Thanks for the great information ...patches I'll take a look at your plans...mightyanvil..thanks for taking the time to provide such great advice. This will be our "vacation" home..but it will really be a weekend get away place, that is if we can pull it off. The home will oriented so that the front of the home is north, the back south. We want views to the south and west. I was avoiding a second level because of cost, although considering a loft, but it sounds as though the rule of "cheaper to build up rather than out" applies. It's just DH, myself, and our chocolate lab. Originally we thought everything on one level but are now considering living room, kitchen, mudroom/bath on main level and bed and bath on above. We also considered a basement, as my DH wants the extra storage, but costs vs. it and just a slab foundation..not sure of the differences although there are those that say "might as well put in a basement while you're at it" We're not worried about excavation as we have a friend who'll do the job for us. We love open floor plan because we anticipate small footprint, we want back deck (but plan to build it on later) so outdoor spaces are important. We definitely want a mudroom...area to keep coats, boots, and area to rinse off dog after a run in the mud! We don't really need a garage..again, something we can add later... We live in Western Pa and do want a weather tight home, as we get more cold rainy weather than hot sunny...but want overhangs to keep direct sun out in summer, but still allow sun in winter (passive solar?)... Views to south (back) include woods and stream..views to west include woods and field. Weather hits us from north west...lots of wind from time to time. Why not a screened in porch? I love to sit out but hate the bugs! Ideally, we'd like to contract to get a "shell" built and finish the home ourselves as time/$ allow. Not sure what our options are there... I had to laugh about the home you'd described above with the various levels ..we currently have that set up...and have 5 levels and 4 sets of stairs and it drives me crazy! I can handle one set, but am a bit tired of 4. ;-)

Several suggestions (some in support of what others have already said) and comments-- Lower level: --I'd take space from the too large bath and storage rooms and enlarge the bedroom. --10' is too short a distance for large screen TVs; there are suggested distances for most screen sizes. --The office seems rather large, unless someone works from home, or you plan to have a computer activity area there for the kids. 2nd floor: --The bathroom is larger than it needs to be considering the relatively small size of the master bedroom; they're almost equal! --Having lived with bedrooms that had 9', 10', 11', 12', and 13' as their shortest measurements, IMO I wouldn't go smaller than 11' for a kid's room, or smaller than 12-13' for the master width if at all possible. --I remember a thread discussing jack & jill baths where opinions were about split on their desirability. I'm one of those who doesn't like them. --Our design had a tub/toilet room like yours for the girls' room. It was supposed to be 5' x 7', but ended up 5' x 8' (more space between the toilet and tub). FWIW, it is so much nicer with the 8' length. 1st floor-- --You have too much square footage in the halls for 1400 s.f. Like you, I designed a lot of halls into our house when including the pantry, laundry, powder room, stairs, and entrances. But I kept hacking away and rearranging the plan until I got the square footage better distributed so that my other rooms were the right sizes, and there was no wasted space in the final hall designs. --When your kids are just a little older, I think you're going to wish you had a lot bigger dining area! And when they're teenagers . . . --Our appliances, island, and wall cabinets are similar to how yours are set up, and 42" (cabinet face to cabinet face) is plenty of space between them. (39" countertop edge to countertop edge) --2 different neighbors used one column of 8"x8" glass block as their front sidelites. We used three 12"x12" glass blocks for a couple of lower level windows. IMO the larger size glass block looks better than the smaller sizes that used to be used. --It's more energy efficient to have the fireplace between two INTERIOR walls. Our living room is the exact same size as yours. We put a 2-way FP in the wall between it and the dining area (which has a regular informal dining table) that is part of our kitchen. We also got the FP for backup heat during power outages and have it hooked up to the generator, so with its 2 sides and central location it can heat up the 1st floor general living area. Since our house is also very energy efficient (ICF walls to the top of the 1st floor & geothermal heat), the FP is normally only on for a brief time on cold winter mornings when we first get out of bed and DH has just walked the 200' to get the newspaper. We just moved in in December, and are still finishing up some things on the house. It will be interesting to see how low we have to set the heating thermostat to have the ambiance of the FP when we have company over this winter here in Michigan! So, just some food for thought in case any of it might help. We benefited greatly from various GWeb posts when we were still in the design stage, and I know how hard it is to get everything right. Anne

