Get an architect please. As for what you show 2 things jump out at me 1) the food will be cold by the time it reaches the DR and 2) two islands are just a PITA MIN walkway is 42" and much better is 48" Carpet is never a choice to be made IMO The inlaw bedroom next to the kitchen . and garage is IMO not perfect. A poorly planned huge kitchen is a lot worse than a well planned normal sized kitchen A walkin pantry wastes space and is not ideal when outside the actual kitchen work area . OOOPs I guess more than 2 .

I'm getting my popcorn out.

Do you have an architect? Without elevations and complete plans, comments will be very general.

Have you ever had a custom house built before? Have you read this forum?

What is a "freelancer"?

Redraw your layout to scale with wall thickness dimensions included. I used Title Block Vellum 18"x24". Like these from Staples. Vellum Paper, Title Block, 18"x24", 10 Sheets/Pad | Staples Blue print ready.

Agree with Patricia Colwell Consulting. We would also say that if you want to keep the walk in pantry, it'd be better if you eliminate the space between this and the powder room. That way, the pantry is closer to the kitchen.

My first thoughts are there is a lot of inefficient space relative to the room sizes (e.g. a 7000sf house will have many inefficiencies, but that may be acceptable because everything is bigger just to be bigger). A 12x12 Foyer, adjacent to a 10x10 transition space. The additional hall from Garage right through the formal Dining, and the additional hall from Mudroom to swing around the Pantry to get to the Kitchen. The Butler's Pantry might want to be closer to the Kitchen rather than Breakfast area, and the Powder would be nice to shelter it away from the Great Room and hall (I think you have tiny flanking closets at the front door, but combining the Foyer closet with Powder for a recessed access is a common solution).

Decide, if you haven't already, whether the in-laws will want a separate exterior access. Whether the Mudroom is part of a backhouse entry not through the Garage.

Lots of main floor layouts like this near me but instead of a second island they have a kitchen table. Some people do still want a more formal dining area which is actually not that far from the kitchen in my
Opinion.

Will in laws be staying always or occasionally. I don’t mind a guest room on main floor for occasional use and handy if you need it too. That said I wouldn’t want someone living in a room in that location regularly.

I would take this plan and circle what you really like about it and why. Then give it to a design professional and they will take the ideas of what are important to you and make a new plan that incorporates your needs with good design and fitting it on the lot etc. Yes you fully can build a house without paid design help. However, if you are going to go down the custom route and have a unique plans it’s worth it to pay for the help as it really does make the livability of the home well worth it.

Always interesting to see homes drawn from the inside out without reference to the lot or elevations.

When I've sat down with designers, architectural technologists and architects, they've always first quickly sketched out exteriors, some amazingly postcard ready. Any notion of what's being stuck on the exterior by your "freelancer"?

The family room does not look wide enough. If you keep it that size make sure that your sunroom is a 4 season room.

It will help to know who will be living in the house. Kids? How many adults? Is the in-law suite full-time, or for visiting parents? What is your lifestyle like? What are you looking for in a home that will support your lifestyle?

@Patricia Colwell Consulting - I'm working with a local architect, but I was also soliciting other architects through Upwork.com to see if I could see completely different designs from the ones my architect and I came up with which I wasn't in love with.

Your advice is awesome. we plan to have enough room between the double islands. I'm not sold on the double island so that second island can be a table.

We plan to hire a kitchen designer once we get closer to the overall layout we like.

@Louise Smith - Admittedly, I have never posted on Houzz. I didn't think anyone would respond :). I have an architect. I don't have elevations yet since I'm still in the concept phase. This is our home until our young kids are out of the house.

I've never built a custom home before, hence soliciting advice from multiple folks to see different ideas. There's a house being built in my neighborhood that has a very similar layout to the concept drawing I attached. However, that house is much bigger.

@Mark Bischak, Architect - The freelancer is an architect who freelances (kind of like a side hustle) on the side through Upwork.com.

@dan - I plan to redraw with walls after we figure out the general layout. As of now, we estimated about 200 sqft to account for walls.

@cage - I don't quite understand what your advice is. That space is the butler pantry/wet bar. However, I think I might eliminate the entire hallway between the dining room Pantry/Powder Room to get some sqft back.

@3onthetree - We don't plan to build a 7000sqft house. We planned to have the TV room, maybe even the kitchen open to the second-floor ceiling. Good advice on the foyer closets. We planned to shrink the foyer to make the study bigger and go to a single door instead of a double door. Good point on the exterior access! We didn't plan for a second exit. It's called on an in-law suite on the drawings, but just a guest room. The guest room will shrink so we can have a hallway that goes out to the back of the house. We're struggling with the mudroom area. Our family just accumulates so much stuff with the kids so we wanted a good-sized area where we would store all their junk without seeing the clutter.

@WestCoast Hopeful - We're leaning on the second island to be a regular table right now. We kind of liked the idea of having another island with the same countertop - easy to clean, maybe some storage underneath, but having something that is not movable might be tough.

The in-law suite is not a full-time thing. It's more of a guest room used occasionally for friends and family. We live in northern NJ. We've seen so many new builds with guest rooms on the first floor either in the back or the front of the house. We choose the back to keep it away from all the noise near the TV room.

I've contracted with a local architect, but after months of back and forth, we were in analysis paralysis so we thought we would hire some high recommended architected on upwork.com to solicit completely fresh ideas. We also have a local engineer and interviewing multiple builders in the area.

@Sabrina Alfin Interiors - 1. My wife and discussed this. I think we prefer having our MBR upstairs. We also have hard limits on max roof coverage even though my property is of decent size (.82 acres). We want to decrease the overall sqft of the whole floor plan incorporating some of the comments above.

2. We are leaning on the second island to be a table.

@worthy - The TV room is 21 feet wide. I kind of thought that was huge already. It's probably 21x18 right now. We thought maybe we would go to 20 feet, again to save some sqft. The freelancer is not the person I am using final drawings and constructions docs. I just paid a few bucks to a handful of architects who freelance (weekend work away from their full-time agency jobs) through Upwork.com. The exterior elevations are not done yet. We planned to think through this after we had a basic layout of the first and second floors.

@shirlpp - The sunroom will be four seasons.

@bpath - The house is primarily for my family of 4, but have a big extended family who comes over a lot. One of the main reasons we are building a good-sized area from the kitchen to the TV room.

Thanks for all the advice, happy to keep entertaining constructive feedback. I already feel better about some of the fixes I want to make.

Hire an architect whose work you like, and had a good reputation in your local area. It’s too important a venture to freelance.

I would be leery of an architect that freelances since I have no clue what that means . Get an architect with a firm that has a reputation in your area and stop fiddling around with everyones ideas . You post a plan most of us don't think works and then what?

I think, if I’m reading the reply correctly, the architect has produced a plan the OP doesn’t love, after many back and forth, a different person, found on a site who is a freelancer, has supplied the ideas we are seeing. I didn’t get that the architect and freelancer were one and the same?

Admittedly, I have never posted on Houzz. I didn't think anyone would respond :). I have an architect. I don't have elevations yet since I'm still in the concept phase.

A good architect will give you elevations even in the concept phase. A draftsman, designer or the guy who graduated at the bottom of his class in architecture school won't give you elevations.