Re the T-shaped island... Seeing your inspiration photo helps me understand how you want the T-shaped island to function and it is a lovely idea. I'm just afraid that you may not have made the base of the T long enough for it to really serve the purpose you want. It looks like the seating area on each side is about 3 ft long. (I'm guessing based on comparing it to the width of your cabinets). I'm also guessing that you're planning on 4 people being able to sit together there(two on each side). If so, you may find that the two people sitting closest to the prep sink wind up feeling a bit squished. With a countertop blocking free arm movement on one side and a dining companion blocking free arm movement on the other side, 18" might not be wide enough. I could be wrong tho. Perhaps you could do a "mock up" by putting a couple of tables together to simulate the island then seeing if the planned seating area will work for your family. BTW - don't let your concern for your designer's frustrations at redrawing things stop you from getting your plans EXACTLY right. I didn't go back to my designer and make him fix the number and location of my porch posts yet one more time like I should have. He had had them RIGHT on one set of plans and then apparently pulled up a previously saved version and "lost" the correction on the next set and, having fixed the posts once, I didn't notice the problem again until we had already had 10 sets of the final drawings printed up and were in the process of getting bids. I had wanted one fewer post across the front of my house and the remaining ones each spaced about 18" further apart to make up the difference. This would have placed the posts so they FRAMED the front bay windows and my front porch swing symetrically. As it is, one post sits off center in front of my bay window and another post blocks my view from the porch swing. I figured, "what the heck, they're just porch posts. I'll just tell the builder where I want them to go. No need to get new drawings." Wrong! By the time we finally got thru the bidding process and had picked a builder, the issue had slipped my mind again. My porch posts are structural supports for the porch roof and for a deck that sits above the roof. They were framed up - exactly as the plans showed - and I couldn't quite figure out what was wrong until one day while getting rid of junk, I happened across an earlier set of plans showing the posts in the correct position. By that point, our porch roof was on and the roof deck was done. Changing the posts would have meant pretty much taking the whole porch and roof deck back down and starting over. Total cost to fix - nearly $15,000. I had to leave them alone. No one else notices the lack of symmetry (or, at least if they do, they'e too kind to say anything) but it bothers me no end and always will. Getting you plans exactly RIGHT falls under the "measure twice and cut once" mandate. If redrawing frustrates your designer, too bad. That's what you pay him for. (Besides, he's doing it on a computer so it's not like he has to redraw every line by hand. LOL!

It's a big house but with a very small living area. When furniture is floated and traffic must go through a room, there is very little space left for furniture. Think about this. I like to sleep in, too. Since your house faces East, you won't get morning sun in the bedroom and can still have more windows/light. My own very large bedroom faces west and has two windows on that wall and one on the north wall. I also live in KY and morning light comes late here unless you're in the Central time zone part of KY. Even then, it's not broad daylight at 5 AM in the summer the way it is on the East Coast! The way the plan is now, you're ruining what could be a lovely master suite. With two teenage grandsons and having had two children of my own, the last thing on earth I would want is the garage entrance right next to their bedrooms! Even the nicest, best child WILL sneak out at some time and you're inviting it and also inviting "guest" you might not want in your house at an inappropriate time of day. You have acreage - for heavens sake get rid of that garage where it is now! That plan is for small subdivision lots! I can see the reason for the two baths if this is truly your "forever" home - when children are married and come home with their families, an extra bedroom will be very welcome. In a big house with the bedrooms on separate sides, I'd want my main laundry to be near the children's bedrooms as that is where the majority of laundry will be. I'd also want a stacking w/d in the area of the MBR so you don't have to haul your own sheets/towels/clothes all the way across the house. Do you really want your master bath right on the front of the house? With the tub at the front window? I'd want it on the back where I could bathe with no window covering and look out at my property, not the driveway and a guest who might arrive early! There is a reason that houses had halls for many decades - even centuries! It means one does not have to walk through rooms to get to another. It means there are walls on which to place furniture. It also separates space. I know - "open concept! open concept"! Sometimes separation of space is a very good thing! If you're having adult entertaining, do you really want children walking through the living room/great room? Your dining room is VERY small! My own DR is 13x13 and I'd kill for an additional 2 ft in length and width! It's very tight when people are at the table - I can't even walk all the way around the table to serve. And I hate passing plates across someone. If my lot were not so narrow, that's one wall I WOULD knock out and expand that room, but alas, not to be. You have a huge lot - make that a room that you can seat your entire family at someday when your children are grown. As others have said, the drawings are faint and my old eyes have had trouble reading the plans. I agree with all about that gigantic roof. You'll thank us someday when you have to re-roof that thing and it costs a year's college tuition to do so! And it won't be In-State in KY! Okay - wife wants a vaulted ceiling. Your living room will be cold in the winter and hot in the summer. Your heating/ac bills will be enormous. It will be noisy. You live in KY - it does get cold in the winter and Lord knows it gets VERY hot and humid in the summer! If I were going to spend this much money to built a large house, I would hire an architect and I would listen to his advice - especially your wife needs to listen. My own house is only about 2800 sq feet but I have more true living space than you do - bigger rooms. You can do better than this.

We would build the slab at the level of the ground where it is at now, so we would either dig down to make it level or add a small amount of fill to make up the difference. I was wondering how it would look to have the mudroom be tall enough to accommodate a staircase going up to the entrance, and still have a carport attached with possibly the same roof line or off of the mudroom roof.

As mentioned above, the final height of an installed tile floor can reach 3/4" without much effort. Your professional tile installer will be part of this "flat transition" conversation - from the VERY BEGINNING. Please ensure that your contract CLEARLY STATES that you want a flat transition and that you require the proper materials to be purchased/provided by the installer to ensure the transitions meet your requirements. I would ensure the HIGHEST QUALITY tile installer as you can afford. Have him/her purchase/provide the tile and the materials (which you will be billed for) so that he/she can work with the materials that he/she is MOST comfortable with. And please make sure that the contract states "all work to be done to TCNA handbook recommendations and that all manufacturer's installation requirements are met". Your requirement is that the transition have zero height variance between one floor and another. That will be your one and only input as to how this tile floor gets installed (the technical stuff). You can choose the colour/size of tile and the colour of the grout...and then it is up to the well trained/paid tile installer to do their work to get you what you (and the tiles) need.