I am using a high pressure sodium light. Its a 1000, but I have it set at 400 for now. There's a pic of almost all of the plants. Its a bit messy looking, but you get the idea. I took some close ups, but it seems I can only post 1 pic at a time. The medium is not submerged. They really haven't grown a root system yet since I put them in the system. The tomato plant looks like its blocking the light to the other plants in the pic, but its not. There is enough light reaching all of the little guys. Hope to get this solved so I can be a happy grower! Again thanks for all the help, guys :)

I like the exterior and the general size. I'm glad you squared off the garage -- I see no point in setting the garage at an angle. It costs more and for no point. Two things I'd do in the kids' bedrooms: - Give the larger room a second window. - The front bedroom is small and its closet is small. I'd annex that small linen closet to enlarge this bedroom's closet. Adequate storage is the secret to keeping kids' rooms neat. What about a linen closet? Read on: I think you're over-bathed for a house this size. You literally can all be in the bathroom at the same time -- is that really a need? Is that really a good use of money? Two kids can easily share a bathroom -- mine do, and I can't remember a single fight about it. Sharing things is how kids learn to compromise and learn they aren't the center of the world. You have the space to make them one good-sized bathroom with a linen closet instead of two cramped bathrooms. I personally would stick with two baths total: The master bath and the kids' bath, opened to the hall so that it would serve guests as well. If you lose one of the kids' baths, you'd have space to move the laundry to that area. Someone else mentioned not minding having laundry in the kitchen: I agree -- I don't mind it being in the kitchen either -- not at all. What I DO mind is carrying the laundry from the bedrooms across the whole house. And you're talking about carrying baskets past the island, through the pantry and into a small room -- it will be a hassle. You're going to hate that your master bathroom door and your shower door hit one another. Last thought on bathrooms: Note that you have plumbing in every corner. This is literally the most expensive plumbing option you could choose AND it opens you up to the greatest possibility of a plumbing leak somewhere in the house AND your hot water will be slow in reaching the more distant areas. Your plumbing costs will be through the roof! I like the kitchen much better with the stairs removed -- I like the open floorplan and the island size is in keeping with the wide-opened space. I think like the alternative kitchen with the L-cabinets and peninsula better than the just-the-island kitchen. I would do away with the pantry doors . . . and instead have a pocket door into that whole closet area so the whole thing could be closed off. I like the idea of swapping the master bedroom and bathroom/closet to get great windows in the bedroom . . . but how would that work out with the bedroom door? I'm not seeing an easy way to fix that. It sounds like a great idea that just doesn't fit this plan. I don't love the three vaulted ceilings. If you have ONE vaulted ceiling, that room will be emphasized as "important" . . . but three of them within view of one another definitely lessens the impact. I agree with the choice to enlarge the eating space a bit. It's also your main entryway walk way, so that little bit of extra space will be valuable. How big will your table be? I'm wondering about the usefulness of that back door in the eating area. I'm wondering if you'd be better off to remove it . . . and make the window nearest the kitchen into a single glass door. I'm thinking that would better serve the great room AND the kitchen (useful if you're grillers) . . . and people wouldn't have to squeeze by the table to use the door. I'm not loving the mudroom though. It's a lot of space, given that you only gain the lockers and three doorways.

