Well, what do you think? I am tickled pink. I keep thinking now this is perfect but really this is perfect. brickton - you're a genius, this makes two of the bedrooms upstairs bigger and more functional without that closet sticking out. I think it would be alright for heat movement without that extra bit open. I would be willing to put a vent in the floor in order to keep this. chisue - I don't know how you do it but after thinking about the laundry chute for a couple of days, I think I am convinced. Oh, that reminds me. I haven't been holding out on you - no laundry room in the basement. The walls up and down line up almost exactly. I changed the kitchen window but I'm not sure. If you want to take the time, I'll post a link to a kitchen that I absolutely love. It's from a book that I have and it is absolutely pathetic how many times I have looked at this picture and sighed. My idea for windows is from this although it's not just the windows that does it for me so maybe just transplanting the windows into my kitchen wouldn't do too much. If you go to the link, you'll have to click on the top one, creating coziness ... then scroll down to page 189 in order to see the kitchen that speaks to me. http://books.google.co.za/books?id=7XhZ2LLjhHgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inside+the+not+so+big+house&hl=en&ei=NtrVTaDkDKjc0QGnn8HQBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=creating%20coziness%20in%20&f=false maybe it's just like your first Dr. Who, and that will just always be my dream kitchen. Anyways, I'm anxious to hear what you have to say about this, I believe I already mentioned that I think it is perfect but you guys seem to have a way of improving upon perfection. Look at this, I have room for a bench by the side door and free space over by the washer and dryer for the bottom of my laundry chute. Just beautiful although I notice now that the window in the new bedroom looks a little odd, I don't remember if I put it there so they would be more evenly spaced outside. I'll check. I will be totally shocked if you tell me I'm not done. Thanks for putting so much thought into this.

If you do two stories (walk out basement plus main floor) and have master bedroom up and other two bedrooms down, I would think you would want two bathrooms (or at least two WCs). People sleeping downstairs who wake in the middle of the night needing to use the toilet should not have to climb a set of stairs to get to one. If you want the master upstairs, consider putting the laundry room down next to a downstairs WC and cluster both directly beneath the upstairs bath and WC. That will allow you to cluster the plumbing which helps keep costs down. With a second WC and the cost of building stairs, it might or might not be more economical to build two stories than to spread the whole house out on a single floor. But, given your sloping property and your desire to maximize views, I'd go with two stories anyway. Having a second WC or even a second full bath won't cost THAT much more if you can cluster the plumbing. As for critiques of your latest posted plan. I would agree with previous comments that your living room/dining room area won't work very well. With three bedrooms, one assumes that at least occasionally you will have 3 to 6 people staying at the house. The living room would not be at all comfortable for that many people. Plus, do you expect to watch TV, or converse in the living room. No place for a TV and no room to create a conversation area where people sit so that they can look at one another. As designed, you don't really have a LIVING ROOM. You have a dining room with a sofa off to one side. The trip from the master bedroom to the WC requires you to walk thru your closet (wardrobe), out into the dining area, and then turn back down a hallway. Not a trip I would want to navigate during the middle of the night...especially since I have to admit that I often leave my shoes scattered about in my closet and I'd be tripping over them in the dark. Maybe you're a neat-nick and ALWAYS put shoes away exactly where they belong. But, do you really want the only path to your master bedroom to be thru your closet??? Also, you show no closets except the Master bedroom closet and a very small broom closet. Most of us have tons more stuff that needs to be stored away than will possibly fit into those two small closets. Eg, X-mas decorations, extra blankets, towels, and pillows, off-season clothing, the big bag of dogfood, the vacuum cleaner, the ironing board, board games, umbrellas, recycling bins, etc. With no garage, any of that stuff that you own is going to have to be stored somewhere inside your house. The biggest complaint I hear about new homes when people move in is that they don't have enough storage space...and that is often from folks who have a two or three car garage!. And, the space you have allotted a staircase isn't nearly long enough. Even in Australia, I suspect there are building codes that restrict just how steep a staircase can be. Here in the U.S, for a house with eight foot (2.44 m) ceilings and 1 ft thick joists between floors, you would need a staircase run about 13 ft long (3.96 m). Anything less will result in a staircase that is too steep to meet code. Plus, even if you're not restricted by a building code, if you make the staircase steeper than about 40 degrees, it is VERY uncomfortable to use and pretty dangerous. Definitely NOT something you want to deal with in the middle of the night when trying to get the the WC! Suggest you look up the building codes in your jurisdiction and find out exactly what the staircase requirements are. Then you can do a bit of trigonometry to figure out how much linear space you need to devote to your staircase...assuming it is a straight line staircase. (BTW, please don't think that if you design a bent staircase - a U or an L or some other shape) that you can squeeze it into less space. Every bend makes the staircase take up even more room. You need to understand staircase requirements before you begin trying to design two stories and then block out the necessary staircase space first on both floors. Trying to design any two story space without knowing up front how much space must be dedicated to the staircase is an exercise in frustration.

