kats - thanks for your suggestions. Nope, we're no where near finalizing anything, unfortunately. I've actually told my designer that I'm taking a break for a few weeks to reconsider everything. This plan just does not wow me at all and if I'm going to spend a bunch of money building my 'dream home' I want to really LOVE it, kwim? I have been rethinking the steps to the master, and I think I am going to nix them. I love the idea of something different like that, but I think it probably should be eliminated for practical reasons (I really hate being practical though!) I don't really care too much about resale at this point, because we plan to be here for at least the next 15ish years. And we're on 10 acres of land where land in our area is a definite premium and highly sought after. But even so, I'm not going to build something totally undesirable for the next person. chisue, we are building in central IL. weedyacres, thanks for your thoughts about the bathroom. I do like your suggestions about rotating the shower. I'm still undecided on a j&j bath. Some people love them and others hate them. So I'm not sure... I definitely agree with you on the storage issue! I need to add LOTS of closets and built-ins. Unfortunately, we can't dig the foundation lower since we're so swampy around here. We're not in flood plain, but our sumps run CONSTANTLY in our current house. So we were thinking of other ideas on how to still have a basement (we need one due to tornadoes) but possibly not going down as far. any other ideas? My dilemma is what to do with the center of the home. Most all plans I've seen have the great room in the middle of the home, but we want ours bumped off the back with lots of windows. We don't need 2 great rooms, so what do we put in the middle? I also need to have my kitchen on an ext. wall because I want lots of windows above my sink. I do agree with you on the choppiness though, so I'm probably going to nix this plan and start over. ugh. the e-space is more of a homework/blogging space for my 3 kiddos and I. I don't want them to have computers in their bedrooms, so I need for this space to be centrally located so I can keep an eye on their computer use :) thanks again for all the input! I keep surfing house plan sites hoping I'll stumble upon the perfect plan, but after 3-4 years of searching I'm not very hopeful...

Thanks for taking the time to look. Yes the stairs are giving me fits. Both main floor and basement. I meet with my stair guy on Wednesday. I am not sure what that little area in front of the master is either, except that I like the idea of just not walking immediately into the great room. But if I put cabinets there along the long wall in the great room, or the see thru fireplace idea centered on the open wall to the great room, it might solve that problem and I dont need that wall. I dont "need" that wall anyways, dont know what it would be good for anyways. Maybe a little wall fountain or some sort of lighted art. Or lighted shelves. With the balcony above one might not feel on display to the great room when they walk out of the master bedroom anyways. The bath in the downstairs bathroom is more of a whimsical thing. I also thought since we have grandkids alot, that might be a good place for them to take a bath while I can be not too far away. The idea of the bathroom in that area, was to get it away from the foyer area which is where it was initially. But also that is my "mud room" area. We live in the country. We literally horse around alot, come in filthy dirty, so we needed a shower in the mud room area. Found the tub and loved it. Figured a tub wouldnt be all that much more of a big deal than a shower. But definite more of a whim thing. Just an extra bath for guests. But I see what you mean about being close to the dining area. One good thing, we hardly ever eat at the table, another reason for not having a formal dining room, but maybe that is why so many plans have a bathroom at the front of the house off the foyer. I just needed one close to where I come in from the garage, cuz I always have to go when I get home, and before I leave too it seems, and if I have been working outside, I am usually dirty. The garage bathroom was added after this room, but I still wanted to keep that bathroom in the mudroom/laundry area. I could switch it with the laundry room. But then you would be hearing the washer and dryer. I am a bit confused on the first floor #2, unless I uploaded a picture that I didnt mean to. :-? I like the idea of aligning the window with the hallway. The bathroom, that reminded me she forgot to make that tub a shower like the one in the basement. These are steam showers with a bit of a tub area at the bottom, not really a tub but could be used as one for the grandkids. That was also the thinking for rationalizing the downstairs tub, if a guest wanted to stretch out to take a bath since the upper and lower levels are only showers. The kitchen on the second floor, I keep telling her not a full kitchen. I just need a mini frig, microwave, small sink, and some sort of bar with stools. I have struggled with exactly how that should look anyways, and each time, she always has it looking the same so it is hard for me to figure out how it needs to be. I was going to put a galley of sorts along the wall on the right, maybe I should run it along the outside wall. I am really having a hard time with that space. I just need a small space for my daughter to keep quick snacks and drinks for her and her son while they are staying with us. She can have friends over and not feel like she is living at home. That is another reason why I opted for the outside stairs rather than back stairs inside. The slider will be on the left, window on the right. Just more of an apartment feel. Who knows, when she moves out, I might rent it out. I have another sister who would probably love to move her little girl out to the country. I think that is why this house ended up much bigger than we really really need. I feel the need to nurture everyone, take care of everyone, and with the economy so unstable, I wanted a place big enough to take in family if they ever needed a place to go. But also, if family just wants to come and visit, I want a place they want to come so they can enjoy the horses, enjoy the pond, enjoy just sitting on the porch, just being outdoors, and stay as long as they like because they dont feel cramped, and we dont feel cramped and wish they would just go home. Okay, babbling, Thank you for your suggestions. Going to look at it again :-)

Thanks everyone so much for the suggestions and encouragement! I do feel we are on the right track here. This is just a rough first sketch, but I want to move through the tweaking phase as quickly as possible. There will be some changes, which is why I want as many brains on this as possible. Plus I have looked at version after version of this house until I'm cross-eyed and I'm afraid of missing something. I really appreciate all your help and ideas. I'll try to answer the questions asked. Pamelah, we don't have a bid yet for this plan, but considering the reduction in square footage and simplification of the foundation and roof plan, I feel like this will meet our budget. I did wonder about switching the closet and powder room doors, as it might be nicer to have the closet closer to the front door and not be looking at a powder room *immediately* on entering. jolsongoude, I also wondered about the plumbing on outside walls, so we'll ask about that. We're in Cincinnati,OH. We also do not want the closet entrance off the bathroom, I've already been sketching alternatives. :-) Mythreesonsnc, I had the same thought about the bedroom doors. In general, I don't like angles, and I think there is a solution. The laundry room has to be shorter to allow room for the door to bedroom 3. Definitely on the list for discussion. And it seems to me that baths 2&3 should be adjacent to share plumbing which would force a little rearranging, but I agree looking at the vanity rather than the toilet is preferable. :-) Pps7, I agree about the bedroom 2&3 issues. I'm going to work on that side of the second floor some more before we meet with the architect tomorrow. As for the music room, yes, isolated is good. I'm a professional musician and that will be a working space for me, and not necessarily a room to be on display. Ideally that room would be in the basement but I have large instruments that I don't want to carry up and down stairs every day. :-) Chisue, I think we'll have to concede a powder room by the mudroom. We have the space for the powder room by the front entry and trying to fit a powder room in the mudroom area would just be too problematic. I think the exterior door off the muroom to the front side of the house is going away, so if we're outside we'd have to go in the front door, anyway. I definitely see pros and cons on powder room placement in both areas but I'm cool with it as it stands. As far as the garage goes, we're working with a significant slope, so that is somewhat dictating the size and placement of the garage, but we are comfortable with a 2 car garage. About solar tubes, we had them in the original design, and I'm a fan of them, but I hadn't considered them for the new revision. Do you think we need one? There are pretty big windows in the stairwell, so I was hoping that would let enough light I to the upstairs landing. Food for thought! Krycek1984, thanks door the kind words! It's hard to go "backwards" in the design process, but we feel good about where this is leading us. :-) Thanks to all of you! Cintijen

Revision 2 Option B is much better. Hopefully the architect will have more ideas to improve upon it further.