Really great! There is a whole wall blackboard sliding doors, it's really a great idea especially for family with child (I have a daughter just 3 years old, and like print everywhere), and wonder what behind it. Looks so comfortable this basement. How long time you do with it and total how many money for it? Here is a link that might be useful: sliding closet doors

Ned, in defense of Emmarene, you did earlier invite readers to "rip apart" among other things. Sometimes constructive criticism is straight to the point and doesn't sound all sweet and lickey but trust me, she's on to something here and beat me to the punch. Let's not forget our overall objective which, I think, could be summed up as wanting to make things look better. You said "winter interest," but surely the point of that is better looks at least during the winter. Let me make the point here that the objective should be landscaping, not "gardening." A gardener wants and buys a plant and asks, "Where can I put this?" In landscaping, one creates the space and asks, "What plant and arrangement will make this area look good?" I'm stumped as to why an island would be created with the main object that should be in the island ... just outside of its edge. The tree is the sole reason for that island to exist! A proper island here is not asking for a mass of sizable shrubs, but for groundcover! One can plant whatever one want, but in landscaping, planting something that is not called for usually brings a negative result. A mostly circular shape emphasizes and strengthens the importance of the tree. To my thinking, stretching the island out along the drive diminishes its overall effectiveness. I'd rather see grass there. However, above the retaining wall would be a great place to put hydrangea if the conditions can be made right, I can't tell what's going on there. It looks full of odds and ends. If it could be cleaned out it might work well. (I would need a better look in order to tell.) I was waiting for greater detail before saying anything about the shrubs at the left side of house. Now that I see, I can say with confidence that they appear not to be doing something positive for the house! To the contrary, they look too large, a bit oppressive and cluttered. Just because people (who may have no sense of design whatsoever) are paid to maintain them doesn't automatically justify their existence. As far as the ball shrubs closer to the entrance, I understand that some people like them, but as far as an element creating a better setting for the house, in my mind, they are a little tall for that position in front of the window and out of level with the architecture. The stoop area, overall, looks a bit smothered in by shrubs. The only point of saying something negative about anything is the hope that it can be recognized and become motivation for change.

My construction is very similar to our main office at work. I don't have a dog in this fight, so I really don't give a crap whether your house lives like your office or like my home. However, I can tell you that we have a couple of commercial buildings just like this on the farm and your building looks similar to my father's warehouse which has an office. Those are not homes. I don't care how it is usually done, I care about the marginal cost of doing it better and, in fact, the marginal cost of doing it better is low enough that not doing it better is shortsighted and wasteful. There is little point in trying to build those to the same standards as my home, the amount of air passing in and out through openings necessary for business make many of those things moot. However, when you attempt to tighten those openings up you don't simply get a tighter house, you get a moldy and/or uncomfortable space. Is it livable? Sure it is, people make due with a lot worse. Is it optimal? No! Is it even suboptimal in any practical way? No! Are you going to believe me or even use the device you are typing your response on to actually investigate whether or not good enough is really good enough? Probably not. I wish you all the best. Enjoy.

Your question asks about an interior designer. An interior designer helps you with the overall style and aesthetic look (form rather than function). Since you are talking about renderings and 3D images, I suspect in reality you are talking about a different type of professional. I think you will need to have some architectural drawing to submit for permitting purposes. These aren't horribly expensive. I know so many people here to say hire, hire, hire. I guess my main concern would be if it is a good overall layout, and that is where I might want someone else's advice. Think about how much you know and how you pay attention to functional details, layouts, clearances etc. It sounds as though style-wise you already have a pretty good idea of what your eventual goal is. Over the years we have done several fairly significant remodels without hiring the whole slew of people. Decades ago we added on to our kitchen, changed the basement stairway and the outside entryway, and added a powder room. We designed the project ourselves and with one exception (the outside door we chose) have been pleased with it. People still complement us on our kitchen. The draftsman who drew up our plan gave us one good suggestion about a cabinet placement that we would have never thought of on our own. Other than that it was our plan. I am the one who made the trips down to the city permitting office to meet with their employees and get approvals. Then, we had a contractor build the exterior shell for us. After that, we acted as GC, did a lot of DIY, and workers for the interior portions of the project. We designed the entire remodel ourselves when we gutted our 1000 sq, ft. basement. Frankly, we found that we could do a better design job than some of the locally well-known, design/build firms we contacted. We did the drawings on some very low cost software we bought. We first contracted with an egress window company to install those, and we hired a drain tile company to install drain tiling. It wasn't hard to arrange, and we saved money having that work done first without GC profit tied on to those structural portions of the project. Then, for the rest, we hired a GC to do the actual remodeling work. Being available and on hand to catch things and answer questions is key to this working out. Now we're in the process of a major remodel in a second home we recently bought. We have done all the design work, but I have asked TONS of questions here about the kitchen. We have a GC, and he arranged for an architect firm to produce the measurements and drawings that we had to submit to the county for permitting. I have always enjoyed the idea of remodeling and architectural design, and my husband knows a lot about mechanicals and handyman issues. I've always paid attention to and visited the various remodeling showcases locally. So, for us it has worked out. I guess you need to think about your background and knowledge before you tackle this. I am a huge fan of the architect Sarah Susanka and highly recommend her book Not So Big Remodeling. Buy it today.