You say about your kitchen: First kitchen, need toaster oven, blender, mixer, juicer, gravity water filter on the counters all the time so that do not have to dig them out of cabinets/drawers and put them back. Not on display in the main kitchen and also close to clean up sink and dishwasher. The obvious solution to utility vs display, is to decide to focus on one or the other rather than both. As soon as you do that, design is much simpler. For example, if you decide on utility, then you can close off much of the kitchen so that everything is hidden by default from the rest of the house. That would mean you could do work, even messy work without disturbing the zen of your whole home. Note: it does not mean that your kitchen can't be beautiful; just that it not be the visual focus of the main floor. If you choose display, then you are deciding that whatever is happening in the kitchen affects the entire main floor-- no escape. You are committing to either constant cleanup during kitchen work or to seeing mess. When you design a display kitchen, you need more storage (or less stuff) to reduce visual clutter. And since you still want to use your kitchen, much of that storage must be easy-access and more like disguise than storage (e.g. a sliding panel that covers the small appliance zone.) Right now, the house plan you have has one room for each goal, however minor (which is part of why you have essentially 2 kitchens). Your architect should be getting you to prioritize and group your goals so that s/he can design spaces that meet multiple goals successfully at the same time. 4000 sft is a substantial amount of room for a 3 person family. It would not surprise me to find out you'd initially told your architect you wanted a 4000 sft home. And so, because there is essentially no real constraint on the size, the design is lazy. If I were you, this is what I'd do: Stop adjusting this bad plan. Do Verbo's spatial logic exercise-- in fact, do it for real in the home you live in now. Whenever you are doing something in your current home, think about how efficiently and comfortably (or not) you are doing it. Think about what would make the process better. And consider how much of an irritant or pleasure it would be if your new home addressed (or didn't) the identified goals. This will help you prioritize what is important to you. Once you've identified how you want to live rather than what you want your house to look like, then write up a prioritized list. Something like: We like to garden and our child likes to play outside. We're messy and expect a lot of traffic between the house and outside. a sunny spot to nap, cuddle or read a book. I dream of a suspended day bed with a view of my garden. We keep lots of groceries on hand and cook daily. I don't want to have to frantically clean up if an unexpected guest arrives. we prefer not to bring strangers or acquaintances into the main part of our home. It would be good to have a more formal area near the front door for that. our home will be a busy, energetic place. We'll need away spaces to recharge our batteries. We have lots of stuff and we use it frequently. Organization and ease of access is key. take this list to your architect. Explain that the design brief has been lacking a critical element and that's why the project isn't making any progress. Then sit down and discuss your list. Make sure s/he understands that this "feeling" list is more important than any of the previous "features" lists. And that each "feature" must be assessed in the context of the "feelings" it will promote and prioritize. at this point your architect should be asking you questions about each of the points on your "feeling" list. S/he should be developing an understanding of how you want to live. then s/he should go back to the drawing board and design a home that fits the site, functions efficiently, meets your needs and suits your taste. when s/he shows you the new plan, don't assess it by ticking off features. Ask them to walk you through the spaces and explain how they are supposed to work, how they support the vision and meet the goals. Ask questions about how you would accomplish any task that you think might be difficult in the space. For example, rather than saying, "I need space for a bigger sofa in the living room", ask "We have monthly, casual gatherings of about 15 people. How do you see that working?". It's really important not to define the solution to the issue. That's the architect's job, not yours. Your job is to identify issues and explain why you think they are issues. Best of luck!

We are a little further along in the process. The first step was to shop around for a house with a first floor master bedroom. My husband also decided we are staying in our home.  The second step was to figure out if we could add a full bedroom and bath downstairs or have a full bath downstairs and camp in the family room if injured, had a stroke, or just lived a long time. We could do the latter.  The third step was to plan. We independently created and prioritized a list of things that we thought we needed to stay in this house or wanted to enjoy it. Then we compared and discussed, added and reprioritized. The windows had leaked in the last hurricane, and I had fallen on our driveway a few times while shoveling snow, so we started by regrading the driveway and installing electric radiant heating to it and the front steps. He had to maneuver hip-high snow to brush off the heat pump, so we added patios and a balcony to the back of the house that doubled to keep snow off the heat pump and away from the house rear exits. In that process, we got the windows and siding replaced. The roof was in good shape already. In retrospect, it was good to ensure the outside of the house was sound before working on the inside. We upgraded the electric panel coming into the house to the maximum, not for the radiant heat driveway; that was less of a hassle than a lot of people seem to think. We upgraded for all the future stuff we will want, like indoor radiant heating and more lights. We wanted either a generator or a couple whole-house batteries next, priced both at about the same, decided on batteries, and still haven't been able to find someone to install them.  Then we got an architect to plan a bathroom downstairs and re organize the upstairs from four bedrooms and two bathrooms to three bedrooms, each with its own private bathroom for long term guests or family. We found that for a house our size, just under 2,000 sq ft, that adds value rather than reducing value to the home.  At that point it became a matter of planning the order in which things got done. We started by creating the downstairs bathroom with walk-in shower and radiant heating. That required moving the laundry room to the powder room and making the old laundry room into the full bath. That's where we are now. And the new bathroom will include roughing in the plumbing, wring, and venting for the additional bathroom upstairs. In the meantime, I learned that remodeling is a dirty process, so that when all other priorities are met, it's like cleaning…start high and go down. I did some more planning as to how to move our furniture around during the steps that will be needed upstairs: master bedroom and bath first while we move into the other two bedrooms; then the other two bedrooms and bath while we move into the master. At one point we priced it all and decided it was financially acceptable. And we considered moving out for a year to have it all done at once. My husband decided we would not move out. Then we start work on the main level with adding a little built-in storage to the living room, family room, and entry hall, just because it's a tract home from the late 1970's and never had it but needs it. For the same reason, I'd like to add some decorative carpentry like crown moulding, since it is a neo-colonial-style house and neighborhood. All along, we will be adding crown moulding, solid doors will replace hollow-core, and lighting will be added. We are not sure but suspect we will also be reworking the kitchen at this point too. We learned so far that the disruption of having workers and mess in the house doesn't drive us apart, but rather draws us together in surviving the trauma. That was a surprise and relief. I guess that makes us a good match after all. We learn we need a few months to a year break between each effort to recover. I just hit the highlights as a process and expect to learn a lot as we go, but wanted to share our thinking during the process in case any of it helps, inspires, or even concerns you. Best of luck…

Yes you need the ground to slope away from the foundation. But beyond that, You may need to install a perimeter French drain outside around the foundation. Sometimes that’s not even enough though. We ended up installing a perimeter drain with a sump pump inside as well.

Several years ago VgQn found about 35 old windows for free on craigslist. With a little TLC and some extra hardware I installed them around our screened-in porch where each window can either be closed up to shield against rain and snow, or opened to allow in air/breeze. Below pic shows only the side windows open.