I understand what you are trying to do with the 4 foot increments; however in real life they mostly don't work out that way because you have to account for the dimensions of the layers, such as drywall, finish trim, siding/brick/stone, etc. So it's important not to go OVER your increment, but it's very likely you will go slightly under most places, or else you will end up with slightly over on external surfaces. If you are planning for certain siding lengths on the exterior then this can put you into small pieces, etc. On the interior: depending on how you cover your windows, there may be space lost due to window coverings out into the room. For example, if you use curtains (and curtains are an energy saving layer at night when drawn during cold weather), they typically use up at least six inches into the room off the wall. So a window over a dresser will use up your dresser top with curtain overhang, etc. Or if the curtains go to the floor then you would have to pull your dresser out 6-8 inches from the wall. Likewise for the desk in your second bedroom. Don't forget this same concept with your barn door, too. You will have to pull furniture out 6-9 inches for the door to clear behind any furniture pieces. Right now you have furniture pieces in the track of your barn door, in the drawing. It's also very awkward to have a piece of furniture partially covered by a window, as it looks your master night stands will be. Much better to have pure wall behind them, or all window, but not in between - it will not look right visually. Remember that your birdseye view shows only the window width. You then have to visually account for more width due to casing/trim and then a few more inches still if you hang curtains and have the rod wider than the casing. Allow about six inches between the bed and a night stand, too. That six inch gap is the perfect place for an outlet bedside. But you also just need it for space. If you have a seating corner in the master bedroom, you will likely sometimes read while sitting there. Therefore you need real estate to put a desk lamp or floor lamp, for lighting. Next up to think about: lighting (and where the controls will be) for the dining and living rooms. This is more of a challenge than it first looks, because you need most your light coming from above in this over-sized single space. Normally you get a good chunk of light bounced off the walls in smaller rooms, but in the case of huge rooms then your light has to come from above and be adequate without being piercing to the eyes. You'll want at least two carefully placed floor outlets in the living room. You'll want to locate your dining table light fixture carefully so it ends up over the table correctly. We did a chandelier type fixture centered over the table, and then two down pointing cans, one on either side of the chandelier. In our case, the chandelier has frosted type glass and the bulbs in the glass pointing UP. It does a great job of washing the ceiling with light, but the table is muffled and rather dark. So we needed down light as well to increase the intensity of light on the table, which you want so you can see well when you are eating, and to highlight table decor. One thing you can do in the living room is plan wall sconces along the available walls that will wash the walls with light both upwards and downwards. Another approach is to place some ceiling can lights near walls, such that their light cones then hit and wash down the wall (if you don't want to have sconces on the walls) Otherwise the room will tend to look dark during non daylight times. Don't underestimate how lit walls will make the atmosphere inviting and cheerful, whereas non-lit walls, even with good ceiling light, tend to make a space dreary. Another great option is to use carefully planned LED strips up against the wall or ceiling, to make a light wash, similar to above cabinet lighting. These concepts do not have to be expensive to do or energy hogs, either, if done carefully. In our bedrooms we used wall mounted two x 4 foot fluorescent t8 fixtures, mounted horizontally on the wall up high. We then put up a curtain rod and valence/cornice to cover the fixture. Light washes the wall and ceiling from the top bulb, and washes down the wall from the bottom bulb, but does NOT glare into your eyes, due to the valence/cornice. Very cheap to do, very inexpensive energy-wise for the amount of light you get, very cheap parts to replace. Lighting is one area where you can EAT IT in your budget if you don't plan carefully, both in buying fixtures and in energy consumption. The three big challenges of "open concept" spaces are furniture placement in the absence of walls, lighting, and electrical outlet placement. (With a two story house you have another: infrastructure placement such as heating ducts and plumbing lines to reach the second floor, but this doesn't apply in your one-story house case.) Don't forget there are in-between models, too, to open concept. Half walls maintain the visual feel of open concept, but also allow for furniture placement against a (half) wall and outlets placed in (half) walls. One thing we did was put cased openings (like glassless windows between rooms) in the wall between our den and dining room. This was intermediate between a wall and open concept. It gave us the wall space we needed for furniture placement and in-wall infrastructure (ducts, etc.) but still gave visual sense of openness between the two rooms. It was a great balance for us. I'm not seeing glaring wasted space. There are a few pockets of space that are just... space. Like the chunk outside the entrance door to the master bathroom. There's a chunk in the guest bedroom. You'll want to trim the size of the shower in the master back into that niche and not bring it the whole size of the niche. This will cost much less to build, be MUCH more friendly to clean and maintain, and give you a chunk of "in-niche" space outside the shower where you can have your ceiling ventilation fan mounted (in our case we mounted two heat lamps on either side of the fan in that niche, but they are on separate control so we don't burn energy using them unless we are chilled). You have very generous spaces in general but not that much wasted space; part of it will be how you use the space and arrange stuff in it. One more thought: if you are a pet person, then plan for real estate for feeding, food storage, bed/crate, toy storage, litter box, etc. And a cabinet or drawer for pet related stuff (grooming brushes, treats, etc.) This post was edited by beautybutdebtfree on Wed, Jul 30, 14 at 22:59

I don't usually give layout advice as this is my first remodel also, but I do have a couple of notes: 1. Strongly recommend you get that permit. It's a good idea anywhere, but may matter more in Madison. Our experience here has been great overall, but we have noticed that there is an emphasis on "following the rules" that has been a little bit of a "culture adjustment" after coming from Chicago. Things not done to code can really come back to bite you at selling time. 2. Don't forget to look at cabinet hardware at Ikea - I got a great deal on mine there after getting a tip from a GW post. 3. I bought the exact same garbage disposal at home depot for $159. I could have gotten it a little cheaper online but if there isn't a really big difference I try to buy local. 4. I haven't found great deals on sinks and faucets here. based on a tip from luvscritters I just bought a Ticor sink for $220 including grids and strainers from galaxytoolsupply.com which, oddly enough, I found out is headquartered almost walking distance from where I used to live in Chicago. 5. For granite, you might want to check out "The granite Shop of Madison". They just installed a granite island for me and it's beautiful. Post to me if you want more details positive/negative about them. 6. You could take your rough plan to any number of cabinet sellers here who will do a layout for you without any charge (just consider it giving them an opportunity to compete with Ikea), but you're probably going to get the best advice from the folks here. 7. Those cabinets look really nice - Hey! Those are the exact pulls we bought. Remodeling Encouragement: It's scary when it's your first time, but remodeling can actually be fun - hope it is for you!