With all that spelled out, what else are we missing?

You are missing working with a talented architect or person of design talent. Someone who doesn't put boxes together like a tetris game and then intends to paste on a facade but who thinks in 3D designing the outside and inside at the same time and who considers the land it will sit on.

What should we be thinking about?

That this house will be dark. Especially the kitchen with no natural light.

The best houses are only 1-2 rooms deep and wide (and that includes covered porches and garages).

The best houses have shapes that are in an L, H, I, T or U shape.

The best houses do not have overblown roofs.

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

The best houses do not put closets, pantries, mechanical rooms, etc on outside walls.

The best houses make sure kitchens have natural light.

The best houses do not have toilets up against bedroom walls.

The best houses do not have walk in closets where you can't walk in once you hang clothes.

So let me ask you a question. Do you have a design background?

My apologies that my post seemingly frustrated you. We'll definitely take into account your feedback. To answer your question, I am not a designer, nor did I design the plan. As I stated, I've built once and it was a spec house, this is an entirely new ballgame.

Thanks again for your perspective.

I agree with cpartist. Your house will be dark. covered porches will block a lot of light, and they're in front and back. kitchens with no windows are kind of depressing. you have a rather useless hallway through the house.
your master bath does not seem small at all.
kids closets should be reach ins. they'll have more hanging space.
personally, I find that most of the time, splitting bedrooms up in a ranch plan results in fewer windows in the main living space, and no real definition of public versus private areas of the home. this is one of your requirements though. have you considered putting kids upstairs?

Could you add info on the orientation of the house? South side? What size lot do you have?

I don't mind a dark kitchen if you have a plan with good ambient and task led lighting. Natural lighting never is enough as primary in a work area. Especially in the evening or morning or cloudy days.

I am not finding this plan objectionable.

At first I didn't like the laundry off the foyer, but then liked how it integrated with the master closet and there was created separation / offset.

For the kid bedrooms, I would agree that the "walk ins" are not good and back to back reach ins will provide more bang for the buck and more hanging space. Additionally, that walk in in the hallway is weird. Make it a small reach in linen closet to service that area and expand the other en suite bath to be of equal size to the "upper" one. Add more windows in the corner bedroom because you can.

I'd remove the double doors out the back of the house and replace with a slider as those doors will eat up floor space. Double doors to the study can also go - although if they are glass and pretty (and the study is neat, I can see them adding style.

Agree it would be nice to know the lot orientation, and neighborhood "feel" if there is one.

Hard to comment without a site plan showing the house and driveway on the site as well as drawings of the elevations.

How a home relates to the site is paramount. Topography, size, shape, vegetation, path of the sun. wind direction, site circulation, views, neighbors, soil conditions, and more all contribute to the design of a home. And the home should be designed all the way to the property lines (as a great architect reminds us). There are better ways to build a home other than picking someone else's design and trying to fix it, unless you are a hermit crab.

I don’t know what your site is like, but if it allows, could you make a T where the crossbar is on the left side, making a bedroom wing. Put the children’s bedrooms at the front of the house. They will be just as “split”, being separated by the master bath, closet, laundry, and their own bathroom (do they need ensuites or can they share a hall bath?) And, they will be further from any kitchen noise.

Then, the garage can move back, perhaps behind the kitchen, and you can add a pantry there, too.

How will people enter your home? Apart from your front door...which will require them to round the projecting garage, there is no alternative access to your home except THROUGH the garage. Some sort of secondary entrance to your home, through a mud room, etc. connected to the garage with a separate porch, etc. might be helpful. Think....groceries, guests, tradespeople, etc. But then...the front door will be so far away from your driveway, will anyone enter there?

I agree with @ptreckel about the 2nd entrance, we have a similar layout with the 3-car garage on the side and front door in the middle but we do have a door next to the garage with a hallway to enter the house and it's one we use 99% of the time!! Also, I don't understand the interior kitchen thing, if I could build a house I'd want a wall of windows in my kitchen as the #1 priority. I'd rethink that maybe rework that so the kitchen is on an exterior wall.

Mama Goose is spot on.

Please get a copy of A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander, or peruse the contents online here:

http://www.iwritewordsgood.com/apl/set.htm beginning with pattern 104 "Site Repair".

There is diversity in what makes a building good, and Alexander has some flaws, but most of his rules for houses are good ones, especially his emphasis on light (south facing, windows on two sides) and the idea of the privacy gradient.

Wow, had a busy start to my day and came back here to a ton of great feedback. I will definitely take some time to read, digest and respond to all that I can later today. It is enlightening to learn from all of you with so much experience and expertise. To my earlier post, we don't even know what we don't know yet. Our builder is fantastic and like I said, this is just a brain dump to get us started. It will evolve and your feedback will help in that!

I saw folks asking about the site, I don't have anything drawn, but below is a Google Maps view. Home will face east. The lot is VERY rural, 10 acres. The lot perced in the back, in the clearing, so we are happy about that. While overall the lot is 350ft. wide, the buildable portion to the existing mature tree line is rough 160' wide. So plenty of room to go as wide as needed.

