You might want to post on the Orchard forum. I have just a few young peaches that haven't fruited yet, so I can't speak from experience, but here are some that get good reviews -- this is my list of peaches and nectarines to consider for future planting. Your location may be very different though! Things to consider are whether you prefer normal-acid varieties or low-acid sweets, and also disease susceptibility for your area. White Peaches: George IV, Arctic Supreme, Carolina Belle, Polly, Raritan Rose. White Nectarines: Arctic series (Arctic Glo, Arctic Star, Arctic Jay, Arctic Rose, Arctic Queen, Arctic Blaze, and Arctic Snow), Heavenly White, Snow Queen. Yellow Peaches: John Boy, Clayton, Windblo, Ernie's choice, Foster, Gold Dust (early). Yellow Nectarines: Honey Blaze, Honey Royale, Fantasia, Independence, Liz's Late. Good luck!

Working my way across the plan from upper left to lower right as oriented in Macv's post: I'm not crazy about having the water heater in a closet opening into a bedroom. I seem to recall reading somewhere that code won't allow a gas-fired water heater in a bedroom so unless the water heater will be electric, you may have to move it. Plus, with the door to the water heater closet where you have it, you can't put your light switch in the most natural location which is on the wall immediately beside the bedroom door. If you're using an electric water heater and want to leave it in that location, at least move the bedroom door 3' to the right creating a short, entry hallway for that bedroom. Then put the light switch on the short hallway wall you create. I would second the suggestion that you go ahead and use a tub/shower combo in the secondary bathroom. If you ever try to sell, anyone with small children will want a tub as kids often are either uncomfortable with showers until they are at least 8 to 10 years old ... or make a big mess spraying shower water all over the room. I also second the suggestion to get rid of that extra door in the hallway. It is totally unnecessary and, when open, actually partially blocks the entrance to the laundry room. Once you take out that door, consider flipping the entire laundry room so that the washer and dryer are up against the master bedroom closets instead of right against a bedroom wall. Less chance that someone doing laundry late at night or early in the morning will disturb someone sleeping in bedroom 2... especially as it is likely that the bed will be up against the laundry room wall. In the masterbath, I'm not a huge fan of closets opening off the bathroom but some people love them. Seems to me tho that the closet door needs to be hinged on the other side. That way, if spouse #1 is in the closet picking out an outfit (and left the closet door standing open like we all do), spouse #2 isn't blocked from coming in to use the facilities. Also in the masterbath, have you considered putting another window on the other wall by the corner jaccuzzi? It would help brighten up your master bath and make that tub look more luxurious. The dimensions on your plan are too small to read but the front porch appears to be about 6 ft deep. I advise adding another couple of feet if you want the front porch to be really useful. With your design, the additional cost to build it a reasonably useable 8 ft deep would be negligible. Also, since you have dispensed with having a foyer (I actually did the same thing so that is not a criticism), you'll want to pay extra attention to having your front porch act as a good transition from public outdoor space to private indoor space. A little extra depth on the front porch would help it act more like an "outdoor foyer" Not sure if family members will generally use the front door or enter the house through the laundry room or the back door. But, no provision seems to be made near any of these doors for coats/boots/hats/umbrellas/car-keys/mail etc. Even those of us living in warm, dry climates need a place to stash varous bits of "stuff" when we first walk in the door. And we usually want that stuff to be near the door so we can pick it all back up again when we head back out. I won't go so far as to insist that you have to have a closet near your front door and another near the main family entry, but you do need some provision for such "stuff" or it will all wind up stacked on whatever flat surface is nearest to the door. Your kitchen seems to have very little room for upper cabinets. This may be exactly what you want but before you commit to it, do think about how YOU actually use your current kitchen. Where do you store your most used items? I use my upper cabs for all the stuff I reach for constantly... like drinking glasses, coffee cups, spices, flour, salt, sugar, cereal boxes, bread, etc. Seldom used items like the fondue pot and crystal punch bowl get relegated to lower cabs simply because I don't like getting down on hands/knees to find stuff down there. (I am putting mostly drawers into the lower cabs in my new house and am hoping that'll make those spaces more useful - but I suspect upper cabs will always be premium space for me.) You do have a pantry so maybe storage won't be a problem but do think about it. At the very least, you'll probably want room for drinking glasses in an upper cabinet. I can't comment on the powderroom/pantry area till I see how you redo it. I definitely agree that you want to move the PR door so it doesn't open off the kitchen! In fact, I can't imagine why anyone would ever even roughly sketch a design with a powderoom opening directly into the kitchen. UGH.) I do like the idea of having a door to the PR opening out to the back porch though and hope your architect can figure out a way to keep that feature. Are you planning to have a dining table in your great room? If so, how far away from the serving bar will the dining table be situated? Do you want a chandelier or ceiling fan with light to be centered over the table? It's evident that symmetry is important to you so I think you may find it disconcerting to have the ceiling fan located at one edge of your dining table and I think that is about where it will fall. You might want to ask your architect to do a rendering showing placement of your major furniture pieces and see whether the position of your overhead lights and ceiling fans need to be adjusted. The great room with all those windows is going to be a gorgeous space! I see that you're also planning a cathedral ceiling but can't read just how high it will soar to. With such a large room, you're going to want to carefully arrange your furniture to create cozy conversational seating areas. Otherwise the room could wind up being gorgeous to look at but uncomfortable to live in because scaled too large. Finally, it bothers me that the front door and the back door in the great room are DIRECTLY across from each other. I'm not sure why but it just doesn't "feel" right. Maybe others will comment. Oh, one last thing. I can't read the dimensions on your plan but I'm pretty sure you need more electrical outlets in some of your rooms just to meet minimum NEC codes. - And in this day and age when everything we own needs to be plugged in and recharged, you'll want MORE than just the bare minimum number of outlets. Extra outlets are cheap if installed while building but ridiculously expensive to add in later. Also, since it is unlikely the furniture in your great room will be pushed back against the walls, you might want to have some outlets installed in the floor to avoid having lamp cords running where someone will trip over them. Here is a link that might be useful: helpful article on spacing of electrical outlets

