We have been thinking of adding an outdoor shower once we get the side yard enclosed with the new fence and plantings. We don't get all that warm here until late July and August and even then it cools off in the evenings to the point of having to wear a light sweater or windbreaker quite often. Still, it would be nice to shower off on those hot days and recycle the water to the gardens. Our interest in this project was heightened last Sept. when we rented a cottage on Anini Beach, Kaua'i. It had an outdoor shower with an incredible view. Saying it was tropical is an understatement. : ) At first I was a bit apprehensive with showering outdoors because while it was private it was still wide open in one direction. I ended up putting the lightweight fleece blanket that I always carry on planes over the clothes line that was there for towels and bathing suits to dry. It worked great and I could still see over it to the magnificent views. DH usually showered without the blanket in place - he couldn't have cared less who saw him, he just loved the freedom of it all. Typical guy, eh? ; ) Here are some pics. There was a Bosch tankless water heater on the other side of the bamboo fence. It seemed to work great and the owner of the property said she hadn't had any problems with it. This was the view to the right - Kalihiwai Bay. Pierce Brosnan lives in one of the gigantic homes here. The locals say he and his family are some of the nicest people you will ever meet. This was the view looking out from the cottage and the shower, all private property so no one could see us. We did have a few "onlookers" : ) The chickens were all freed during hurricane Iniki. They are EVERYWHERE. lol! Now how's that for tropical! : ) Diana

kirkhall the north side/wall is at the top of the drawing, the south at the bottom. (the north arrow is shown to the right of the first floor). The wall facing south is the one with the front door, so its where the sun comes from most of the day. just fyi, there is about 7.5 ft ceiling height 5 ft from the south wall in the master bathroom, and there is a dormer in the center, which adds extra ceiling height (although not where the toilet is shown) (Also the dormers are not very clearly drawn...sorry about that....these are my drawings, so you know...drafting standards are lax, or rather non existent....) having the master suite upstairs in these cape style houses is tricky, in my opinion. the layouts in these houses are really constrained with the reduced ceiling height at those walls. however, the overall style has a lot of appeal for many reasons for us (appearance, energy efficiency, cost to build, etc.) the ridge runs east to west, and there is a lot of height there (entrance to master bedroom, loft overlooking below, and guest bath) I was originally advocating for the master suite on the first floor, for one floor living if necessary. DH has successfully argued for keeping all of the "public" areas downstairs, and "private areas" upstairs. Upstairs will have a cozy feel. He says we can always put an elevator in where the closet by the stairs is (1st floor) if we have too (I bet that's not cheap!). I'm with you on walking into the master bedroom facing the closet. it doesn't seem ideal for sure. I'm open to ideas. just keep in mind, that big window in the dormer on the north wall in the master bedroom looks out over the property and has views of the mountains. I don't want to block it with a closet. kelhuck re point 1) - i didn't even think about that. We toured a house with the stairs arranged just like it, and thought it was great. That's a good point though. I've thought about the stairs quite a bit, but never from that angle (odd in retrospect). They also had a little more space between the stairs and front door than I'm showing. 2)laundry - yeah, this is a big one for me. I go round and round on this:) The trade-off is to just have a laundry closet, but have the laundry upstairs, or put it in the mud-room, have more space, but have to haul laundry up and down stairs all the time. right now, i'm leaning towards not caring if the laundry clutters up the loft a bit, but there is not much room there at all, its only barely works. currently, my washer and dryer are in our garage, which is not conditioned. I bring baskets of laundry back into our bedroom, and process everything there. S, its not far fetched to have a small closet, but the appeal of a little room I can close off is strong. I swear I want a new house just for a space conditioned laundry room:) 3) pretty much, yes. the appeal of timber homes is showing off the structure, those gorgeous timbers. all timber homes I've seen have a least some two story view inside. however, there is strong sentiment on this board against it, that its loud. since I've never lived in a house like this, I'm inclined to listen. its a valid point, especially when its more than just the two of us (guests and/or kids). even just making the open to below over the foyer instead of the tv/family/living room may solve that. I dunno yet. I'll have a chat w/ dh about it later. 4) dont' worry about insulation, the entire house is going to be wrapped in SIPS. initial calcs for the efficiency we are looking for are calling for 10" SIPS, whereas almost everyone uses 6". No worries, this house will be tight (and require mechanical ventilation). we are focusing heavily on the envelope, so our budget is focused on SIPS and windows. I may even hae to sacrifice my nice kitchen initially (blasphemy!) in order to pay for it up front, but we'll see. liriodendron - that's awesome that you are using PV. the price is coming down, so its actually starting to make sense to pay for it, instead of just being for people like dh and me, who just have non-mainstream tastes and interest (energy nuts, sort of:) the property was logged 5 years before we bought it, so it doesn't have many trees (no trees anywhere near the home site) (and its an ugly mess, we've just now started re-planting). the south facing garage roof will have full sun all day. if it weren't for that, we would angle the house more, so the back faces the mountains a bit better, but we didn't want to sacrifice the front/south wall of the house with respect to facing the sun too much. we like PV just cause we think its neat, and we're trying hard to justify it, but it may be a few years down the road before we consider actually paying for it.

You have not offended me at all. Feedback rarely feels like criticism. This is the plan after 2 kitchen designers loved the basics and made some changes. But that does not mean its a perfect plan, just that it works for this house in this space with this family as far as we could tell...which still doesn't mean it can't get better, plans can always get better. I am looking forward to playing with all your suggestions :) About the restaurant part: I was on prep most of the time lol! I am used to doing all my prep work first all at once and marinating, cutting and readying meat and other things and never beginning to cook until I am pretty much all set because of lack of space in the present area and because its so much easier for me. Which is good because induction cooking kind of requires all prep work be done in advance, which is what I do! The french doors could become a hall to the backyard, but its unlikely --- the french doors open onto a small balcony / deck that overlook the garden part of the back yard (27" elevation), the steps lead down into the garden. On the other side of the peninsula in about 5 feet are 14" glass sliding doors that lead out onto a patio that surrounds the pool, its more likely that all traffic headed for fun and sun in summer will head that way since all the bed rooms, the tv and the front door are on that side of the house. The laundry room had a wall between it and the kitchen but I removed it because the laundry machines are front loading and the same depth and height as every other machine in the kitchen wall, so I covered them over with one long granite counter for prep space, baking and clean-up - this is where dishes will wait if they have to. This area is not visible from the main part of the room, its blocked by the half-bath and the pantry. I really wanted the huge counter space for prep work and clean up after meals. We did think about the sink on the peninsula but could not go with the dirty dishes in public, plus I would lose the storage space required by the dishwasher...hmmm. I like moving the fridge. It would mean not recessing it to counter length which stopped us from making that change before but it might be worth it. But if I remove and refit the header above, there may be a way I can recess it more to fit the depth of the bar and pantry, but that would mean only dry wall between the toilet and the ridge which may not be okay...not sure but its a good question. I will play with the layout some more and use these suggestions. Thanks all!

Wow, I'm so glad you showed the Before pics. You've done such an amazing job. It's a beautiful and well thought out kitchen. And thank you for saying it has taken a year. I'm getting close to my one year mark and not done, so it helps to hear this. I didn't know that having knives on a metal knife rack could make them dull faster. I've seen some that are wood. I'm now going to have the search GW to see what knife rack I should get. There's got to be a thread for that, right?