I'm curious. What happened between the current and the original design? The original house was on a smaller lot and because of lot restrictions we wound up with a house we weren't happy with, so we bought an additional 1/2 a lot. That gave us an additional 3000 square feet which allowed us to fix our master suite area, enlarge DH's study, add a second garage bay and make our guest bedroom right sized. It also allowed us to put a real lanai on, and add a needed 2' to the kitchen. But most importantly it allowed us to turn the house so now our rear faced south instead of west. I consider that a major positive. If you notice the west side of the house has almost no windows and in our hot climate, that's a good thing. It's also set five feet from the lot line, so will have a fence and really not be viewed, so I'm not too concerned about it lacking windows. It looks like two different homes going on; one story on the left and two story on the right. The original elevation seems more balanced. Thank you for your thoughts. The dreaded garage. We could have had a detached garage but then we would have almost no driveway space,and instead too much land would be in front where we wouldn't use it. Also be aware you're looking at a flat elevation. In 3D it will look different. The garage will be set back and was made purposely lower so the house itself became the focal point. It was done deliberately. And of course once it's landscaped it will be even less noticeable. IMO, the foyer should be welcoming, a first impression, give a glimpse and be a beautiful avenue to the rest of the home. The latest foyer layout I see looks as if you just run right into walls and doors? like walking right into a closet or mudroom/service entrance with no impressive view of the courtyard/pool. All houses have compromises. Because we are on a smaller lot (9000 square feet) we had to make some compromises. Because we absolutely wanted the house backyard to "envelope" us with a courtyard feel, we had to make choices as to which rooms would open to the courtyard. To us it was most important that our kitchen/dining/living room and master suite open to the courtyard. And my DH was insistent that his study look out on the courtyard too. It wasn't important to us that our foyer, which we'd spend almost no time in, have a view out to the courtyard. So we made sure all those rooms mentioned had windows on at least two sides to bring in views and light. To help our foyer, we will make the wall that you first see interesting with lighting and a beautiful painting or large mirror. Our stairway will be open with a craftsman style staircase. The opening to the great room will be cased in a way that creates interest and the desire to explore further and because the great room has windows on both the north and south walls, the light in the great room should lead you to want to move from the entry foyer to the great room. Adding to that is the foyer ceiling will be 9' high while the great room will have 10' ceilings so it will "open" up. Would you want a closet in the study so that it could resell as an additional bedroom? Yes and we added a closet for DH to have a place for his things. This is our retirement home and we're not building the house for resale. We're building it for us and our needs now and hopefully into the future. Maybe I'm missing a bigger picture or didn't read all of the threads in entirety. I think you may have missed a few. Here are the most updated plans and elevations.

I like 2, 3, 5 ... dislike 4. Oh, but I'm grieving with you for your original stone -- it was fantastic. As you said, Van Gogh. I like the idea to just put something cheap on for now until you fund the one that wows you again. In general, I don't like the idea of planned obsolescence ... but in this case, I think it might be justified. Could you slap down some cheap Ikea butcher block just to be done and search for another perfect slab at your leisure, once your father is well again (sorry 'bout that, by the way). I saw Ikea has a discontinued butcher block color on clearance for $40/very long cabinet run -- it was in their scratch-and-dent room. A slab of butcher block you could likely re-purpose elsewhere later. Looking back at this chaotic situation -- and I'm sure they cheated you, though it can't be proven -- do you have any advice for the rest of us? Any way to try to prevent such a thing?

@IdaClaire, I think you are right. I tried a couple of closeups where I just got the rug with several surfaces (chair fabric, bed, nightstand), and its looking a little better again (see pics below). @Ingrid_vc so.CA zone 9 (wow that was a handful to type) -- I totally get that the one on the left has more of the "glammy" patterns, but do you think the diamond one is not glam at all? I sometimes feel that the glam stuff draws a from mid-century-modern and art deco with a little extra bling...but maybe I just don't get it :) This room is so outside of my comfort zone from a design, color, furniture style and texture base I am wondering if I am just inventing my own thing anyway :) @Gooster, for this pattern this is the lightest color....

The tests conducted "in these studies contained much higher concentrations of the essential oil than that found in Listerine Antiseptic — 40 percent to 75 percent concentrations as opposed to Listerine's .092 percent." USA today discusses the use of Listerine (IDK about beer and Epsom salts but this may be of interest). https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/07/11/fact-check-listerine-products-dont-kill-mosquitoes/5409389002/