How does it fit the site?? Or were you planning to plop it on any old site?

The things bolded below are what adds to the poor design of this house. It's a very poor design.

The best houses orient the public rooms towards the south for the best passive solar heating and cooling

The best houses are L, U, T, H, or I shaped.

The best houses are only one to two rooms deep. And covered lanai, porches, garages, etc count as rooms in this case.

The best houses make sure kitchens have natural light, meaning windows so one doesn't have to have lighting 24/7 to use the kitchen. (And no, dining areas with windows 10' or more from the kitchen will not allow for natural light.)

The best houses make sure all public rooms and bedrooms have windows on at least two walls.

The best houses do not if possible put mechanical rooms, pantries or closets on outside walls

The best houses keep public and private spaces separate.

The best houses do not have you walk through the work zone of the kitchen to bring laundry to the laundry room.

The best houses do not have the mudroom go through any of the work zones of the kitchen.

The best houses do not use the kitchen as a hallway to any other rooms.

The best houses do not put toilets or toilet rooms up against bedroom walls or dining areas.

The best houses do not have walk in closets too small to stand inside.

The best houses have an organizing “spine” so it’s easy to determine how to get from room to room in the house and what makes sense.

New home builder and wanted suggestions on the plan. Isn't that what this site is for Mark?

New home builder and wanted suggestions on the plan. Isn't that what this site is for Mark?

Deep, will be dark and the roof will be a monster and more than likely overwhelm the home.

This plan has a very poor kitchen design. Very poor functionality. As a whole the house has poor flow. The penisula seating intrudes into the living room.

I’d look for a plan with a simpler overall shape. All the bump outs and corners will give you a very busy, very large, and very expensive roof. I think the great room will be dark and furniture will be tricky to arrange due to extension of the bar into the space. Maybe draw that space to scale on paper and play with furniture layouts. Once you put stools at the bar and allow for space to pull out the stools and space to walk around them, you’re several feet into your great room. The laundry room is far from all the bedrooms. The kitchen layout as drawn creates a traffic pattern through the middle of workspace. Also verify that the house suits the site and the sun pattern. Orientation to the sun really makes a difference in the function of the home. I learned that one the hard way, sadly.

I am not sure what Houzz is for? But I do know, that how a house relates to the land it sets upon is the most important factor when designing a house. Your wine cellar can be perfectly sized, and be perfectly located in relationship to your den, but if your living room has tunnel vision to your neighbor's garage and your garage has a beautiful view of the lake, I will think your new house plan is dreadful; and I believe you deserve better than that.

I think it is a convoluted plan that attempts a lot of symmetries within certain spaces which is limiting to how the space is used: where do you put furniture in the great room for example.

There are some odd adjacencies of rooms/spaces: the utility room, the pantry are right off the front foyer and the garage entry and entry to the master bedroom are routed to some degree through the front foyer.

Jack and Jill baths are problematic, and this plan has two.

Nothing engages the front porch at all except the laundry, and guests will come in either through the front door or through the garage.

I was actually at a house yesterday that the homeowner wants to renovate because the best views (rolling farm hills with timber beyond) are behind walls. Their current view is of the driveway lined with trees. Not terrible, but not ideal either. The home is 20ish years old.

You lose so much storage space by having a hallway cutting the master closet into a his and hers. And there’s a hallway on the right as well eating up more square footage. And a hallway to get to that hallway with two more tiny closets that would be larger and more functional if combined. Your architect has stuck tiny closets all over your house. Fewer, larger storage spaces are much more functional.

What is the path a guest would take to the powder room? For dinner guests, you would have to provide a map.

And I agree with others. We agonized over very precise angles and sight lines to maximize our views from every single window and optimize the house on the site. This house seems to be a stock plan that is overly complicated and would be expensive to build. Even out some of the lines to simplify the overall shape.

Do the windows in the bathtub look out to the street? Is it a busy street?

Your architect has stuck tiny closets all over your house.

There was no architect involved in this plan. This is one of the internet plans probably created by a draftsman and signed off on by a supposed architect.

Here's your 2 plans so far. They go in two different directions and would interact with the site and your lifestyle very differently. In RED the cant of the massing, in GREEN the outdoor living, in YELLOW the private areas, in BLUE the elevations are very different styles (regardless of ornamentation that this designer uses that is the same across all their products).

That's quite the roof, as others warned.

Mrs. Copeland: posters can seem harsh, but we collectively want to help you get a good house for your hundreds of thousands of dollars.

For best results, if you can explain about your situation: family size and ages, how you live, what are must-haves and must-not-haves, what the site is like (size, orientation) if you have one, whether it's a production builder that gives you limited options or a full custom where you can do what you want. That will help others give you better, more targetted advice.

You will hear from the collective that for best results you should hire an architect, and a good one will come up with a plan that's better than what you could pick off a website. But there may be good stock plans that will work well for your site. Knowing what makes a good and a bad (or expensive to build) plan, will help you sort through those.

So if you have the stomach, tell us more about what you want in a house, and maybe we can help you get a good plan.

"But there may be good stock plans that will work well for your site."

So far you have two strikes. You would save time and money if you hire a competent local architect and they will design a home with you to meet your needs and fit your site.

Even before I saw the elevations, that plan came across to me as pretentious and expensive.  Bump outs, bays, tray ceilings, etc  add many dollars to cost but very little to function.

The first thing that occurs to me is look at all those exterior corners!! 💵

Ahhh. Another DG plan with of course, skylights on the porch of what is already a dark interior. Lmao. What everyone else said...

