Where are you located (generally)? Snow country? I would pay attention to those roof lines dumping snow where it is trapped.

What is the terrain of your lot? Walk out basement? If you are on a top of a ridge, then pay attention to how your garage and driveway is laid out. With inspiration pictures #1 and #2, I'm not even sure how you get into the garage--particularly if you are in snow country.

East Tennessee :) it only snows a little bit and doesn’t stay long. And maybe only 2-3 times a year.

And no basement planned. Wooded and sloped but almost 6 acres to get the driveway up the ridge.

Tidy. the mud room is small, but at least you have one. I was looking for the dining room. But you say you dont have guests often, so I guess a small table in the great room will fit.

I think it’s definitely a solid plan, but if you have beautiful mountain views I’d consider talking to an architect to make sure you are taking full advantage of your site and location. Although this plan orients the LR, porch, and primary suite to the views (a good thing!)— I personally wouldn’t want my mountain views from the living room partially obstructed by the protrusion of exterior walls on the sides of your patio, and I don’t think the bedroom on the back/ west side— nor your north-facing bathrooms— capitalize on the views as much as they could.

Your floor plan has trayed and coffered ceilings. Sure you want those?

Ditto with the desk nook and master bath toilet in its own room?

What is the room that is 10' 9" x 8' 4"? If it is a mudroom, why not have it be assessable when you immediately walk in from the garage. If it is big closet for the master bedroom, I'd split that up into two areas--mudroom/closet storage and master bedroom closet.

I would definitely rethink the location of the pantry. It has a window that would be better used letting light into your kitchen.

Your living room will be quite small when you move in. Have you considered furniture placement (to scale) in this room? Your main entry dumps traffic in the center of the room and circulation patterns to all sections of the house crisscross here. Won’t you have some type of dining table? Sketch it in, and a couch and chair or two and a tv. Then consider how you move around the house through the room.

I think I would reconfigure the office space to make a dining area there. Then make the guest room a dual purpose office/guest room. In a related issue, are you really sure you need all 4 bedrooms? By the time you move in, your almost-teenagers will just have a few years left before they fly the coop.

Your lot is stunning and I like the sensible rectangular shape of your house.

I don't think it is a great plan. Your views are greatly diminished with that C-shaped patio.

Interior kitchen with no light and views. When standing at your sink your view is of the exterior master bedroom wall.

Also with that patio you are creating a tunnel view from your living room and not a panoramic view ... seems like a waste of 6 acres.

Living room is a nice size, but won't be so nice if you have to fit a dining table in there too.

Do you really need 4 full bathrooms?

If you need a 4-car garage I would offset it more, or split it, so it isn't blocking the light/views from a whole side of your house.

Don't like that the front doors open right into the living room.

If you plan to age in this home, make all your doors 36" wide.

The biggest problem with it is what P.D. Schlitz mentioned - you're not maximizing your views. The main living area will not get very much light, either. This is a good illustration of the drawback of stock plans. This plan is not taking your site into consideration because it was drawn without a particular site in mind. You can allow for outdoor living without closing off your Great Room. Saving money by not engaging an architect is a false economy. You have taken the time to get an exceptional lot. Now you need an exceptional house - which doesn't mean the house needs to be large or ostentatious. Eliminate all the fancy ceiling treatments and focus on the reason you bought the lot.

Why not gt an architect to design for the lot . The panty is too small the walkway in the kitcehn too small and IMO a kitchen in the center of a home with no view sucks. Even without guests often you still need a dining spac e. IMO if one kid gets an ensuite so should the other . I find trayed and coffered ceilings are really hard to work with for furniture layout and expansive for no real reason. You have 6 acres why block views with a covered patio space . Why a desk in the mudroom and for sure no entry right into the LR . I think you could do much better .

If you're in the "middle stages of getting a house plan together" where are the elevations and the site plan? Everything should be designed concurrently from the very start so I hope that's the case.

You deserve more / better. Design something for you.

This plan feels kinda soulless. This has all the parts, but their layout is being forced into this hub and spoke arrangement and not one with good flow or circulation.

If you get warm weather, that C shaped patio will be sweaty and stagnant in additional to creating a tunnel and you'll be looking at a lot of siding in your greatroom.

In order to give much more of a critique - please provide your family size, approx ages, goals for building, etc

I agree with everyone else about the darkness of the plan and I'm NOT a fan at all of patios with walls on 3 sides. Seems silly. Like you really don't want to be outside. Plus that's the north side of the house. Will be dark. If you like that then I guess it's fine. But you won't have nice views from your LR.