Holy shmoly, lets see... Good points all. Nothing is particularly set in stone right now, so this is all good and workable. Let me give you a tour of the funhouse that is my head: emagineer: i like the idea of making the kitchen "U". It is short on counter space, and that would give a little more horizontal surface. I had put the sink on the south wall with a window above it (messy floor plans don't show that), but to make the top of the window even with the sliding door and still use a stock size window option, there would be no room for a backsplash, so i was thinking of moving the sink anyway. What you suggest may work out well. so, the shower area... i HATE cleaning showers, which was the impetus behind this design. I want the shower/bath area to be devoted to water and easy to clean, like with a hose and a long-handled scrub brush. I also wanted windows to let out steam and let in light. Glass blocks with mortar and an aluminum-framed vent window seemed a safe way to do this (the walls are actually insulated concrete forms, not wood, so i hope we're super safe), and the blocks will be sandblasted white glass, so it will just let in soft light. We'll have radiant floor heat, so it should stay toasty in there. The bathtub will actually be (my dream) a free-standing ofuro (deep wooden soaking tub) and i was figuring on using that spigot for a hose attachment (i am laughing at myself right now. i sound a little strange, don't i?) I put the shower room in the corner for the plumbing and the surrounding outer walls. The door into it will be like a glass shower door. The room next to it is for changing/towels/primping. If i moved it, it would be closer to the bedroom, but, well, i have this vision stuck in my head... And the separate toilet means both can be used at the same time. The toilet is pretty close to the bedroom door right now, so i think it's convenient enough. I have thought of reversing the toilet with the laundry so it could have a window, but we need to vent the dryer... I can put any window anywhere i want right now, so that's the most flexible part of all. whew! okay... rachelrachel: Well, if we made the loft a bedroom, we'd have to put in a dormer egress window, and that would add a bit to costs. Also, the vision we had was of a very open area upstairs, and bedroom walls would block things up. My husband likes (check that, LOVES) to hunt, and we've got some mounts and antlers he'd like to have up, so we're hoping the openness will allow them to be displayed, but not "in your face". Perhaps if we need to, it can be converted into a bedroom in the future, but for now, we see it as a place to read and nap. we've talked about prepping the work room floor for potential bedroom walls... perhaps some playing around with the toilet location and door and laundry and all would lend the floor plan to this a little better. We're already planning for a stackable washer/dryer. i don't really want the toilet to be right at the foot of the stairs, though, and as i was writing about earlier, i have a vision of the shower and changing room that would be hard to get rid of... do you know what i mean? Thank you for your comments! This is just the thing to stir up the pot. Keep them coming!!!

I have to chime in here because I am in the same boat as Autumn.4. We probably won't build for another year or two, but I am a stay at home mom with a little babe, and I love to cook. I even want to start a little catering business at our new house so yes-I will be cooking a lot. You really have to look at how you use your kitchen now, in the past, and in the future. It helped me to sort of narrow my choices by looking at how my cooking has evolved and what I would like to do in the future. In regards to your list though, I have to agree with some of the other posts when they said to focus on things that are not as easily replaced. In our situation we're looking at RTA cabinets ($3k total for a 10x11 kitchen with uppers). We're going to DIY soapstone and butcherblock countertops. I'm going with a 32" one door refrigerator (pull out freezer on bottom), a space in a 24" bottom cabinet for a countertop microwave (I only really use it for quick melting/reheating.) My big splurge? A DCS 36" LP 6 burner range. I will also have a 30" Electrolux wall oven in my peninsula. I am a great deal shopper and can DIY some stuff. My husband is the real handy one, but he works so I have to be able to pick and choose things I will actually be able to DIY myself or with very little help from him like on a weekend. We are building a 1500 square foot box basically. It's a very simple ranch with no bumpouts or crazy corners. It will have a finished basement, and we're building the shell very tight. Steel roof and possibly steel siding. We're looking at Marvin Integrity windows for their energy efficiency (and their 'plain' look), and wrapping the house as tight as we can. The interior stuff is where we have to save, and we're hoping to build the house around 100/square foot. I am going to act as the owner/builder. I would have to say I am an excellent bargain hunter and have supplied our current (very modest home) with upgraded appliances because they were floor models. There was nothing wrong with them-never been used and no scratches or dents-they were just floor models. Half price floor models. Then because I found all of the kitchen appliances at the same time I asked for a discount of $200 and got it. Sorry for the long post, but I was excited to see someone kind of in the same boat I'm in and wanted to share what I've found.