wow....a lot of reading for the mind and soul during insomnia. So many ideas and so many things to think of..... This post just reiterates more that we are all products of our "families" and our experiences. The bad comes with the good and we grow and we hope to make the best of it and for some....I suppose the main goal is to not repeat some things that have damaged us the most. Brings us to the OP and the reason for custom homes. We all have a dream of the way we want to live and how we want our dream home to be a part of that life. I understand that most downsize to below a 2000 sq ft ranch. That doesn't mean it has to be done that way. I'm not trying to sound ridiculous or anything, but is it more a modern thing for people to down size or is it regional? It seems I know very few who have done this. My Grandparents just closed off their cellar and upstairs and lived in the main-level. They made adjustments when needed to the bathroom. I suppose it must be more modern as farmers used to stay in there homes and their family would move in and care for them. Nowadays I know a lot of farmers who give the "home place" to their youngest and then build a new "retirement" place for themselves. Just wondering?!?! Anyway....I'm from rural, farm country and where most have large families and super extended families. Most of my friends and family were raised in ranch homes or simple 2 story homes. Average sq ft being 1800-2100, often with a semi-finished rec room in the basement. The trend with my parents, their friends and our family is that they usually stay in the home until they pass away or a few go into a nursing home. I can honestly say that all 10 Aunts/Uncles and many family friends have added onto their homes in their 50's or early 60's. Actually 1 moved instead:). They all wanted a larger "gathering" room and built on for that reason. Many (prior to building on) used the lower-level rec room for this and then just for reason of stairs, location to kitchen and bathrooms, aesthetic, etc had added on to accommodate. So, they were all adding onto their homes, when I suppose many would think they were getting closer to downsizing. They all now approaching mid 70's and some into their 80's and are still in their added on homes. We have just found over the years that when a hall or other place is rented out for a holiday, etc....our family loses it's closeness. All the cousins arrive, eat and leave. We have found it more inviting, relaxing, etc to have it in the home where we can hang, relax and gather for hours. So, if you don't want people for hours, rent a place with tables and folded chairs or go to a restaurant :-) My parents actually were the ones who built a new place 2 years ago. They had owned acreage/wooded for years. They originally built a cabin on it and found themselves spending so much time there, they decided to build. Oh, we were so against the idea, everyone was! Too far out, too far from hospitals, too much land, too much too much. My dad said everyone thinks we are crazy, but it is what WE WANT, do you think we really haven't thought about all these things.....we will sell and move again if and when it becomes too much. So, they did what they wanted and they are thrilled. It is a smallish ranch with an open floor plan and a guest bedroom for occasional grand kids sleep overs. However, they have a large family room that is very cozy most of the time. They have the furniture placed in a groupings with large walk-ways all around. For Christmas it takes 2 people to move their one couch to open the room up and make room for all. And there solution to host really large parties was a "finished garage." They finished the walls with drywall and had breadboard added all around below the chair rail. They added cabinets and a counter top with electrical (crockpots etc) and a refrigerator. They have ceiling fans, highly insulated, and a nice epoxy (???) floor. They have a half bath directly inside the house from the garage. It is party ready just by backing the cars out. Of course they have an out building for all the junk that most people would have in their garage. What they didn't know is that it is the younger grandchildrens favorite place. It works out lovey when the young ones are out there....we pull out some old cars and trucks and they go crazy and then the adults can converse and hear each other. So, just to mention a few ways that many others have actually added to their homes in order to manage growing families. Personally, in our new build....we added on a huge dining room with surrounding wrap around covered porch and hope to be able to entertain large numbers in this space for many years. OP...I do wish you the best with your new home and your family is lucky to have you and a wonderful place to spend with you!

Unless you have somewhere to provide access, you will need to cut into the ceiling and the wall to run new wiring from overhead down to a switch. You can usually get by with removing a fairly small section of plaster or drywall to get access to the joists. I used to worry more about cutting out drywall/plaster, but if you find a good repair guy you will discover that patching is not that hard. Depending on which way the joists run, another possibility is to get access from a room above by cutting a hole in the bottom of a closet or somewhere else that is easy to patch, and run the wiring parallel to the joists. Bruce

Oh Robin, I just read your original post and your recent post. First I am sending a hug. You might need to send one right back to me as we just bought a fixer-upper ourselves out in Scotts Valley. As I read your original post I kept thinking, yep, that's us. Yep, that too. (Except your listing photos are gorgeous and ours, well, they are not.) I do think you make a great point that people need to think about how they will use a house. We will likely lose one bedroom with moving some walls around (not load bearing, thank goodness) and I have people telling me how horrible that is for resale but this is our forever home and we need to do what is right for us. I don't have much to offer in the way of ideas but will send a barrel of emotional support up the peninsula to you. Good luck!

Hi Allie , Looks like you've gotten, 'Houzzed!' That syndrome where a bunch of people beat you up for not going to architecture school, or have they budget they pretend their current clients do have. Let's see if we can actually help you - which I've been assured by my Houzz representative is the actual point of the forums. Being you have no design experience - that actually gives you greater insight to what a homebuyer wants as opposed to a designer/architect whose main want is to be published. So step 1: Forget so much what the other houses are doing, and ask yourself what YOU would want in a new home. Start with 5, 'must haves,' then toss in 5 'nice to haves.' A quick call to the realtor helping you sell the property will confirm, remove or add to that list. A good plan doesn't show ALL we know, it shows WHAT we know, basically saying quality of space over quantity. Currently it looks like you're cramming in amenities. Step 2: Prioritize. Is a tiny dining nook in the middle of a walkway to the stairs really more important than 3 oddly sized bedrooms? If yes, go to 2 nicely laid out bedrooms (1 true master) and 1 decent sized dining room. If not, lose the dining room - its in the middle of the kids running up & down stairs anyways. Step 3: Organize. Would you live in a master bedroom that buts up against the garage? Is the privacy a master bedroom needs really achieved by having it as close to the front door as it is? Would it be better if the kitchen were pulled back so that when you pull your car in to the garage you can easily get your groceries to the fridge? Step 4: Simplify. If your floorplan is doing a lot of left & rights and parts of it looks like a maze, it will be as hard to build as it is to look at. We have a term, 'acrobatics.' I.E. there's oa lot of acrobatics to get a linen closet, hallway bathroom & laundry room near the entry of your first floor. This kinds of sums up all the steps - 1, would YOU squeeze into a bathroom that size? 2, is the linen closet really worth it there? 3, Do you want your guests getting a towel from next to your master bedroom door? Hope that helped. I know it was a long answer, its usually why we start every project with a free 15 min. strategy session. Just hit us up on our profile! I'll even go a step further - send me a message here on houzz & I'll sketch both upstairs and downstairs in the same exact footprint for free. Thanks,a -frank build beautiful