paulns, send me an email and let me know how you get the pictures in! That looks great! Here, in California, we have only two poisonous snakes, and I've never seen either one in the wild. Rattlesnakes and coral snakes. Since we have horses, we LOVE snakes--they sure help keep down the rodent population. I envy those of you who have snakes to watch. I live in the city, and although we have tons of rats, mice, and raccoons, a fair amount of possums and skunks, and an occasional coyote, the snakes haven't been able to survive as well. :-( Regarding cardboard, Michael's craft stores have TONS of cardboard shipping boxes that they just bale and dispose of. Just give them a call, and they'll let you know which day the shipment comes. The boxes are rather flimsy corrugated, so they're not hard to handle and would probably soak up fluids easily. They will be happy to give you all you want for free. Our family has always been environmentally conscious, reusing or recycling everything we can, and eating low on the food chain. With the current economic climate, and my job loss, I have started a garden, and will be expanding it to grow as much as I can. I can probably grow bunnies for meat, but I haven't quite gotten that far yet. BTW, we have horses, but we board on inexpensive private pasture. My home is in a suburb. If I had my own land, I'd have a large garden, small orchard, a milk goat, some fowl, and a little pig.

I've been to the Big Island six times. The first was when I was a geology undergrad and we went as a field trip for a class I was taking, and the most recent was two weeks ago with my two kids ages 7 and 8. My kids have each been there three times. Hawaii is where we choose to vacation. We make decisions in regards to other finances in order to make this happen. Anyway, definitely rent a 4WD vehicle. There is a gorgeous green sand beach (green sand...yes! It's formed from an old cinder cone where the magma has all eroded and what is left are the olivine crystals.) three miles from the end of South Point Road. Unless you want to hike six miles round-trip (I've done it twice and don't recommend it), the only way to get there is by 4WD. Also, if the water is calm at South Point, take a chance and jump off the southern most point of the United States. Definitely a thrill. Then hike a little more and go around South Point and see how dangerous the water is on the East Side. It's an amazing place. A 4WD will get you up to the top of Mauna Kea to see the telescopes. Although you can make it easily to the Visitors Center with a regular car. I would highly recommend spending an evening stargazing up there. Punalu'u Black Sand beach is a beautiful place to see a black sand beach and sea turtles. A hike to the bottom of the Pololu Valley will also get you to a gorgeous black sand beach and you can see the remains of the 1946 tsunami that hit the area. HVNP is well worth the trip, even if you can't see the lava up close. I've been there when we've hiked right to the lava and I made my own rock (this was on the geology field trip and is not recommended for amateurs), seen the lava flow from either side of the Chain of Craters Road, and most recently, only seen the lava glow at night from the Halema'ua'u Crater. The first time I went, we were able to go right to the edge of the crater at the overlook and we even hiked across the Kileau Crater. Now, the crater is active and the area around it is closed. The overlook was actually destroyed in an explosion when the crater became active. The lava changes every day and you never know what you are going to see when you go. Have a fabulous time! We've never stayed at the 4S. Instead we stay a bit further up the Kohala Coast at the Fairmont Orchid. The beach at the 4S is rockier and smaller than that at the Orchid, but the other amenities at the 4S make up for it. Maybe if we didn't go every other year, we'd be able to afford the 4S! :-)

I’m bumping this as someone with a large family (8 of us currently) in smaller spaces (lived in 1600, currently in 2160, waiting to build). Let me tell you - our rental was the exact same square footage as this temporary house we bought last year, but laid out completely differently. This 2160 sq ft ‘69 ranch with no basement lives TEN times better than our newer build 2160 sq ft rental did, precisely because of these factors: 1) Storage. I have tons of built in storage, including medicine cabinets, a linen a d coat closet, and laundry room/pantry. 2) Layout. This ranch has all the bedrooms and main bath on one side, all the bedrooms on the smaller side. And a good 60% of the floor plan is then dedicated to the public spaces on the right side of the house. Very efficient, good sound separation, and we are fitting three kids in each bedroom without issue. Even being home all day every day be keeping homeschool junk and adaptive equipment everywhere, it doesn’t feel too small. These two factors are SO CRITICAL, that is why I’d side with the group recommending you pay an architect to help. They’re surprisingly reasonable for design time, given how much help they can give in making a cost effective, efficient space for you. This plan has some problems that a few posters, like Mrs Pete, have tried to address. But precisely because you and I have big families and tight budgets and space constraints, it is even MORE important we not try to make a plan ‘fit’ what is intended for a generic and usually-smaller sized family. Retaining design services was the best choice my husband and I made in planning our build. Hands down. We don’t have the budget to get this wrong. And out of four homes we have lived in only ONLY had solid layout and utility for us as is, the current ‘69 ranch home I detailed above. It’s just not worth it to shop stock plans when you can have a professional give you everything you need and with skill and insight into problems you may never have noticed or considered. I wish you the very best!

