Brettski,
Been thinking about your house plan.
The floor plan doesn't work, and I think switching over to the monitor barn design was a good move, but keeping the original plan floor plan doesn't really solve anything. The floor plan is a mess.
Reading your post about the deck has me wondering if you are open to some more radical changes to your plan. There are allot of issues with the plan you came up with, and except for the view of your pond from a second story, there's nothing about it that's a keeper.
First, I don't like two story homes if you can avoid them for a variety of reasons, but mostly, I just hate stairs. If you like the view of your pond while walking around it, then I don't see how it gets all that better from a second floor. I'd rethink this aspect of your plan.
If you are willing to consider a one story plan, and you like the Monitor plan, then take a look at a plan I just scetched up. It's not to any scale, there are no measurements since I spent ten minutes on it and do not know anything about you, or your requirements for space.
The basic concept is to take advantage of the view with a two story wall of glass. The middle portion of the building will open all the way up to the ceiling. It will be very impressive, for a very small price. Then on one side you can have your master bedroom with it's own bathroom and closet. Behind that is your guest bedroom. Just one guest bedroom. If zoning makes an issue of bedrooms, you can make the guest bedroom an office on your blueprints for the permit and call it a one bedroom. Some places do this, others dont. On the other side, you can put the kitchen and dinning room. They can be open to the great room and give an even larger, open feal to the place.
For kicks, you can add windows to the very top of the wall in the great room. It will look like a two story monitor barn from the outside with those windows, but they will act as skylights and increase the level of light to your great room.
The other end of the building will be a working, functional barn/shop. You should put a large door at the middle of the end of the building. Something big enough for a tractor. 10x10 at a minimum. Then if you wanted, you could also put a garage door on the side for your cars.
If you like this plan, or it inspires you to something else, you should focus on the floorplan. Don't worry about how it's built, or how you will make it green or decorating it. Just figure out the floor plan that works for you first. Once you have that, then it's easy to engineer it. After you figure out how it will be built, then you can figure out how to finish it off. Wall material, color and all that comes last. It's the easiest to change and gives you the most flexibility. It's also the part that changes the most in the design and build stages of the home.
For affordable square footage on a home that you can live in for a decade, or the rest of your life, this might work for you.
Good luck,
Eddie
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