I know this is complete overkill, but I promised: Wiki Rainwater Tank Overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainwater_tank Australian Guide for Rainwater Systems: http://www.yourhome.gov.au/technical/fs73.html WaterSmart How To Configure Domestic Rainwater Tanks : www.gosford.nsw.gov.au/environment/education/documents/fact-sheets-2/4_rainwater_tanks.pdf Environmental Health Directorate Rainwater Pamphlet: http://www.health.wa.gov.au/envirohealth/water/docs/Country_Rainwater_Collection.pdf Environmental Health Directorate Urban Rainwater Collection Pamphlet: http://www.health.wa.gov.au/envirohealth/water/docs/Urban_Rainwater_Collection.pdf 80 Page Guidance on Use of Rainwater Tanks: http://enhealth.nphp.gov.au/council/pubs/pdf/rainwater_tanks.pdf NSW Health Department's Tank Maintenance Guidelines: http://www.rainharvesting.com.au/FileLibrary/nsw_health_dept_tank_guidelines_apr2004.pdf Rainwater Glossary : http://www.rainwaterglossary.com/content/view/12/26/ 10 Steps to Rain Harvesting Sustainable Water : http://www.rainharvesting.com.au/FileLibrary/10_steps_to_rh_sustainable_water_11.8.05.pdf Sydney Waters guide to buying a rainwater tank : http://www.sydneywater.com.au/Publications/FactSheets/RainwaterTanksBuying.pdf#Page=1 Sydney WaterÂs guide to installing a rainwater tank : http://www.sydneywater.com.au/Publications/FactSheets/RainwaterTanksInstallation.pdf#Page=1 Virginia Rainwater Harvesting Manual 2007 : http://www.cabellbrandcenter.org/Virginia%20Rainwater%20Harvesting%20Manual.pdf Water Quality in Kentucky: Cisterns for Kentucky : http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/ip/ip4/ip4.htm Home Use of Graywater, Rainwater Conserves Water--and May Save Money : http://ag.arizona.edu/AZWATER/arroyo/071rain.html Rain Water System Design Report : http://www.watgreen.uwaterloo.ca/projects/library/760/final.html U.S. Average Annual Precipitation Maps : http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/precip.html What is your water footprint? : http://h2oconserve.org/home.php?pd=index Harvesting Rainwater with Rain Barrels, an Old Idea with a New Following (need to remove some links) : http://rainbarrelguide.com/ GreenBuilder Harvested Rainwater Guidelines : http://www.greenbuilder.com/sourcebook/RainwaterGuide1.html Flow in Gutters & Downpipes : http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/eng/research/dtu/pubs/rn/rwh/ugp_still_2001/ugp014_still.pdf The Optimum Sizing of Gutters for Domestic Roofwater Harvesting : http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/eng/research/dtu/pubs/wp/wp56/wp56.pdf RHRG RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DESIGNING RAINWATER HARVESTING SYSTEM TANKS : http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/eng/research/dtu/pubs/reviewed/rwh/eu/a6.pdf Domestic Rainwater Harvesting Design & Insect Breeding: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/eng/research/dtu/pubs/reviewed/rwh/eu/c4.pdf Reducing Mixing Effects In Water Storage Tanks : http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/eng/research/dtu/pubs/rn/rwh/ugp_manson_2000/ugp002_manson.pdf Harvesting, Storing, and Treating Rainwater for Domestic Indoor Use : http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/files/gi-366.pdf_4231966.pdf Rainwater Harvesting and the Plumbing Codes : http://www.plumbingengineer.com/march_07/rainwater.php Rainwater Harvesting Potential and Guidelines for Texas : http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/iwt/rainwater/docs/RainwaterCommitteeFinalReport.pdf A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Rainwater Harvesting at Commercial Facilities in Arlington County, Virginia : http://dukespace.lib.duke.edu:8080/dspace/bitstream/10161/512/1/MP_wdh11_a_200805.pdf A Spouse's Guide to Building the Perfect Rain Barrel System : http://www.emmitsburg.net/gardens/articles/adams/audrey/water_barrel.htm Rainwater Harvesting - Pumps or Pressure Tanks : http://www.harvesth2o.com/pumps_or_tanks.shtml Rainwater Tanks Revisited: new opportunities for urban water cycle management Preface: http://www.eng.newcastle.edu.au/~cegak/Coombes/preface.pdf Chapter 1 