We read a little more of the contract, and discovered that the builder is planning that the walkout end of the basement is framed, rather than poured...hence the need for some kind of siding... So...in the words of Emily Litella, "Never mind."

I always see "daylight basement" and "walkout basement" used as interchangeable terms. Because of this, I think the expectation by most people will be that there is a normal-sized door to the outside, and larger-than-typical windows in the basement. This is how my walkout basement is set up, and it creates a number of possibilities which would be appealing to buyers. We can finish off a bedroom, we can finish off other rooms which will have a lot of natural light, we can create a patio directly outside the basement door, etc.. Right now we use the basement entrance all the time to directly access the back yard. MAYBE your realtor can technically call it a walkout basement, but as others have mentioned, it won't meet the expectations of most people. My realtor wanted to overstate features in my house and it was something I absolutely didn't want to get into.

@brickeyee and nc- both good points! Thank you for challenging my thinking. I'm definitely starting to see this more from a business perspective. We've lowered the price once so far- she suggested it, but I thought it was overdue, honestly. But she's the professional, so we feel like we should let her decide when we need to change things up- that's why we hired her, after all. I would like to take charge (that's my nature), but I don't want to mess her strategy up. @kirkhall- we're in one of those really weird areas where you can't really find a good comp. We're in a county that's kind of split in two- on one side is the postage-stamp neighborhoods, with shopping and amenities that all the relocating families flock to.......and on the other is a very rural, farming community with a fantastic school and low-to-no inventory (which is where I live). So basically what I'm saying is, we have no true comps to visit! :) If you're looking at our market competition, there's only one other house for sale in a 2 mile radius around ours, and there's no comparing the two. So when you do a search for houses in our price range, you see mine mixed in with all the others from the other side of the county (we're all in the same "city", postal wise). So, yes, our house is over priced when you look at the MLS without knowing the specifics. But someone (REA) who knows the area will know that our house is in a very different area from the others, and not a fair comparison. It's a tough situation! When we interviewed the realtors, they all brought different "comps" and their recommended listing prices were spread out from $235 to $255. We went with the one in the middle and listed at $245. It's starting to look like maybe they were all over pricing our house......

Great ideas! New eyes looking through different lenses really helps. Aloha2009 - Thank you for the island thoughts. I had seen your current layout thread. After your comment, I went back and paid closer attention to the advice you were getting. Almost makes me think about putting the cooktop in front of the window instead of the sink. We probably could buy a hood for what it was going to cost the replace the window because a 48" bay is not a standard size. I'll be interested to learn what you decide. Tracie.erin - Thank you, too, for the GREAT idea about making the cooktop side of the island 30". We could steal some of the space from the aisle (make it 39") and some from the open space between the kitchen and FR (reduce it to 42"). The only problem with moving the refrigerator is size: it requires a 36" by 36" space. That's 12" deeper than the wall oven cabinet. Also, I think the layout, though to scale, makes it look further away than it is IRL. You are absolutely right that it's a hike to and from the cooktop. But it's only 48" from the current baking area to the center of the refrig. The baking area top is a good landing spot, both for putting away groceries and for retrieving things. Moving the cooktop to the wall is intriguing. I'm concerned that it would be too close to the sink and water -- and wouldn't allow much space on either side of the cooktop, since we only have 162" along the back wall before we run into the dining area windows and baseboard heater. Finally, about the second sink. I'm not being precise with language. I've labeled it a "prep sink." But what I really want is a second sink for coffee making, for getting a drink of water -- to keep those sorts of activities out of the way of the person doing the cooking or prepping or cleaning. A second sink that also put water closer to the baking area would be a bonus. Again, thanks to you both for the ideas and the time to consider alternative layouts.