I love how much storage you have planned into the house. Good storage really seems to make a house seem bigger. I am jealous of the laundry room. I agree it would make sense to have the laundry plumbing and the bathroom plumbing in the same wall. It looks like you have two doors into the storage room. This will reduce your wall space available for shelves. So you should consider whether the second entrance is worth the reduction in storage, depends on how you will use it. The 3 doors in the office will also limit furniture placement. You might sketch furniture into each room to give you an idea of traffic flows and size of rooms. In the kitchen you might consider moving the refrigerator to the bottom end of the counter. It seems to interrupt the flow between sink and range. The dining room room looks like it will only fit a 4-6 person table, which maybe plenty big for the two of you but would be something to consider. It does seem small in comparison to the great room, even at the smaller 22x26 size. At 22x36 it is bigger than my current house (with 4 people, a 100 lb dog and 2 cats) : ) Maybe the dining room could move into some of the current great room space and the spare bedroom could move to where the dining room currently is? You could consider having the dining and living areas mostly open to each other, this would allow each to expand into the other if you need a bit more space. That depends on how you feel about open living spaces. With the bedroom gone the stairs and foyer could shift to the left to make room for the spare room closet. That would depend on how important the stair location is for upstairs layout. That could also simplify your footprint possibly saving you some money. You could also get rid of that one small jog in the foundation meets the laundry room, it doesn't seem to add much. Looks like you have a good start on the design process. What's upstairs? Downstairs seems like a very nice space to me all on its own.

It appears that only MsLindley and I like the half-bath and the laundry in this location. I want my laundry where I *am* during the day, and not near where I sleep. I'm more interested in the daily convenience of having toilet and sink at the family entrance than having a powder room for guests. Your guests can easily use the secondary bathroom --as well as put coats in that bedroom. (No foyer closet is big enough for a group, and guests like to freshen up.) My 'back hall' is between the garage and the kitchen. The door to the garage is opposite the door to the kitchen, in the middle of the long, rectangular hall -- much like MsLindley's, but wider. My laundry area is also at one end, with a window, but with with upper and lower cabinets opposite the machines and sink. At the other end is a powder room, across from a 9' X 3' closet with a pair of 36" doors. This is my closet/pantry/whatever. There is a half-glass door to the yard at this end. I would want the laundry/slop slop sink at one end, next to the washer, not in the middle. (This is also our 'dog wash' and garden mess sink.) We all agree that this kitchen doesn't work. An angled island works well for conversation. Would you sit there often? The pergola would let light into your Great Room. I would use a wider expanse of windows and an active Great Room door to access the terrace; eliminate active doors in the MBR and the Eating Area. (You may not always have a 'midnight' dog!) You know you want a larger master suite. I would love to *flip* this house...to another lot, where the garage and back hall face north and the living area faces south.