion of a way to start to approach things when in the early stages of designing a house. It might help you just as a way to look at things differently.

A good architect -- in person or one who works remotely -- will help you through in-depth conversation to figure much of this out in the early stages. The bubble diagram leela links to is also a very good place to start when determining what you want.

This is very similar to what, in the Kitchen forum, for kitchen planning is known as the Sweeby test. A lot of the Sweeby test can be used for whole house planning, not just the kitchen. Here is part of the test, but I've changed the word "kitchen" to "house":

To start by focusing on your house as a whole, from a far-off hazy distance — to wander off into your favorite kitchen fantasy and think about what it feels like, not what it looks like. (Your real house please, not the one where Brad Pitt feeds you no-cal chocolates while George Clooney polishes the brass knobs on your Lacanche.) Then using mood words, describe what your dream house feels like:

warm or cool, tranquil and soothing or energetic and vibrant? calm, happy, dramatic?

cozy or spacious? light and bright or dark and rich?

subtle tone-on-tone, boldly colorful, textured?, woody or painted?

modern, traditional, vintage, rustic, artsy, retro, Tudor, Old World, Arts & Crafts, Tuscan?

elegant, casual? sleekly simple, elaborately detailed, or somewhere in between?

pristine or weathered, professional or homey?

whimsical, sophisticated, accessible, romantic? masculine or feminine?

How much zing? and where?

The list goes on and on…

Once you’ve identified the way you want your space to feel, then write it down as best you can. Try to freeze that feeling in words so you can refer back to it if you find yourself losing your vision or going off track.

Bear in mind that everyone, every family, is different and has different needs and wants. For me, reading through the GardenWeb archives -- kitchen forum, bathroom forum, this one (Building a Home), appliance forum, etc. -- was hugely helpful and educational. You can also search the forums for particular items, like rain shower heads; I find Google more helpful than Houzz's search function. Just search for gardenweb.com and whatever you're interested in.

If you already know that your previous homes have had dysfunctional layouts, inefficient use of space, and basic features, then you know more than you think you do : ) . One thing you and each member of the family should do is to compile two lists, one of needs and one of wants. It might be helpful even before you start to figure out the difference for you between needs and wants. As far as the particular items you mention --

Pull-out drawers for my pots and pans? Sounds nice.

If you read through the Kitchen forum, you'll find that drawers are recommended for all base cabinets. Much more practical. You'll never be down on your knees trying to get to the back of a shelf. And much more efficient than opening a cabinet door and THEN pulling out a pull-out shelf.

Rain shower? Great. I like rain.

This usually comes down to a want rather than a need. First read up on them, see the reviews in the forums (Building a Home and Bathroom), try one out if you can, and then look at your budget. Also, if you have longer hair and need a shower head that rinses properly, either a rain shower head isn't for you or you'll need one rain shower head and one regular one.

Central vac? Ummm sure?

Again, read through the forums and start gathering information. For some people this is a need, for others a want. If this isn't something you've thought about already, or you have a vacuum that works well that you like, this is a want rather than a need, and possibly a want that you don't particularly want : ) .

Interestingly, one of the things you'll run across going through the Building a Home archives, in many of the "critique my layout" threads, prospective owners who've found an online plan or drawn one themselves or used a draftsperson rather than an architect, will bridle at the critiques they've solicited and reply along the lines of, "Well, our current house is dysfunctional and it's been good enough for us."

But if you're spending all this money and time, do you really want to settle for "good enough"? Or do you want the best for you and your family?

How much time are you giving over for the research phase? Because this is where you want to allow a decent amount of time. And it will save you money and time in the long run.

Good for you Jen!

FWIW, we live on a heavily wooded acreage in a one story ranch with deep soffits, and one thing we had to fix, right away, were the gutters. The house has a decently low-pitched roof, meaning my husband can get up there safely for frequent gutter cleaning, but the gutters themselves were too small to handle the tree debris AND any water falling from the sky/trees. We replaced them with larger ones, fixed the rot in the soffits from the poor draining gutters, and the drainage from the roof is so much better. He still blows them out with a blower about 6 or 8 times a year...but they are much easier to clear out than the smaller ones. Also, we removed the gutter guards that the previous owner installed right away bc they are much more trouble than they are worth. They tend to trap the debris, and make cleaning them out much more difficult.

So, living with trees, I would consider making the home safe for (ie low and accessible) and able to handle frequent gutter cleaning. I would not want a house with highly pitched roofs and many different peaks...McMansion style...because the problems with the gutters/eaves would be more difficult to deal with.

In the meantime, we have been making Needs and Wants lists, quizzing our friends on what they like and don't like about their homes

That sounds great, Jen. Enjoy the process : ) .

Take some time this fall and winter for longer visits with your friends and see what you think about your friends' houses. Offer to come early to help in the kitchen, for example, and see what you think about the flow and layout, and possibly any new items or concepts.

I still think one of the best things you can do is to read widely in some of the GardenWeb forums -- Building a Home, Kitchens, Bathroom, etc. That's how I saw so many different houses and interiors, got ideas for our kitchen and bathroom and general layout, learned from others what has worked from them and what hasn't. Also keep an eye out in the Building a Home forum for the many various threads along the lines of, "What do you wish you included in your build?/What are your favorite parts of the build?", like this

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5484749/favorite-aspects-of-your-house#n=44

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/4667813/things-you-wish-you-would-have-included#n=51

Architects often work hours away from a site, get one . Do not work with some generic plan off the interent that by the time you tweak all the stuff that does not work for you will cost more than you imagine.

That’s exciting! Let us know if it goes through! And then post some pics of the lot! I live on an acre lot, but my dream would be more acreage for more privacy.

By the way, if youre aiming to build in spring, that is actually very close! As soon as you get your lot, start reaching out to contractors right away and get the architect involved as soon as possible. Some builders in my area are booked for months.

When we were building our first home we actually never lived in one ( always in apartments) , so it was very challenging. I had no clue why we need 25 cabinets in kitchen? I never had more then 10... So we went to a lot of open houses, some above our price range to see what we liked and what seemed inconvenient. We loved open floor plans, white kitchen, master closet entrance through the bathroom, high ceilings and wooden floors. I couldn't stand 2 story rooms and small windows. That was enough knowledge to pick plan and to build beautiful home. Definitely no to central vacuum and if you have enough land think about house position to have wonderful view of sunset from your kitchen/ family room.

Not sure if you have visited a number of higher end model homes or open houses, but its fun and a good way to get ideas. These are often staged to make the rooms seem bigger, so not so much the furniture or decor, but the layout, kitchens and baths. I always check the flooring and lighting too.