As I said, I'll read the comments here (which are beyond appreciated) and reply more fully this evening.

A house facing east with the rear public rooms facing west is about the worst exposure you can have. Do yourself a HUGE favor and read up on passive solar heating/cooling to learn more. Lots of articles online. I originally was going to orient my corner lot house east too and after reading, I switched to a north/south orientation and it was the best decision I made.

And especially since you're on 10 acres, why are you putting a huge honking garage attached to the side like would be on a small suburban lot?

If you have so much space, why not face the house N/S? If you have your main rooms with southern exposure you can take advantage of passive solar. As is is now, your bedroom is the only room with southern windows, but your other bedroom windows, nook and one kid's room will have pretty strong western sun in the evening, which can be hot and require blinds. Your living room windows will be covered by your porch roof, at least until late in the day). If you orient the back of your house south, you'll get light through windows year round - and in the winter, it will come in through any uncovered window to make your house bright and cheery. Not sure your climate or if there's another reason you positioned your house this way?

ETA: I see cpartist beat me to it. Southern exposure was a requirement for us when we picked our lot. Walk through your current house now and take note of the light in the rooms at different times of the day and what direction they face, and see how you feel about it.

(not a pro) With such a nice big lot, it seems a shame to have your garage such a prominent part of the façade. And there seem to be a large number of bump-outs / corners for a 'farmhouse' - modern or otherwise. You might want to look for inspiration at farmhouses with garages attached via a breezeway, or otherwise off to the side or back.

Totally agree with a secondary entrance/mudroom idea mentioned above. I have 2 kids and a dog and we used the backdoor / mudroom entrance more than the front door. Think of where you'll be coming into/out of the house after working or playing outside and want a space to remove shoes and maybe wash hands; think of kids coming in from playing and needing to beeline to a restroom. If you have, or plan to have, pets, consider where you'll keep their dishes and food and the easiest way to let them outside. Like to grill and entertain outside? Consider your path from the kitchen to the grill and back, carrying trays of food and drinks.

Draw your furniture in to scale, so you can get an idea of how much room you'll have for walk ways, where you'll put a TV, etc.

Good point to orient the structure properly. The architects make a very good point that the concept of the structure starts with understanding the building site. It's pretty much a certainty that you are not taking full advantage of the building site with your plan.

If you have a room with an outside wall, it needs a window. Corners and light are precious building features. You need another window on the laundry room wall, the master closet, the the secondary bedroom. Double foyer entry doors sound great in concept but are security nightmares. Better to make it a single door with sidelights. The master bedroom should have a door onto the back porch both for light as well as fire safety.

The great room double doors need to be changed to a fixed series of windows. You are going to need that wall for furniture placement. I have a similar arrangement. We use the double door in the nook area as our entry to the back porch. Depending on the height of the vaulted ceiling in the great room, you may want a second arrangement of windows above the first ground floor set to take advantage of the light.

The storage closet in the master bathroom should have bi-fold doors. You don't want a huge swinging door banging against your knees as you are seated on the toilet and try to reach for another roll of toilet paper. Bi-fold doesn't take up as much room.

You may want a wall with two large openings on each side between the kitchen and the great room. It creates another wall for furniture placement. The room will still feel open, but not too open. Right now, it's a cavern.

Have you considered a door between the garage and the front porch? It might prove to be a convenience.

If you are in the mid west, you might want to beef up the pantry walls for a safe room from storms.

As I said random thoughts. I think you might be happier with an architect.

Hi everyone, I’m going to reply as the spouse of the original poster. We love all this feedback and you guys have opened up so many conversations and ideas we never even thought of!

Keep in mind this is our 1st draft, so window placement and little chgs aren’t even on our radar yet.

Our biggest struggle is wanting a wide ranch that will be our forever home. Our children are older and will be in the house for about 5 years post build. So the footprint is really for us.

In regards to the lot and orientation of the house, where we are struggling is if we rotate to face north we are staring at a dense tree line, if we go south, we are looking at our neighbors. We have a fairly long drive and want to take advantage of curb appeal driving up. We also have a walkout/daylight site in the back right corner of the the lot.

So....do we move the garage back? Detached, with a breezeway? Flip it to the other side (drive comes up on the right)?

We also want some separation between the kitchen/dining and the kids rooms. Pushing the garage back would maybe solve this.

We want a wider floorplan, not so deep. A must have is a laundry attached to the master with access for the kids from the hall. Another must is having the pantry behind the kitchen.

We love the idea of a second door somewhere! Thank you to whoever brought that up!

All thoughts/advise/ideas welcome!

If you work with a talented architect, he/she can create a house that follows one of the letter shapes I outlined above and help to orient the house so your public rooms get the right light, etc.

What your plan shows is you don't know what you don't know so let a professional do the job to create a plan that will live well for you well into your senior years.

