Really hoping to find some finished pictures of these plans...bump!!

Not knowing anything about your lifestyle or location, I can only critique the plan as a standalone object and based on my own preferences, but these are my initial thoughts: 1. The general arrangement of space seems to be fairly decent. The shape of the house is not over-complicated and while slightly larger than the entrance volume, the garage doesn't overwhelm the house. The house also seems to make generally good use of it's limited square footage. 2. Both entrances are severely short on functional space. If you are coming in from the garage, where do you put your shoes and coat (or raincoat if you are in the south)? Where do you even stand or sit to take your shoes off with out being in the way of everyone else coming in? The front hall could really use a closet that is not the linen closet for the bathroom, and the back hall at the very least needs an additional 2' width for a bench a shoe rack and some coat hooks. 3. Are you okay eating most meals in the dining room or at the kitchen bar? You might be able to stuff another eating area into the great room, but it would be really tight, and would only leave you room for maybe a sofa and a chair at the fireplace. A small house like this doesn't justify three eating areas. You would be better off keeping the Great Room just for living. We've lived in a house that only had a dining room before and it can work, you should just be aware of that going into it. 4. The dining room will comfortably fit a smaller 6 seat table but not much else. If you want a sideboard, hutch, or china cabinet on the long wall, you are either going to need to off center the table (and plan to off-center the window and light fixture also) closer to the foyer or make the room at least 1', but ideally 2' wider. 5. Ranges in the island with seating on the other side don't mix very well, especially if you cook often. Perhaps someone here can think up an alternate arrangement that doesn't have the range here. 6.There is literally no place to hang a towel in the master bath, unless the bathroom door swings out...and then you will only get one towel there and it wont be reachable from the shower. One thing you could do to remedy this is to put a hook between the bathroom and shower door to hang a towel while showering, but if you are building the house from scratch, it's better to plan out good towel hanging from the start.

I agree that having a north facing back of the house makes it much more usable in the summer in the south and we have that now and will in our yet to be built house as well. I've had both and I live in a southern climate where we have 8 months of cooling and the rest is no cooling or heating depending on the year. I don't find our house low on light with the way it faces as in general I think the light is very different in the south vs. north during the day. It also matters in general what trees and other things surround the house. I know we will be planting trees to shade the house from the south at our new location. The winter and southern light can be nice for heating things up, but the angle of the sun becomes quite a nuisance as well and we have a 10 ft deep front porch now. The porch is only pleasant to use in the early morning. So glad the back is not facing south. My old house that had a back porch facing south and had several large trees often went unused except in the am too and then in the afternoon we'd spend it outside in our driveway that faced east there. So don't feel bad about the orientation of your property. I do find all the gables a bit too much for my taste. Seems like that could be simplified. The pantry seems very far from the kitchen to be useful for everyday stuff. More like storage that isn't used daily. Also not a fan of the kitchen layout and how the cooktop is in the island with the walking path being right behind there or how the path is right through the middle of the kitchen. I'd also want some windows into the kitchen. Since you're in the south do you want the porch protected on three sides as shown in the plans outside the living room. The breezes won't reach that at all. I feel sorry for bedroom4 that shares the wall with a noisy washer and dryer. Even if you don't have kids still napping it would certainly make for a noisy experience. Also plan out how you place furniture in the living room with the walking path there so you can get the placement of the fireplace in a good spot so it looks ok with the furniture placement. As it is it won't be centered on the furniture.

There are lots of choices on Google and I always wonder why you would choose a stock plan where every change costs money instead of an architect to design your house for your site and your life.