Can you draw a sketch of the general building area--the road, driveway, garage, outbuildings, and how you would orient your present house plan? I spent a little time this afternoon looking at your plans and trying to think of how to improve them, but I keep getting stopped at the thought of all of that hot sun in the summer. The screened porch just seems to be on the wrong side to be useful. We had a deck on our previous unshaded south side, and from about 10 a.m. to dusk it was too hot to be out there in the summer due to the heat radiating off the floor boards. We now have a patio facing NW, but we took down 4 trees to open up the back yard some more and the SW sun on the pavers makes it impossible to use the patio from about noon to 4 p.m. Now that the lower branches on the adjacent trees have space to grow, we will have shade on the patio again in the not too distant future. I think that you will use the front porch the most. Ours faces SE so it is cool at all times of the day. Also, the prevailing summer breeze is usually from the SW, so it blows across the porch. Have you had a screened porch before? We thought about whether to include one, but decided that the summer would be too short and too hot to get much use out of it, and the spring and fall would be too cool most of the time, and therefore we put our money into other parts of the house instead. Seems like a year round sunroom would be more useful. But maybe since you're home all day, things would be different for you. I know you specifically haven't asked for comments on the other half of the house, but I hope that you won't mind if I make a few. When I think of a farm, I think of dirty work boots coming in. Is the office for your husband to use to keep track of the farm, or is that elsewhere? Will he be coming in with his dirty clothes directly to the laundry, or will he be using the powder room? If any of these are true, I would not want the dirt in the hall to the MBR or main living area. I'd want the laundry, powder room and office with doors opening into the mudroom. When we were building our house (we were owner-builders), we were a mess at the end of each day. We were renting a house that had a huge mudroom/laundry with a bathroom with shower right next to it. It opened off the garage and the driveway and we were able to keep the mess there and not transfer the dirt, sawdust, etc. into the rest of the house. For layout purposes and traffic flow, I think I prefer the first plan. Since you're home with 2 children, you must be in the kitchen a lot. Do you can things in the summer/fall? Do you store a lot of things from shopping or gardening? Do you have other family members visit a lot? Could you put some measurements on the screened porch, kitchen, and dining area in the first plan? There should be enough space to improve the kitchen here. Anne

if its a single laminate piece across the hall, the easiest way is to strike a chalk line down the center of the hallway on the underlayment, then measure off each side of the chalk line to get your cuts sizes. Or, use a carpenters square for out of square walls measiing the disparity from a single point. another way to to scribe each piece on a temporary scrap piece or piece of cardboard, then transfer those measurments or profile onto the cut piece. best way to fit door cssings and moldings is to undercut them and slip the laminate under them. for transitions you want to buy and isntall laminate transition pieces made for carpet to laminate. dont forget your expansion gaps.

Turning off the water and watching the meter won't tell you if you have a leak. Make sure all water is off in the house and then watch the meter for movement although a very small leak may take a while before it's reflected at the meter. You might want to do it before you go to bed (and make sure no one uses water overnight). Frankly, I'd suspect that the concrete wasn't sufficiently dry before the flooring was laid. Do you have any pipes that run through the concrete? Perhaps there is another issue unrelated to your ceiling leak?

Bpathome I greatly appreciate your suggestions and anyone else who is kind enough to take the time to help. Summit and Mark thank you, I wish I had more information on it and will have to ask my husband. I am thankful for both of you trying to help! Virgil, yes you are correct the stairway by the island is going down to the cellar and the stairway going up on the opposite side. Not sure on the 2x roof trusses I will need to ask. We have a big roof pitch on purpose so we you could potentially put in a big bonus room upstairs. We do not get to to speak with the drafter. Drafters with both companies (middle man and actual modular company-you cannot buy direct anymore) work together to draw up what we ask for. We go through the salesman who we felt was very good at understanding what we were asking for. We are now looking at the plans to make final decisions. My husband was the one who wanted to change the placement of the stairway which was originally where the fireplace is located. My husband didn't want to have the doorway directly in front of the foyer. If I had my way there would be no stairs because I hate cellars! The only way I will be going down there is if we have a tornado which is very unlikely! :)