Here is the second story.

Have you read all the cautions against a 2 story great room with children on this forum?

My main comment is that I think you need to add more windows! There are hardly any windows on the sides of the house, but if you are on 7 acres then privacy shouldn't be an issue.

I would add windows in the den and study at the side of the house.

Definately need one in the powder room.

I would alos put one in the laundry room and one on either side of the range.

Upstairs, I would try to add windows in the bathrooms.

I'm sure you've read the 1000 threads on two story family rooms so I won't go there.

In the kitchen, I'm not a fan of the angled island. I would square it out.

Dining room is far from the kitchen.

I couldn't tell from the plans--how wide is your laundry room?

I'd swap the laundry room and mud room so you can have an exterior entrance into the home through the mud room. When you have swampy stinky kids with frogs in their pockets from the pond, you'll be glad they're not traipsing through the home.

And I'd want a bathroom in that area as well. A powder room for those times they are outside and just need to go really quick, and a nice shower with hand hose to hose them and the dog off before you let them back into civilization. Also, it would let you add closets to the study and den area, and count them as bedrooms. Having a full bath downstairs can come in handy in SO many ways. From the teen who has a broken leg and can't get up stairs easily, to the time grandma visits and isn't so spry anymore. Having a full bath on the main floor has pretty much become a requirement in new builds.

If you pulled the garage to the side and offset it a bit, that would give you room to do that, as well as have the protected entry into the mudroom. That would also make the home more attractive, and have the entry easier to find. A garage on the front, even if it's front load, isn't the ideal thing to make a home look homey. Since you have several acres, you might also explore doing an a semi detached garage linked with a mudroom/laundry room complex. That would allow you to have more precious windows in the important space and tuck the utility spaces a bit away from the main house.

In the kitchen, add a prep sink on the island. It's shape wastes storage space, and won't be used very much without a source of water on it. You also need to add a lot more windows. One to either side of the range, minimum. If you did the garage re-design, you could make a pantry much larger, and that would allow you to almost do away with upper cabinets entirely in favor of windows.

The double height spaces waste space and make climate control more difficult. As previously noted, they can also be a safety hazard with small children. As can the pond. I'm pretty horrified about a deck that goes right to the edge of a pond. Both from water management issues in keeping the home dry as well as from a safety standpoint for small kids. I'd pull the home back so there was the ability to have a safe enclosed yard for small children to be supervised while they are young. And to be sure that there is no water infiltration into the basement or flooding into the home if the spillway/standpipe failed and the pond continued to accumulate water. It's been known to happen. Beavers love to alter their landscape. Other wildlife as well.

Thanks for the input. I have brought up all I the concerns with the great room with my husband but he is pretty set on having the two story areas. We will have geothermal and zone heat the house as well as sound proof the bedroom walls better to help. I agree with the concerns though. Just compromising.
The den/study side if the house is pretty close to our fence line and neighbors horse pasture. That is why I haven't put much thought to he windows in that side. I will rethink that however. The kitchen island will not be that shape. I haven't figured out exactly how I want the kitchen design to work yet.
Love the mudroom/laundry room suggestions though. Will look into those also. And the garage will be a front load due to the closeness of the pond.

First thoughts

Add a guest closet in the entry
A second floor laundry is really handy

About that open balcony - If you think you will be in this house with teenagers, let me caution you - they get loud and stay up later than you do. :) Sixteen year old teens don't go to bed at 9:30 with dad who has to get up at 4:30 a.m. :) Even with soundproofing your house is going to be loud.

And weekends it gets even louder, because we want our kids to enjoy living in their own home. My son and five of his friends watching an action movie with surround sound... Yikes!

It's the thing I detest most about my house.

It's an easy fix in your house. :)

I don't mean to pick a fight here, but there's a room for your kids, and there's a room for your husband-- should there be a room for you? Do you have a hobby that would benefit from a dedicated space?

Something to think about.

Also, where will you put the lightswitch in the master bedroom? With the double doors, your options are to put it in the hallway, or have it behind one of the doors. I'd rethink the double doors, it it were me.

I will brave the two story rooms debate again with my husband but I don't see him swaying. This is his main request so I don't think he will change his mind. He is very much an outdoors guy and he wants to see the pond. He is also not good with the noise of children so that may be the only swaying point. Is there a good way to combat the noise? I work in a school so I have the same schedule as the kids year round so that will be helpful. My husband is self employed and gets out of bed whenever the kids wake him up.

I will do away with the double entry to the master, I wasn't fond of it anyway.

Sad to say I feel like I don't have much of a hobby outside of raising children. I don't sew or scrapbook or anything of that sort. Nothing that I would want a devoted room for.

The laundry room is 8' for 14'6". The laundry/mud room/kitchen are my main layout concerns and I want them to be very functional. If we flipped the laundry room and mudroom putting an outside door to the mudroom, would you still have a man door in the garage?

An entry closet is a concern as well. There is one around the corner by the powder room. I plan on having hooks near the stairs for guest coats at least.

Just to make you feel better, I've lived with a two-story open great room in my house for 15 plus years. This was from the time the kids were 2 and 5 through their teen years and beyond. My spouse also works out of our house. He closed the door. If he had a phone call that required more silence, he let us know to keep it down a bit.

Is it noisier--sure. Did it prevent anyone in our house from sleeping--no. The kids never complained about the TV on after they went to bed. They just learned to sleep with their doors shut. Personally I loved the sound of them playing as younger children.

I also notice you have a basement. My guess is that you will finish it at some point and that will become the teen hangout area. Teens like a little space away from Mom and Dad.

As far as heating and cooling costs. I don't know how it compares to a less open house. We too have geothermal. I just know our bills are less than the neighbors with smaller houses.

My feeling is that if this is the one thing your H wants, let him have it. Your family will adjust. Do what is best for the two of you. It will be lovely.

The only things I'll comment on are the dining room being too far from the kitchen, of course I don't really have a solution unless you could swap the morning room with kitchen and have tons of windows in the morning room.

Also, as far as the 2 story room, it really depends on you. I have 7 kids and get really frazzled with all the noise and so do a couple of my kids. It's very stressful. We would not be able to handle the open great room. I will also say that we had a balcony with the half wall which is kind of the same thing and my bigger concern about it was the kids constantly wanting to stand on things to lean over or throw things off. Even though they could see through the railings, they wanted to get higher. I was scared one of them would eventually fall over. Last fall, I tore the balcony out. Best thing I've done.

The door to the outside in the middle of the family room wall makes me wonder about layout. Have you laid out various furniture shapes and groupings you might like to have over the years in this, and all other spaces?

Probably a big no, but how about detaching the garage and using it to create a nice, sheltered sunny courtyard/terrace? Tiny tract lots have to attach and scrunch, but you have space for the kind if luxuries others might only wish for. This would also turn the dining room into a corner room, with windows, or even doors onto the terrace.

Does he want the open to below or does he want a high ceiling in the family room? You could vault the ceiling in the family room, like a tray ceiling or a low barrel vault, and then enclose the space above and use it for storage...it would need a step up maybe and the ceiling would be lower of course, but I've seen it done. I suppose while the kids are small, it can even be used as a play space....depends on how high you were planning on making the 2nd floor ceilings.

Your house and your plan are fairly compact, which I like. I hate to see a house with so much extra cubic footage that may cause an issue or two, when making use of that space can be a positive....