bon100 I don't know if that would do it or not but you can certainly try it. If you're covering the germination container with plastic, just be sure to remove each seedling immediately after it germinates and plant it in a container. And make sure the plastic cover has some air-holes in it. The problem is what to do with the germinated seedlings if it works. They need light and heat both to continue developing, and you say you don't have them inside. I'd suggest you "winter-sow" them instead. Just plant your seeds in containers, like 2-liter soda bottles with the cut-off top, about the top four inches, taped back on (provide drainage holes and leave the screw-on lid off) or milk containers done the same way, and set them in the sun outside to stay, night and day. Keep the soil moist, not wet. When they germinate, you can gradually expose them to the elements by untaping the top and "giving them air" on balmy days. When they're growing well, just leave the tops off and plant when the time is right. Actually, my advice is pretty spotty, so you'd be better off going to the Winter Sowing forum for better details and timing. Trudi has even provided how-to-make container pictures you can use for seed germination. As I say, I'd recommend this way of seed starting if you don't have indoor heat and light for them. With your method, I'd worry about what to do with the seedlings if they germinated, particularly if outside conditions are not optimal for setting them outside permanently. With winter sowing, the seedlings germinate when everything's "go" and they can stay outside with a little care, hardening off naturally.

Drain. You have been given poor advise. Discharging to your septic, provided your septic tank is sized appropriately for your home, is not going to hurt your septic system one bit. Discharging to the surface out in the woods, however present a whole slew of problems: 1) Freezing, as you already noted, 2) Discharge line that is too long, 3) Illegal, 4) Damaging to plants in the area of the discharge if you use sodium chloride, 5) Did I mention Illegal? Softener. You live alone. Buy a softener for your situation. A 0.75 cubic ft softener will be just fine. Should you sell the house down the road, simply disclose that the softener is undersized for a family. You have a bit of iron and manganese, so you will need to ensure your softener regens at least every 7 days. 4 days would be better, but any softener you purchase is going to be oversized for your situation so I'm not terribly concerned about losing some softening capacity - A periodic iron treatment will suffice.

Here's your "boring" house with green shutters and a wood door. I didn't add landscaping, but a flowering tree would be a good addition.

Garage will be detached and to the left of the house, the primary entrance is in the mud room. Our best views are from the back and the right side of the house. The left side where the pantry is located is facing a neighbors property which isn't unsightly now but I can't guarantee what the future holds. We put the pantry there to keep path for groceries and traffic to a minimum when coming into house. The left side of house will be simplified by the time we build, we kept load bearing walls to a minimum so we have flexibility to change as we want. I originally didn't post entire house so we could focus on kitchen but I saw your point and went ahead and added pic. I also chose to keep the left side of the house the service area of the house, I wanted to do my best containing dirt,noise,normal clutter to one area, with 3 kids and a Bernese puppy (100lbs) we have a lot of traffic. Going back and forth to schools, practices, taking dog out,kids running upstairs and downstairs, trips up and down for laundry etc. it all adds up. We knew hallways are considered wasted space to some but to us the hallways are important for their function. Hall to left of stairs and hallway from mudroom will be the most traveled area in our home, the main corridor from our front porch to back door, the laundry path from the upstairs, and our path to our bedroom. Which is why I made them extra wide, it's not for everybody but to me a giant foyer and huge master bath is my idea of wasted space. The kitchen will serve as a link between our hectic side and living room/dining room area which is to be our sanctuary. Not to noisy or busy when guests are over you can chat and visit without interruption (hard to do with family) and with the dining room in between it seemed as a good conduit to separate the noise from the kitchen not only dishwasher, banging cabinets etc.. but If you prefer to listen to music as you cook it's not drowning out a movie in the living room. I think my wife likes to have the kitchen to herself sometimes so not having directly next to living room but still in line of sight is perfect. We have huge extended family so holidays will mean 30-35 people and so the expanded space will allow the crowd. I did forget to mention that the media/fireplace wall is just a concept at this point something will need to be there but I don't want it to block LR out, possibly a knee wall The back wall and right side of house face the east and with 14-3' x5' windows along the mudroom, kitchen and dining room I cant see light being an issue, I know the pantry window is a small nuisanance but its in line with the island, plus I can see out mudroom windows and I can also see the other 3 sides of the house from standing at the island (try finding a stock plan that does that). I'm trying to understand which wall you think I should bump out, I'm assuming you mean the jog at the rear of the pantry? The kitchen itself is already bumped out the entire back of the house. Are you suggesting further out or removing the jog behind the pantry. The red walls indicate the load bearing walls, not walls that I plan on removing.I think the biggest issue at the moment is trying to determine what the best placement would be IF we had no option to change, then if the best options seemed insufficient then we would have to consider further changes. It's hard for me think that a 17' by 12' kitchen would be so challenging, I guess the lack of wall space is the sticking point. Let me know if you have any further suggestions. Thanks again for taking time to look at.