We added the section behind the house, a dining /family room, 2 yrs ago. Had remove old stairs to build out. temporarily closed them off until we rebuild the deck. Would like to increase back area for cookouts & seating. I'm hoping to narrow the width on side of house to 8', matching the width of front deck. Hubby wants long stairway on far right end of back deck. To link path from garage concrete to upper level entry door. Our driveway circles around to back of house so he wants this to be the main entry. I can see the practicality of his plan but I keep toying with the idea of adding a corner stair with split stairs, in both directions. I would be so grateful for any experienced advice you knowledgeable people can offer! The other question is how can we possibly add a portico over the front porch, considering our roof line as well as the awkward angle of the front door?? I welcome any ideas. Thank you.

Since it is for a master bedroom and not adjacent to the main flooring, I wouldn't worry at all. Master bedrooms can be distinctive in style, and not many people will see it other than yourself. Only you can say if it will bother you, though. However, it seems as though it wouldn't be terribly hard to find new hardwood that is very very similar to the original; certainly close enough that the casual observer would not notice the difference. For the kitchen, a stone or stone-look tile will be pretty, good idea!

Buying a home contigent on selling a home is essentially a contract saying “I might buy your home, if all the stars line up.” Contingencies are an OUT to a contract, and home sell contingencies are the worst kind because the seller has little control over the domino effect the buyer has placed them in, yet the seller will be the one who bears the burden of the deal falling apart. This is magnified with a new home build because builders always have sunk costs even before the first shovel hits the ground, permit fees, soil tests, engineering fees, staff time, etc. Thousands are at risk, I am surprised a CMA is all that was requested. Additional requests to play the contingency game could be non-refundable deposit (skin in the game on your part), approval for your marketing plan, list price, and price changes as needed to get the home sold, etc. Never met a home seller that didn’t proclaim for certain their home would sell right away at the price they want, yet the number of listings that don’t sell and expire is pretty high. As for the argument that the builder can just sell the new home if you can’t perform, it will likely be at best sold for cost, or even a loss. If you could buy a $500,000 new home where someone else got to pick everything, or a $500,000 home where you get to pick everything, which one would you choose? Your builder sounds naive if all they are asking for is a CMA.

I copied the photo of your rug to my photo program and sampled the colors in it. I then compared those colors with paint colors from Benjamin Moore and Sherwin-Williams. The light gold of the background most closely matches SW 6374 Torchlight. The light brown was similar to BM's 2166-20 Caramel Latte. The green matched SW 7729 Edamame, and SW 2806 Rookwood Brown is similar to a taupe in the rug. Neither the coral or the dark red have any matches, and they would overwhelm a room in any event. What looked blue in the rug sampled as gray. These colors in your rug are muted by the small areas they occupy. They are more saturated when viewed by themselves. Below are approximate samples of the above colors. You should first of all check out these colors on the manufacturer's website in their virtual paint. Here is Benjamin Moore and here is Sherwin-Williams. Remember that you can choose a lighter version of these colors. For instance, SW 7726 Lemon Verbena is a lighter version of Edamame, and SW 6373 Harvester is a lighter version of Torchlight. Once you have narrowed the choices you should buy samples and paint on poster board. You can then set the poster boards against the walls you want to paint to see how the colors work. This is the only way to see if you like the colors enough to live with them. Otherwise you would be better off choosing neutrals.