In my house, shoes would be piled in the hallway instead of the mudroom because that mudroom is a bottleneck. I’d remove the walls (make it all mudroom, no hallway). And I’d want a powder room in the mudroom area, too.

For such a large house, there's relatively little public space to gather.

How many family members and what ages are they?

Such a large house and a powder room for a 1 1/2 bath house.

That is not a butler's pantry. A butler's pantry links the kitchen to the dining room. That is not what you have.

Your guests walk in the front door and what is their view? A stair wall?

And you walk upstairs and your view is a wall?

What do the elevations look like and how does the house sit on the lot? No house is a series of floor plans not connected to the lot and elevations. They should be worked all at the same time as each affects the other.

I post this all the time. Anything in bold really needs to be looked at again.

The best homes are designed to suit the site and are a marriage of a well designed interior and exterior.

The best houses come in at or under the design target square footage

The best houses orient the public rooms towards the south for the best passive solar heating and cooling (Your public rooms will be facing East which means by noontime the rooms will not be light and bright. The library, downstairs master closet and bath, office and upstairs master bedroom and closet will get the best light. Anything facing north will be dark

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.

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 do not have diagonal interior walls making for odd spaces.

The best houses keep public and private spaces separate.

The best houses do not have you walk through the work zone of the kitchen to bring laundry to the laundry room.

The best houses do not have the mudroom go through any of the work zones of the kitchen.

The best houses do not use the kitchen as a hallway to any other rooms.

The best houses do not put toilets or toilet rooms up against bedroom walls or public areas.

The best houses do not have walk in closets too small to stand inside.

The best houses have separation, such as closets, between bedrooms and between bedrooms and public rooms. (check the other bedrooms that only partly block noise with the closets)

The best houses do not have roofs that are overly large, and dominate the exterior of the house.

The best houses do not have stick on exterior materials only on the front façade.

The best houses do not have multiple gables within gables.

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. Meaning they don’t have meandering circulation paths.

The best houses design the inside, the outside and how the house sits on the site all at the same time.

The kitchen looks like is practically completely blocked from light , by all ghd structures around it, except for one window, despite the house sprawling a bit.

Some more information might be helpful. especially because I see some interesting features. For example, two master suites. A large laundry room on the main floor with one bedroom, and a laundry closet with a stacked laundry u

stairs with three bedrooms and, presumably, more people than downstairs.

What did you ask for, and did you get it?

Lots of guesswork in a home that will be void of light in many areas.

The bed suite on first floor is for......parents?

Your foyer entry is to a big hunk of drywall , light blocking stair, no view through, and not even room for a console table and lamp?

Primary bath seems quite inadequate relative to bedroom size.

The "butler" pantry is a Walk In pantry, unless you can pass through storage and drywall: )? Putting a sink in it, does not make it butler.

Do you want to walk around vehicles to get the groceries into the house?

What is the climate? No closet at foyer? Bench and hooks seems more a mud room effect.

Kitchen is small relative to all the rest......dining seems limited.

Biggest buggaboo? Cutting a home in half, with the stair.

You can do better, and as to open vs closed, hideaways from pets and kids, that's personal. But more attractive ways to get it seem possible.

The first floor master bath feels very cramped. Moving the hall door into that bedroom left would allow entry into the closet from that hall and capture of that mini hallway into the bathroom.

The house is full of hallways using up all the floor space.

Two things to maximize. The layout and light. Layout will be to your preference and the suggestions of pros on here.

But light is something I would pay so much attention to, you seem like a weirdo! J/k, doesn’t have to be that intense but light is everything! If you like natural light, think about the orientation to allow the most natural light in spaces that matter.
Right now, even in the dead of winter and freezing weather, I can sit in our family room that has sunlight pouring through and feel like I’m whisked away to a warm place. In non-winter months, our house has so much natural light all over, I love it!

I’m not quite sure why bc our lot faces northeast but the natural light and layout is why I bought our house and love it to pieces still. Light can’t be changed later and this is why maybe I’m not kidding to think about it to the point of being a weirdo…

I find it odd that the family room is an appendage off the back instead of being where the deck (or patio) is. Is this so that the first floor bedroom could have a door onto the deck? Are you maximizing a view by having it this way? You could always put a shallow porch off the bedroom for a private sitting area off the bedroom if this is a priority for you. The family room also looks small. I agree with the other commenter who said the rooms look oddly small for such a large house.

I am not a fan of an open floor plan all the time, either, but the way most people live, the kitchen, eating area and family room are open to each other. There are advantages to being able to close off the living room and dining room.

We went at least three iterations for the design of a small addition on our last house, so don't lose heart. Go back to the drawing board and pass along your feedback and that of the commenters if you think it's relevant - I do. Take your time to get it right.

A large, wooded lot without neighbor views. Amply square footage. Why have a front facing garage like a crowded sub? Looking at this design, I feel an architect with more experience with large homes on large lots is needed. I wouldn't spend money educating someone.

I imagine most people, visitors and family alike, would use the side door, since it is closest to the driveway. That seems to be imagined by the architect, too. as the front door seems to be an afterthought, with the foyer being a long plain tunnel, leading to a wall that has no room for other than art on the wall. But then where do guests go? Turn right and they might end up in the bedroom. Turn left and see then den, is that where they should go? Either way, they have a convoluted path to the public gathering spaces.

I think perhaps the concept needs to be fleshed out better. Have you and the architect done bubble diagrams or such? When you sat down together, what was on your list of wants and needs?

The location of the Bilco door requires more thought.

