Thanks so much for your responses! I agree. My experience has taught me that thinking these details out before construction is much more practical. Here are some answers to your questions: I live in central NJ. Zone 6-7. I have about 4 feet of height under the deck to insulate it. I was thinking of using "Tiger Foam". IÂve used it in my home before. This stuff is effective, but expensive. I would use some and fill the rest of the area with packing Styrofoam that IÂve been collecting. The greenhouse will be built against my home. The bedroom window above it would be blocked if I made it higher. I guess IÂll be growing dwarf bananas. I donÂt see that I have much of choice, unless you can see a way to configure this that I canÂt see. There is an area to the left where we can go higher, but that would make it a weird shape, and more complicated construction. I guess it isnÂt worth it. I looked over the full size plans and you are right, they donÂt have the overall dimensions. No wonder my township returned the plans for being incomplete. The floor space is about 7 feet by 15 feet, minus the cut corners. HereÂs where I stand now. The deck is built. The rest of the deck is finished. The supports for the green house are all in and there is durarock on the floor, in the greenhouse area, that is ready for a tile floor. I would love to use a floor drain that is set into the floor and runs the length of the space, but that would entail cutting away the supports. The surface that this is will be built on is above the surface in front of it. May be the drain could run along the front, out side the floor supports. I think my architect could work this out. If not, then wherever we put the drain, the floor would have to slope in that direction. The way it is built now, it slops slightly away from the house. I guess we could change that just a little with the mud when we tile. I think the architect put a knee wall in the plans. How should that be built? Will I be running things through it in the future? The ridge of the roof runs the short way, so it isnÂt very long in relation to the space. If you put in a ridge vent, how do you keep the hot air from escaping in the winter? HereÂs my main concern. IÂm not building the green house because I donÂt have room for my plant inside my home. IÂm building it because my houseplants donÂt do well in my home in the winter. They get plagued by spiders and disease and dry out. I have been very successful with outdoor gardening. I realize that I will still have to care for my plants in the greenhouse but I hope it will be a lot better for them than it would be in the house. I would really like to find out what kind of heating wonÂt make it too dry in there.

Even with gas heat, that's a lot of A/C you've got there, almost 110A worth on it's own. Did you do a proper load analysis? I've heard of outside panels in warm places, but the rather "tropical" nature of Louisiana makes me nervous. I won't screw with 30 circuit panels. What's the point. THe delta for 42 is small and you always have issues with spaces. There's tons of special circuits that need to be addressed. I recommend you get someone who has a clue about things draw up your electrical plans at least. You size breakers for the wire, NOT the other way around. WIre sizes depend on the type of wire, the ampacity required, and the length of the run. Larger feeders tend to be done with aluminum just for cost practicality. There's no problem with aluminum of feeders/services provided they are installed PROPERLY. You can wire everything with 12 G (that doesn't need more than 20A) if you like. Makes things more convenient, especially if you've got longer runs.

The garage is entirely surrounded by concrete - driveway, breezeway, back patio. The only side of the garage not guarded by concrete is facing my neighbor, as the garage is built very close to the lot line (I guess there were no setback rules 100 years ago). I cannot go underground without breaking out concrete, and there are no handy joints to separate old and new concrete. I'd have to just cut a narrow trench and patch it, which would look awful. I'd rather use masts, even though I think that will look bad too. It is really too bad that the person who remodeled the house didn't plan ahead and install a really sizable chase/conduit path. The circuit to the garage is NM cable buried in concrete. By the way, do I actually need to disconnect the existing circuit to the garage? Somehow I recall reading that would be required, it is unsafe/not code to serve a garage with a subpanel and a branch circuit from the main panel. I don't know where I read that. If not, then it would be more convenient to leave the existing garage door and 2 gang outlet on the existing circuit. On the ground rods, I'm reading I need 2 rods, at least 8 feet apart, with #6 bare wire.

I want to be logical, and not try to design my whole house around a dream kitchen, but alas, I am after all, TKO. Talk me down? I am flailing here, as you will see. I feel your pain because I'm in nearly the same position as you except it's my roof lines that are driving me batty. I've gone through countless iterations of what I want on my first floor and because I have fewer room needs than your plans shows, meaning fewer combinations, I've tried my hand at playing with orientations in order to achieve my multiple goals. What I'm finding is that no matter what I do, when I pull on the string in one place the rest of the tapestry is affected, so design, as I see it (I'm no professional) has to flow organically, one feature flowing naturally into the next. I'm sensing that you're hitting that same wall - the combination of shapes/orientations isn't working throughout the whole house. I wouldn't hesitate for even a moment in scraping a plan that you don't feel completely comfortable with and I wouldn't for a moment think that you're illogical for building a whole plan around your kitchen. I'm pretty much doing that right now. What I found was that the kitchen was the room that was/is driving me the battiest, so if I start with a blank slate (still mindful of my conditions, which in your case would be the underground garage plus other points) and then play around with the kitchen shape + workflow + adjoining rooms & features and get those issues mostly settled in the kitchen then the rest of the house can flow outwards from there. I noticed that your architects original plan had an angled section and that he put secondary rooms in there, leaving the primary rooms in the traditional square/block pattern. The square rooms are definitely easier to work with. Your attempt at a compromise put a functional room into the angled wing and this created an awkward junction between the family room and the kitchen right at the kitchen. Why not continue the angle with the kitchen included and then try to use the space where the two wings of the house meet in a way that serves a purpose. So my words of advice to you are to break the problems down into individual problems and then try to solve one at a time before proceeding to the next. Count on a 3 steps forward, 2 steps back type of process as you'll find yourself going back to what you think you had solved which now presents as a problem due to something you've just done, and then begin the process again, one step at a time. I don't know what you want to accomplish with the kitchen design, but one thing I would try is to orient the kitchen with the family room. In your crooked picture, find the point where the DR meets the kitchen and draw your 45 wall starting there. Then draw another 45 line right at your door, losing the little window wall to the left of the entry. Now the awkward angled space is right where your pantry and closets are located and it is here that you can hide the awkward space into secondary rooms. You have a lot of room to work with in your kitchen space, so mix it up, try things that you normally wouldn't, and may well reject, but try these new ideas in order to see how they play out and how they affect other aspects of your plan. Try bumpouts, try peninsulas, try a banquette, try a bay window, try an irregular shaped room (beyond just a room at a 45 angle to the adjacent room.) Most importantly though is to spell out what you want in your kitchen and which of the designs that you posted most speaks to you.