Here are a couple of my inspiration pics!

Floor plans will help explain the exterior's ins and outs.

No door to out back?

The top left three panel looking window is a slider door out the back.

Watch that first step.

Dropped the main ridge and the ceiling of the garage down, and reduced the height of the entry door and windows to its right. Added horizontal band of trim above the double garage door.

And your peaks are called gables.

I liked the original better because the main house has the most focus. You don't want your garage to be the focus of your house. I'd a big fan of windows in the attic. It makes the attic more useful. I like windows in general and would put more on the side of the house.

I'd drop the window over the porch and go with a solid face there. If it needs detailing, your inspiration pics have corbels. That'll add in some character.

I like them otherwise as they do add visual weight to the house. If you wanted to lose one, you could do a shed dormer (inspiration 1) over the smaller garage instead of the biggest peak. Though I think I like the gable better.

Here are my initial thoughts and revisions.

Why do you have a 3 car garage with an apartment sized house attached? Your garage is larger than your kitchen/dining/living room!

How big is your lot and is this a tract house or a custom house?

The house itself is a little over 2,000 square feet on the main level, so I wouldn’t call that apartment sized.

I don't think there is anything wrong with having ample garage space. A 3 car garage is not abnormal for a house with 2000 sq ft in the main level. You can never have too much garage space in my opinion. We wanted plenty of parking and storage space in our latest build, and we went with garage space that ends up being equal to half of the finished floor space.

This front facade is all lipstick. Delete all the gables. Use the money and design on the rear, where you yourself live. Extend the main house to match the width of the garage.

"You can never have too much garage space in my opinion."

But remember the old Ruthenian adage (I just made up), "If you build it, you will fill it".

I think @cpartist means it reads 2/3 garage and 1/3 home: ) from the road.

I'd definitely lose the corner "built in" pantry. You can get as much storage from a reach in. Ten people at the dining table? That's seems a squish of barely room to back up a chair. Very hard to read any dimensions.

As Mark stated earlier, instead of running the stone up higher on the front elevation, make it sure goes all four sides at foundation height.

Haha Mark, very true on filling up whatever storage space you build...

You have 3.5 acres - why not do a side-entry garage?

3.5 acres? Your design is for a tract home on a minimun idth lot. Why not look at side entry designs? House Plans from The House Designers.

House Plans & Designs w/Side Entry 3 Car Garage for Builders (builderhouseplans.com)

Instead of a side-entry garage attached to the house, on 3 acres you have enough room for a garage attached by a breezeway. This will allow you to have windows on all 4 exposures to allow for maximum natural light and ventilation. The breezeway could be enclosed for comfort, but have windows for airiness.

This one is open:

Green Tea · More Info

The red farmhouse · More Info

Detail of glass connector featuring sliding barn door, to control wind. · More Info

I think what everyone is trying to say is you could do 2200 sq feet on a first floor in many many ways with that much land.: )

Nothing is truly fantastic or charming about the front elevation, the house is mostly deep and narrow, and yes, it reads like a stock plan from the internet.

You really can do better - outside and inside. Of course it is certainly possible we aren't understanding what you love about this plan.

I don't think there is anything wrong with having ample garage space. A 3 car garage is not abnormal for a house with 2000 sq ft in the main level.

No it's not but when it is overpowering the front exterior, then maybe it needs some revision.

You have 3.5 acres - why not do a side-entry garage?

Yet the house looks like it's one of the houses here in my infill city lot where the lots are 60 x 95.

Again, is this a custom build or a tract house?

I post this over and over. Anything in bold really needs to be rethought

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 (I bolded this one because we don't know what direction your house faces.)

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. (meaning bedrooms don't share walls with public areas and have separation so for example, one doesn't just walk into a bedroom from the living room, etc)

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.

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.

It is a tract house, with a few modifications - we can build it however because we are on 3.5 acres. We have toured many different floor plans and this is the one we liked the best. Things we like about it are: master bedroom has its own space apart from other bedrooms on the main level. We wanted three bedrooms on the main floor. We also like that the two other bedrooms are not right off of the living room area. Our view will be out the back of the house, so we wanted the living room to have windows to the back. We have the option to choose any floor plan, however, with our features we are looking for I didn’t see a ranch style home that we liked, while also staying around 2,000 square feet on the main level.

Building on a typical city lot there are limitations as to what you can build. You have the chance to throw those out the window being on 3.5 acres.

The front exterior isn't ideal but there is a bigger issue for me. I always look at the path from the garage to the backyard and where the mud/dirt is coming in from the backyard. No one is going to walk all the way around from the garage to the backyard. A man door added at the back of the garage will help but still isn't ideal. As for the dirt/mud, it's going to be tracked through your living space.

Our mud room connects the garage to the backyard. I knew this was a good plan from the start but I didn't realize it was THE BEST IDEA EVER until we moved in. The laundry room is also off the mud room.

Stock plans aren't great for your situation because they are for city lots and the houses are deep squares. If you do find a plan that runs wider it's probably a HUGE house. I know lots of people here say to work with an architect. I wished we could have when we built but it was out of our budget, so we worked with a drafter. Does the builder have one they use?

Touring houses not built on acreage. Is that your best source of information? How about looking at homes for sale on acreage. If you want spaces with characteristics, cut out the examples on printed paper floorplans and arrange them to make use of your views, orientation to the sun and site topography. . . A separate benefit of acreage is your garage space options. Think about pole barn size with high door instead of 3 car.

Remember when touring model homes, just about every new house looks nice because it is new and it is decorated to sell to you; it is a sales job. Many people can adjust to just about anything, but you are not building a house to adjust to, you are building a home FOR you.

I'd spend some money on an architect and have a 120% better !!!!!! house, suited to the acreage , the light, the site.

Honestly, every one of your needs mentioned can probably be met. I'd also consider that roof is $$$$$$

Ranches, while enjoying a huge surge in popularity ? Does not negate the concept of an upstairs, nor does that mean it must appear as a center entrance colonial!

Go back to the drawing board, as this home? Truly does look misplaced, for what we'd imagine the site to be.