… I say think HARD about your site plan.

** Where is the primary view? The greatest rooms bring that view inside and it pervades the house and any life that goes on there.

** What is the site drainage? How that occurs must be in harmony with the roof and drainage plan of the house. Every building is essentially immersed in water, unless you are in a desert. Space under roof is an essential ethos of architecture.

** Consider vehicular access. That needs to be addressed with the proverbial "elegant solution", rather than just some honkin garage smashed onto the front façade.

** Analyze the seasonal sun angles for the property. That will directly affect all window and sunshading solutions on the house -- and of course solar if you want it.

** Gardens, plantings, existing trees, and neighboring structures are not trivial concerns. They may be the determining factor for a house design in some cases -- I can't say though with no knowledge of your land.

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Last but most important, consider the sense of place. That's a vague and amorphous term, I know. The proper way to refer to this is the *genius loci* of your site -- which is how the site and any human activity on it relates to all surrounding contexts outside the site. Responding to genius loci is at the heart of what architects do. It is the very thing builders and contractors do NOT consider. I cannot give you an education on this in the space available here, but Christian Norberg-Schulz can. A link to his book is attached, and it is the most important book in my personal architecture library (which is not small). It's a very difficult text to digest; but even just looking at the accompanying pictures will get you more in tune than 99 percent of your fellow Americans.

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Oh, and always use copper supply piping throughout!