My memory of the criticisms: not enough usable space in the lodge room, because you need to allow for walkways on two sides. The breakfast area is cramped, because of the round shape and the doorways. Much of the kitchen counters aren't in a usable place, and so you end up with a large expensive kitchen that functions like small, cramped one. The most direct path from the garage to the kids' bedrooms goes through the kitchen hot zone. The keeping room and the lodge room are acoustically connected, so there's not much value in having both of them-- one will not be a quiet refuge from the other. I'm sure someone else will chime in to correct me or add on!

We LOVE our architect. We didn't understand the home building process at all when we started out, so we just interviewed builders based on their floor plans. It wasn't until after we decided on a builder and had worked out a customized house plan of one of their stock plans that we learned about hiring a private architect. Our attorney advised us to find an architect to represent us during the build process. So, we didn't actually pay our architect a full house design since we only have her to advise and inspect. We are paying her an hourly fee instead. However, she did AMAZING things to our floor plan. Just moving things a little bit here and there has made a big difference... at least we think it will. We haven't started framing yet so I guess all floor plan decisions are yet to be tested. After our incredible experience with an architect, I would highly recommend finding someone. She really understood our needs and wishes with our house and found inexpensive ways to get us more. DH found ours by reading reviews on Angie's List.

None here.

I think you've already been dissuaded from these two house plans, but here are my thoughts on them: First house: - Extremely complicated exterior and roofline that'll be very expensive to build ... also expensive to keep with a two-story living room. Fireplaces are far from cheap ... would you really use three of them? - Both houses have a curved staircase. Is this something you're looking for? If so, know that this is a very, very expensive option. - I do like the location of the library ... open to both the foyer and the master. - Note that the dining room is very far from the kitchen; you'd have to walk down the hall, past the half-bath multiple times to get the dishes and food to this area ... I fear that the reality is that you'd never use this room. - The kitchen is very poorly laid out, and for the size of the house it's rather small. Why a rather large desk, given that a library is included elsewhere? - The half bath is so tiny ... could you go into the room and close the door? - The breakfast area is nice and large, and I like its proximity to the kitchen. - The living room and the breakfast room, which are side by side, each have a special window layout ... but who'd want two different, special window layouts side by side? They'd compete. - The laundry is not convenient to the master. - Note that the master suite is larger than either the living room or the family room. Is this really how you'd want to use your space? - Typical overblown master bathroom. - Upstairs, two nice-sized bedroom ... and then a 25' bedroom. To put this into perspective, my family room and breakfast room together are 27' in length. Do you really need /want this much space in a bedroom? Second house: - Again, complicated exterior, expensive build, no function from any of this. - Same problem with the dining room: It's far from the kitchen and probably won't get much use ... however, this plan has a much smaller breakfast room; it'll be cute, but that area'll be tight. - This kitchen might be a little better than the other one, but it seems quite tight ... as if it has a little too much cabinetry. - Again, the laundry room is very poorly placed ... you'll have to wind your way through the kitchen carrying baskets. - The upstairs bedrooms are all nice without being overblown, though the bathrooms are all complicated (read, expensive to build). - The game room isn't large. What do you plan to put in that room? I will start looking for other plans. The reasons why I liked these plans are, master bedroom on 1st floor, Mbr away from kitchen and family room with a living room separating mbr and kitchen/family area. And both have garages walking into kitchen. These for me are some of the basics I need. And an extra bedroom on 1st floor. If any of you know any good plans that meet above criteria and within 4500-5000 sq ft range, please don't hesitate to post the links or send me a private message. Your wish list isn't particularly difficult to fulfill, but the two plans you brought up had many other similarities ... I think you have other wants that you're not clarifying here. You're looking at more than double the size of a typical American's house. How many people are going to live here?