monstro, you’re on the right track, and good on you for sticking to it. The fact is that American housing stock collectively has too many big houses (many now vacant) and not enough small ones, especially small ones that are well-designed and well-built. And it has actually been demonstrated that houses truly tailored to a particular individual or particular family are worth more on average than houses of equal square footage built to generic plans. I think what you’re doing sounds great, and I encourage you to tweak the plans, before and during construction, as much as you like to suit yourself, but keep it small. (If you really need more space down the road, building an addition when you know how you plan to use the space is superior to building in an extra bedroom or “bonus room” now just to boost s.f.) If you like I can send you some stuff on design patterns aimed at making small houses “intense.”