Introduction: http://www.eng.newcastle.edu.au/~cegak/Coombes/Chapter1.pdf Chapter 2 The Figtree Place Experiment : http://www.eng.newcastle.edu.au/~cegak/Coombes/Chapter2.pdf Chapter 3 The Maryville House Experiment : http://www.eng.newcastle.edu.au/~cegak/Coombes/Chapter3.pdf Chapter 4 Rainwater Tank, Water Quality and Public Health Issues : http://www.eng.newcastle.edu.au/~cegak/Coombes/Chapter4.pdf Chapter 5 Institutional Resistance to the Use of Rainwater Tanks : http://www.eng.newcastle.edu.au/~cegak/Coombes/Chapter5.pdf Chapter 6 An Allotment Water Balance Model : http://www.eng.newcastle.edu.au/~cegak/Coombes/Chapter6.pdf Chapter 7 The Impact of the Use of Rainwater Tanks in Subdivisions : http://www.eng.newcastle.edu.au/~cegak/Coombes/Chapter7.pdf Chapter 8 A Regional Water Demand Model : http://www.eng.newcastle.edu.au/~cegak/Coombes/Chapter8.pdf Chapter 9 Analysis of the Water Supply Headworks Systems for the Lower Hunter and Central Coast Regions: http://www.eng.newcastle.edu.au/~cegak/Coombes/Chapter9.pdf Chapter 10 A Community Based Investment Model to Assess the Economic Benefits of Rainwater Tanks : http://www.eng.newcastle.edu.au/~cegak/Coombes/Chapter10.pdf Chapter 11 Summary and Conclusions : http://www.eng.newcastle.edu.au/~cegak/Coombes/Conclusions.pdf References : http://www.eng.newcastle.edu.au/~cegak/Coombes/References.pdf Video Resources Rainwater Harvesting: Residential & Commercial Applications : https://admin.acrobat.com/_a781915736/p19747194/ This Old House's Roger Cook - how to install rainwater collection : http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid988221510/bclid979509284/bctid979466702 Steve Fisher's Rainwater Collection Part 1 - Walkthrough : http://www.vimeo.com/1303028 Part 2 - The Roof : http://www.vimeo.com/1309914 Part 3 - Pre-Storage Filtration and Plumbing : http://www.vimeo.com/1310414 Part 4 - Post-Cistern Sanitation and Pumping : http://www.vimeo.com/1289985 Innovative Rainwater Harvesting - http://www.skillsone.com.au/Industry/3/Metals-Engineering/Video/557/0/Innovative-Rainwater-Harvesting/

So if we were to do a 1.5 story with the master on the main level, where would you put that, behind the garage then? My thought process would be to first determine priority of room placement in the most ideal location for the use of the room and then if conflicts between room placement develop then rank by how much time is spent and how time is used for each room as well as the importance of that use compared to the importance of the uses for the other rooms. If watching the sunrise from your bed pays off with more enjoyment than having the sunrise and morning sun striking your kitchen, then plan accordingly. For instance, do you plan on using your master suite as a parental get-away from the kids, using it during the day or will your non-sleeping uses be restricted to evenings only, meaning that any views from the rooms would be lost to the darkness of the night? If the views are not important, I'd bury the master suite near the garage in the above sketch. If however, views and day time use are important, then I'd move the master to the east/south/west walls, perhaps right off the entry or in the back off of the kitchen. I'm not necessarily saying to put the master off the entry or off the kitchen, though you could, I'm just using these as examples that reference the above sketch. The way I'm designing my own home is to use a very self-reflective process which tries to understand how I actually live my life rather than trying to contort my lifestyle into architectural trends which presuppose how people SHOULD live their lives. So, to continue on the questioning, why exactly do you appreciate a main-floor master? Is it so that you can avoid stairs? Is it so that you can hear the comings and goings of the kids at night as they try to leave the house, is it because you don't want the kids too near your bedroom, is it because you don't want noise transmission from the master to be easily heard by the kids, and so on? Once you can articulate to yourself why you want something then you can find the best solution for your plan, rather than adopting a