I am in your position: we are building an addition on our kitchen, creating a 650 sq ft kitchen. We are putting in a zero clearance wood fireplace if we can find one that works for us.If I could get it here, I would install a Fireplace Xtrordinaire by Travis Industries. We have one in our place back east on Lake Champlain and love it. When I did my research, it seemed great and when I looked at it in the showroom, I was sold and so was my wife. It is not cheap. Unfortunately, my choices in the southern Rockies are limited to HeatnGlo, Vt Castings (no longer made in Vermont), and Napoleon. Napoleon is well liked around here and throws a lot of heat. Unfortunately their smallest unit is too much fireplace for what we are doing. HeatnGlo is a big company. I do not know much beyond that about them. The one from them I like best is the NorthStar. BTW, it is a trivial exercise to pull a header from a 2x6 wall and replace it with a header framed for a 2^4 wall. That should not determine the choice of fireplace. If we do not find what we want, we will make the opening look like a masonry fireplace and put a Hearthstone or Vt castings high efficiency wood stove in front of it. That is a very typical "country" look and frankly is a better choice if your criterion is getting useful heat from the unit. Will

texaschimneypro, Thanks so much for your response. I thought I had this posting set up so that I would receive an email when I got a response - I didn't get an email so thought that I had no responses (just saw this today). My end result - The manager of the fireplace store was not helpful at all. The owner of the store was and sent out a more knowledgable tech who installed the 2nd puportedly fried unit and it worked fine (but the wall switch didn't). There was also a short in the 3 wire cable to the wall switch, which the electrician replaced. So I'm not sure where the problem originated, but we now have a working fireplace.

Wow! Thanks Szara! Like I mentioned, the specs of our space are very close to yours - about 16x20 room, open to the foyer and kitchen with vaulted ceilings. The main difference would be that ours will be flanked by windows rather than built-ins. I appreciate the advice on the optional lighting kit because I would agree, the light would be cheesy by itself. Unfortunately, I haven't seen a unit in person so we will be buying based on the brochure (and your input). It looks pretty slick in the photographs and we were hoping that it would be a well-crafted unit based on the higher price tag. Bummed it doesn't have a blower though. Thanks again for your input and pictures!!

I would also consider a large storage closet somewhere for Christmas decorations. (Maybe I am projecting!) but I love having a large tree / trees, lots of decorations, etc - and it's nice to have some dedicated space. Storage seems to be a little lacking here. I agree that -- except in the kitchen, where the storage is ample and just needs tweaking -- storage could be improved significantly. Also consider making those baths have a shower only instead of a tub. No one take baths after a while and having a glass walled shower with a flat floor (or even zero threshold) eakesthe showering experience so much nicer. Eh, I don't know. The bathtubs in my house get a pretty good workout. With so many bathrooms "needed", I'd vote for making some of them shower-only and others shower-over-tub. If one kid ends up being a bathtub kid, you switch rooms around so he gets that bathroom. The bigger problem, though, with the secondary bathrooms is that they're all minimal in size. None of them have any storage space -- not even space for a hamper. I'd give up some hallway space for better bathrooms; I'd rather see a jack-and-jill or a hall bath with a comfortable amount of space ... rather than a minimal bath for every bedroom. Overall, I think that the house focuses more on the show features than it does on improving the lives of it's occupants. Definite a show house, not a place built for comfort or function. I don't want to finish the basement, there's plenty of space already. I don't live in the land of basements, so I feel somewhat out of my element commenting on them, but since the OP says he's building this oversized house so as to be prepared for the occasional family gathering ... it seems to me that a basement would be a sensible choice. It could be closed off when not being used. Baths - I've been torn on this. I drew drop-in acrylic tubs for the kids because I didn't want to drop $$ on more tiled/glass showers just for the kids. Might ditch the tub and just do a nicer stand-up unit though. The Guest Room bath is drawn with a stand-up acrylic shower - haven't brought myself to put a full tile/glass shower here because in my head it would rarely get used. This makes no sense. This is a multi-million dollar house, but you're going to cheap out on tile? I just still think there is extra backlash on my design because the garage is ridiculous for other parts of the country (while it's normal here) The garage is part of it, but I really do find it hard to believe that the average person in your part of the country has a 6-car garage. I'm sure that's super high-end for anywhere. Even if you do decide you want to build a garage this big, you're ignoring some pretty important details: This giant garage is blocking natural light, and it's eating up space on a modest-sized lot. The idea of a separate building makes sense. Use of garage lifts might make sense. If you do think I'm battling too many architectural styles (all I was going for was a Queen Anne/Traditional blend), I'll also make an effort to shy away from a Queen Anne look so that's less dramatic. You should stick with the look you like. Queen Anne style isn't the problem with the exterior; rather, the problem is that the exterior just has SO MUCH going on. It's overly busy. There's nowhere for the eye to rest -- you've heard the "less is more" thing; this is a perfect example. Multiple focal points fight with one another. on the showers - don't get me wrong. The reason I was avoiding tile/glass for kids because they're such a pita to clean. I have a large one now. Periodic grout sealing, unavoidable mildew/mold growing in corners, glass door that is impossible to keep clean... I love it, but I wasn't too enthusiastic about keeping 3 of them clean and current every week. It's not the $ part, I just didn't think it would be wise to do multiple tiled showers for kids. So you're already concerned about upkeep of this giant house. This is a hint that it's too much. I've often seen that one of the main tenets of "good" home building design is to reduce room complexity. This will reduce exterior wall complexity and carry into reducing roof complexity. Agreed. Here's a quick layout of these same rooms ... as a center-hall traditional. Look how the wasted space disappears. Look how the rooms are better connected. The stair hall could still be large and gracious, with a showstopper of a staircase. Also this plan costs nowhere near $2mil to build in my area, not in a big city. But I think you're getting the wrong idea on this topic Honestly, I live in one of the lowest cost of living spots in the country (and in a rural area) ... but I don't think this house could be built for two million here. Even with acrylic showers. You're talking about two full floors plus a basement, including five bathrooms and a large kitchen and an oversized garage. Fancy ceilings, French doors, bump-outs, and more. And the rotunda itself will be over-the-top expensive. You know what they say about curved items in a house? They're shaped like a money sign.