Yes I know. It's just seems less overwhelming to have a general plan and make changes then starting from scratch.

Without knowing your needs for bedrooms, baths, garage, etc., ... here are two links to plans without formal dining rooms:

one option

another option

Sorry. We want 4 bedrooms (master on first floor), 2.5-3.5 baths. Study.

What state are you building? How big/wide if your lot? Can you have a side load garage?

Actually leaving it to the architect will in the long run be less overwhelming than going through thousands of plans that are not right. The right architect will find out about you and your family, your needs, what's important to you, etc.

Ask a local architect if they are willing to do a "design charette" with you ( http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/design-in-a-day/ ). A few thousand dollars with an architect will get you a lot further than 80+ hours scouring floorplan website and attempting to modify them to suit your family, your lot's terrain/access/views, etc. Trust me, we learned the hard way. :D

We were looking for something similar and found the same thing. It was tough to find a plan at that size sq ft with only one dining area. You can try looking at smaller floor plans which I found were the ones that had only one dining area, but often then didn't have a first floor master. We knew we were going to probably use an architect but like you I wanted a place to start. It was pointless though, as others have already mentioned. Unless, like me, you kind of enjoy looking at house plans just because. :). For what it's worth I liked southern living house plans the best and went to the websites of some of their designers, those were the plans that came closest for us.

Take a list of your wants and needs in a home to a local architect. They will ask you for the information they need to design a home with you without you being overwhelmed by you trying to do what they are trained, experienced, and licensed to do.

If you are going to hire an architect, the last thing you should do is constrain him/her with a plan from the internet. What usually happens is the architect wastes time explaining why the plan is not the place to start the design of a house. At best a plan would be a graphic program if it truly represented the spaces you need.

Or take the plan you like with the exception of the formal dining room, erase "formal dining room" and re-label it "rifle range", "chicken coop" or any other use that interests you! TA-DA!!...There!! Design done!

Ok, all seriousness aside and to move on to saying something that might actually be helpful and constructive.......

I agree with JD to a certain extent. But I DO encourage my clients to bring planS (plural!!) from the internet and any other thoughts they may have. The problem with bringing ONE plan is then the focus is likely on the minutia of that particular plan ("Gee, I like how the prep sink is near the fridge", etc....). With multiple plans I can then look for common denominators without getting bogged down in a discussion of specifics which can all come later.

I'm the guy that wrote the article Arial referenced above and don't worry, no agenda here. I have no horse in your race as I only do these face to face and I'm plenty busy with the locals.

There's no reason for consultation with an architect has to be time consuming or expensive. Find someone local who's creative and fast on their feet and have a sit-down "brainstorming" session with them.

Here's an expansion on that article written here for another owner. I've posted this here so many times I feel like it should be my home page! Seriously, I post it here for the lurkers too (like farmdrmer) and not my first post here but the second, photo heavy one about a dozen down: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3178541/question-for-architectrunnerguy-or-others?n=24 and finally another thought: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3598813/we-fit-an-architect-into-our-budget-and-it-was-so-worth-it?n=17

Sit down with local creative person and you'll be fine.

And the best of luck with your build. Exciting times!

We built the Don Gardner Lennon plan about 3 years ago and use the formal dining room as an office (we enclosed the openings in a bit and put double pocket doors w/glass in each wall), bumped out the breakfast nook 6' for dining, finished out the FROG(family room over garage) and ended up with about 2800 sf. We made quite a few other minor changes such as removing doors, adding windows, and removing interior columns and adding walls.

Lennon PLan

We also took a stock plan with a formal dining room area and made it an office. We actually left ours open, because that works for our family, but we did entertain closing it off. The way we have it now, it could be used for a formal dining room if our needs ever change, or for resale in 50 years when I'm dead and gone :)