Laura12, I have looked heavily at many of the floorplans, our builder we will likely go with already has it and lucky us my really cool sister in law is an architect. We plan on trying for a solid LEED certification as well "sola tubes, green foam, new roof sealing technology, stained concrete etc" I am stoked about adding the folding rear doors to the pool, think it will make the house. A floor drain is a pretty cool idea for the mudroom. You could almost have a "Italian style" shower drain if you have the room to wash off boots etc, people with reef saltwater aquariums use these a lot and plumb skimmers directly to them. I want to have a large cabinet under the center island for all of the appliances, the only caveat I will have to add is a way to run the cables up the top and close the door still for things like a crockpot or breadmaker. This is a basic DJ control panel, would create stickers for the switches to label them, and probably wire a manual switch underneath to turn the unit on, so two switches and go. http://www.amazon.com/American-Pc-100A-Mount-Power-Switcher/dp/B0002GL50Q Cheap vampire timer http://cableorganizer.com/belkin/conserve-socket/ http://www.igo.com/other-power/power-smart-tower-with-igo-greenr-technology/invt/pm000110004/?source=165_75 Things like this should in theory allow me to plug in nearly all my appliances and just about cut vampire wattage. Thank you for the option on the sinks, I am checking them out vs dark copper. I am thinking of the eletrostatic non replaceable air filters that are washable, any thoughts? If so I could wash it monthly and that would cut down on dust etc. I am also thinking green foam insulation and ceiling up the attic totally, as we have more of a heat issue and leaving the attic floor wo insulation resulting in heat rising "all our cost are in cooling here in Texas". Have talked to an owner that did that and his attic is amazingly cool/home.

I tried that too. It gets the "strings" of stuff but not the tiny, tiny, fuzzy stuff that is the real problem. Believe me, and you guys know me and Google, I've tried everything suggested. I did find what might be a solution to prevent the problem but that won't help me fix what is ruined already. TIP: spray the Velcro with anti-static spray when the item is knew and reapply after washing. Haven't tried it yet but and going to try it on two knew carpel tunnel braces I bought yesterday. The old ones are ruined due to the clogged Velcro. I'll post an update if the Static Guard works.

To control dust. Dont live. Seriously. Most dust comes from you sluffing off old skin cells. Like a million a day. Having carpets, especially old ones increased dust production. Opening windows allows dust particals from outside - usually dirt - into your home. Dust coes from clothing, bed sheets, comforters, dirt off of your shoes etc. Pets add alot to the dust and hair population. Everywhere a cat lays there will be some hair...esecially clothes that come out of a dryer or places where a cat can snuggle down and get warm. My dog just finish one of two blooms he has every year, once in the fall and once inthe spring where every piece of hair is shed from his body. The hair floats around if the windows are open. This is natural, just like people, we "shed" our hair as well. If I wwas super worried about it, I would get nothing else done. My home is by no means dirty. Twice a year I just need to brush him more and do a bit more on with the hoover. Other than that, I have a life to live. All of my friends have dogs and go thru the same thing. It is all part of living with an animal

We purchased a Sun Cloud Infrared electric space heater and it will certainly pay for itself this winter from all indications. It will cost about $1 a day to use and that's all we've used for heating our home with the exception of a few days. We had teens and single-digit weather for two weeks in December and our gas bill dropped 41% from December a year ago and our electric only went up about 20%. Gas is higher here now than electric. We only had our natural gas furnace on for 5 days during December. During the day, the main area of the house is about 63°-66°. We also found out by keeping the furnace fan on constantly that there is less variation in the temperatures in the house. We haven't heated the basement rooms at all and they have maintained temperatures in the 60's as well. I also made window quilts for all our windows and that has made a huge amount of difference. Our bedroom is on the north with one (fairly large) window. Our bedroom is closed off from the rest of the house because we don't need to heat it just for sleeping, and the coldest the temperature has been in there is 59° and is usually arount 62°. Just Google - thermal window shades - and you'll find several methods to making them. I'm sure these same shades will help in the summer as well when we're trying to keep the heat out. I made some of mine with furniture packing quilts that I got free. I gave them a vapor barrier on the side towards the window by using 97 cent emergency blankets (see camping gear at Wal-Mart - they are thin sheets of foil-lined plastic that have some thermal quality) and used spray adhesive to stick it to the packing quilt. Then I made a "pillow case" covering from a $4 sheet that happen to match the room perfectly, and it is removable for laundering. You can make these into permenant window coverings, or use inexpensive tension rods at the top and the bottom and fit them into the window. If you need to raise the window covering, just place the bottom tension rod up in the window casing. Something else we've tried is heating water in an electric kettle for dish washing water. There are only two of us at home, and we found that by using a small plastic tub in the sink, we could use about 3-5 cups of boiling water and a little cold water and it was sufficient for rinsing dishes for the dish washer and washing those things we don't put in the dish washer and general clean-up. An electric kettle will make boiling water faster, using less energy, than a stove-top or microwave. We figured we have also saved a bunch of water by using this method. Think how much water goes down the drain before you get hot water to the sink. And everytime you turn the tap to anything but COLD, cold water goes into the hot water tank to replace hot that is used, which reduces the overall temperature and your hot water tank fires up. These are simple-to-do things that we think have made a significant difference in...