Howdee Sorry I have been awful frazzled with some very unfortunate news I have been cooping with as of late. I am slowly working away with seed packs and the mailers will certainly be back in the mail in no time. I will start a new thread when I ship the mailers. Acres Edible swap 2011 1, Bustani_mama GOT 28 pks 2, SLO_garden GOT 50 pks 3, p-piper GOT 16 pks 4, Drippy GOT 31 pks 5, Jshipway got 50 pks plus extras 6, Flowergirl34 GOT 20 pks 7, Rain_grow 8, Sorellina (Canada) Got 40 pks 9, Haymay GOT 50 pks 10, Claylady GOT 40 pks (Email me if you have question) 11, Farmergirl2009 GOT 50pks 12, Jillybean (local friend) GOT 35 pks 13, Beautiful dahlias GOT 14 pks 14, Roper2008 15, Yorktown Patty GOT 24 pks 16, Sassybutterfly_2008 GOT 50 pks 17, Jessew GOT 24 pks 18 Jodie74 GOT 20 pks 19, Booberry85 GOT 36 pks 20, Wren1 Got 44 pks 21, MargeZ GOT 48 pks (both mailers) 22 Shmooey GOT 21 pks 23 Hmacdona ( Canada) Got 50 pks 24, Bpmujr79 GOT 35 pks 25 Ray_151 GOT 30 pks 26 Greenthumbgrow 27 Lisa 831 GOT 31 pks 28 Skyblue52 GOT 50 pks 29 Rosieo 30, Onedaylily GOT 17 pks 31, Tracy77 GOT 8 pks 32 Fwbfig 33, Trini1 13 pks Got seeds from a Jackie in IN no idea who you are lol but I got your seeds. 14 pks. LOL

I see smooth paneled doors in new houses all the time and they look great . . . if that is what you want, that is what you should get. I doubt they are "extremely difficult" to paint since they seem to be everywhere, but probably take a little more time to do as you don't have the texture to hide sloppy work. This is YOUR house - get what you want. If you want a 4 paneled door, you should have it.

Well it is often a preference thing but 99% of people probably prefer 9 foot ceilings at least in the open areas. I am a bit of a real estate junky and I also rent vacation homes - many of which are old and have 8 foot ceilings. I am 6'1" so that jades me a bit. We have 11 ft in great room/kitchen, 10 in other downstairs areas and 9 for bedrooms. It is a large house so those proportions work. We have a vacation home with 8 foot bedrooms and that works well - and they are small rooms. That house has 10 ft open great room - and that works well. Higher ceilings allow a much better view and better sun light into a room. Even tall windows can't compensate. The larger the room with 8 foot ceilings, the darker it will be. Some people like dark but most don't. I personally like darker bedrooms so the 8 ft ceilings can work there. We were just at a rental house with 8 foot ceilings in a large room and we couldn't get over how dark it was. Lights on during the day is just a shame. You mention heating. You have a design with a very deep overhang on the south side of the house. That decision will cost far more in heating than an extra foot in wall height. An extra foot in wall height means an extra 12% in wall losses. In my house wall losses are about 20% of heating losses so the extra foot is roughly 2% extra heating. A good southern wall of glass can easily save 50% on heating costs. You have a design of a dark house with that overhang also. You only allow northern light into the open area. Northern windows only hurt in regards to heating. They also give the least sunlight into the house. Add in 8 foot ceilings and it is going to be dark. And for some more completely unsolicited advice - 30 inch deep counters make overhead space harder to reach. And windows at 1 foot above the floor have to be tempered by code and that is roughly double the cost. Code (everywhere?) requires that windows need to be 18 inch above the floor or they must be tempered. Building on a slab yet you are concerned about heating? I am wondering where you are building. Generally, slabs are used in the South where heat is in excess. Where I live in mixed climate, slabs are used in the most basic of construction - typically townhomes. In a colder area, locating ductwork for HVAC is harder to do with a slab. You can do it of course but it is harder. I could ramble on and on about this but that is a different topic.

OP already has many Ideabooks. @Laurie Jarolimek (Teacher - Grade Pre-Kindergar, if you would like help with tasks still remaining before you, say "should I use blue towels?"; or decisions you're wondering if you should revisit, such as, "should I change the swing direction of this door?", all of us will happily chime in. Some people who've gotten feedback from Houzz on an aptly named "Design Dillema" post their final photos so Houzzers can see how it all turned out i.e. "Here are the blue towels you all recommended!" There is a Building A Home thread, restarted every month, for people actively involved in building a home. Here is this month's: https://www.houzz.com/discussions/6214319/january-2022-building-a-home#n=269