Can you share some information, such as:

How many people will live here? Ages?

Location, climate.

Do you have a site for it already?

Which direction will it face?

Those are some starter questions that will help people respond appropriately.

Retirement home? Or vacation home? No garage?

Oh, wait, the garage is under the house, right?

The master closet confuses me. You have to have the master door closed to get into it? I'd make the entrance to it from the bathroom. (Which lots of people will say no to, but it works for me!)

Or move the bedroom door.

^^ Well there's that lol :)

Can you bump the kitchen out to be flush with the living room? This would give you enough space to have an eat-in area in the kitchen, that isn't at the island (Folks have shared that island seating isn't necessarily the most desirable after retirement age)

- also, turn and have the sink look out to the water!

- get the cooktop off the the island

- (am looking at the island now, and maybe the island is too deep... best guess is in the picture below, it's about be 50"x70" - could be shrunk a bit probably =)

- left a smaller window along the range wall between it and the sink but if you'd rather have all uppers, that could be removed

- placed a window in the eat-in nook for light in that space

- center the patio doors between the two rooms so that you can easily navigate from the kitchen (with arm loads of food) to the outdoors without weaving through furniture. Another bonus of this is that the view from the front door is through the back door to the canal view - draws people in

What do you need help with...?

"...only house I’ll ever build..."

In that case can you live the rest of your life in a one-level, two bedroom home?

The bedrooms are average sizes and will work, as will the bathrooms. The kitchen can be made to work.

You should lay out your desired furnishings in the dining and family room spaces to be sure that all of your furnishings will fit and work the way you envision. It will be tight.

The plan is a reasonable one; much better than many we see here. You only need a single entry door. I'd replace the sliding closet door in the MBR with a hinged, in-swinging door.

If it’s on stilts how will you age into it?

houses on the Bolivar Penisula (new construction - nothing was left, with the exception of ONE house) for the most part have some sort of gizmo (not a regular elevator) on the outside of the house which allows handicapped folks to use the home PLUS a way for those filled coolers to get upstairs. I am trying to determine what this 'lift', for lack of the actual name, is called. Something to consider and is added to the exterior at any point in time.

new-beginnings, lift is basically the correct term. Some manufacturers call this an exterior elevator, but I assume that the one's you are referring to look essentially like a segment of deck that can lift up on rails/hydraulics up to an upper level.

generalleaks, I would plan out a roughly 4'x5' spot (with the gate on the short side) connecting either to your front balcony or rear terrace where you would be able to install one of these lifts should you need one in the future.

Used A Fox's suggestion and voila, lots of info out there:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/382841847048

http://www.elevatorsc.com/outdoor/

https://www.legacylifts.com/lift/cargo-lifts/

https://liftavator.com/product/outdoor-elevator/

https://trustram.com/home-lifts/

https://www.precisionliftindustries.com/outdoor-elevators/

one of them is in Pensacola!.

Why do you want the Master BR facing the front street instead of the backyard?

Robin the water view is in the back. Wasn’t my idea. The architect sent me this

Having spent time in the Keys, I too would want to give the prized water view to the spaces I spend my waking hours-- the kitchen and the living room. You'll be spending most of your time there or outside on the canal, I'm guessing, so having a master without the water view will not really be an issue at all.