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

So how many of these best practices does your house have?

How does it relate to the site?

Fireplace and sink aligned? You mean stove and sink? I know of no debate about being perfectly aligned with a fireplace.

SBDRH - you made me laugh. Thank you.

The back of the house faces the East. The South side of the lot is on top of the slope and slopes down to the north for full exposure with a small pond on the north side of the lot. Edited my original post to correct alignment of stove/hood and fireplace instead of sink.

Don’t be concerned with lining up the fireplace and range, or sink, etc! The only time someone will stand in front of the fireplace facing the back kitchen wall is when they are having a holiday or prom photo taken, and then they will not be looking at the kitchen but the camera, and especially in the case of the prom photo, they won’t even care.

Labels on the rooms would be helpful - as would outfitting the master bath (?) area with the fixtures. Right now that master bath area looks contrived with all the angles. they provide no real value and will ultimately just make everything harder to execute and create wasted space in the cabinetry, etc.

With the size of your lot (based on the aerial view I would prefer to see the garage shifted to the right and backwards so that it's front face is not proud of the face of the house (or move to a side entry, preferably, since you have the room)

Is the basement a walkout? are there only 2 bedrooms above grade? How does below grade square footage get appraised?

Janni updated original post with labels. Basement is a walk out on the northeast corner of the house. 2 bedroom above grade and 2 bedroom below grade. From what I understand, below grade bedrooms get appraised at about 50% to 70% of above grade. The lot is 1.7 acres.

A few quick comments...

Screen porch is not accessible directly - have to go outside to enter it I think...?

I'm not a big fan of tubs anymore but then we're 2 retirees... I do like the way you created some space behind the vanities with the tab/shower...

The WIC being furthest and bathroom in between - not really a right or wrong IMHO but think thru your routines and where these rooms are located... - plenty of space to re-arrange this if you like...

I like to have an office be small and stuck off towards the back - but that's me and I'm messy. Off LR means visitors will always see it (unless you can close door). Having the office where you have it is popular as a 'formal study'. But might think about how you close it off from LR if needed. It can also double as a formal dining for next owner (some people go in for formal dining rooms still I guess).

You can recede the wall slightly behind the fridge to allow for the larger fridges available without the front protruding beyond the counter. Or get a counter depth fridge. Otherwise deeper fridge protrudes into kitchen.

Could rotate the attached garage for side-entry and improved curb appeal.

Not sure about stair in garage - close to roof line...

Hope that helps

Hu, Thanks for the comments. We are planning on a sliding door in the dining room to screen porch. We probably should also add a door from the screen to the deck.

We are exploring a few different Master Bath/WIC configurations to see if we can come up with something better.

The office we are trying to get double barn doors on so it can be open or closed. The idea of being off the LR is so we can also use it to store some kids toys and/or have kids play in there as an alternative to the LR to try to keep the LR decluttered.

That is a good point about the fridge depth and we will explore options.

You are right the stairs up are causing problems with the roof line. Might end up just going with stairs down and leaving the potential for bonus room above garage out.

Work with the existing topography as much as possible. Cutting into hillside and building a large retaining wall to create a flat area to plop a house is not the wisest thing to do at several levels.

Develop the exterior elevations as the room layouts are determined to help create continuity in the design. This will potentially avoid ill proportions or poor use of window shapes.