I would want all of the living spaces on the back wall with the views. I would NOT want bedrooms with western exposure unless you have so many trees that they block the sun. I would put the garage on the west side. If you don't have a lot of room on the top, this plan takes up a huge amount of SF on the main level. Do you have space for a driveway with the side entry? Might make more sense to do a second story where you can put the kids/guest bathrooms so you take up less SF on foundation.

Regardless. Architect. That's your answer. You have a challenging lot and you need to design the house for the lot.

I would do a single door to the laundry, so that you don't block both the counter and the washer when the doors are open. You'll need to decide which item you would rather block with the open door. I would probably have the door open towards the counter.

Also, I would highly recommend 18' wide garage doors instead of the standard 16'. It makes a huge difference in leaving space between the cars and you have the garage width to do a wider door

A wooded and sloped lot, on 6 acres, with a view, calls for a design that is just as special. Have one designed for your family, not for an imaginary family on a flat, soulless lot.

WHo made this plan? The views will be tunnel like and limited out the back. Where is the dining area, or where does a kitchen table go? The living area is small for a four bedroom house. The kitchen will be dark. The whole great area will in fact be dark. This is not a plan that takes advantage of the views and beautiful property.

We are in the middle stages of getting a houseplan together.

This house has potential and some nice details, at this moment I'd title it WAR ON NATURAL LIGHT. Sandwiched between two porches and two bedroom wings, all the living spaces (where you'll spend your waking hours) are going to be dark. Everyone reacts positively to lovely, well-lighted rooms ... this needs to be a big priority. At this moment, the kids' rooms have the best light.

We have rented (a couple times) a cabin on Lake Junaluski in Georgia with a living room /porch layout similar to your proposed layout ... double doors to the porch (these pictures don't show both doors open), though the porch was a bump-out /not the C-shape you propose. Here are a couple images of it. Note the big windows bring in light, and the ceiling fan light is on ... but this is far from a bright room.

If you could make this more of an L-shaped house, you'd get so much more natural light ... and a patio could be fitted into the L, making it accessible to many rooms.

You mentioned ceilings. I like beamed ceilings and like the proposed design for the living room ceiling ... but tray ceilings are just ugly. I would cut them out of the bedrooms.

You say guests are few ... so why build a whole (expensive) room for them? When I was a kid, guests slept in the kids' rooms and kids bunked together or were in a sleeping bag on the floor. You could consider a murphy bed in the office.

Tidy. the mud room is small, but at least you have one.

I'd remove the doors that block off the laundry room. Instead, add pocket doors that'll put the desk, lockers and laundry all in one larger room. That'll allow the window by the laundry to bathe this area in light, and the whole space'll feel larger.

Given that you have a whole office elsewhere, who's going to use this desk by the garage entrance? Is it more of a drop-spot?

Kudos on placing the W/D against the garage, where the guest room won't be able to hear them. Also kudos that the W/D is convenient to the master; the kids can walk their stuff over.

I was looking for the dining room. But you say you dont have guests often, so I guess a small table in the great room will fit.

I was wondering the same! I'm assuming a table in front of the doors leading to the back porch ... but this'll make the living room small. I absolutely would not build a rarely-used guest room and skimp on dining table space every day.

I would definitely rethink the location of the pantry. It has a window that would be better used letting light into your kitchen.

I was going to say that. Light is the enemy of food storage, and -- while I love-love-love walk-in-pantries -- this one is stealing the natural light from your kitchen. Maybe the pantry could be moved over to the office area. Also, this pantry is not wide enough to really be a walk-in. If you can get some cardboard, mock this up and see just how narrow this pantry is.

I would lose the kids' bath at the back of the house /let them share one hall bath. Bump the office to the back of the house, allowing that room to have lovely windows on two sides ... and add a nicely-proportioned pantry where the current office is. This'll push the office back and will require a hallway to enter the office, which will be nice because it'll make the office more private /quiet.

What if this pantry became a window seat in the kitchen? Maybe with a small table for a cup of coffee? What a great little spot to sit and read through your cookbooks. Or imagine a child sitting there playing with paper dolls or cars while you cook.

Your views are greatly diminished with that C-shaped patio.

And that C-shaped patio won't get any breeze in the summer.

Do you really need 4 full bathrooms?

Yeah, cleaning bathrooms is not my hobby. They're also expensive to build and are prone to maintenance issues (says the person who's waiting for the plumber to fix my leaky toilet at this very minute).

I'd go with one bathroom for the master bedroom + one for the kids to share + maybe one half-bath. That's all I want to keep clean and stocked with products.

If you need a 4-car garage I would offset it more, or split it, so it isn't blocking the light/views from a whole side of your house.

Totally agree. Why this bloated garage? Why allow it to block an entire side of your house? Consider a breezeway between the house and garage, which will allow more light. Consider two garages served by one driveway, which will mean less light blocked by this big clunky garage. Consider whether a smaller garage could serve your purposes.

