So if we were to do a 1.5 story with the master on the main level, where would you put that, behind the garage then? My thought process would be to first determine priority of room placement in the most ideal location for the use of the room and then if conflicts between room placement develop then rank by how much time is spent and how time is used for each room as well as the importance of that use compared to the importance of the uses for the other rooms. If watching the sunrise from your bed pays off with more enjoyment than having the sunrise and morning sun striking your kitchen, then plan accordingly. For instance, do you plan on using your master suite as a parental get-away from the kids, using it during the day or will your non-sleeping uses be restricted to evenings only, meaning that any views from the rooms would be lost to the darkness of the night? If the views are not important, I'd bury the master suite near the garage in the above sketch. If however, views and day time use are important, then I'd move the master to the east/south/west walls, perhaps right off the entry or in the back off of the kitchen. I'm not necessarily saying to put the master off the entry or off the kitchen, though you could, I'm just using these as examples that reference the above sketch. The way I'm designing my own home is to use a very self-reflective process which tries to understand how I actually live my life rather than trying to contort my lifestyle into architectural trends which presuppose how people SHOULD live their lives. So, to continue on the questioning, why exactly do you appreciate a main-floor master? Is it so that you can avoid stairs? Is it so that you can hear the comings and goings of the kids at night as they try to leave the house, is it because you don't want the kids too near your bedroom, is it because you don't want noise transmission from the master to be easily heard by the kids, and so on? Once you can articulate to yourself why you want something then you can find the best solution for your plan, rather than adopting a cookie-cutter approach. For instance, what I found amusing in some plans was a main floor master with a child's bedroom directly over it on the 2nd. Now, to me, if the goal was to reduce noise transmission from either the child's room to the parent's room or vice versa, the separation by floor, while having intuitive appeal, would fail to achieve the mission. The example I used in an earlier comment was to have a master suite separated by a stairway corridor AND a children's hallway which together create a 7'-8' dead zone, possibly with some walls other than the master and child's bedroom walls also added in between. There are no common walls shared, there is a huge dead zone in between and the goal of reducing noise transmission is, I believe, better served than a downstairs master with an upstairs child's bedroom directly over top, sharing common ceiling/floor as well as sound transmission paths down the walls. Of course, if sound transmission has nothing to do with the appeal of a downstairs master suite, then what I've sketched out is a solution to a problem which doesn't exist, or doesn't matter. I was thinking the master/office space on one side and then the kitchen, dining, great room on the other. That makes sense to me. Would you move the great room from the center of the house below to the front where the dining study is and move the study to where the great room is? Lots of configurations can make sense, but they must make sense in relation to how you envision yourself using the space and the particulars of your lifestyle and preferences. I'd say grab some graph paper, or even blank paper, and just block out the rooms and see how they interplay with each other, note how you foresee traffic patterns within and throughout the space, imagine daily routines taking place within the space. Once you have an idea of how you live, or how you want to live in the new space, then get the graph paper and try to get a better handle on size and furniture placement, and traffic patterns and by the end of this process you should have a very good understanding of how you want the space to be configured. I did the same for my house and this has resulted in me doing away with a formal living room from the now traditional LR/FR combo pack and reallocating the space elsewhere in the home, such as combining the entry with the LR space in order to create a larger sense of space/volume, has led me to create a larger kitchen than would be warranted in relation to the size of the informal living room, has led me to other design changes that likely violate what trained architects use as benchmarks for how homes should be designed. Thank you for the garage tip also - I thought 24x24 was rather large? We will be getting an oversize door for sure. I'd say measure your cars, block out a 24 x 24 space on your lawn, use cardboard boxes or something else to fill the space of your cars, then throw in the other junk you're likely to store alongside the walls of the garage, and see how much space you actually need. Try to get out of your car and see if the door bangs the wall or the other car. A 24 x 24 garage is actually pretty good considering that many designed give a 20 x 23 or something similarly ridiculous.

I remember reading that...but it's still just as funny.... I am completely surprised that I didn't find a post from me on there...My DH has done a few things during our 42 years that I tell on him every now and then. patti

Back in 2013 when I joined this forum the thing I remember most was: "my hostas don't look like that! are they supposed to be that green colour and not gold?" - that mine were usually lighter in colour due to more sun exposure in my garden. It was very enlightening during my first Alphabet to see all the variations in the same plants. Djacob, I understand... I usually don't have much trouble identifying hostas that I happen to have as well, but it makes it a bit difficult sometimes when some of mine are off colour from the norm. It is windy today but a bit cooler...only a lovely 24 and sunny. Good day to get some gardening work done! :D. Have a great day, Everyone!

You've finished one of the biggest "unknown" areas of a build - site preparation. Things like rock, poor soil conditions, bad drainage, tree roots, needing heavier duty excavation equipment, etc - drive a lot of costs and there's no way to truly foresee them. So - this is a time to develop a process. Do you have an itemized budget spreadsheet? If so - do you have a budget line item for "Site Preparation"? If so- in an email or meeting with the contractor, review closed, current and near future budget items. On this one - I would say "are we closed on site preparation, all bills received and we're on target with the $XXXX in the budget?". ALWAYS document the resulting response in writing. Keep good notes. Track in your own budget, etc. You are going to have a challenge amending a contract now, as there is no incentive for the builder to obligate himself to more controls and checkpoints. A construction lawyer might be a good $300 or so investment to give you some things to protect yourself and PERHAPS reopening the contract by saying that "it seems we haven't addressed some things in the contract, so let's do that before we get too far so we both know how we can handle the inevitable things that come up during a build." (or similar - attorney can help with that, and with some decent contract language, I would think) If you can't amend and get yourself some protections, do like I mentioned above - ask, review, confirm, document. In my current experience, subcontractors / contractors are billing quickly after completion of the work or specific stage. So there should not be a huge lag between the work and KNOWING the costs. If there is - it's a red flag and you need to be worried about mechanic's liens. Do you have a process for the subs to record their release and payment? As our own GC we had to get insurance and pay for a portal for the country to help us track those releases. It's simply good to talk about these things even if you don't have an agreement in writing. establishing a process will also protect you, and set some expectations with the builder. For example, if you did the above and he said "we're good on site prep" and then 3 months later hit you with $10K for "that backhoe we needed to grab that big rock" - you'd have a decent argument that he already agreed it was closed. (and - it will likely cause him to think twice before asking). Now - sometimes - poop happens and you'll have to make a judgment call on how you want to proceed - i.e. "is this a hill worth dying on"? It's all stressful. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst and everything costs WAY more than you think - especially during this time of full employment and rising costs. If your budget was done when you started this thread - you should definitely ask for an update.