Custom -- unique -- those can be euphemisms for weird and bad. While this house contains some nice features, it also contains some bad ideas that will not live comfortably -- things no one's going to like in real life. And it is expensive in ways that don't help the looks or efficiency of the house. - The entryway has a barrel vault that leads into an arch . . . and beyond that is a coffered ceiling . . . and then you have another arch off to the left. These are all expensive, showy ceiling features -- but having all of them within arms' length means they will "compete" with one another. One feature of good design is that it contains "enough" . . . without going overboard. Note that your inspiration plan contains multiple coffered ceilings, but it doesn't mix and match ceiling features. Repetition in design creates a sense of harmony. - On the subject of arches -- I love them and wonder why people aren't building them anymore. But they're an expensive feature, and I would never spend the money to build one between the kitchen and the mudroom, especially since it's tucked behind the kitchen cabinets and would literally only be seen as people come /go from the house. Unless your budget is genuinely unlimited, put your resources in spots where they're going to show. - I agree with the poster who mentioned the difficult turns necessary to enter either of the secondary bedrooms. If the aforementioned elderly relative needs a walker or a wheelchair, this will be difficult. It would be easy to move the door to the smaller bedroom to an easier-to-access spot. Will this relative live with you all the time? If so, he or she will probably need more than an 11x11 room with a small closet -- could you happily move all your personal effects into this room permanently? I ask because this was a MAJOR FIGHT with my easy-going grandmother only a few years ago, and she NEVER got over having to get rid of so much stuff. I agree with the poster who suggested making the larger office room a bedroom for the elderly relative. - An ADA bath in a 9x9 space. Is that possible? Okay, it's possible, but I mean, is it possible to do it well? - The master bath is large but contains SIX DOORS. Stop and visualize six doors in this space. The master bath is also laid out poorly: When you walk in, your sightline is the corner of the shower. And the toilet closet is tiny and cramped -- backing into a 6' deep closet and scootching over to the side so you can close the door (plunging yourself into darkness) won't be comfortable. Why plan two sinks in such a small vanity? It means you'll have no drawer space. What is the dry area in the shower? What is keeping it dry? Note that when you walk into the bathroom, you'll have to close those double doors and reach behind them to turn on the light switch. With all this space allotted to the master bath, you can absolutely have something better than this. - The great room is a positive ray of sunshine in an otherwise chaotic plan. Ditto for the foyer. - The odd extra hallway (containing a butler's pantry?) near the dining area is wasted space. Why would anyone walk through this hallway when the foyer is literally two steps farther away? - The kitchen doesn't work on any level. It's huge, but everything is so far apart! Your "major players" -- the sink and the stove and your prep space -- are all disconnected from one another. Why would you want your ovens in the dining room? Look at the floor plan and imagine yourself going through the motions of preparing one of your favorite meals. Likely it's going to include too many "walk across the kitchen" trips. I think you're falling for the oh-so-common idea that a BIG kitchen = a GOOD kitchen, and that is axiomatically false. An EFFICIENT kitchen = a GOOD kitchen. - What you're calling the Hearth Room could be an incredible dining room, and it's completely wasted as a sitting area. Because it is connected to the great room, it has no privacy and serves no purpose as a separate room. - The table, in its current position, is blocking access to the kitchen and the Hearth Room. Imagine squeezing by either end once chairs are in place. - If you move the sink in the mudroom to the same wall as the washer/dryer, you will save significant money. Why? Because you'll limit your water needs to one wall. That means only one wall needs to be thick enough to run water, and the plumber only has to work on one wall. I don't love the island in the middle of this room. This is a storage room / a pass-through room. The island actually creates a barrier. - I personally dislike the "friends' entrance" concept. I'm making the front door nice. I'm arranging guest parking to encourage people to see /enter through the front door. I'm setting up a table for purses/keys, etc. I don't want people traipsing in through the back door where I'm storing plastic bags, recycling, and dog food. And if this is a "friends' entrance", for whom is the front door? Enemies? I don't invite them over. - I agree with the posters who say most rooms are over-sized. You could easily reduce most rooms by 25% and still have comfortable spaces. The exceptions are the two secondary bedrooms, which don't seem to fit in with the rest of the sizing. - The hallways could be vastly reduced, and that could make up the price difference you mentioned -- you need the foyer hall and the two small halls to reach the bedrooms, but the giant freeway running through the middle is just expensive wasted space. I do like the inspiration plan's connection between the mud room and the hallway -- it promotes good flow in two directions, without being over-sized. Were you the poster from a couple months ago who loved hallways because of a wall treatment you saw in a model home's hallways? - A garage sticking out on the front doesn't make for a very attractive exterior. - You're going with a basement AND a bonus room over the garage? I'd pick one or the other, which would eliminate one staircase -- do not underestimate the cost of a staircase. Actually, staircases cost in both money and square footage. Either a basement OR a bonus room will give you a secondary living space. Again, this house has some redeeming features, but they are so buried under the oddities and mistakes that it's hard to find them. I vote for a fresh start. This post was edited by MrsPete on Thu, Sep 11, 14 at 18:21

