Thank you for finding that old post Autumn! I was going to look for it myself when I read the title of this current posting. My biggest concern with the transition between our family room & kitchen was having the ability to paint the 2 rooms different colors (if I ever decided I wanted to do that.) That's why we had the column added. All your feelings are normal Laura! You will 2nd guess almost every decision, but for the most part it will all come together nicely and you'll be happy with your home! In looking at your floor plan - I think it would be nice to do molding above your opening as in the Houzz photo you posted. (Not sure what type of molding you're doing around your windows and door frames, but that room opening would follow in the same style as the rest of your doors/windows. I wanted to do that on mine, but we had a corner smack dab next to the right of our opening and a light switch to work around so we decided against trimming it out. This post was edited by downsy on Mon, Jan 28, 13 at 19:10

Ceiling drywall is usually installed on 5/8" or 3/4" thick strapping in order to level it. It is not necessary to determine the exact stair riser heights, only that they will not be greater than allowed by code or needed for comfort; the stair builder will field measure the floor to floor height and divide by the number of risers specified to get the true riser height. In your case it appears that the floor to floor height would be slightly greater than 10 ft. so if the code limits the riser height to 7 3/4" (check your code) you will need 16 risers slightly taller than 7.5" and 15 treads at 10" which is a total horizontal run of 12'-6" from the face of the first riser to the face of the last riser. If those code limits are accurate, you could raise or lower the upper floor by 3" and not change the total length of the stair so you might as well leave the final determination of these dimensions to your "official architect".

You need an architect. Preferably one local to your build. You've succumbed to the usual amateur mistake of designing a floorplan, not a house.

I am doing crown in our house---with 8' ceilings. I am using 3&1/4" crown---anything wider would look top heavy in our house. I am using a simple coved crown(I will make it myself) since the decor is casual. The base molding in the house is the original simple rounded top base that is 3" high. All the woodwork is matching, stained a fruitwood color and patinaed from 45 years of age. The crown will be white, however. At least so far. I agree that the ceiling height has more to do with crown size. I just feel anything over 3&1/4" needs to be more formal or decorative. Also, chair rail in a room can allow crown to be wider/nore narrow. in many cases. Depends on the look wanted.