Such a great, great, great movie. I have a story about it and I swear on my children's lives absolutely true. Tragic ending, IMO.... Sometime in the mid-80's, as was typical, teen me is chilling out in the pre-5000 channel era watching an old movie on a Sunday afternoon. I love Cary Grant, and have parents that are renovation addicts, so this one is particularly fun for me. Mom comes in and joins me, we laugh at the silliness and finally she says, " Uncle L has that house." Me, "Who?" "My uncle L, he's W's father." "Why don't I know him?" "Because he's an abusive and mean old SOB that no one likes very much, but he built my Aunt M that house - she's the one that died long ago in the car accident." "He doesn't have THAT house!" "Yes, yes he does, they built a bunch of them to promote the movie, although he couldn't get one of those. But, Aunt M wanted one. So one day he just called the studio in Hollywood. He actually talked to a producer on the phone and convinced them to send him the plans. I'm pretty sure they still have the plans and signed letter from the producer that came with them. He also owns a whole bunch of land where he goes hunting and fishing - he had all the timber and siding on the house cut from his own property and waited for it to cure before he built the house. It's an amazing, beautiful house." I was in it since that conversation, and yes, it was. Here's the tragic part - the immediate family never told anyone when it was time to sell it. My uncle died 9 yrs. ago this Spring (he lived in the house until his death in his 90's) and DH and I were looking to move to the town he had lived in to be closer to DH's work. We live in that town today. We really wanted to buy it but my cousin insisted on selling some of the land separately for commercial zoning - we didn't want commercial property right up against us, so we said no thanks. The house with a small amount of yard around it ended up being sold at auction for less than $200,000, I believe it is being used as a rental property and every time I drive by it I want to cry. It looks terrible and unloved, and honestly, the old guy had kept very good care of it until the last couple years. It has such an amazing story behind it, and I am sure that almost no one knows that it is a Blandings Dream House - except my cousin, I don't even know how much his own kids know about the story or if he kept the paper work that went with it. I would love to put the word out about it, because I believe there are organizations that keep track of the houses built in the promotion that try to get them preserved. But I'd just feel like I'm screwing over my cousin, and that the fools that don't take care of it now could stand to make a killing on it just because of what it is. Too bad, isn't it?

If the upstairs bedroom has a wall in the area where you want the tube, you could frame a chase around the tube in the bedroom against the wall so the daughter wouldn't be staring at a pipe. Other than that, i dont see a way of doing it w/o an exposed pipe in her room. It would run from the roof,through the attic, down along a wall in the bedroom, down through the floor joists and diffuse into the living area. Here is a link that might be useful: solar tube

No, the deleted thread was just under 2/3s full, but perhaps the mod felt the concern raised about spamming justified pulling it. Of course, since the bickering got out of line, that may also have factored into its deletion, but I've seen other disputes that were allowed to stay active and let the community make its own assessment. If you check the reg dates of several of the outraged posters there seems to be more than mere coincidence at work. One of the same posters asked a supposedly innocent kitchen question on another thread and forgot which name they had used to originally post. They later replied under another name, again one used by the accused spammer, and made it quite obvious to those familiar with both threads that the accusation on the deleted one was on target. I don't know if I was the last to post on the deleted thread, but I suggested that in the future once a spamming accusation is deemed warranted, we simply cease to respond as a few good GWers well versed and knowledgeable in the operations of internet marketing pointed out that one way the spammers can benefit is by the number of posts generated to a thread that calls attention to the spam product, not just by the number of hits they may drive from the curious who look at the blog or internet vendor. Besides I really dislike the utterly stupid change in tone that the accusers interjected in to the GW community. While we may have some with a strong sarcastic flair that might make the more sensitive types cringe a bit, their pointed wit is often well placed. I have a lower threshold for the type of silliness we were subjected to by the spammers. Nonetheless (N-o-n-etheless) earlier on that thread I noted that the antonym to "all" had disappeared from someone's post as the same word had disappeared from my posts in a different forum. I read another thread this morning and saw the same word was missing in yet another poster's response from 8/16/11 so this was not a new problem just occurring yesterday. Anyone have any ideas whether this is just a GW gnome issue confined to the GW site or whether it could affect posters?

Our builder quoted 18.5% increase for the construction and finish of higher walls and to scale trim, doors, windows, garage doors, etc. That's a huge house that'll come with a high pricetag ... and you're talking about adding nearly 20% more just for extra-high ceilings. There's a reason more people aren't building this high. It isn't that people haven't thought of it, and it isn't that people aren't willing to throw money at it. Seriously, rather than building these super-high ceilings throughout the whole house, consider doing a high cathedral vault ONLY in the living room. This'll give you the wow-factor you desire, and the difference between the living room and the adjacent rooms will have more impact than extra-high ceilings throughout. You can do some fantastic things with cathedral ceilings -- take a look at the various beams, etc. that are possible. Your kitchen cabinets will end way below the ceilings as will any other wall furniture (book cases etc) unless you go custom, and cabinets/shelves that go 12' up the wall will be impossible to access without a full on ladder. Changing lightbulbs etc will always require a huge ladder. These are practical considerations. And I just think it lacks coziness and is a lot of extra cost for space you can't actually use. Yes, the only thing you'll get from this huge price increase is a wow factor. Remember that when you have rooms that aren't human scaled it has the potential to just make people feel vaguely uncomfortable without knowing why. The ceiling height needs to be in proportion to the size of the room as well. I know someone who also has a double height ceiling room like my living room, but that room is narrower and it ends up looking disproportionate and doesn't work. Yes. Do your best to go see some houses with these proportions. I really think you're unhappy in your current small space (I remember those days), and you're swinging the pendulum too far in the other direction. With 10' ceilings in the kitchen, I'd seriously consider a stacked cabinet arrangement. Like this: Do look at the prices of stacked cabinets. Like your having to walk through the kitchen work zone to get to the master bedroom. Or having the pantry on what should be a window wall. Or where you'll put your bed in the master. Or why you need double doors into the master bath. Yes, this house's layout has some problems. I would not trust an HVAC guy to give me an estimate on monthly heating bills - that is not in their wheelhouse. Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Your heating /cooling bills will depend upon the quality of your insulation and windows + a number of other things, which your HVAC guy can't predict about a house that doesn't yet exist. Want your guests peeking into your master bedroom when they use the loo in that powder room.....? I think this powder room was placed for back-yard convenience, but it'll be a pain for other use. In closing, definitely consider doing a cathedral ceiling in the living room only.