Love that Craftsman style! First, I'd guess that many of us here started with a stock plan from the internet or a book, and modified it to suit our own needs. You may have some challenges turning the sitting room into a laundry because there currently isn't any plumbing anywhere nearby, and if i'm seeing this correctly it's over a porch. And since it's a story and a half - which again an awful lot of us have - you've got all sorts of roof line issues up on the second floor to take into consideration. It's not like you have full height walls, so moving rooms around isn't a piece of cake. Which is why I think you're probably not going to get your his&hers baths in that space, not without changing your roofline. Talk to the architect and tell him what you want and see what he'll charge. He may tell you that you can have a second story laundry, and his and hers baths, but he'll want to put it into a different place, and move some rooms around so the whole upstairs will look different, but you'll have a plan that works for you.

Houseful-thanks for all the detailed pictures! So cool how you have transformed that space! This house is in Arcadia, we are currently in the East Valley. So...one thing we are playing with is the idea of keeping the original flooring. That requires moving as few walls as possible to keep repairs/replacements to a minimum. So that is informing the following ideas: I am currently toying with the idea of having a doorway from the library to the kitchen that lines up with the doorway to the dining room. With both the kitchen/library and kitchen/dining walls being half walls opened up above the lower cabs, if that makes sense. So I could see out the dining room windows at a sink and the library window at a cooktop possibly. Lining up the doorways would direct traffic through the kitchen but maybe that would be okay since my work area would be all on one side of the doorways? If we did this you would be able to see the backyard from the library and view out the front from the dining room... Rosie-the garden room was not built according to the plans and is just a room with a huge skylight...I was thinking of keeping it, but with half walls so when you enter the house you can see through it to the back windows...I was thinking of making it a small play room with a couch under the skylight. (Skylight is quite long and narrow along the wall opposite the door). A friend of mine has a reading couch under a skylight and it is magical to stretch out and read there during rainstorms... I like the idea of the kitchen in the middle, I think...Now, it is desirable to do less for the flooring reason, but I want to think big and I would love ideas that grab space from anywhere, really. We are mere days into months of planning so my initial thoughts may change dramatically. I would love to tear out as little as possible but I am open to considering it nonetheless!

If you can come up with an old piece of chain link fence and a couple logs you can make a drag to pull behind the mower. Basically the chain link will scrape a little dirt off of the high spots and drop it in the low spots. It may take a little while but as long as it's not too bad this will work wonders for smoothing out the bumps. If it were me, I would hold off doing anything that will leave you with bare dirt for now. Otherwise you will end up with more weeds to deal with and there's a good chance you could have some soil erosion from storms or heavy rains during the summer. Leaving the weeds alone will allow them to hold the soil in place. From there, get started with the "destruction" process in mid to late July. About 1 week prior spray everything with RoundUp to kill off all of the weeds. Once the destruction is complete and the lawn area has been smoothed and ready for seed begin watering lightly 3 times per day for a couple of weeks to germinate any weed seeds that were left behind. By lightly I mean just enough to keep the very top layer of soil damp. Spray anything green again with RoundUp. By this time all this is done you will be into your ideal time for seeding which should be mid to late August for you. In the meantime, use the search feature here to learn proper seeding, watering, fertilizing, and all the other stuff involved in maintaining the new lawn as all this is important if you want the lawn to be successful. It's really not too hard but you don't want to spend all this money to have it go wrong. You've got a good group of folks here on the forums to help you through it and answer any questions that come up along the way.

I like version 2 of your 3x6 beds. I hope the peppers are on the south side of the bed because the tomatoes will grow much faster and be these huge plants while the peppers will be slowly coming along. I have had many pepper plants wasted because they became dwarfs in a tomato forest. It looks like you are going to force the tomatoes to grow vertically rather than spread out. You can get more varieties in the bed that way, though you will have to aggressively prune and have a way to support 7 foot plants. Another way to go would be to use determinant varieties that would live more peaceably with their bed-mates and be less work. I think your 4x10 beds should be fine for tomatoes. They might grow a bit slower, but especially as they get big they will be in a position to take advantage of all available light. Maybe the bigger issue would be what would they be shading as they get big? For your herbs - think of what you like to cook with. I always need lots of basil and will have several different kinds. You might consider marjoram as an addition that you can use instead of oregano when you prefer something a bit sweeter and milder.