I am not promoting the house plan below as any sort of alternative. My primary objective was to find a house plan that was both large (it's 4000+ sq. ft.) and with a very strong axial plan.

It's a nearly 60 year old plan so not exactly perfect for today. it was custom designed for a client and has a maid's quarters for example, and no attached garage. But it is fairly open plan for its era and it has big bathrooms for the period, and a large master bath dressing complex.

Look how simple this is in comparison to many plans of today. Yes I know it takes a big lot, but you could literally chop off various ends of the house and do minimal rearranging and still have a house that made sense when you were done. You could turn the wings and attach them differently and still have a logical layout when done. You could probably add a staircase and stretch a little bit here or there and put the bedroom wing on top of the living wing and still have a plan that made sense when you were done. Also note that they seemed to pay attention to directional exposure.

This is what aspirational houses looked like before home design lost its way. (I hate to call the current plans "architecture" because they are often not designed by architects). And when I was looking for this plan, there were many smaller plans that used the same principles but suffered from the typical 60s skimpy baths and closets and such (although personally I think small baths are preferable).

Can I have a nickel for every minute you spend looking for a floor plan that meets all your needs?

That's possibly the worst kitchen I've ever seen. And I'm not prone to hyperbole.

- With a plan like this, the main work space should be between a cabinet run and the island ... but you have a doorway here. This divides the work spaces /adds steps to your everyday chores.

- The pantry is much too far from the kitchen for function.

- The sink, the most-used item in the kitchen is located foolishly on one far end.

- You have bar seating, but it's completely unconnected to the main cooking area /and it cuts into the modest-sized family room. Wait ... is that bar seating in a second area?

- Venting the stovetop won't be easy (or attractive).

- Is that the refrigerator to the right of the middle-room-doorway? I'd rather see it located more conveniently to the dining table.

- The kitchen is huge, so the cabinets and countertops will be expensive to build, which is a shame given the poor function of the place.

- I like that the dining space is closely connected to the kitchen ... but with the bay window and tray ceiling, it looks rather formal ... but formal areas usually aren't laid out with a view of the kitchen. This room will call for a massive dining table ... does that mesh with your plans?

- Most people don't want a desk space in their kitchen ... I'd rather see a desk in the garage entrance area, where it could serve as a drop-spot /charging spot. Consider that if you're a cluttery-desk person, this desk is in view of the dining room table.

I'm kitchen-blinded and can't see the rest of the house. Seriously, this kitchen is enough to make this house a hard-hard no.

Thanks for the kind reply, weedyacres. I hope our OP will answer your questions.

I'd like to mention that some 'problems' cited in replies DO work well in my home.

I like the short hall between MBR and MBA that is flanked by closets. A large(er) closet (labeled 'pantry' here) in our 'back hall' (between kitchen and garage) holds more than just pantry items. My back hall contains laundry at one end and a powder room at the other, across from the closet.

I always want a powder room near the kitchen and the family entry. Daily use by family is more important than guest needs. They can usually be accommodated by a bathroom serving secondary bedrooms.

There are a lot of other problems with this plan, as mentioned. If such a huge roof is necessary, is a basement required *in addition* to a second floor? (We aren't seeing either here.)

I like the short hall between MBR and MBA that is flanked by closets.

Agree with chisue. I have this setup and it works really well and is only a few extra steps to the bathroom.

Okay, I know MBA is Master of Business Administration, but what is MBR?

Master bedroom

We will be on a private lot in the county on 8 acres.  Next to cows on one side and woods on the other. We are a family of three but want enough space for in-laws and parents. My husband will be the general contractor. We are very new to this. If you have a plan suggestion, were open. We plan to build next year. I currently own an old mill home 102yrs old.

If you are on 8 acres you do not need to build such a square fat house. The houses you have chosen so far are for developments with yards barely wider than the house. You don't need to pick something like that.

It's made like an capital T. 3.5 acres in the front all clear and the rest is wooded with a pond in the back. We are next to a pasture on the right side...

We are very new to this. If you have a plan suggestion, were open.

Have you thought about getting a local person of talent to sit down with you and any other decision maker(s) to explore some options?

I do these all the time for local people and, in lieu of another big post, I wrote about these for another houzzer recently here Choosing between two open floor plans (houzz.com) Look over the thread because I think I posted more than once there.

My husband will be the general contractor. We are very new to this.

Has your husband ever done any general contracting work before?

You can look for plans until you're blue in the face. If it were me, I'd take architectrunnerguy's advice and find a qualified person of design talent (usually an architect but not always.) Someone who can sketch out ideas without needing a computer.

If you are going to continue to look for house plans, look only for house plans that state:

"This house was designed for eight acre sites that are made like an capital T with 3.5 acres in the front all clear and the rest is wooded with a pond in the back and next to a pasture on the right side."

I don’t mean to be rude, but this plan looks like somethng built in the early 90’s. I would meet with a local architect to design a home that is more functional, cheaper to build, fits the land and views, is up to date, and more aesthecially pleasing. I would take this plan to him and tell him why you like it.

These are not plan suggestions - just showing you examples of plans that are specific to the site and has a lot of things in cpartist's list.

https://www.houzz.com/hznb/photos/ht-hammer-truro-phvw-vp~34346708

https://www.houzz.com/hznb/photos/ht-maine-peck-phvw-vp~156827712

This AD article talks extensively of how the owners worked with the architect to get the best views from different rooms. They even considered where the bed in the master bedroom will be placed to get a view of the night sky.

https://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/tour-a-mountaintop-napa-valley-home-that-lets-the-starlight-in

has a lot of things in cpartist's list.

And the truth is you may not get everything on my list, but the more things you can get, the better the house will live.