2nd build. Learned not to sweat the small stuff & the things that could be changed out later (i.e. cabinet hardware). 1st house build was our very first home we owned (always rented previously) and couldn't find anything we liked in our price range that was existing. 2nd time around was to build our forever home--perfect piece of property, family-oriented town, close proximity to my parents for when they need us as they age (DH's parents have passed away). Actuallly I guess that could be something else we learned with the first house--make sure you are close to your aging parents because when you get that 3am phone call the 26 minutes it takes to get to your parents' home feels like forever--even when you made it there in 10 minutes because you broke all the speed limits. (We're just 7-10 minutes from my parents in our new home). Resale did come into play with our first to some extent and it paid off in the end. While it was your standard 1300 sqft 3bd/2ba started home, we opted to add on a laundry/mud room vs just having a laundry closet in the hall, we upgraded to hardwoods in the family room, entry & hall, tile surrounds in baths, custom solid maple cabs, white enamel kitchen sink with granitey-looking laminate, seriously upgraded appliances--Maytag Gemini range, KA DW, & giant floor to ceiling 2' deep cabinetry pantry. We put our house on the market in Oct 2008 (when the housing market was crumbling). We had an offer in 3 days & a contract in 5 after a short bidding war between 2 different potential buyers. No other house in our neighborhood had sold that fast & for that much--ever. In fact, one of the potential buyers that placed an offer already had a signed contract to buy on a house up the street, but when they viewed ours, the other one was out of the running. I attribute our success in selling in a crumbling market to those upgrades we made. Taxes and school districts are important to us too. However, we also found that the district we were in wasn't a good match for our oldest & we moved him to an out of district school for middle school & his first 2 years of high school. Our new home is about 45 minutes away from the old one & the new district high school is working out beautifully. Our younger son seems to do better with smaller class sizes + he has some food allergies, so we opted to put him in a small private school where there were fewer distractions, more attention and better supervision when it comes to food.

A sunroom or porch with a western exposure may become extremely hot during the summer, although as you point out you can mitigate that somewhatby opening windows, fans and of course, the old fashioned favorite of slatted blinds (though covering the windows with slatted blinds all day somewhat defeats the light-trapping effect of a sun room). On the plus side it will protect the main house from excess heat during the hottest months when the sun is high in the northwest late in the afternoon. You may be surprised how extremely hot a west/northwest-facing sunroom can get on a long, clear day in July - in can be brutal! The downside of a northwestern orientation for a sun room is that in the winter it will get only reflected light, no direct solar gain, which may make it a chilly space. You didn't mention whether you plan to have the space separated from the main house by walls and doorways. That would be best, because otherwise the sun-room temps, good or bad, will be a challenge to the indoor climate and the heating and cooling devices you are using. If you can close off the space when needed you can take advantage of any favorable temperature exchange, while limiting the unfavorable conditions, especially at night in the winter, or late afternoon in the summer. In response to the suggestion that is a good thing to locate a sunporch on southern expoasure in the north: Acually having a sunporch on the southern exposure is the worst in a cold, northern climate. Not because the space doesn't get warmed directly by the sun during the day, of course it does. The problem comes when the sunporch changes the way light penetrates into the main house, creating a cave effect in the interior making it feel cold and dark in the winter. The net effect of this is to degrade the existing space in favor of the more marginal, and harder to heat, sun trap space. People often get confused by this idea, since we all know that designing a house with good passive solar orientation is great thing. It's good for energy savings, and it makes rooms very attractive and livable. But it falls down when the sun trap space projects beyond the main vertical elevation of the largest massing of the structure. This then creates the depressing, energy wasting space in the (now) deeper interior. You have to evaluate the siting on a case by case basis, as a rule, the more directly southern the exposure, the worse it is. In general, I think an eastern facing sun room is probably best in the south, and a western one (as long as it can be isolated by doors and walls) is the best choice in the north. As far as the OP's thoughts about heating: most add-ons like this will present very complicated problems for a wood stove chimney which must be tall enough to rise above nearby taller parts of the house. From the OP's descrition of the dimensions it sounds hard to find a suitable place for such a chimney. It's always possible there's an existing location that could be used, but generally wood stove chimneys don't draft well (with all the attendant safety and air quality issues of poor draft) unless they are up in the clear. You might however consider either a propane/gas or pellet burning stove, both of which can usually be directly vented through the walls with a minimum of fuss. Electrtic heat is probably the simplest and cheapest to install, but not usually the cheapest to run. But if you are not sure how much you will use the space, then it might be a good initial choice as a trial, as the DV stoves can usually be easily added later. I'd still recommend you create a scale model of the space and the main house (easy to do with cardboard from boxes and tape) and do a mock up. Make it big enough (at least a couple of feet) so you can look in and through it and experience the change of light you are proposing. If you like it, then you will be happy with the results, at no cost other than an afternoon spent making the model. Just make sure when you are standing outside looking through the model that it is oriented exactly the same as your house. L

Thanks shades...the kids bedrooms are 11x11 I think and they seem to be plenty big. We aren't planning on making them larger when we build. Momo7- Well we have a deck - that was probably put on to say 'it has a deck' since it's so small it is pretty much useless to actually use with any kind of table and seating or anything, let alone a bbq grill. Right now it has a couple of chairs on it and that's it - it's more of an entrance to the back yard and my dogs perch for viewing birds. She uses it most for sure. It's in rough shape from the weather and I refuse to stain it 'one more time'. Will have to replace the lumber before we sell. Warping boards and nails sticking up-shoes are a must. As for all of your pets - hubby is telling me when we move to the woods - we may try a small chicken coop. It will definitely have to be outside of the dogs boundry - not sure how that would work! Count us in for the vinyl windows as well. Caligal-love your 'puppy'. Ours is a golden mix - such a wonderful personality.

Browning is a little different in an electric roaster than a conventional oven. You need to understand the cooking process to understand what happens. In a conventional oven it's more open and moisture evaporates. Cooking in an electric roaster is more like cooking in a covered roasting pan in the oven. As mentioned about the oven heating up the kitchen, that's because ovens leak more air than people realize so it vents more moisture out. You will definitely have trouble browning in a roaster oven, covered roasting pan, slow cooker, dutch oven, etc unless you take different steps. What you're doing is more of a braise than a roast. To really "roast" you'll need more dry air and the bird (or whatever) will need to be a bit more dry. This is why you brown your pot roast, ribs etc before braising. Remember the tip for conventional ovens to get a good browning - pat that bird dry. So, there's essentially 3 or 4 ways to go about it, maybe more. 1) The easiest way (if you have a Nesco, don't know if other brands have the option) is to get the "Roast Air" kit. Essentially it's a lid with a fan on it and converts the unit to a convection oven. I have it for my 6 quart. You'll brown like any oven with that baby blowing that hot air around! I usually don't run it the whole time though. I hook it up toward the end. I also pull the juices out of there, especially if I want them for gravy or something. 2) Second option as mentioned is to use your oven or broiler to crisp/brown it up. 3) Virginia Olson from Nesco used to be on QVC often and she suggested using Kitchen Bouquet to baste it if color was what you were looking for. Again, I suspect she would pull liquids from the roaster because her turkey sure looked fairly crisp too. 4) Another thing I occasionally do is pull the juices, paper towel the bird dry and then cock the lid and crank up the heat on the roaster. That will brown it up too.