The elevation is too small to really understand but it seems muddled and uninspired.

For a mountain location I would recommend limiting the cladding to stone and cedar shingle siding (or vertical board & batten siding) but no brick.

IMHO the arbitrary nesting of roof gables is a developer cliche that detracts from the overall design and often creates expensive construction and maintenance issues.

A roof plan would help.

If you'll note your inspiration pics have stone cladding on features of the home, not at floodwater level across the whole house. Portions of the home that would have been naturally constructed as later additions to a central structure are stone clad, and that is a common method for mixing materials. Looking at your elevation, pick a prominent bumpout area that looks as though it might be the main house or might have been an addition and use one of your alternative building materials on it. I agree that stone and brick would not mix well in a mountain setting. Use stone only.

Your images are awfully small to really suggest any details, but the large gabled portion to the right would be a natural in stone if you clad the entire surface walls in it, not just the gabled end or the bottom portion. And since that corresponds in plane to the small triple window section on the left, it should be all in stone as well. That would leave the central section in shake or lap siding. I'd vote for shake, as it's more textural and suited to your rustic locale. You don't need a gazillion different types of cladding. You need just a few types used judicially and appropriately to make the right impact.

And I agree that there are too many overlapping gables, and the gables are too small in that overlap section. It's too fussy. It needs to be cleaned up and simplified.

Thanks for your feedback. I hope these pictures are big enough to be helpful. I don't have the roof details yet. But I added the floor plan at the bottom and hope that helps. On the new elevation the front porch was reduced in size and just comes straight out from the entry.

When we first met with the designer I told him I wasn't a fan of the half stone half siding look. His first attempt was shingle and siding with stone only on the bottom of the porch columns. I didn't feel like this design was as appropriate to the site as it could be. It seemed like it would fit in town better than on the mountain bench. I also wanted to have more attention brought to the front door; hence the multiple gables. DH came back and said he felt strongly about having more stone on the house itself.

Given that feedback and the pictures I posted earlier this is what he came back with.
Stone, stucco, board and batten.
He also switched the smaller windows to our closet; which I happen to like because it is more practical for privacy and I can fit a dresser or a shoe rack below it. I also think it looks better aesthetically too (yes or no?) .
I agree with your comment about the multiple gables at the front. Do you have any suggestions on how to clean that up? By minimizing the size of the porch we've ended up with four distinct planes on the front of the house. Is that what is causing the confusion with the gables? Or is it just the designer copying the standard "look of the day"? I would prefer a simpler look, but don't want the front door to disappear.

Now moving to the stone...is it the separate plane that is clad in one material or actually the whole "room / addition"? For instance, the garage - Front wall only? Front wall and entry wall? Or does the wall with the garage door need to be stone too? (we may be reaching the upper limit of our budget allowance if we end up doing all three walls) And am I understanding correctly that there is really no need to actually connect the stone from section to section? Just having it on the large section and the small section is enough? What about the entry itself? Does that stay stone or change to siding?

I'm struggling giving up the stucco and the board and batten. I've never been a big fan of cedar shakes. It somehow feels busy to me.

Have you got plans for the first exterior with 2 garages

Smeal -- You have IMO a very nice house planned. what is the sf and footprint of your plan?

To me the biggest issue is the front door is such a small part of the facade, esp in the first drawing. Further, when people pull up to the garage, will they even know where to go? The front door won't be visible. I don't know your contraints, but if there is anyway to make the 1 car garage 2, and the 2 car garage 1 so that the front porch/door becomes proudest on the front facade, I'd do it in a heart beat.

Am I the only one that notices that you have quite the odd collection of rooms with front facing windows...a garage (I've never seen this before, but I hope your garage in nicer to look at than the interior of mine), a laundry and a closet. You've taken quite the alternative approach to curb appeal, I just wanted to mention it. Its neither right nor wrong of course as long as its what you want, it would never work for me.