I think it has poor spatial relationships. Having to walk onto the porch through the front door down the hall past the powder room mud room up stairs through the dining area corner of the living area past the down stairs and masonry heater past the pantry (trash the barn door) to get to the working part of the kitchen is clumsy; as illustrated by the poor sentence structure.

Do not be afraid to change the second floor layout to achieve a better first floor layout.

Giant no to all of that.

IMO you need an architect and this plan has many things wrong. To start what is a back kitchen? Why would you have an outdoor eating space so far from the kitchen do you need a formal DR ? I have a MCM ranch built in 1956 it is a typical ranch with large overhangs on the west and south sides to black the summer sun but whan the sun is lower in the sky in the winter it heats our house on sunny days we have fabulous views from our south and west facing windows and lots of windows. I have a huge FP that sepeates my LR form my kitchen I love it my space still feels open but I like the fact that when in the LR you do not see the kitchen. Our main entry comes into a bit of foyer and off to the right is the DR this works for us and keeps all the public spaces near each other the bedrooms are all down a hall. Our house is 75' x25' and I love the size of all the rooms . We have a full walk out basement that houses our media rom , games room, offices and a gym all with big windows to let us enjoy the view there too.I sure think you can do better for a plan

I recant my previous suggestion after reading Mark's butchery of a sentence, and suggest you swap the kitchen and the office. Put the stairs where the back kitchen is shown, with a mid-range landing, and they'll surface near where they're planned now, which should allow for keeping much of the upstairs as it is now (presumably, since you haven't posted that part) and being less of a barrier to the living areas.

@weedyacres has a good idea. The kitchen in the southwest corner will have much more light throughout the day than where it is now. Have your architect sketch a quick plan exploring that alternative.

Thanks for the feedback! We previously had the kitchen in southwest area, I had the genius idea of moving it up to the northeast. It is always good to explore options but I agree it is too far removed up there. Southwest corner makes a lot of sense for the kitchen. the mudroom will have to be figured out, along with the powder room and stairs. But it seems entering from sort of the middle to the dining with more space to move will flow better. It would open to the kitchen on one side and living on the other without having to navigate around everything. Figuring out the stairs with the upper level and basement will be a challenge for sure.

Post the upstairs floorplan and we can hack that up too. ;-)

The north side overhang is larger than the south side overhang and defines two outdoor spaces against somewhat blank walls, but has been given the prominence to be visually and physically accessed by the main entry spine. What will it be used for?

The west side "gable" overhang (2nd floor balcony over Mud/Office?) defines a large and tall in scale outdoor space, too shallow for a carport, yet too prominent to be accessed only through a mudroom or for guests to shimmy by the Office windows. What will it be used for?

The south side overhang slices the patio and delineates a space that is in purgatory - too small for it's own function, too big which competes with the defined space beyond the overhang.

It seems like maybe this entire plan has been conceptualized on that one particular view from the inspiration picture. Realize that the inspiration house was created from a design specific to it's own site and program requirements; that the carefully pinpointed camera angle organically arose from it's built surroundings. If you design your house for your site and requirements, you will have the same opportunity to create your own perfect perspectives.

@3onthetree I actually only found that photo after we had this layout. It definitely came up organically as we are trying to maximize the landscape views at our site but also we have a very long list of specifications both for the house and the unique land around. It’ll be highly efficient and built with passivhaus principles (not 100%).

The covered north space provides protection in winter from the harsh climate, but we might reduce the size by taking in some sq ft to the floor plan. The west area is supposed to multipurpose - covered access to garage, firewood storage, a work space for hobbies, nice shady spot near the gardens in summer, etc. We need south facing roof space above for a large solar panel array. You’re right about the south overhang - I think it’ll have to be a specific size depending on windows as the main function is shading south glazing from high summer sun angle to reduce energy consumption for cooling. Haven’t thought about the deck yet but maybe extending it to the left where stairs are will allow space to walk around if we put some chairs right under the overhang?