Whirlpool vs jet I use my whirlpool constantly, with oils, salts, bubbles, everything they say you shouldn't do. I run bleach through once a month, and have never had a mold problem. That said, if cost is not an issue I do prefer jets. Less noise, and the water level can be lower. Overlooked mstbath features: Fans. One over the shower, definitely the toilet in a separate closet with a fan. Love having my own sink w/o shaving whiskers. Laundry: Have had both, and for me the one that works is upstairs, with enough room to fold and hang. Specialized rooms: Yes, we put lofts in at one end above each of the cathedral ceiling bedrooms and media room on the second floor. The lofts are "away" space, room to tuck a visitor, a library. They are very inexpensive space to build. The mstr bedroom has a very small sitting room with french doors which is a noise buffer to teenage son's room. His closet also backs that wall as additional noise insulation. The media room has a closet-like (doors fold back the length of the wall) craft area, again as a noise buffer. Upstairs media/ent. if you have children above 10, the gang hangs out there and the moms have coffee below. A baby monitor turned low keeps everyone nice, you hear the shrieks without eavesdropping. Having had J&J, the issue of who cleaned them was always on the table (floor, shower, LOL). We plan in the new house to have a J&J which only shares a walk-in shower. Back to back toilets save plumbing costs, each side has own sink and storage. One door leads to a bedroom (boy) the other leads to the hall, the shower has two doors, one for each side. It's important to keep the kids close to you, young or teens. Where would you want to be in a fire? Loud noises in the night? (For us, a bear break-in) Close enough to grab the kids. I LOVE having 2 sinks in the kitchen, one on an island on the side away from the main sink. The prep sink has to be at least 18" wide. This allows for a prep site and a cleanup zone, the kitchen functions much better. Dishwasher drawers have come down in price and up in reliability, the convenience is better than a single d/w. I'm short, so my main sink has to be a farm sink. That way I can have my 9" depth without standing on tiptoe. Saves my back, too. Double ovens- honestly, no, never. I need a wide convection oven/range that will hold professional cookie sheets and large 26" casseroles. After that, a convection/bake microwave is the most-used in our house. Consider a trash compactor- the downside is that the trash is so heavy that only DH can take it out. Did I call that a downside? The upside is that you save money on trash collection every month. Pantry space depends upon how far you live from the supermarket and how many people you're feeding, and if you get snowed in during winter. A recycle center in the lazy susan corner is a favorite of mine, also a larger floor plan so that my huge hubby can fan himself (I laughed at the post that mentioned this) at the fridge door, a french door style fridge so I can get by while the above event is happening. A larger floor plan so that short people don't have to reach for things in upper cabinets because there is enough base cabinet storage. Pop-ups for the bread machine and the kitchenaid mixer because they are large and heavy. Lower than 36" bases because that's chest high for me. A second, higher tier for DH to make sandwiches on. And a large appliance cupboard with outlets inside so that toasters, mixers, juicers, blenders, and cuisinart have a permanent home. A home for coffee/tea prep which is away from my main cooking area. Separate zones for breakfast cereal/milk so that I have a clear path to my coffee in the morning. As you can tell, I'm particular about my kitchen...and every kitchen is personal. We're renting a recently built custom home while we build. They're tall people, and the island hits my arm pits. Lots of HIIIGH cabinets (sigh). We've lived in a lot of houses in our marriage. Anyway, what I learned is that every house needs to be personalized. New or used, make it work for you. Every kitchen is a tear-out unless it work for you...never, ever build for "the next people", make it custom for your lifestyle. And, I also learned that 12' ceilings are too tall, 10" is just right. We're in Northern CA (turn right at San Francisco and keep driving until you hit a deer. You're there.) One last note: The house we're renting is 3400sf plus 3-car garage, cherry floors and cabinets, stone and granite tile, all amenities. The husband built it himself (no prior experience) with one helper over a two-year period, finished in 2006. For $400K. Then they went off to run a B&B, needed a new challenge. I have rarely seen a nicer house. A friend of ours built a 2000sf house himself over a 5 year period for $60 a square foot. So, be brave, it can be done.

I would like to thank everyone who took the time to read through these posts and to post advice and suggestions and constructive criticism. I am taking all of it into consideration and some of it was not what i wanted nor expected to hear, but what I needed to hear. I feel as if a little more explanation is needed. We found a builder that we really like and everyone that he has built for has been really happy. He had several plans that we could look at or if we had any plans he could build whatever we liked. He has a gentleman that could draw and customize a home for us. We thought it was architect at first and the price was so good because we were going through him and he would then be able to have our house plan to use in the future. Upon our first meeting with the gentleman that was going to draw up of dream home so we could make it a reality, we learned that he was not an architect, or designer. He's retired now from 40 years of experience woking on/building homes and is good with the software. He is very kind and has been very patient with the many changes we have made along the way. However, we soon discovered that he really has no design ideas or suggestions. He just draws whatever we ask him to or whatever I draw to send to him. If we wanted something a changed, the standard procedure was to just make part of the house bigger, we had gotten up to almost 4400 square feet! If we didn't like the way something worked and asked for a change, he would fix that issue and cause 2 more. I got so frustrated that we are trying to build our dream home and pretty much the only person I had for design help was myself. Uhm, I really want someone with much more skill and talented and better taste to design my home. I know what I want, I just do't know how to get there. We have been working on this for 8 months. I got so frustrated that I gave up for 3 months. Our neighbors are using the same builder and they had difficulties getting their design as well. However they had found a floor plan that they liked and just had him make changes to it and add a mother in law plan. I firmly believe that we are his first truly start from scratch home. Again, this is the guy the builder sent us to to have plans drawn, not our builder. Giving him credit he has taking my very very basic sketches and turned them into something the builder can build from, but pretty much the design is about 99% me, not that I wanted it that way. Here is where I'm at, so you can see that he is doing all the builder type stuff. We don't want to be difficult, but we want a good design. We don't want the builder to think that we are difficult or indecisive because we just can't get there with his guy. I'm at a loss! Several people wanted to know the lot dimensions. So here they are: It is at the top of a ridge, has some slope to it and has a nice open are in the middle. Of course we want the house to sit about at the arrows part of the lot. There is an utility easement of 20 feet on the right side of the lot, but the utility poles are more like 30 feet inside the property. I really do appreciate all of your insight. It has been eye opening. I'll make another post addressing questions and comments. Sorry to be so long winded.