My two cents would concentrate on one aspect of the lawn program: fertilizer. Then more fertilizer. Then more fertilizer. Which means a healthy dose of a big-first-number fertilzier in the fall, maybe two in the fall, and then a dose of Milorganite every thirty days, or even five weeks, during the summer. Maximize that nitrogen, just like a sod farm would, for this very important reason: Self-repairing. Damaged grass (not destroyed grass, but damaged grass) will repair itself, if it has a lot of fertilizer on it. "A lot" of fertilizer by your standards, not by my standards. That doesn't mean I want you to overdose your lawn by doubling the recommended rate, because that's not what I want. But I do want you to recognize that you have not been putting down enough fertilizer, by my standards, you have been barely squeaking by, typical homeowner stuff, once in the fall, maybe once in the spring to go with it, and maybe not the once in the spring, if you already did once in the fall. That amount is not nearly enough. But if you maximize that fertilizer, and give it a regular dose, several over the year, that lawn will maximize its potential: when scuffed, it will be growing fast enough to repair itself in a few days to a week. With less fertilizer, it will try to repair itself, but will take a week to two weeks, and during that time, is greatly susceptible to being scuffed again: it's that second scuff that will kill it. With the bare minimum of fertilizer, it will take three weeks to repair from that scuff, and be susceptible to even a third scuff, before the self repair can grow in....and that third scuff will surely kill it. Compare your yard to the local athletic field, and the local golf course (both professionally managed), and the actual people count, the traffic count, and the wear and tear. Your four year old, and his dog, and later his pals, isn't even close. The only place it might be close is absolutely right under the swing. And if you move the swing (assuming a little one) once a month, you'll even stay ahead of the game right under the swing. There's one solution: nitrogen. Put the fertilizer down. Keep us advised, here, how it turns out. But if you overseed with a mix (any old mix, do it yourself, in a bucket) of a quality bluegrass/sunny area mix, that contains some KBG, some perennial rye, some turf type tall fescues, and whatever smallish amounts of what else might be in the mix, you'll do fine. It's the fertilizer that will make it do excellently.

Pottery BArn makes a very tall recessed medicine cabinet that would hold quite a bit of stuff. Below that I have an antique music stand, which would be ok to hide hair stuff in, but it's really not much space at all. My powder room is too small for much more. As to the cabinet above the toilet. We've had them for three years in the old joint and they worked fine. But yes, do keep the lid down :) Bandaids are best used dry, not wet! (A very DUSTY picture) In this room I do not have room for lights on both sides of the vanity so I've gone with a three bulb exposed light fixture on the ceiling. I have an angled wall to the left and could add one fixture on that side if necessary. You could easily do the same and it would look nice. THe fixture I'm using is a reproduction (link below). Because of the way the bulbs are pointed it does shed more light than a normal bathroom fixture and really does light up my 3x7 room plenty. Not having a shade is the key here, but since it isn't a room for make up to be done in :) I'm going to float a large glass bowl under this as well (hard to describe...it's an antique piece that you mount a bare bulb under for light). Here is a link that might be useful: flush mount fixture

WOW Caroline. Lot of future plans. It looks like you have to go through the kitchen from master to get to bathroom? Or am I missing a door some where? HA I like the Aircraft house name too. I sympathize with you on the long narrow living room. I had one that was 26 foot long and less than 12 foot wide as I remember. I had to do it in two areas and even one time I had the dinning room table at the end and it was far from the kitchen but was a lovely view of the river and pool. And we only sat there when we had company. Master bedroom was the same long narrow room because it had been two rooms opened up. I think this is why I love my house and really want to stay here. I think I actually over estimated the SQ FT of it. Removing the three 6 inch thick walls it actually measures 1275 inside and I did not remove the other interior walls. Just out side walls and main wall down the center. It is a great size for one and even when both of us were here it was a good size. Just not as large as I thought. I was counting the total outside measurement. If I had it to do over I might change a coupe of things but it is good as it is. Still not sure if I will enclose half of the front porch. Since I moved my porch furniture to the nice cool shady carport I do not really have reason to enclose the front and I have enough space in the house for me for sure now.

I vote for the bath in the hall. Some parents want to shower their kids starting at age 4. Some want the option of baths for much longer, even into young adulthood. You don't know what your hypothetical children will prefer and you have no idea what any future buyer will prefer. A shower/tub combo in a hall bath is quite innocuous for those who don't use a tub and a necessity for those who do. Plus it's not only good for bathing little kids. Who wants to give their labrador a bath in their beautiful master soaker tub? Or fill a scrub bucket in the kitchen sink and lug it upstairs to wash the bathrooms? Or support a sick kid who just woke up puking and shower them off? (Sitting them in the bath to shower them is *much* easier I assure you) All those things are really difficult in a wide, deep soaker tub. Whether or not you choose to have a second en suite is up to you but remember this: if one kid gets their own bathroom, the other should too. It's fairly easy to justify having to share a bathroom and impossible to justify preferential treatment. I agree that it's hard to give specific advice without knowing the layout and style of the house. You can rest assured that your kids will grow up knowing that whatever you have is "normal" so don't worry about planning for their potential preferences which are completely unpredictable. Soon enough they will grow up and be able to create the homes they've always dreamed of!