It's not clear what you are asking, or what the inside is like.

Posting your 1st and 2nd floor plans will help others understand.

the loft is only over kitchen and dining

We like the look and feel when you walk in to the high ceilings and seeing the railing up at the loft. . Furniture yes I have a few ideas, but we will be buying new furniture for the space so I plan to buy why works.

Can you educate me on what you mean by smaller gable?

Can you educate me on what you mean by smaller gable?

Did you see the elevation I posted?

ok I see the image. I suppose its that size/height because of the loft on the back of the house. I will need to talk to the designer about the loft head space. We don't need it to be 8 ft up there. I expect some slanted walls . . If we could bring down the gable a bit but extend the roof line out, maybe we do a high cover for the entry? and eliminate the separate covered area for the front door . . which I'm worried is going to block light too . .

While you are talking to the designer about the loft, talk to them about how much space (or lack thereof) is in the powder room, where guest's coats are hung, where you set items down taken from the refrigerator, the size of the kitchen's work triangle, and if that is a wood stove in the Living Room, how the chimney/stove pipe relates to the loft and roof valley.

How do you get up to the loft?

Looks to me that your entry door is making the usable living room space very small with the current placement. Draw in furniture and see how much space you have for walkways around it.

The elevation looks like it needs more windows on the right to balance the house and also something small on that table with that expensive to build loft inside it

Are you aware that there is no entry or spatial transition from outside to inside? You simply open the door and step directly into the living room, and the 2-level space. It's not a good design technique.

Looking at you plan and elevation, it's very difficult to tell which plane is the one with the large gable, and the nested gable for the entry. All of this needs further study and refinement.

The porch roof also seems oddly placed in comparison with the nested gable over the entry.

If this was my design, based on what I can see, I think I'd remove the nested gable over the door, extend the front porch to include the front door, and look to add a continuous clearstory in the upper area of the large gable.

Good luck on your project.

Here's your actual living room size unless you plan to put the TV in the entry.

Based on your exterior stairs being 8 ft 8" wide this means your living room changed from 20 something feet wide to about 11 feet wide. That seems pretty tight. I highlighted the box in green. The red shows the implied hallways where you need to be furniture free for access to parts in the house.

Is the loft worth the extra 20K plus that you're paying for it during construction as well as in future maintenance and not even having a way to easily access it. I'm a function over form person though so to me paying 20K or more for something that looks cool, but is going to need cleaning, exterior maintenance, and not easy to access so will see less use due to that - it is not where I'd choose to put my money. I'd rather spend it in areas such as the living room and entry so I would have a decent size living room.

Just as an FYI on furniture sizes. A good rule of thumb is that a 3 seater sofa takes up minimum 3ft depth and 8ft long. Then approximate that you need 2.5 ft to walk next to it. BTW I'm giving smaller dimensions that you can get away with, but can feel cramped to many. You don't have room for a side table if you also want a chair or something else in the living room to use to sit. I think this is why people suggested you'd look at furnishing it now before you build to make sure it meets your expectations.

You posted about your kitchen design 1 year ago today, but your plan does not look like it changed to reflect your ideas.

I'm going to suggest you post the entire plan in a new thread asking for opinions.

For a forever house, I'd want to get things a good as I could now.

Thanks for your feed back. Yes the kitchen has had a couple tweeks. Mostly making the island a little longer to make it easier to set down items from the fridge. I agree the living room is small, but we don't feel we need a lot of space here since the have the loft (accessible from the stairs in the hall to the right where the kids rooms are). Debating loft or no loft is certainly a huge one . . We need to be mindful of foot print due to county rules, and wanted a bonus space, and therefore went with a loft. Lots to think about still.

Also note . . hard asking for help on here when I may lead a totally different life and perspective from those here. This is our 3rd house as adults and all have been under 1200 sq ft and the currents being 720 MIL apt with 2 kids. We are minimalist who don't want to have a giant fancy house. This 2600 sq ft house is already feeling huge to us. Most of the extra space going towards a functional mudroom, and nice master bath and an office for my business.

The 1st floor part of the house you have shared is the heart of a 1400 sq ft house, not a 2600 sq ft one.

With the house facing south, you are wise to be concerned about light reaching the rear part.

A common, and I think potentially less expensive layout for the loft would be to position it over the kids rooms so that it is largely under the existing roof. A dormer or 2 across the front could let light into the living area and the loft.

Another option would be to move the kids rooms upstairs. This would open up the 1st floor so the living spaces might be oriented more to the south.

As for the 2 story living room, I think they are overrated. The loft will always be warm -- maybe hot, and you are essentially paying for an unusable room (minus the floor) above the living. Every sound from downstairs will travel up to the loft.

As you said, you know your needs better than anyone -- I'm suggesting they may be filled in more than one way.

The loft is a giant waste of space and money. Redesign to get the kids bedrooms upstairs in some of that wasted space. The kitchen is still not good.

You badly need a Pro.

Also note . . hard asking for help on here when I may lead a totally different life and perspective from those here. This is our 3rd house as adults and all have been under 1200 sq ft and the currents being 720 MIL apt with 2 kids. We are minimalist who don't want to have a giant fancy house. This 2600 sq ft house is already feeling huge to us. Most of the extra space going towards a functional mudroom, and nice master bath and an office for my business.

We have seen all sorts of houses here. There is one thing that works in a small house and in a large house and that is good design. Good flow and good spatial relationships.

Doesn't matter whether you're building a 700 square foot house or a 7000 square foot house.

I would highly suggest listening to those who have commented and not circle your wagons.

