Gjshawk, apology accepted, no harm done. Anyhow, I guess I cannot argue against this rain gutter system, as it appears to be working for people. I think though that the original poster was referring to just regular old pots, dipping them in water, and allowing capillary action to do the watering, rather than a gutter type system. But, as noted, I don't grow annual veggies in pots, as I am blessed with plenty of space, with good soil, which I've built up over the years with compost and such. My container growing consists of quite a few jades and some tropicals, plants that don't take well to excess salts or excess moisture. I've thought of doing some indoor hydroponic veggies though, but that's a topic for another time. Joe

If limiting the square footage is a budget issue, be sure also to limit the number of exterior corners on the design and keep the roof line from getting complicated. I agree that 5x9 would be the smallest to make the bathrooms. I spent years designing our house before we finally built it. My guiding thoughts were: views, traffic flow, function, and cost. HA! on that last one, although I achieved all of the others. I finally achieved what mighyanvil mentioned above so that when you walk through a room to get to another room, you can avoid most hallways. There's great circular flow through all of the first floor areas; the master bed room is the only dead end area. I like entry halls with rooms off of all sides, so ours has a hallway similar to but larger than the one bevangel drew, with the study to the left on that corner of the house, the living room straight back and on the other left corner of the house, the kitchen off the back right of the entry, and the dining room behind it. So the first intentional hall has the front door with sidelite, a bench to the left, then the double pocket door to the study, then the closet. Straight ahead is the entrance to the living room, and to the right is the kitchen pocket door, and then a longer wall for a small table and a few pictures. The other intentional hall in the shape of an "I" is on the other side of the kitchen/dining rooms. Since I can't post a drawing, let me just say that it's one of my favorite things about the house. Going clockwise from the top left, there's the door from the DR, a door to the back patio, a door to the MBR (that's behind the 3 car garage), the up stairs, a mail sorting cabinet, a bench with 3 drawers and hooks and cabinets above, the down stairs, the garage door, laundry door (laundry has a pass thru to the pantry which has a pocket door to the kitchen), coat closet, kitchen door, cleaning closet, powder room, and a back patio/misc. closet. Last night there were 5 adults and 5 kids under age 6 coming, going, and talking in the front part of this area at the same time, and everything moved very smoothly with no bottle necks. The stairs come into the middle of the 2nd floor and lower level so there are no halls there. Can you make reduced copies of the architects plan and draw on them to figure out where you'd move walls, eliminate square footage, reposition rooms, etc.? Or find a close enough plan by doing a search on one of the many sites, narrowing down the hundreds of choices to a couple that you could rework into an approximation of what you'd like? Then you'd have something to guide the new architect you choose. There are so many variables that can make designing the right home very time consuming, I don't see how architects ever come up with a final plan for anyone! Anne

@mama goose_gw zn6OH Okay, these are awesome points. So if i put the 30” range on the ext wall, I can still do it within the existing pantry width? I could switch it w the sink and still keep your earlier Option A? I forgot about the fridge door issue. My fridge is a bottom freezer (w upper french doors, water n ice dispenser), its an older electrolux model that is about 2.5ft wide and very tall too. For the main kitchen im looking at having a 6 burner range or rangetop. I wasnt wanting to take a foot from the kitchen because of the impact it could have on the island. Another option could be to have a longer narrower island perhaps which houses the double sink and dishwasher? And then maybe they’ll let me add more windows and only 18” lowers along that wall? More prep space...your thoughts?

If this is to be a retirement home for the two of you, focus on creating a one bedroom home downstairs and make sure you are able to close off any upstairs or attic guest rooms to control heat exchange -- save on heating and cooling cost and potential for clutter and cleaning issues. If your garage is going to be 26'or28' of the 42' width permitted on the front road side of the house, put the garage on the limited window side of the house. Have a living* room behind your porch and an entry (entry that can be closed off from the rest of the house with a glass wall and French Door or sliding door) alongside that garage with the entry from the garage into the house within same front entry (space saving) -- and put your stairs in that front entry as well, adding another French Door to be able to close off the stairwell from the rest of the entry to save on heat/ac when upstairs/attic is not in use. Put the kitchen behind the back wall of the garage -- more cabinet wall on windowless wall -- and use high windows above shorter / lower easier to reach overhead cabinets, except, if possible, over the kitchen sink -- put a traditional window there. Behind the living* room, you'll want a hallway beside the kitchen. Behind the kitchen, create a family* room kitchen with both dining and sitting area that extends all the way to the back wall of the house -- except, build a closet or small storage room at the back CORNER of that family room. Building only a closet on that corner could create the "room" needed to block the neighbor's view of your patio from that kitchen/ family room side of the house to create the privacy for at the back of the house, yet still leave the patio large/wider than if between two actual full width rooms, thus letting in more light to your family room sitting area. Also, If you make your bedroom elongated -- longer front to back rather than wider -- that, too, could make your patio larger/wider (as well as make your family room sitting area wider) and let more light into your family room sitting area -- where I suspect the two of you will be spending most of your time anyway. On the living* room side of the house, behind the living* room and across from the island between kitchen and family room, create a square hallway with a door to close the hallway off from the kitchen/family room areas. From that square hallway ... have a door that leads toward the back of the house into your master bedroom, have a door that leads toward the side of the house and into a large walk in closet, and have a door that leads toward the front of the house into a bathroom with a high window. The reason I put an " * " beside living* room each time is because, with well placed recessed lighting rather than a central overhead light fixture, you could actually use that front living* room as your large formal dining room area. If possible, use the high windows where you cannot have a standard window. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/167970261073723332/ OR see if you can be permitted to create a bump out for a modified bay window with the larger center portion of the bay be solid -- for art -- and have narrow windows that open and close in the sides of the modified bay window ... each facing front and back rather toward your neighbors on either side of your home. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/496310821404734990/ https://www.google.com/search?q=square+bump+out+bay+window&client=firefox-b-1-d&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=KZbqRoZ5mvXeXM%252CRZ1bU2OJzUOxBM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kQ9rJciHuSvHa90gXhXpSgPLElcfQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjK28f4x_TwAhW_EVkFHWABA5wQ9QF6BAgKEAE#imgrc=KZbqRoZ5mvXeXM&imgdii=HZ5HelmzkhSQQM https://www.google.com/search?q=square+bump+out+bay+window&client=firefox-b-1-d&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=KZbqRoZ5mvXeXM%252CRZ1bU2OJzUOxBM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kQ9rJciHuSvHa90gXhXpSgPLElcfQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjK28f4x_TwAhW_EVkFHWABA5wQ9QF6BAgKEAE#imgrc=KZbqRoZ5mvXeXM