How does it fit the site?

Beautifully! The front would be south facing.

The front would be south facing.

Do you understand that with a house plan like this one, you would want the back to face south?

Think about how the sun travels through the sky, especially during winter. It moves from generally overhead in the summer to lower in the southern sky during winter.

There are larger windows in the back that would make the rooms harder to cool if the back faced the south.

There are larger windows in the back that would make the rooms easier to heat if the back faced the south.

We're in the south, so the bigger of the two concerns is cooling vs heating.

Two cents from someone with no professional background:

- I like the general set up for the non-master bedrooms - it's nicely separate from the public living spaces. But I don't get why it has two hall baths. Though this seems to be the thing in plans recently - bathrooms for every bedroom. Seems a little over kill. Kids can share a bathroom. (I do get having a separate bath for the guest room).

- There's no attempt to keep any of the plumbing on shared walls.

- I like the access to the laundry room from all the bedroom areas.

- The master has a really long hallway. Seems like there might be a more efficient set up there.

- powder room is nicely tucked away but accessible form the public areas - but you have to keep your mudroom (i.e. storage area) really neat and tidy because it's open to the powder room and coat closet.

- pantry is far away from the kitchen- fine for bulk storage of paper towels but not so much for everyday ingredients.

- the stairs seem inefficient (especially if you do the basement stairs plan where they aren't even stacked). Even with just the bonus room, it looks like it's requiring you to give up ~ 33 square feet of a small garage to access ~ 160 square feet of full height space plus ~160 square feet of sloped area. If you're using it as an office, the separation might be nice. If it's a playroom for young kids, it's pretty far away to be supervised easily.

I live in the south and my house faces south and the backyard faces north AND I LOVE IT. The back patio is completely shaded in the early afternoon, which means we can use it almost all day.

Our neighbors who have south facing back patios can't use their patios until the sun is directly overhead because it shines right into their faces (even with a patio roof!) and it's even worse inside the house because in the winter the sun shines directly into their windows and they have to close the shutters to prevent being blinded by the sun.

I leave my shutters open all day and don't have that problem in the main living areas. My dining room faces south and gets direct sunlight in the afternoon, but since it's closed off, it doesn't affect the other living areas. And, my house isn't dark at all; I don't turn lights on until the evening when the sun sets. Heating and cooling costs for 4,200 square feet average $100/month. I won't even consider buying a house that doesn't have a north facing backyard.

As far as adjustments to the floor plan, the major ones we're looking at doing are:

* Enlarge all the bedrooms a few feet both ways for flexibility (i.e. allowing for king bed versus queen, etc)

* Add a full bath in the bonus area so it could be used as another bedroom if needed by us or a future family (teen or "boomerang adult" space or nanny quarters)

* Enlarge the garage to allow for a third car parking

Minor adjustments include:

* Making the bath closest to the utility room an ensuite for that bedroom versus having it open to the hallway

* Enlarging the pantry to allow for large grocery runs (i.e. Costco) and our recycling efforts

* Swapping the doorway and the closet positions in the bedroom/study so that the office clutter and/or bed is hidden from view from the foyer/greatroom

Anything else we should consider?

This house is going to be dark. The dining room is the only public space that gets any sunlight, and even that is diminished by the fact that it faces north.

How will the dryer be vented?