Thanks for the comments; Yep ,Severn, dreaming is important; it makes us more creative,I think Bax,those tools are indispensable over here (see next post) Funny thing about the pry-bar : I found it under a hedge in an old lady's front yard in London. It was left there by council workers who ripped-out her garden railings back in 1940 in an effort to reclaim steel for the war-effort !!! Thanks Edwin; yes very rural as you can see;I will try&post some more pictures as things evolve... Thanks TJ Yep Beng,I can grow SOME Yuccas,but definitely not all.I have lost a few due to wet winter conditions,rather than cold. I will post a picture of 'Wate's' when it's "peaking" !

I've not seen anyone post their floorplans the way you did and I found it a bit difficult having to open several tabs and then flip back and forth among them to look at all the elements of your design so I hope I don't leave anything out that I saw and meant to bring up. Conversely, it was nice being able to focus in and see all the dimensions and not just guess. Here were my thoughts: 1) On your elevation drawings, I don't see the chimneys for either of the fireplaces? 2) If you plan to get any real use out of your front covered porch, you need to make it deeper. If you only intend to set a couple of rocking chairs out there for "show" then 5ft depth is okay. 6 to 8 ft deep would be much better. 3) If you want to maybe occasionally picnic out on the back deck, I'd make it 10 ft deep. Big enough for a picnic table plus room to walk around it. 4) I'm curious what furniture you plan to have in the "hearth room". It seems a bit small for a sofa and chairs - especially with the fireplace taking up a substantial amount of space in there. 5) Once you get rid of the side porch, your kitchen may seem a bit long and narrow. And, if you plan to keep a side door opening into the kitchen, I'm not sure how you'll gain much, if any, additional countertop or storage area in the kitchen. 6) The "eating area" seems a bit small. Okay for two adults and 2 kids but not so great once the kids are a bit bigger and maybe have some friends over once in a while. 7) The kitchen seems to be designed for use by one person only. Even if your spouse never helps with the cooking, as the kids get older, you'll want to teach them. 8) Cubbie area is too small to accomodate cubbies for four people but will be okay once you extend the laundry room out. Wish there was some way you could also make that area WIDER tho so that you had more standing room in front of the cubbies that wasn't in the "swing space" of the door out to the garage. My mud room is about the size yours will be once you extend the laundry room out and, even with just DH and myself, it feels tight when we come in and both of us are trying to take off our coats and hang them up. With 4 people it would be unmanageable. If that space is going to work to corral all the junk everyone has to have room to "unload" before they move on into the hallway. 9) I'm okay with your master bath design. Your vanities are 4 foot wide so I don't think they'll feel too cramped. If you were envisioning a "garden tub" where you could sit in the tub and look out the window, you won't be able to do that with the tub window facing the front of the house. I'd probably try to turn the bathroom 90 degrees so that my tub was at the side of the house for more privacy. LOL! 10) If the corner "shower seat" is really just a place to prop your foot while you shave your legs, it's fine. If you want to actually sit in comfort, I rather doubt it'll be big enough. Better to have a bench seat along one side of the shower. 11) The entry way closet looks awful small. Down where I live in the south, where folks only wear light jackets a month or so out of the year, we often dispense with entry way closets entirely but your designer is in New Albany, Indiana so I'm guessing you're building someone fairly close to there and that snow is a reasonably common occurance. If so, you'll need plenty of closet space to stash guest's coats, hats, umbrellas, galoshes, snowboots etc.... especially when your kids reach their teen years and have friends coming over. 12) I'm not a fan of J&J bathrooms (too much potential for one sibling to "accidentally-on-purpose" lock the other one out) BUT, if you want one, how about something like this that gives both sides their own toilet and vanity so that just the tub is shared? You would have to use a slightly smaller vanity (maybe 28" wide) on the bedroom 3 side but DH and I shared a 28" wide vanity for 25 years. One would be fine for a child. I know you will have a sloping roof with only a 6 ft height along one side. But, it is better to have the toilet and sink ON the short wall so that the space where you walk has a normal height ceiling rather than the other way around. Biggest concern would be whether you could make a pocket door fit with the sloping roofline. If not, you could have a door that swung into the powderroom side (in front of the toilet) or use a bifold door there.

wait you are talking originally about flash and adobe but then you say something about installing the shockwave, those are 3 different programs. There is Java There is adobe player There is shockwave. you need to make sure you are getting the proper one. If you need java getting shockwave will not help you. You probably want all 3 of them, and you will want them for each of your browsers you use. To update your Java go to control panel then to the java icon there it looks like a coffee cup and hit the update button and follow the prompts. For adobe go to adobe player on your pc and select the update option and follow the prompts to update your player. For shockwave go to the download page for it and select the proper one for your operating system and browsers. Install Adobe Shockwave Player Install Adobe Flash Player BE SURE to uncheck any added components or options like the McAfee scan on the site listed above and in each download you do be sure you uncheck any checked options for added toolbars or other options you only want the actual player you went there for. Readers and Players

This post not dead, ha ha. We changed the design a lot. Please comment. Changed almost all roof types to be gable and made all pitches the same (except tower), moved tower toward center of house, moved garage away from house & separated by hallway. Divided the windows into into smaller sections - not so many large panes. We're concluding that our architect is good on technical parts but maybe not so great on aesthetics...hopefully, slowly and surely the visual appeal is improved. The chimney will not be so tall, I'm hoping (code requirement). Main idea is to still have house be pretty tall and most living to take place on 2nd floor & in tower - this is to maximize views. @cpartist One accesses kitchen through LR or other public space, not through MB. We are building an open space to accomodate an elevator later if it's needed. Spiral staircase has been replaced with standard stairs.