So I'm all for building a smaller house and living in a smaller space. However I'm also against having too much wasted space in the square footage and then areas being too small that could use that square footage.

An example of that would be wasting space is for example a 10x12 closet. Where clothes hang on both sides along the 12 ft length. There is 4 feet (2ft per side) of clothes and then a 6 ft wide walkway in the middle. The 6 ft isn't wide enough to use for anything else so there is at least 2ft x 12 ft = 24 sq ft of wasted square footage assuming a 4ft wide aisle which is nice and roomy for 2 people to be in the closet at once.

The entryway in your current plan is one of those. It is nice and roomy, but it really isn't useful. I have one of those in my current house too, but it is 6.5 ft wide x 14 ft instead of the 9ft wide you have x ~17 feet. That is ~153 square feet. This is not an area that will be fully utilized so seems like it is one where your home could cut a few square ft and/or move it to another area.

Have you considered how the loft and the living room will function together? Noise is going to be clearly overheard in either space. No quiet get away. Loft will be hotter than the rest of the 1st floor as already mentioned. So do you have a more quiet area to get away from the noise? And your living room is just a show area that won't really be used or? I'm not sure if you're in a high cost of living area or not, but stairs are not cheap either. It seems to get a good return on adding stairs that take up square footage and the cost of building them you really should have something else than a loft too.

Ultimately it is up to you to decide what you want and find worth spending your money on and what you're willing to compromise on. Just wanted to offer opinions to make you think through your choices and understand the trade offs. Not all square footage is the same. I have lived in many houses in my adult life and an 1800 square foot rental house that was custom built is still among my favorites as to the layout and the usage of space. Large rooms and very little space wasted. It was an L shape where the kitchen/dining/living was one room deep and the bedroom area 2 rooms deep and lots of closet space. It lived larger than my current 2200 sq foot house, where both have the same number of bedrooms/baths.

FWIW, I have friends with that same loft-type area and downstairs living room and kitchen like yours... They dislike the fact that when we all get together, the kids go up there to hang out, watch tv, etc and the adults can't hear each other, etc because of the noise.

Like noted above, it may work great for you, just wanted to make sure you thought about it.

I think the pros here are urging caution and suggesting various redesigns for improvement.

"If this was my design, based on what I can see, I think I'd remove the nested gable over the door, extend the front porch to include the front door, and look to add a continuous clearstory in the upper area of the large gable."

Bingo! Virgil nailed it many posts ago

Big changes like which level to put the kids' rooms on are fairly rare...fortunately! Small changes happen all the way through the design process until ground is broken and beyond.

Mary my design took 15 months to finalize and even then once it was in permitting we changed our front porch by eliminating a column. (Mind you I had asked the builder to remove it weeks before but he figured by waiting he'd get extra money.)

However, I worked with a "designer" and if I had it to do over again, I'd have fired the designer and hired an actual architect. I'm guessing it would have saved me 1/2 the time and me having to detail every single change in photoshop. (I'm an artist with a design background).

You are correct to get it right now because afterwards changes cost a heck of a lot more money. Are you sure this is the best plan?

BTW: Looking at your kitchen I would not put the fridge by itself with no landing space. I'd move the entry to the pantry to the end where the fridge is and put the fridge next to the ovens with a landing space to the left of the fridge. Additionally, I'd make the pantry door a pocket door.

I would also move the prep sink on the corner of the island off the corner so you can put stuff on both sides of the sink. Unwashed veggies to the right and washed, ready to prep to the left. If it were me, I'd leave about 15" to the right of the sink.

I also agree with Lyfa about the long hallway which really is wasted space. If you're brave, you might want to consider posting your full plan. I did multiple times and it was because of the help I got here that I have a fully functioning house that works beautifully for DH and me. It certainly wasn't because of my designer/draftsman.

Mary, if you have time and would like, I posted my complete saga from horrible start to finished house. Here they all are:

Please Critique our house

Almost Final Plans

Which of These Look More Craftsman (answer: NONE!)

Which of these craftsman choices

New elevations, please review

Redone Plans because of the zoning board

Moving the W/D out of the foyer (One of my dumb ideas I was talked out of.)

These are my plans finally (hahaha)

Trying to rework my master suite

Rethinking my upstairs

The continuing saga (This is after we purchased an additional 1/2 lot)

Architects, need help

Just when you thought my saga was over

Which Porch do you prefer

Absolute Final Plans

[Finished House[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/cpartists-finished-house-dsvw-vd~5590161)

[Finished Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/cpartists-kitchen-finished-dsvw-vd~5590582)

Meaning, don't be in a rush to start. Get it right first.

"my biggest challenge now is that inefficent entry."

What don't you like about the entry?

Putting the kids bedrooms upstairs would certainly make the stairs etc. worth the money. It would also allow you more windows around your living areas too.

For the entry space maybe recess it in some would help and make it less wide than you currently have. It doesn't fix the overall issue, but reduces the heated square footage. You still have the square footage on the porch though.

Pulling the front wall of the living room out 2 ft would help and would probably save money since it would eliminate four corners in the foundation. Pulling the wall out another 2 ft wouldn't cost much and would allow the front facing gable to be a stronger architectural element and look less like an overgrown dormer.

One of the major costs of the house design will be the ridge beam that allows there to be a cathedral ceiling over the living room and loft.

The drawings appear to be drawn by someone with drawing experience but I see on the plan that there is a smoke & CO detector above the kitchen where it can be set off by normal cooking which is not required or recommended.

Also the smoke & CO detectors are all labeled CO2 as if the level of carbon dioxide needed to be monitored in a home.

If you want to get beyond your present design problems, please post your plans.