You've obviously put a whole lot of thought into your floorplan and how to make it meet the needs of your family. I like it a whole lot but I do have a few questions and concerns. Not sure what you mean by "maximize light coming in from the bathroom off the mudroom." Are you wanting light from that bathroom window to spill into the mudroom and provide natural light there? If so, I don't think there is anyway to get very much light to spill over and still give the bathroom the necessary privacy, You CAN put an interior transom windows up over the bathroom door which will allow some light spillover. And, you could use a frosted glass door for the bathroom door. I'm not a fan of the latter except in masterbedrooms where there is less need for a total "sense" of privacy. You might also consider putting in a light tube to bring natural light into the mudroom. I have another concern about the bathroom by the mudroom tho. Not sure if that is a shower or a dog-shower or a utility sink in the lower right hand corner but with it there, you have no space in front of the vanity sink to stand while washing hands. What is that room between the staircase and the office? I can't read what is says and, at first, assumed it was your pantry but then I found the pantry down next to the dining room. I agree that a larger pantry would be nice. As your kids get older, you're going to have bikes and other sports equipment to store in the garage. It would be nice to have room for the second freezer inside the house so that the garage space could be dedicated to that other stuff. The hallway on the children's side may be too narrow to easily move furniture into their bedrooms. There is an indication that it is 3'4" wide (which would be plenty wide) but based on the grid background, it looks like the wall to wall width may only be about 2'8". Does the 3'4" measurement include the 4" deep walls on both sides? If the actual wall-to-wall hall width isn't at least 3'0", you might want to consider bumping the left exterior wall out another couple of inches. Given the overall size of the house, a few more inches won't make a noticeable difference in the cost to build. But a too narrow hallway will bug you forever! To maintain exterior symmetry, you would probably also want to bump out the exterior wall on the garage/masterbedroom side of the house as well. But, a few extra inches on that side could be useful as well. The only thing about the design that I really really don't like is the powderroom that opens directly into the living room. Guests will be squemish about using a PR that is so centrally located...too much concern that others will hear them as they go about their business or, even worse, if their business tends to create a bit of a stink, the smell will waft out into the living room before the bathroom vent fan can take care of it. And, do you really want to be looking at a toilet when your babies leave the bathroom door open while there are guests in the house. IMHO, that bathroom REALLY needs to be moved to a location further from the center of activity. The closet for bedroom III seems a bit small - especially for a girl who will eventually get to be a teenager! Also, be aware that your dryer needs to vent to the outside. It is easiest to vent a dryer that is on or very near an exterior wall. Given the location of your laundry room, I've linked below to some info that you should probably read regarding venting a clothes dryer. Just a thought but, have you tried putting the playroom in the middle of the left wing then having two short halls leading off of it with two bedrooms at the front, and two bedrooms and the laundry room at the back? And the guest powderroom tucked in to the left of the study so that one must go down a short hallway from the living room to reach it? this is really really rough but may give you some ideas Here is a link that might be useful: dryer vent info.

Thanks for posting this! I wish people would do this more often when trying a new paint (LOL says me who has never done so...oh the hypocrisy). Anyway, I know I've searched for reviews online trying to compare paints before and real-life details like you provided are awesome. I was warned that BM Gennex paints dry quickly so I cut in as I rolled on my Regal Select, too. RS is a thick paint, though. I hate drips! Are you happier with this color?

Office Depot has a samll flashlight for sale at less than $5. It has maybe 7 LEDs, fits in the palm of your hand, and runs on 3 AAA batteries. It appears to be well constructed (for a cheap unit); the switch works good. The body is anodized aluminum and is available in several colors via anodized colors. It is not as powerful as a lagrger light, but is bright and lights up a very useable area near the user. A wrist strap is included. I do know know how long it will run on one set of batteries. I know it must be more than 2 hours. I used mine while doing a plumbing under the kitchen sink and the total on-time must have been 2 hours. It small size was handy for that cramped job. It is right sized for walking at night. It is easy to turn on and shine down in front of you to warn on comming traffic of your presence. Should work for pouper scouping as well. For larger jobs, I have a Craftsman brand flashlight sold in Ace Hardware stores. It uses 2 d-sized batteries and has a single, more powerful LED. The beam is fairly tightly focused and can light up targets 25 to 50 feet away. The body is anodized aluminum This is my light of choice to keep in my vehicles.

Actually the gabled roof looks a lot better than the cut off hipped roof that National One is suggesting. One thing I didn't see mentioned is which direction is north? Your exterior is mixing various styles of architecture with nothing that creates a cohesiveness. I realize how frustrating it is to work on something for a year and then to have it torn apart. It's like telling you that your baby is ugly and not smart. It took me well over a year with help from this forum to get my house to a stage that will really work well. And I do have a design background, but still needed so much help to make it work well. It probably would have been faster and cheaper in the long run if I had let an architect design my house. The problem with internet plans is most of them are fairly generic without really considering how the family really lives. For example, in your home, do you really need 3 eating areas inside the house plus the one I assume you'll have outside? When designing a custom house, everything can work for how you actually live vs how a generic family would live. The fact you're on a couple of acres means you can move the garage from the front of the house, and have the house oriented so it takes best advantage of passive solar heating/cooling. Designing for electronics also needs quite a bit of skill regarding creativity, but it is a heck of a lot different than trying to design a house, which also needs a critical eye for design, layout, flow, etc. Someone who does architectural design will be able to think outside the box, just like you think outside the box when you're doing your work. You trained for years to learn your job, and then have spent years trying to perfect what you do. It's the same with an architect or person of design talent. Please consider taking what you've done and refining it with the help of someone who has the years of training to make it work even better for you. Let them suggest ways to make it more visually pleasing and flow better.