Who is designing the house, a contractor or an architect? What is the scope of design services that will be provided? What is the experience level of the person responsible for the construction documents?

Well folks, I finally found a site that told me how much the program cost.............well let's just put it this way..........I WON"T be getting that one hahaha ($1,200) yipes! I had no idea it would be that much. I think this program is designed for people who are in business. Too pricey for my budget. After checking into some more sites I did find that there are other programs that are nowhere near that expensive, although still between $200-$300. The concept is still exciting to me. I'm wondering if I could do something similar using something like Paint-Shop Pro?

CEF, even dumping $300,000 into our house, we would have to spend more than twice that to get what we want elsewhere. It is expensive in my neck of the woods! We are in an awesome neighborhood, with great neighbors, amazing school system (to stay in this school system we would have to pay double AND remodel) and we are very close to metro, shops, DC etc. we love our house and we want to make it ours! Our kitchen will only be about 120 sq ft. Same size. The four of us fit here perfectly. :) I hate needing lights during daylight hours so lots of natural light appeals to me. we also have a very nice back yard and look forward to the views. I used to really like separation. Now, I like a little, with some more open spaces. Our living area is actually large compared to the rest of the house. Just because you open it up doesn't mean you will lose the other spaces. I think it really depends on how you want to live your life in your home. What is important to you won't be important to others. I think if you live your personal life in a way where you are always saying "gosh, I wish this were more open so that I could (fill in the blank)" then I think it you should really consider it. I don't think you need a huge house to make yours more open. JMHO. I am considering posting updates on the small house forum.

I know with the embroidery machines you need to have software that can write your design to the appropriate format for the machine. It's probably the same for the computerized quilting, but I don't know for sure. I would check the website of the brand of machine the quilter owns (Gammill, AQS, etc.) and see what you can find out there. Donna