That is NOT a house for "several wooded acres". Yes, it sprawls, but it's still too fat in the middle to get any light. The home needs every room with a direct window to the exterior, and not blocked by appendages or other rooms. A wooded lot is already deficient in direct sunlight to start with. Add in a dark and gloomy house, with no real space for the family to gather, and that is just a sad and lonely retreat to the bedrooms house, not a happy family gathering house.

Agree with dan1888 about the front-facing garage. It was the first thing I noticed and looks discordant for the size of the house and the description of the acreage. Rear-facing doors would be vastly better or side-entry as a second best choice.

Thank you for all the comments. Not to add fuel to the fire but here are the elevations and site plan. Have at it!

I was going to opine on little details, many which have already been brought up by others. But I'm trying to find a way to explain why all these little details probably won't improve during design development. The reason (I believe) is the design seems to be wholly focused on the "I wanted the ability to close rooms off from pets and people." Yet I don't want to say it's not cohesive, because it is all very consistent.

The only way I can explain what I see here is if you were to design little modular sections of this house independently and make each one work internally among itself. Wherever the door to this module lands, or windows on the exterior are placed, or if space requires an angled wall for clearance, so be it. Then drop these modules together and connect with halls. If I squint, I think I see the floor plan of a 1940's hospital with it's separate wards and wing additions (seriously, google image "1940s hospital floor plan"). Fixing these little details would just fix them within each module, not lending to an overall improvement of flow, circulation, and a visual/functional connection between spaces and with the outdoors.

With that much acreage, you can have a house any shape and layout you want. So why put the primary living spaces on the north side where there will be no sunlight? There are lots of valid criticisms on this thread, but the lack of light is far and away the most valid. Orient the living spaces to the south and west, where the sun is, and put the bedrooms and secondary spaces on the north and east. And don't make the garage doors the first thing you see when you approach and enter the house.

You need a fuller dialogue with your architect. One that includes more than separating and closing off all aspects of life and living.

To use this is not enough

" I wanted the ability to close rooms off from pets and people so opted out of an open floor plan."

The ability to close off a room, does not imply you render it void of light and view.

How many pets and dogs and fish and?

" I need a quiet adult space away from my

family ..especially when working

You either gave him too little to work with, or...........he is listening tooooo much, taking you too literally.

If you trust him? Set him free to give you a great house.

Get off Houzz, go back and start over.: )

I'd put the build on hold and go on Airbnb. Look at houses and rent some for a day or two. See what it's like to live in some different designed spaces. The whole family.

My thoughts:

Why front facing garages with so much acreage?

Why a stacked washer / dryer in a closet upstairs? It is going to be an unpleasant place to do laundry.

I dislike the cattle shoot foyer whose view is another hallway.

Do you really want a door to the outside from the master bedroom?

I greatly dislike closets accessed through a bathroom - yuck

The butlers panty is strangely closed off and not close to the dining room. Is it's function more like a "dirty kitchen"?

Two front entrances? Why?

The mudroom is quite a distance from the laundry room.

A sprawling for no reason design, that will be expensive to build. Your needs can be accomplished in a much more efficient layout.

Everyone dislikes the location of the stairs. Wondering if anyone has opinions on where they’d make the most sense?

3onthetree said what I was thinking: this looks like a house drawn one room at a time and then the rooms were stacked together willy-nilly. Imagine yourself living in this house and going thru your day. How does the house actually work for you?

It looks like a lot of wasted space as well as very expensive to build. Which may not be an issue for you if you have too much money, I guess.

I lost all focus when I started seeing all the 45° angles. I felt like it was the 90’s all over again. Then the elevations got posted…

Sorry I know that’s not helpful and I’m just piling on, but the plan is not good, especially for custom. Crumple it up and start over. The architect might be amazing but he feels trapped but your original design brief? Ask him to start over but build what they would build. Or they could just be not creative or used to tract houses. But don’t build this.

The first question is if he is a licensed architect?

It looks like when your guests park, they will block entry/exit from the garage. If you have more than 2 drivers living at the house that will have cars (teens?), the garage being blocked will be a daily issue.

Everyone dislikes more than the stairs. As most people here have said, start over. Perhaps with another architect.

Simplify.

Simplify.

Simplify.

The whole house needs a redo, not just the stairs

I'm not going to get into the semantics of "butler's pantry", because if what you wanted was a pantry which was functional, as well as being used for storage, you seem to have gotten it. The fact that your dining area is adjacent to the kitchen, means "butler's pantry" from the traditional sense, isn't going to happen. That said, your pantry can function similarly to a butler's kitchen, with the exception that it isn't a staging area conveniently between the kitchen and dining. I do wonder if your outdoor space suits your needs? In a mild climate, where I am, I'd perhaps trade out the family room for a larger screened porch, rather than having a living room and separate family room. However, if you have longer winters, and a larger family, that family room will be very useful.

Small closets in every bedroom. Upstairs bedroom claim the entire wall with the closets split between those two rooms instead of leaving the awkward little nook. The closets will still be on the smaller size with this adjustment.

Master closet small. How much hanging room do you currently have?

Loft area upstairs seems like a glorified hall or a space for junk to pile up.

Tell us more about who lives here and where you are located. That's a heck of a drive to keep snow off of unless you have a blade on a truck. Coats needed year round? You need more closet space.

Side load garage and with all that space a better turn around area for guests and cars as mentioned above. The garage carries the most visual weight of the house front.

While I don't need symmetry, the two small windows on 2nd floor look out of place and unbalanced.

Difficult to maneuver around kitchen table to get to the family room.

As stated, you can do better. I feel a traditional two story would be a start on better.

I think the best advice here is 'start over'.

With that much land, do you need a second floor? Can you do a one floor home in a U or similar shape so that you have wings that capture light?