One thing I forgot on my best homes list is how the best homes are designed in 3d and 2d at the same time and also consider the lot it will be on.

This looks like you pulled a stock plan off the internet and tried to make it your own. Very uninspired. You want inspiration, check out architectrunnerguy who is one of the architects here who post.

@kgeorge12 regarding the orientation - your neighbors are pretty far away, so I guess the question you need to ask yourself is how important it is for you to have light in your home, vs. seeing a neighbor's house. Your house doesn't need to be oriented DIRECTLY south, either. An architect can help you orient it to maximize both light and privacy, while still giving you curb appeal. I agree with cpartist - your initial draft looks very similar to a lot of home plans I've seen. Since this is for ageing in place, also consider that your kids may come visit when they're older, and with their families. If you do a house with "wings", or an L shape or H shape, you can create privacy for everyone (your kids as kids, your kids as adults, your kids with their kids) while still maintaining your goals.

Regarding the garage: if I had your space, I would absolutely put the garage through a breezeway off the house.

Regarding laundry, you could consider a laundry closet with a stacked W/D for the kids near their rooms. If they're older, they can do their own and won't need to access the laundry by your closet. It's a long haul for them to bring their clothes to the current laundry room.

I assume the closet in the hall behind the kitchen is the pantry then, and the closet labeled "PANTRY" is actually the mudroom closet? If the closet behind the kitchen is the pantry, consider a pocket door there, or an inswing at a minimum. That door will likely be open, and having it open into a busy hallway will get frustrating quickly. If the room labeled pantry is the pantry, it's too far from the kitchen.

Also - if you have a king sized bed, you may not be able to get it into your bedroom through that hallway unless it's a split king. They don't turn 90 degree corners through narrow doorways very easily (just tried to put a king in one of the kids' bedrooms with a similar orientation in my own home when we replaced our carpet and couldn't get it in).

I see a staircase but you don't mention a second floor. Or does it just go to the basement?

Placing the kids' bedrooms just off the kitchen is a mistake. It means they will spend 99% of their time in that one corner of the house, there's less privacy for them (pros and cons to this, of course), and they will always be subject to noises from the kitchen, and vice versa.

I'd look into flipping the garage and kids' bedroom wing. If you place the garage where the two bedrooms are and the bedrooms where the garage is, there's greater separation between the kitchen and bedroom wing.

All in all, I can see that this floorplan is going to result in a very busy roofline, and that, I believe, drives up construction costs greatly. And this house will never look like a farmhouse, so what is the point of the "farmhouse look"? Drive around your rural area and look at the actual farmhouses, is there any resemblance?

Taste is certainly personal, however, and one should build what they like and what makes them happy.

Where is the lot? Local climate and latitude are important in home design (mainly re roofs and windows). Echoing local vernacular architecture can make your house fit in better - and the vernacular architecture is probably a functional design language for the local conditions.

"Farmhouse" is a much abused word, sadly. Actual farmhouses vary around the country depending on local conditions and the materials available at the time of their construction - a Southwest adobe and timber building doesn't at all resemble a wood framed New England farmhouse with attached barn.

He doesn't need the work and you will need to get in line, but you should contact Architectrunnerguy. He is a real architect with enormous experience in residential architecture.

He has a whole portfolio of custom homes at Houzz that you can view. His working arrangements are very flexible. It can all be done via phone and Zoom. He is very experienced. He also has a lot of satisfied customers that have come to these chat rooms trying to accomplish the same thing you are about to undertake. They soon became frustrated or they wasted time and money on a draftsman that wasn't imaginative or practical.

He can orient the home in the proper direction. Then, he can produce a rough design that you can take to a local draftsman for final plans if that is how you want to work. Or, he can do the whole plan with final specifications, soup to nuts. It's up to you. What I really like about him is his ability to listen to the client. I've seen him do this time after time.

Ultimately, you will find him to be cost and time effective because he can constructively channel your efforts. While you can think in 2D, you probably can simultaneously think in 3D and consider practical elements and site limitations. There is no need to create the wheel. Let him save you from a lot of rookie mistakes. Let him save you time and effort. Why not make a phone call?

An architect should always visit the site, zoom and phone calls are no substitute.

All the additional corners everywhere add lots of $$ to the building cost but not much for use. I'd straighten the whole left side and the nook/bedroom area as there aren't added windows for light on any of the short walls or real necessity for them. I agree on definitely detaching the garage if possible.

Not a fan of the small kid walkin closets, or the walk-in hall closet.

Pantry too far from kitchen to be storing frequently used items. It'll feel like a lot of walking.

What's the plan for the "study"? It's in a prime central location... not ideal for quiet studying or working.

Ash - Thanks for the comments. Have heard a lot of feedback on those corner jogs - was something not on our original punch list, but is now. Hadn’t even though of that.

The “study” would be a nice room with coffered ceiling and built ins where I will work everyday now that covid has opened eyes it isn’t necessary to be in the office all the time.