kirkhall the north side/wall is at the top of the drawing, the south at the bottom. (the north arrow is shown to the right of the first floor). The wall facing south is the one with the front door, so its where the sun comes from most of the day. just fyi, there is about 7.5 ft ceiling height 5 ft from the south wall in the master bathroom, and there is a dormer in the center, which adds extra ceiling height (although not where the toilet is shown) (Also the dormers are not very clearly drawn...sorry about that....these are my drawings, so you know...drafting standards are lax, or rather non existent....) having the master suite upstairs in these cape style houses is tricky, in my opinion. the layouts in these houses are really constrained with the reduced ceiling height at those walls. however, the overall style has a lot of appeal for many reasons for us (appearance, energy efficiency, cost to build, etc.) the ridge runs east to west, and there is a lot of height there (entrance to master bedroom, loft overlooking below, and guest bath) I was originally advocating for the master suite on the first floor, for one floor living if necessary. DH has successfully argued for keeping all of the "public" areas downstairs, and "private areas" upstairs. Upstairs will have a cozy feel. He says we can always put an elevator in where the closet by the stairs is (1st floor) if we have too (I bet that's not cheap!). I'm with you on walking into the master bedroom facing the closet. it doesn't seem ideal for sure. I'm open to ideas. just keep in mind, that big window in the dormer on the north wall in the master bedroom looks out over the property and has views of the mountains. I don't want to block it with a closet. kelhuck re point 1) - i didn't even think about that. We toured a house with the stairs arranged just like it, and thought it was great. That's a good point though. I've thought about the stairs quite a bit, but never from that angle (odd in retrospect). They also had a little more space between the stairs and front door than I'm showing. 2)laundry - yeah, this is a big one for me. I go round and round on this:) The trade-off is to just have a laundry closet, but have the laundry upstairs, or put it in the mud-room, have more space, but have to haul laundry up and down stairs all the time. right now, i'm leaning towards not caring if the laundry clutters up the loft a bit, but there is not much room there at all, its only barely works. currently, my washer and dryer are in our garage, which is not conditioned. I bring baskets of laundry back into our bedroom, and process everything there. S, its not far fetched to have a small closet, but the appeal of a little room I can close off is strong. I swear I want a new house just for a space conditioned laundry room:) 3) pretty much, yes. the appeal of timber homes is showing off the structure, those gorgeous timbers. all timber homes I've seen have a least some two story view inside. however, there is strong sentiment on this board against it, that its loud. since I've never lived in a house like this, I'm inclined to listen. its a valid point, especially when its more than just the two of us (guests and/or kids). even just making the open to below over the foyer instead of the tv/family/living room may solve that. I dunno yet. I'll have a chat w/ dh about it later. 4) dont' worry about insulation, the entire house is going to be wrapped in SIPS. initial calcs for the efficiency we are looking for are calling for 10" SIPS, whereas almost everyone uses 6". No worries, this house will be tight (and require mechanical ventilation). we are focusing heavily on the envelope, so our budget is focused on SIPS and windows. I may even hae to sacrifice my nice kitchen initially (blasphemy!) in order to pay for it up front, but we'll see. liriodendron - that's awesome that you are using PV. the price is coming down, so its actually starting to make sense to pay for it, instead of just being for people like dh and me, who just have non-mainstream tastes and interest (energy nuts, sort of:) the property was logged 5 years before we bought it, so it doesn't have many trees (no trees anywhere near the home site) (and its an ugly mess, we've just now started re-planting). the south facing garage roof will have full sun all day. if it weren't for that, we would angle the house more, so the back faces the mountains a bit better, but we didn't want to sacrifice the front/south wall of the house with respect to facing the sun too much. we like PV just cause we think its neat, and we're trying hard to justify it, but it may be a few years down the road before we consider actually paying for it.

Rectified is more expensive. "Unlike your typical factory-edged tile, rectified tile has been cut to size after the firing process. This process creates a precise, 90 degree angle edge and, as a result, can be laid with a tighter grout joint than unrectified tile (as small as 1/16ÂÂ). If youÂfre wanting a smooth, sophisticated and continuous look on your floor or walls, choose rectified tile." Is it better? Depends. Do you need it? Depends. You want for your floor? How long are you going to live in house? You have to live with it! You have to weigh what you really want and what is important to you and how much do you want to spend. PEI 4 or better is a start. I believe a good tile should be above $3 sf. I could name some tile companies, but I don't want to sound like an advertisement: I do not work for them/I only like their quality of tile: and they will cost more, but that is the tile I would want in my house! Marazzi USA, and most all Italian made tile! Happy Floors Tiles are mostly made in Italy. If you like, look them up on the web. I believe: yes: you get what you pay for. Although, I believe there is tile out there too expensive for what you get. Do your homework. My honest opinion: I would only put travertine or slate in my home. The owner of where I work has only travertine on the floors that has been down for over 10 years and looks great. Her house has all travertine and slate on the floors for 10+ years and she has tons of kids in and out of her house daily! Two great things about travertine and slate: you don't slip and the travertine material absorbs sound vs. tile. (Only my first choice for flooring)

Thanks for all the comments. I agree about needing solid numbers to make a decision...I am a CPA also and so I would want estimates from an architect or builder on how much money this could save. This is the crux of the matter. I have asked this question but have not got an answer. It would be so much easier to make an informed decision if I had information. As I understand it, I would be removing length from the house and the roof line should not change. But again I can't confirm that. I understand the number stated in the title could be totally wrong. I have decided to move forward with revised plans for the smaller house. After they are completed I will have a better idea as to whether there are substantial savings in the smaller house. I hate to pay for a revised set that I may not use but I don't have any other options. I think the smaller house may work for me. I have college age kids; one is away at school but the other still lives at home and works full time.

Agree with judyg about the entertainment wall unit continuing entire wall with bookshelves, etc. Disagree with it being blue. I think continue with that orange stone shade in color for the entire piece, maybe back shelf walls with some black/white boho inspired prints. Definitely get a white rug as suggested and a textured real or faux sheep skin on top of that or get a small persian rug, or just have all three;) Don't forget a leopard print throw or pillows.