Why if you're on 4 acres are you building so your rear faces east? That means your public rooms will be dark except in the early part of the day. The rooms that will get the best light (south) will be the master bedroom and the garage.

Your laundry room might be too far from an exterior wall to vent the dryer.

Also here is a good list to determine if your house will live well.

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. And covered lanai, porches, garages, etc count as rooms in this case. (I count a minimum of 3 rooms deep and more.)

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.) (Your kitchen will be dark with absolutely no natural light.)

The best houses make sure all public rooms and bedrooms have windows on at least two walls. (The only rooms in your house with windows on 2 walls are the two additional bedrooms and the master bath)

The best houses do not if possible put mechanical rooms, pantries or closets on outside walls

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?

@cpartist Because thats the lay of the land. The house will face the road and is wooded on 3 sides

Ok so the front can face the road but the main rooms can face south for the best light. See my second comment about doing an L or H or T shaped house. A person of design talent would design something that takes the light and the land into consideration. And would probably not put a garage stuck onto the front of a house on 4 acres.

Ask your architect for some color 3D renderings so you may see the house as it will look when complete.

The house below was similar to yours. I added the large gable on the left trying to balance the garage gable.

If you change to all brick, I would suggest rethinking the shakes and some of the other details. Consider bricking the gables where possible and using lap siding in the others.

Also, instead of a bonus room over the garage, see if it would fit elsewhere under the roof.

What's in the basement. I see stairs up and down, but it looks like the basement access is to a utility, not living space, and the stairs going up seem to be accessed from the garage.

I would also rethink the entire plan extending it along the east/west axis and opening up rooms to the south. This looks like a stock plan intended for a city lot and not one developed for 4 acres.

I would do away with the exposed truss and do something similar to the rendering.

@ppf The stairs are going up from inside the garage and going down as soon as you enter in from the garage. We did this because we aren’t using that area as an actual “bonus” room (small family) but for storage were we can walk up steps instead of up a ladder from a hole in the ceiling. The basement will not be finished at this time but we are going ahead and putting a bathroom down there for future use. I have heard of people having LOTS of problems with rain coming In with bricking all the way up the gables??? Thoughts?

Okay, I'm going to say it: that exterior is not attractive. It's about the roof: It's huge for the size of the house. Four triangles on the front of the house, two focal points on opposite sides of the house, and a weird divot sticking up above the rest of the roof line. And one odd little window.

WHY is this true? Because the layout is full of jigs-and-jogs that're making one odd houseplan. With minimal hallways, no "spine", and a large garage cutting into the space, you're looking at an oddly shaped layout.

I agree that moving the garage is a good idea. It would allow the master suite to "fall back" into line with the rest of the house, making a lot of things "even out".

The secondary bedroom wing looks good. Two small notes on the linen closets:

- In the secondary bathroom: I'd flip-flop the tub and the linen closet. This would eliminate the problem of door-on-door, and it would make no difference in the function of the bathroom.

- Why do you have a linen closet in the bathroom and another in the hallway? The hallway linen closet is making the second child's closet small.

The living room, where you will spend most of your waking hours, is set up to be dark, and once you allow for walkways, it won't be all that large. Have you considered how furniture will lay out in this room? Don't accept ho-hum for your most used room.

The kitchen layout looks good, and I love the big pantry ... but consider that you'll have to carry groceries a long way /thread your way through the kitchen to reach it. If you stick with this plan, consider adding a pass-through door between the garage and the pantry.

Note that your only back door access is through the dining room ... and once you place a table in this space, that door will be difficult to access. Another door (or set of doors) in the living room would be much better.

In the master bath, I'd lose the two small vanities /make them one ... this would allow the bathroom door to move "down", and it would give you a straight line to the bathroom (rather than walking around the bed). The spouse who sleeps on the right side of the bed will appreciate the door being moved away from his or her sleeping space.

I like the laundry -closet -bathroom layout, except that the dryer would be better on an exterior wall for venting ... but to keep this layout, you can't get the dryer on an exterior wall. Consider that you're committing to a big blow-out chore every year with an interior dryer.

This is a big house with a private bedroom for everyone and two living spaces on the first floor ... do you really need the space above the garage AND the basement?

Because thats the lay of the land. The house will face the road and is wooded on 3 sides

Okay, you can't change the lay of the land, but you can place the living spaces on the side with the best natural light. You don't have to give the best light to the garage.

You're thinking of typical suburban houses oriented towards the backyard, but with four acres, you don't have to stick to this oh-so-typical concept.

When you use the basement as another living space (and you will), you enter it on the completely opposite dark(er) side and facing the other way, then have to circulate past a mechanical area and many other future rooms to get to the walk-out portion (the "livable" side). So, if you look at the upstairs layout, draw a line from the bedroom wing hall opening directly to the refrigerator. Anything between this line and the Foyer is unused space. Perfect place for a stair.

I considered this plan with the stairwell moving and taking over the office area. I would have lost the office but I just did not like the thought of having my guests and I go to currently proposed secluded area to go downstairs. I love the master size and the master bath is manageable (I too would join the two sinks and move the entry down). I would also scoot the secondary bedroom wing down to shift the entry to that area closer to the foyer and out of the great room area. It's an okay plan but it could be better since you're working with 4 acres.