Congratulations!

How cool is that , you have the opportunity to design your own home ! Putting it here are you inviting comment and questions ? I am curious about no windows in your craft room and kitchen. Having burnt stuff on the stove and cookings heat and steam sometimes a window is really handy. I would look if building bylaws would allow the craftroom to only have one egress and no windows. I think you have a great size fishtank , had you considered optimizing viewing and as a light source by putting it at the end of the central shelving and storage units . I think by the time you include framing out that storage accessed on both side you might find it could accomodate the 5 foot length you alotted it in your design. It would be seen from three sides and that area would visually opened up further . Heating by woodstove , how does your design circulate the heat ?
Does your design have an adjacent grey water system and septic? It mentions stairs to a basement and I wondered if the laundry washing machine was hooking up with a grey water system off your kitchen?
I am curious what a Freckle is , might you explain that for our benefit . Does the hallway the pantry is in along the kitchen lead to another door to the outside? If I were using that design I think I might either open up the dining room more or capitalize on that framed wall between it and the living area building in the reptile tanks ( again to be viewable from more than one side ) and more shelving/storage . Well it looks like fun and rewarding work designing a place to suit your needs , good luck with it !

Syn,
Thank you for your input. That was actually what I was looking for but forgot to add to the post. I cut off the top part of the design & forgot to add the laundry "room" as well as the kitchen windows. There will be a grey water system and septic tank but I haven't got that far in the design. I have no clue on how to move the heat around. I would love some suggestions on it.

Freckles is an axolotl http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/amphibians/axolotl/

lgsbrooks - thank you

I am assuming you are in a colder climate and thus have not designed for a passive solar gain , in that case I think I would design something quite different for myself , I would eliminate the barrier the centre storage creates opening up many of the rooms for better air and heat circulation by allocating the storage to north walls say even open to the central area ( I have seen and entire north wall done as a huge storage closet that acted as another pocket of air insulating the house on the north ) . Me being me, I would likely make the pantry storage look nothing like storage , I would make it look like wall or a walk in clothes closet that actually had tons storage that was not immediately recognizable . The way I see it , whenever you create a hallway , its only real utility is walking to where you want to go , it is lost square footage in my opinion and I would go with an open living , kitchen , dining great room idea , it can still be defined areas of use ( I would use the design of the amphibian and reptile tanks as sort of defining areas and have them on more open display so their lights acted to light the room and so I could actually see and enjoy them as a focal point) and you can still have lots of storage and give a feeling of more space as well as allow heat to circulate better . I would be putting the heating woodstove central and i would do one of those convoluted masonary systems that channel the smoke in such a way that it acts as a heat exchange with the masonary that acts as a thermal mass and radiates the heat. I love fires so facing the living conversation pit around a central fire would suit me better but I am sure you could still situate your couch say to see tv if that was entertainment you enjoy. The other thing you did, that I think works well is I assume that first room off the front porch acts as a sort of double air lock entrance and I would make sure that all the entrances functioned that way to save heat ( like I said, in a colder climate) . Moving Freckles more central and away from that exterior wall might make the living habitat less volatile in temperature and be better for their health ? Well I am just offering a different perspective .

What an exciting project! We can heat most of our house with a fireplace that is plumbed into our central heating system and has a booster fan. It works well except in the extreme cold, and during those period we don't heat exclusively with wood. When we are not heating totally with wood, but just enjoying a fire and trying to ease our natural gas use we have found that we have a a long hallway with small doors off of it, which causes the thermostat to delay heating and then some of the rooms furthest away from the fireplace get pretty cool before our furnace comes on. If I was designing a new house, I would open up some of hallway spaces or minimize the number hallways created to equalize the heating between the various areas and optimize the wood heat warmth. I am totally envious of your plans and wish you great luck in the design and completion of the project!

thank you...if I understand - the idea that you are suggesting is more open concept

As for Freckles his tempt needs to be around 68 or less or he will not eat.

I have been toying with the idea of a strawbale house as the R value is 40

One way to help insulation and airflow is to put things like bookshelves, closets, pantry on outside walls. More of a buffer for interior spaces.
Masonry type heating needs a pretty specialized fire. It needs to be very hot for short duration. All that masonry heat sink will cool the smoke and build creosote if you let the smoke cool too much. The fire has to run hot and stay hot.

Open concept would be definitely on my radar. If you think about the old prairie cabins they didn't divide up their spaces into smaller compartments. Some may have been due to construction issues, but they would have been using their heat resources carefully. Often children slept up in lofts above the living area, which would have had the heat rising and keeping them more comfortable. All I know for certain is that we get less heat in rooms with small doorways, with the hallways being warmer and then the rooms being significantly cooler. There was a straw house near Edmonton that we considered, but didn't go and see. It had never been finished but was on a large parcel of land (77 acres), but it wasn't our preferred direction away from the city. The interior was partially completed, so you could see the straw bales and the it would have been interesting to have seen it with a wall covering of some kind. Good luck with the continued planning.