Design a home to fit the site an meet your needs. To take a preconceived design and debate about where and how to plop it on the site is irresponsible. This is your chance to do something great that will last for generations, do not screw it up by doing what you are currently doing.

I have had both and they each have their pros and cons.

If you plan to have a pool, then I prefer to have the kitchen and family room on the same level as the pool.

With younger kids and dogs, going up and down the patio stairs gets old pretty quickly.

I prefer having access to the backyard at ground level and doing the walk-out basement to the side of the house, so you can get plenty of natural light to the basement and a standard egress door or slider.

Which way is the road?

What will people see from the road or as they approach the house?

Yeah, sunsets sound great, except that is WEST and you don't want your main living areas facing west. You won't enjoy the view in the summer because you will need to have all those blinds/curtains closed so you don't bake in the western sun, heat up the house and fade all your floors and furnishings. I speak from experience, as my previous house faced west in CA!

I don’t follow, what are the arrows pointing to? Why can’t you have views and access to flat land? Do you already had a floor plan? Was it designed for the site?

This example is a bit ugly, but it shows how you can design a house with direct backyard access and still have a section on the side with a walk-out basement.

We’ve already had our excavator come and grade the land and he is working with our architect, so I feel like we are doing our due diligence. They are recommending the walkout basement but want us to be happy with our decision. The arrow is for another person, sorry, I used the same picture to show where my in-laws house is down below unpictured. We’ve got our general layout that we want but are working on exterior & positioning to work with our land. We can have views off of our front porch if we turn it that way, but it wont be off of our main outdoor living space.

Can you show how you will approach the house from the public road? Not necessarily where the garage and front door might be, but where the approach is, and the general area on that photo where the house can be sited? (how could they already grade without a plan?)

So it’s out in the country so there’s not many main roads around. There is a gravel road to the left of the photo I shared that the drive will come off of, if we turn the house so the deck is looking at the view, the driveway will come in and circle around the house. The closest “main” road is in the direction of the arrow quite a ways but it is also a back road.

I'd also design the space to have 2 main focuses. The view is primary for me. A flat area works for family activities. That's also important. I wouldn't give up either. Post a layout if you want any suggestions.

Wait a minute....You wrote "Our builder is recommending turning the house so the back is facing the open field & our Mountain View’s" and then "We’ve already had our excavator come and grade the land and he is working with our architect", (emphasis mine).

Which is it? Normally the architect, (if in fact in your case that's what he/she actually is and not just a permit plan drafter) figures all that stuff out and makes a recommendation.

There's very likely creative means to accomplish both, probably in ways that might surprise you.

Something is backwards here, and I think it is the design process. Make sure your 'architect' is qualified and licensed.

You already know where the garage will be, so the house is already designed, right? Perhaps it is time to start over and design the house you really want.