So you have the Broan 6" MD6T and you have it unfiltered, unconditioned, and ouputting under the fridge for conditioning purposes? So you are relying on the exhaust heat of the fridge to cool the incoming air? How cold did it get this past winter for you? How cold was that make up air? Detectable at all? Here we had -20 real feel in NY with the wind chill at times. It was brutally cold and cold often. I think I might have to put in a heated MUA. So update on Broan. The lady I spoke to today was completely useless. To make a long story short she had absolutely no idea how to use the Make Up Air Specifier on her site. It was quite pathetic and my impressions of Broan's customer service = suck. I spoke to Dean at Electro Industries at length about all the factors I'm thinking about. We went over two options - one using the MA-10 (10kw all in one 10" heater with damper, blower, filter, and current detector to control blower speed) and the less expensive heater unit EM-WX1025R. The broan MD6T comes with a 24volt 20VA transformer so I could then use the one signal to turn on both the Broan damper and the heater unit. Both options unit can accomodate up to 637cfm in a 50 degree temperature rise. It's a 10kW unit though and would require a 50A or 60A two pole (240V) breaker and its own dedicated lines (of course). I can take care of the electrical so no problem there but man I'm guessing my heating bill (which was astronimical last year) will be more than I can tolerate this year. Temperature Rise Needed/CFM EM-WX1025R 10000 Watts 80/395 70/452 60/527 50/632 40/790 30/1054 MA-10 $1917 + freight EM-WX1025R $800 + freight. I think that should be sufficient - it's better to have 50 degree air coming in than 0 degree air. I'm thinking that maybe I can get away with non-heated air if I can get fresh air to come up that old supply register near the range. The opening is closer than the fireplace but it might work if I put a blower in-line as well.

Thanks guys for all your input. I've got a question out to the builder to see if I get to select the paint for the trim and doors. I would think so, but this has all been so rushed. When we wrote the contract on the house, it was technically a spec, but they were still framing out the second floor. That was two and half weeks ago. He told me last week, he's planning to go to drywall next week!! He's basically throwing all his subs on it, or almost all, I think he's only building one other house right now and its a custom job that has been going on for awhile. In order to get us in before school starts after Labor Day, he's really pushing and decisions have to come fast. To complicate everything, we're making them from out of state. Everytime he suggests something be "like the model", heck I can't even remember what the model looked like. We should have taken more pictures!! The only other new homes we've had, one was also a spec, and the cabinets were already on order. The other was a model, so it was completely done. We've never built this far from scratch. I can't even imagine trying to do it from floorplan selection and making changes to that. This is supposed to at least be the fun part, and it would if I weren't out of state. *sigh* deep breaths....deep breaths.... *end rant*

OutsidePlaying - thank you!!! I think you're absolutely right - I have dragged in a few random chairs from around the house and the lower backs are the key - I was trying to create cozy with the bigger chairs (they ARE very comfy) however the lower chairs in place now make all the difference - I will make sure whatever chairs I end up with will keep this in mind (I'm also debating benches on each side and lower (!) comfy captain-style chairs on the ends)

Such a nice space. What are your needs? Are the window treatments strictly decorative? Do you need to protect furniture and rugs from the sun? Do you need privacy? I think you can use different treatments to differentiate rooms but I do think plantation shutters look best when they are used through the whole house. They have a lot of visual weight and I think it helps to make the room look balanced when they are used on all the windows. And since I am OCD, I also like to consider how my window treatments will look when facing the front of the house. I wouldn't worry about curtain panels just yet. You'll be adding rugs, furniture and art which will add different textures to the room. If you decide you'd like panels you can easily add them at a later time.