A hodge-podge of thoughts... I'm pretty sure we looked at this plan when we were trying to decide! The porches on the back seem closed off from each other. I would prefer to have the square footage open for entertaining. The front porches seem far from the kitchen and possibly not used nearly as much? Depending on the direction the house faces the Living area could possibly be very dark. I do love the optional gameroom. Bedrooms upstairs seem small. Our two bunk together and that area would work for them but would be tight. (We plan to keep them together for the time being, allowing the other two rooms to be play room and guest rooms). Our upstairs bath is small like the one upstairs in your plan. However we planned larger closets to allow for desk area in them for primping/storage - to keep it out of the bathroom. I grew up with that and loved it. The additional corners/bumpouts on the foundation will make it more expensive. Having the plumbing all over the house will be more expensive than having it generally in the same area. 12'x12'8" dining room... Our table is 4'x8' seating 6 without the extra leaves. Can be 4'x10'. Our table would not fit lengthwise in your dining room. We entertain a lot and need the additional seating. We wanted: 4 bedrooms, laundry in an accessable area, large kitchen and living room area with an open concept. Vaulted section (husbands elk mount - silly but what we wanted). Plumbing generally in one area. Large closets. Must have large pantry. Wrap around porch, Country living. We are outdoors most of the time. Function was extreemly important for us. Being on a farm and using the laundry to drop clothes and be near a shower was a necessity. Wanted tall ceilings (for the feel and to help with the wrap around porches and letting light deep into the house). Could NOT (!!!!!) find everything we wanted in the layout that worked with our views and driveway access. So we started drawing. We were aiming for about 2400-2500sq ft. We saved on keeping the foundation square, rooflines simple, and sub contracting out ourselves. We are dried in now and working on electrical and plumbing. :) Example of what we did. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=jennybc%20gardenweb%20&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&ved=0CD4QrAIwAg&url=http%3A%2F%2Fths.gardenweb.com%2Fforums%2Fload%2Fbuild%2Fmsg0309084529850.html&ei=h0-fUcr7NYTc9QSFr4GwDQ&usg=AFQjCNFF3KXs5DfVIteq3OJlLSfsm5bNcw Didn't purchase plans. Bonus! Did have someone review the specs for beams and lengths for vaulted area, and roof support. I have to disagree with rosies: "And above all, wrap-around porches make the interior rooms gloomy all year, not just shadowy in summer, requiring artificial lighting all day long/all year long." No offense. There are so many reasons I think the statement is wrong I don't know where to begin. A house in the woods can be gloomy with no porches. A house with few windows is gloomy. I would say how the land lays in relationship to how sun rises and sets through the seasons AND the layout of the house in is much more improtant in determining the gloom factor. IMO I knew I wanted bright light in my kitchen in the morning. So I made sure the kitchen was on the back... etc. Keep these things in mind.

That seems like a very good price. I did a quick read through, and a couple of things jumped out. There is vinyl siding, and then there is quality vinyl siding. You should get some assurances it would be the latter. $3500 seems like a good price to upgrade to fiber cement. Just make sure it isn't James Hardie brand prepainted siding. There have been a lot of reports of paint failures with that brand, especially in snow country. A 150 amp electrical service is too small by today's standards. Most homes are built with a 200 amp service. Our new home is getting a 400 amp service. Textured ceilings hide lousy sheet rock work and are almost impossible to repair properly. I suggest you insist of flat finished ceilings throughout the main level, and also the lower level, if you don't take my next suggestion. Either have the builder pour a ten foot foundation wall or go with an eight foot ceiling in the lower level. Either way. make it a dropped ceiling. Dropped ceilings provide direct access to the space above them. It's great for running new wires, access to HVAC ducts, tracing a plumbing leak, etc., without tearing the ceiling out. Good luck. It sounds like a nice home.

