I prefer the first, but there are a *lot* of roofline changes in these!

The first is definitely trending better, but it is still a way too overwrought hot mess. You generally do not want to wear all of the jewelry in the box at the same time.

Your images are too small and showing perspectives instead of elevations would help.

Pillars in between each garage door is an accident waiting to happen.

and the 2 eye windows.... since the garage is at an angle will those end up looking strange? Can't help but think they might look cross eyed.

I like the elevation with the gables that are not huge but think there are too many on the front so I have made a substitution between the big gables. Your other option would be to place a shed dormer between the two large gables if you want the ceiling height.

I prefer judging a design as a whole, and fear the approval of only a part may be misguiding.

Still too many columns and too many roof lines. You're doing better though!

I have a question.

If you have a whole 6 acres, why did you choose a site for the house where the basement floor is on a hill and not flat?

That forces the entire design to be asymmetrical and frankly, weird.

The back of the house that shows only two floors is symmetrical and normal looking is much more pleasing to the eye.

(Although I do think itty bitty dormers are ridiculous, and good luck when you teach your kids to drive with those beams between the garages. Or your vision starts to go when you get old.)

Also, if you have 6 acres, consider a side entry garage.

It looks to me like the designer took the elevations from a 3D model. Why aren't you showing us the model?

Until you do, all I can say for sure is there are too many dormers for the sake of adding gables which, unfortunately, gives the designs a builder-developer "look". (I swore I'd never use that word to characterize a design but it seems appropriate here.)

The garage entrances are OK if you've got cycles. Otherwise, everyone will leave cars outside. Mayb I'd pull in if a snowstorm was coming. With 6 acres you can have a side entrance coupled with substantial parking and turning paved space. You won't need ornateness for the doors. You can go with two doors more simplified. You'll save on insurance for your cars and house.

• I would like to see the floor plan. Without seeing it, I'd speculate that an area of the plan is angled (I would reconsider that). I'd straighten it up. Having said that, the bottom option is more interesting, but it needs to be simplified.

The OP posted the floor plans in another thread. I don't know why we're doing this all over again.

Déjà vu

Unless you are putting in an elevator or a dumbwaiter, then a drive under garage is a no. While we were building, we lived in a house with a drive under garage. Hauling groceries up the stairs from the garage was a the bain of my existence. Especially when I had babies/toddlers. Carrying the car seat up, then the groceries, ugh.

I may be not seeing it correctly since I'm on my ipad, so there is that.

I like tidying up the roofline and shrinking the massing of the roof (2nd one) and then further simplification of the dormers, etc.

And yes - remove those columns in between the garage doors!

What RES suggested. It will not get better than that. Looks timeless. Love the proportion and the type of windows he used.

Look at some photos of homes in New England and you'll see why RES2 has much better, more classic elevations.

Some Shingle Style houses

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RES's version is so much better.

I posted some Shingle Style photos on one of the earlier versions of this thread so you can go there if you're interested.

So much is unnecessary.

Photo posting is back!

The traditional treatment of shingle style twin gables is to keep the element between them flush or near flush with the face of the gables.

Bending the house and pulling the middle part back but popping back out with little mismatched dormers is what is cluttering up the proposed design.

And too many poorly spaced columns with masonry booties add to the mayhem.