You say about your kitchen: First kitchen, need toaster oven, blender, mixer, juicer, gravity water filter on the counters all the time so that do not have to dig them out of cabinets/drawers and put them back. Not on display in the main kitchen and also close to clean up sink and dishwasher. The obvious solution to utility vs display, is to decide to focus on one or the other rather than both. As soon as you do that, design is much simpler. For example, if you decide on utility, then you can close off much of the kitchen so that everything is hidden by default from the rest of the house. That would mean you could do work, even messy work without disturbing the zen of your whole home. Note: it does not mean that your kitchen can't be beautiful; just that it not be the visual focus of the main floor. If you choose display, then you are deciding that whatever is happening in the kitchen affects the entire main floor-- no escape. You are committing to either constant cleanup during kitchen work or to seeing mess. When you design a display kitchen, you need more storage (or less stuff) to reduce visual clutter. And since you still want to use your kitchen, much of that storage must be easy-access and more like disguise than storage (e.g. a sliding panel that covers the small appliance zone.) Right now, the house plan you have has one room for each goal, however minor (which is part of why you have essentially 2 kitchens). Your architect should be getting you to prioritize and group your goals so that s/he can design spaces that meet multiple goals successfully at the same time. 4000 sft is a substantial amount of room for a 3 person family. It would not surprise me to find out you'd initially told your architect you wanted a 4000 sft home. And so, because there is essentially no real constraint on the size, the design is lazy. If I were you, this is what I'd do: Stop adjusting this bad plan. Do Verbo's spatial logic exercise-- in fact, do it for real in the home you live in now. Whenever you are doing something in your current home, think about how efficiently and comfortably (or not) you are doing it. Think about what would make the process better. And consider how much of an irritant or pleasure it would be if your new home addressed (or didn't) the identified goals. This will help you prioritize what is important to you. Once you've identified how you want to live rather than what you want your house to look like, then write up a prioritized list. Something like: We like to garden and our child likes to play outside. We're messy and expect a lot of traffic between the house and outside. a sunny spot to nap, cuddle or read a book. I dream of a suspended day bed with a view of my garden. We keep lots of groceries on hand and cook daily. I don't want to have to frantically clean up if an unexpected guest arrives. we prefer not to bring strangers or acquaintances into the main part of our home. It would be good to have a more formal area near the front door for that. our home will be a busy, energetic place. We'll need away spaces to recharge our batteries. We have lots of stuff and we use it frequently. Organization and ease of access is key. take this list to your architect. Explain that the design brief has been lacking a critical element and that's why the project isn't making any progress. Then sit down and discuss your list. Make sure s/he understands that this "feeling" list is more important than any of the previous "features" lists. And that each "feature" must be assessed in the context of the "feelings" it will promote and prioritize. at this point your architect should be asking you questions about each of the points on your "feeling" list. S/he should be developing an understanding of how you want to live. then s/he should go back to the drawing board and design a home that fits the site, functions efficiently, meets your needs and suits your taste. when s/he shows you the new plan, don't assess it by ticking off features. Ask them to walk you through the spaces and explain how they are supposed to work, how they support the vision and meet the goals. Ask questions about how you would accomplish any task that you think might be difficult in the space. For example, rather than saying, "I need space for a bigger sofa in the living room", ask "We have monthly, casual gatherings of about 15 people. How do you see that working?". It's really important not to define the solution to the issue. That's the architect's job, not yours. Your job is to identify issues and explain why you think they are issues. Best of luck!