Thank you for your response Tigerdunes. I will definitely check with the bidder on the third party evaporator coil. I specified matched systems having read your prior posts to others extensively, but didn't catch that this evaporator coil wasn't a matching Trane. Thanks. The boiler was sufficient in heating the entire 1200 square feet main floor living space with AND without all the radiators in place. I don't recall the size at the moment, but will check. The HVAC people were all pleased with its size when they looked at it. Because the house is without electric and water service as yet, we are not totally sure the boiler is still in working order. It was not fire damaged, but water from the fire fighters and heat from the fire might have caused some unknown problems, which was another reason to hedge the bet by adding a gas furnace. The second reason for considering a gas furnace, not just A/C is that a realtor who knows the house and its value, - which is considerable for a small house, given its location and craftsman, cedar shingled cottage charm - suggests that some buyers don't like radiator systems, and feels the addition of an alternate heat system and the addition of A/C will be worth it, which is another reason I got the bid for it. The third reason for considering a gas furnace is code compliance, and the cost to do so. The cost of adding hydronic units to the sunroom, pantry, dining room and bath areas to meet code are unnecessary if I install the gas furnace. Anyone wanting to use the radiator system only for heat would have to add these units, or live without them as I did, but code is met with the addition of a furnace. No furnace, and I have to add radiators in the areas mentioned above and detailed below. I agree that a heat pump would be the way to go if we knew for sure that the radiator system was going to be the primary source of heat as it was when I lived in the house. New owners might opt for a forced air system. My question on this is, can a gas furnace be added into the system as cost effectively later as it can be added now with the A/C going in. The new heating system, if installed, l would heat/coo the 1200 sq ft main floor with its 9 ft ceilings, with two registers in the open 950 sq ft unfinished basement. The basement stays cool in summer and warm in winter without additional heating and cooling. The attic space, if developed later, will be heated and cooled with an in-wall, Mitsubishi type system. Trying to run ducts and vents is a problem, which is why we don't have the new proposed system sited in the attic. It would make the attic fairly unusable in a future development as a master suite and sitting room. The ducting layout using the in the basement location has worked well, and the location of cold air returns well placed and spaced. So the attic will not be heated or cooled with this system. In the past, with the boiler, the heat loss from the main floor was enough to keep the attic above freezing, but does not warm it significantly. The attic has 4 large double window sets, 3 large Velux skylights and a 4.0 french door set, and the roof is black, so it stays warm enough on sunny days, and is well ventilated in summer.. The attic floor will be re-insulated at this time, but not the walls or ceiling. The new insulation in the attic floor will be far better than the old, and as I said, the new windows throughout, from basement to attic are a vast improvement in energy efficiency over what the boiler used to have to handle. The 950 sq ft basement is unheated at present, though I believe two registers will be added to this space with the new furnace The basement stays comfortable in winter when the boiler is in operation simply from the hot water pipes to the radiators and hot water heater and warmth of the up stairs. It is is open space, unfinished and only used for laundry and workshop space/tool storage. The dining room radiator was removed from under a south facing bump out window. That window was removed and replaced by an exterior double french door when a new deck was added at the time of the new boiler. The heat loss to this room was noticeable but not enough to be a problem for me, though it would be for others, and it is for code. Each room has to have a heat source, so I either have to put in a register or add a radiator. The bathroom is only 6x7 and is now warmed by the heat/fan which is not sufficient for code. I have a not yet installed hydronic towel bar that gives off 1500 BTU, enough to handle the bath and the small hall adjoining the dining room, bath, bedroom and parlor. If I do the gas furnace, this is unnecessary. At same time the new boiler was installed, a kitchen was installed in a 11x12 ft space that only had a sink and refrigerator with a radiator. An adjoining but separate 6x8 pantry at the south end of the kitchen had a stove and a cabinet. The pantry is also an access corridor to the basement stairs. So in installing a kitchen, I removed the radiator and replaced it with a toe kick radiator under the sink base the fully fitted kitchen. Base and upper cabinets were added to the pantry on the load bearing exterior wall that separated the pantry from the screen 8x8 screened back porch at the other half of the kitchen south wall. The fire that started at the electric service connection into the house was located on the east wall between the kitchen and screen porch, so this area and the attic above it were severely impacted by the fire. In rebuilding this area, the screen porch got a solid foundation, was mostly opened to the kitchen, and serves as a sunroom breakfast area. It is,fully windowed from ceiling to 36 inches above the floor with a door that opens to the deck. The load bearing wall separating the sunroom from the pantry still exists, but the pantry is now open to the kitchen rather than walled off with a doorway. The kitchen toe kick puts out 5,600 BTU and has to handle the kitchen sunroom and pantry area now. If I do not add a furnace, code will require me to heat the sunroom and pantry areas, which I would do with toe kick units under the pantry base cabinets - one venting into the sunroom through the wall and one venting into the pantry. If I add a furnace, this will not be required, we will simply use those areas for the forced air registers. If I do not add a furnace I will have to provide hydronic heat sources for both areas. So, to answer your question 4, the only addition to the heat load that the boiler has covered adequately (1200 sp ft) is the 8x8 fully weatherized and insulated sunroom. If I go with a gas furnace we will add the register(s) for the unfinished basement. I don't know if code requires the basement to be covered. I do know the non living space attic does not need to be covered. Sorry for all the detail, but I find that sooner or later the information is needed, so I am trying to give it all upfront.

"Another thing that's making me nervous is whether the contractors in our area have sufficient experience in installing some of this technology." this would make me nervous also. hiring a company that has little experience in geo systems is a bad idea. if things start out wrong..they only get worse. hiring anyone that has minimal experience is always a red flag for me. here in La. geo systems are very expensive. I've been doing energy ratings for almost 15 years now. of all the homeowners who started out with geo systems as their choice.. only 3 actually did this install. reasons are: 1-cost..at almost 6K per ton & higher..not cost effective 2-lack of experienced installers. one company does the loops another the equipment..none are local to this area. travel time adds to costs and to problems down the line for life of system. 3-high efficiency of air source heat pumps cost effective. or high efficiency ac with high efficiency gas furnace. more cost effective, companies are experienced in these installs, performance is comperable to ground source heat pump fo affordable costs. you should consider hiring an independent energy rater to advise you as to your efficiency choices based on your budget, location, personal perfrences and what is specific to you. check with www.resnet.us for an experienced rater in your area. invest in foam insulation in floor of the part of the hosue with the crawlspace. foam rim & band joists. make sure that vapor barrier covers all dirt in the crawlspace and is well sealed when installed. best of luck.