cookie-cutter approach. For instance, what I found amusing in some plans was a main floor master with a child's bedroom directly over it on the 2nd. Now, to me, if the goal was to reduce noise transmission from either the child's room to the parent's room or vice versa, the separation by floor, while having intuitive appeal, would fail to achieve the mission. The example I used in an earlier comment was to have a master suite separated by a stairway corridor AND a children's hallway which together create a 7'-8' dead zone, possibly with some walls other than the master and child's bedroom walls also added in between. There are no common walls shared, there is a huge dead zone in between and the goal of reducing noise transmission is, I believe, better served than a downstairs master with an upstairs child's bedroom directly over top, sharing common ceiling/floor as well as sound transmission paths down the walls. Of course, if sound transmission has nothing to do with the appeal of a downstairs master suite, then what I've sketched out is a solution to a problem which doesn't exist, or doesn't matter. I was thinking the master/office space on one side and then the kitchen, dining, great room on the other. That makes sense to me. Would you move the great room from the center of the house below to the front where the dining study is and move the study to where the great room is? Lots of configurations can make sense, but they must make sense in relation to how you envision yourself using the space and the particulars of your lifestyle and preferences. I'd say grab some graph paper, or even blank paper, and just block out the rooms and see how they interplay with each other, note how you foresee traffic patterns within and throughout the space, imagine daily routines taking place within the space. Once you have an idea of how you live, or how you want to live in the new space, then get the graph paper and try to get a better handle on size and furniture placement, and traffic patterns and by the end of this process you should have a very good understanding of how you want the space to be configured. I did the same for my house and this has resulted in me doing away with a formal living room from the now traditional LR/FR combo pack and reallocating the space elsewhere in the home, such as combining the entry with the LR space in order to create a larger sense of space/volume, has led me to create a larger kitchen than would be warranted in relation to the size of the informal living room, has led me to other design changes that likely violate what trained architects use as benchmarks for how homes should be designed. Thank you for the garage tip also - I thought 24x24 was rather large? We will be getting an oversize door for sure. I'd say measure your cars, block out a 24 x 24 space on your lawn, use cardboard boxes or something else to fill the space of your cars, then throw in the other junk you're likely to store alongside the walls of the garage, and see how much space you actually need. Try to get out of your car and see if the door bangs the wall or the other car. A 24 x 24 garage is actually pretty good considering that many designed give a 20 x 23 or something similarly ridiculous.

Sorry I thought I responded earlier but I guess the post didn't submit. Ajsmama: I actually purchased this sideboard/buffet off of CL. I had to drive about 45 minutes to get it and my husband attached it to the top of my Mazda Protege (which I am sure was not legal! LOL) but I loved it so much, it was priced great and I really wanted it for the TV. It could use a refinish but I will get to it when life slows down (LOL). My TV is 42 inches across and the buffet is a bang on 60 inches. Lowspark: I actually don't know much about it. I believe it to be Duncan Phyfe style but there are no markings on it. I believe it to be old but not antique. Do you know any info on your piece - would love to see it!

I am in the middle of setting up my command center. I went from a small desk (piled high with clutter) to an enclosed section of my pantry. I don't know how it will ultimately turn out, but I will post pics when it's done.