This plan feels kinda soulless. This has all the parts, but their layout is being forced into this hub and spoke arrangement and not one with good flow or circulation.

I wouldn't say soulless. I'd say a couple really nice ideas patched together in a haphazard manner.

Other thoughts, thrown out randomly:

- The kids' closets are awful. A reach-in closet would give them just as much storage and would be easier to traverse. Again, if you have some cardboard, mock up what it'll be like to squeeze into that too-narrow closet.

- One day the kids'll be out of the house. I'd add a pocket door to their "wing" so you can close off that side of the house and avoid paying for heating /cooling when they're not home.

- The master bath could be better. Why the exterior door? I'd rather see the shower stretched across the back wall. With no other storage IN the bathroom, I'd downsize to a single sink (no one ever uses them together anyway) and a nice-sized bank of drawers for each sink. No to a small, dark closet for the toilet, especially if you plan to grow old in this house.

- I like the location of the master ... near the entrance, near the laundry.

- I like that you have an exterior door in the master, though since the bed will almost certainly be on the back wall, I'd like to see that door moved more to the middle of the porch (to facilitate furniture placement. This door makes for fire safety + will make bringing furniture in easy.

- The C-shaped patio doesn't need to be that size ... 50% of that size would be enough.

- Guests need a table by the door upon which to drop their keys and sunglasses. Perhaps hooks to hang coats too.

- You don't want your refrigerator against the wall ... you won't be able to open the door all the way. Adding a tall pantry closet against the wall would fix this problem. OR it'd be a good spot for a 24" cabinet, which could then give you an "away spot" for the coffee pot, etc. .... to keep those things out of the main work area.

- Your pathway to bring groceries in from the garage is quite long. My parents, now that they're 80, are having trouble with this ... and they've purchased a metal laundry cart, which they keep in the garage /load up and push everything into the kitchen. Not ideal, but it works.

- What's your pathway for carrying out garbage? That's a never-ending, thankless job, and if you're carrying bags out through the garage, you're occasionally going to have a leak.

- I'd like to see a linen closet. Given that the bedroom /bathroom areas are so spread apart, I'd rather see TWO small linen closets to serve these two areas. My linen closet is only 24" and -- while not luxurious -- it's plenty.

- I'd like to see a broom closet somewhere central. If you don't plan a spot to absorb your vaccuum cleaner, extra paper products, extension cords, light bulbs, candles and cleaning products ... they'll clutter up other areas.

- I'd like to see a coat closet -- my preference would be by the back door -- to store out of season coats.

Thank you all for the helpful comments! We are reworking it now.

As others have said, I think you can do much better, and I would recommend starting over. Here are some of the things that jump out at me:

I see minimal storage - no linen closet, no proper closet by either door, no place to store a vacuum cleaner, sporting equipment, holiday decorations, out of season clothes, to name a few (unless all those things go in the garage).

The kids don't each need their own bathroom - a 4 bath house for 4 people (2 people before you know it) seems excessive. Make the closets reach-in (the walk-ins you show simply waste space for a walkway); use some of that gained space for a linen closet, either in the bathroom or accessed from the hall. Move the office to an outside wall - a window to a covered patio does not provide sunlight or privacy. Add a storage closet to the office.

If you rarely have guests, do you need a guest room? The few times we had guests when our kids were growing up, one of the kids slept on a cot in the other kid's room for a couple of nights.

How do you see the desk nook being used? Your kids will do homework in their rooms; if I was using a laptop I wouldn't hide in a dark hallway.

The master closet is huge in terms of square footage, but not in storage space. Conversely, the master bath is dreadfully tiny. Why the door from the bathroom to the outside?

I agree with others about the lack of sunlight in the kitchen. Right now your pantry, laundry, kid's bedroom, and guest room have the best light.

Another thought - with no basement, I wonder where your soon-to-be teenagers are going to hang out? I can assure you that your days of family evenings together are numbered! We were grateful for a family room downstairs for the kids and their friends to play Rock Band, freeing up the living room for the parents. When they were younger, they could leave train tracks all over the family room for days, without everyone having to trip over them.

Just looking at my garage/service hall, and the stuff that was tracked in today despite a mat on each side of the doors, and I wonder if you want to walk out of your bedroom on to that, or see the backpacks and shoes and tracked stuff from the living room and kitchen?

Also, there just isn’t much storage in this house. I suppose you’ll use the garage for a lot? Will your roof allow an attic?

Speaking of roofs, your inspiration pictures are very cool. But I wonder about the slopes dropping rain on another section of roof, and if breaches or leaks could occur in a heavy rain? or a freeze?