You want to conduct school at the kitchen island? No where else in the house to keep the school materials? Can you draw out the house on graph paper? It will be much easier to read.

You've eliminated the dining room and created a small breakfast nook without its own windows. Even if future owners convert the office back to a dining room, they'd have to squeeze past that tight little nook just to bring food to the dining room. You seem to want to create a kitchen tucked away from the living room, which makes your retrofits of that space invariably awkward for most future buyers. (I know...it's your "forever" home. But a lot can happen over a lifetime. I'm on my 3rd "forever" home, and I sincerely believed each one was perfect forevermore...at first.) Try not to get too hung up on creating your dream vision...what you are doing to that kitchen/dining area may make the house into a white elephant that is difficult to sell. I know it would be a dealbreaker for me, unless my husband agreed to spend $80-100k to gut and rebuild the kitchen into something that probably would look like the original kitchen from the original plans. Lastly, you haven't left yourself any wiggle room for future needs. Having eliminated the stairs, you're obviously not going to have a second floor or basement. What if the kids want to play video games while you and hubby have company in the living room? Will the kids have enough room in their bedrooms for a desk and shelves, or will they need a study space? What about a guest room? A play room? An exercise room? Putting back the stairs and a basement would give you options for the future. What about storing the kids' bicycles and sports equipment? Where are you going to store your lawn tractor and accessories? How about expanding the garage to at least 3 bays so you don't have to build a shed that becomes a home to the mice and spiders that will take up residence over the winter? You're building 3800 sf of luxury home without any of the features that would make most people consider it to be luxurious. Again, "forever" homes rarely are forever, so building something others would want to call home is an important consideration, assuming you don't want to keep your house listed on the market for 785 days before that needle-in-the-haystack buyer decides your former home is his new dream home.

The fact remains that neither of those plans is good for a growing family for many reasons. So if you're planning for a family, you can do better. And neither is particularly conducive to the way I would imagine a couple with no kids will want to use their home. (admitting that I have only been part of that "couple with no kids" demographic for about 10 months lol) There is no room for entertaining friends, the first plan has good space for guest room/hobby rooms/office but the second doesn't. The second plan has a practical guest bathroom. In both plans you need to walk 30 ft before you get to a spot to hang your coat or put down the bottle of wine you brought! And good luck getting shoes on and off in that bottleneck.

@emilyam819 Great practical advice re: mudroom and island. I do have an elevation but have a call into the architect to see if it's ok for me to post their original plan and elevations. Not sure how the copyright stuff works. Thank you! @Kristin S Wow! Great stuff. Agree with all of your points! Although my 13 yo son (who wants the downstairs room would probably disagree!) @Denita The architect (and it is an architect not a draftsman) is working for the builder. We would be going to the same architect to make the changes to the original plan. The sloping lot is owned by the builder. The builder is using his funds to build and we will be making progress payments with a closing at the end. No loan will be needed. @cpartist Is this a design build firm where you are required to use his architect? (I'm guessing it's just a glorified draftsman. Big difference) Or are you free to bring in your own architect and create a plan that will truly work for you and your family? See my answer to Denita above. How does this house sit on the lot? Not sure if I understand your question. It's a sloped lot. Front of the house faces street. Back of the house faces slope. What direction is north? Look at Main Level Plan...it's labeled. Top of plan is East. Bottom is West. What direction has views? East (front of the house) with view of mountains. Why is the garage 1/2 the size of the actual house? It's a 3 car garage with additional storage. Is this a design build firm where you are required to use his architect? (I'm guessing it's just a glorified draftsman. Big difference) Or are you free to bring in your own architect and create a plan that will truly work for you and your family? I'm working w/ a spec home builder who has already hired this architect and they already have this plan in place. We are early enough in the process that the builder said we can (for a price) make some changes because they haven't started.