Hi, I'm back again. I'm sorry I have been away from my computer for awhile and did not realize there was still some interest in this post. My 4 year old had surgery to remove a benign brain tumour on the 13th (she is doing awesome!), so I have been occupied with other things. I am also getting our current house ready to sell, so I have been a cleaning, trim-painting, de-cluttering machine. They had a meeting about my kitchen and the builder agreed with me that too many things had been changed. The kitchen company is going to fix things at their cost. We went through each thing and I had to say which I would compromise on, and which HAD to be changed and what I should be compensated for financially. Basically, they will be removing the upper cabinets and installing 36" uppers and the remaining 6" to the soffit will have moulding and trim work - similar in look to kitchenkelly's. (This forum has been so valuable for pictures and ideas. Even though I mostly lurk I find so many helpful things). They are also fixing the microwave shelf, the baseboards on the island and installing some beadboard trim on the island that was left off. They refunded money for granite, the custom wood hood and the 42" uppers. Anyways, the kitchen won't look EXACTLY as I had wanted, and a big part of the problem is that soffit. However, it will be very close and I think it will still look very nice. As my husband pointed out, I am the only one who knows exactly what it was supposed to look like! We are disappointed with how inflexible the kitchen copmany is in regards to doing NOTHING custom (the original company was more custom) and we would probably have not signed on with this builder had we known. However, the rest of the house is WONDERFUL and I think in the end the kitchen will be great too. It's just not what we would have expected. I will post pictures when it is finished. They will be installing the new cabinets in about 2 weeks - and I will definately be keeping an eye on it to make sure it is done right :)

Just a few years ago, I spent a most enjoyable afternoon visiting the Rocket/Space Center in Huntsville. Just as we entered, we were approached by a volunteer docent who asked if we had any questions. I said we'd just come in, didn't know what to look at. He suggested we accompany him on a personal narrated tour during which he could answer any questions we had. He was a retired engineer/scientist who'd spent his career there and enjoyed his gig as a docent, interacting with visitors. It was fantastic. I think few Americans know that "our" rocket knowledge and expertise in the 1950s and 1960s, from our ICBMs to our first satellites and including the moon launch vehicles, came in large part from the German Nazi rocket scientists (who'd developed the V1 and V2 missiles) that we grabbed at the end of WWII and brought to the US. They ultimately wound up in Huntsville and became the brains of the American rocket development effort. Wernher von Braun and many dozens of his team. Our docent was a little reluctant to speak about it but I asked and he said that when he'd started working there in the late 60s there were many such Germans from the original group still working there.

I see social media as an "addition to", not an "instead of". I love texting, I have very poor hearing, especially on the phone, so texting is a blessing for me. I'm not apt to misunderstand what someone is saying, and no one is subjected to repeated requests to repeat something. It's also convenient. I can send a text when the thought hits me, knowing that the recipient can answer at their convenience. Same with receiving a text. My family, friends and I used email the same way before we all had smartphones. One sentence thoughts and ideas are sent as they come up. One doesn't usually make a phone call or write a letter to communicate a short thought. So for me, emails and texts have increased contact with others, not decreased it. I love Facebook! I also have a Twitter account and an Instagram account. I honestly can't remember the last time I looked at Twitter, don't care for it. I do look at Instagram occasionally, mostly to see pictures family and friends have posted. Pictures I probably wouldn't get to see otherwise. But I drop in on Facebook for a few minutes several times a day. I enjoy the jokes that are passed around, I like the news updates I find there, I've gotten several good recipes there. I even enjoy some of the political postings. And last, but certainly not least, I enjoy the brief glimpses into the loves of family and friends that I probably wouldn't get otherwise. It keeps distant family members and friends and I up to date with each other. There are several whom I probably would have completely lost contact with without social media. Does all this make me (or my friends and family) selfish, or self centered? Absolutely not! And I kind of feel sorry for those that think it does. You have no idea what you're missing out on! So many ways to expand your life! And for the record, I am another "Old Fogie", getting mighty close to the big eight oh mark. And ready to use and enjoy whatever new life adventure my limited physical abilities allow me to use. Yes, I love social media and am very glad it came into being during my lifetime! Rusty