Thanks for all the feedback and for sharing photos of such lovely homes! I've been looking at photos online (branching out from Houzz helped a lot, thanks for the push to do that!) and I think that given we are building in the woods in Minnesota, and that we casual people building a casual home, the Foursquare/Prairie style is a better fit for us than Georgian. I can be a little rigid in my thinking, but the people living in Minnesota during the Georgian era were Native Americans, and they weren't building Georgian homes, and so I'd feel silly trying to build an authentic Georgian home here. I know our house isn't square, but any of the styles would need some adjustment because we are limited to using vinyl siding (if we have an extra $10-15k, it's going towards a screened porch, not hardiplank or brick). My husband has been modeling his vision for how our house should look. I'm sharing it here with some trepidation-- its not traditional, and we're aware of that. I am the less visionary of the two of us, so it's taken me a while to come around to his ideas. The colors of the siding aren't right here-- a downside of the software he's using is that we can't adjust the hue. The green will be greyer than it appears. We haven't gotten an elevation yet from our architect. Renovator8-- why do you say the roof should be steeper? Our builder's standard roof is 5/12, so I know that pitch does ok with our local snow load, but I'm not sure what else factors in with roof design. I don't want to go a lot steeper because there's a development near us with lots of very steep hipped roofs and the houses are all roof (in that case it doesn't help that the development is in a narrow gully, so I always approach the homes from above). Houseofsticks- I posted our floorplan here: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/build/msg101210455016.html The blueprints are toward the end of the discussion. I've been trying to keep our elevation relatively simple because I feel like the more details we add, the more there is to mess up. If I had an extra million dollars, I'd love to build an authentic shingle style house with a tower, etc... but since I don't I'm trying to focus on keeping things simple and making sure that what we do build is done in a way that works.

Found it $188 http://www.discountschoolsupply.com/Product/ProductDetail.aspx?product=15546&mlc= Here is a link that might be useful: Nautilus slide from Learning Products

This is still not it, darn!! In my photo the part where the fireplace juts out into the room is the only area that is painted aqua - or maybe a softer robins egg. The large piece in my room is dark- a chocolate brown sofa which if you picture, aqua walls, dark gray mantel, brown sofa - it just doesn't sound great, yet there was something in my picture that pulled it all together. Maybe it was the color of the other walls, fireplace surround, chairs??? I don't know, but as I said, I just can't remember why but it spoke to me, and it wasn't something you would see in anyone else's room (except obviously the one in the pic). It began when I saw a pic similar to the one you posted, with a black mantel. Wanting to do something other than the predictable white mantel, but concerned the black would be "too" much with the brown I considered a darker gray - then I saw the pic and I realized it was doable. "My bad" for losing the darn thing. Over the last few years the mags I have received that I might have torn a page out of are, Family Circle, Womans Day, Good Housekeeping and possibly Southern Living/Accents but I have searched their web sites with no success. I have to put it out of my mind for now, and the FP mantel won't be sprayed in the next few weeks, but I do appreciate everyone's efforts. Lynn fr CT

No, we have a single pan, which looks like it is 1/2" too small for you. I have quite a bit of room on all 4 sides with the washer in the center of the pan. What kind of washer did you buy? I have a GE front loader. This is not a GREAT picture, but it shows you the pan under the washer. There are several inches in the front and at least 1-2 on each side with the single for me. (I just looked at the specs on my model and it says 27w x 37.25d http://products.geappliances.com/ApplProducts/Dispatcher?REQUEST=SpecPage&Sku=WHDVH626FWW.)