J de P in my yard was a disease ridden, puny mess. I found it very susceptible to BS; you might want to check with other rose growers in your area before trying it.

Do you think it might be just a natural separation of tomato solids and liquids? I sometimes get a thin layer of "different looking stuff" on top of plain canned tomatoes depending on what variety I've used. Obviously, no oil is involved :-) I just twirl the jars around after I've taken the rings off (not tilting jars) and almost always, the layer of "stuff" disappears and gets suspended back into the contents. Might be worth a try?

A 15x15 living room is pretty small but whether it is too small depends on what you plan to do with it. You mentioned that you are a family of three (with maybe one more someday) but I see a living room, a family room, and a game room. That's essentially THREE living areas. Plus you have a dedicated office. Then there are FIVE bedrooms. I won't be like some folks and try to tell you that you don't need all that space - perhaps you have lots of overnight company on a fairly regular basis or expect to have aging parents move in with you fairly soon. But, with only three people living in the house full time, it does make me wonder how you plan to use the front living room. The family room and game room should provide plenty of space for one or two children to play and the family to gather to watch TV, converse, play games, do chores, etc. The dedicated office means you shouldn't be needing the the living room as a computer space or home office. So I'm guessing the living room will mostly be a "show piece" that gets little or no use. And in that case, 15 x 15 is plenty big. What I see missing from the floor plan is any sort of mud-room area. I also don't really like the location of the downstairs powder room and the garage looks too small to park two full-sized vehicles. For comfort, your garage needs to be at least 4 ft longer than your longest automobile and it needs to be wide enough to give you two feet of clearance on the sides and between the two vehicles. Otherwise you're constantly brushing your clothing up against a vehicle when you try to get in/out. And, if there are any steps down into the garage, you need extra space around the steps so that you don't have to park with your bumper over the bottom step. I also don't like front-facing garages that nose out in front of the house because it tends to make the garage more prominent (noticeable) than the house. Makes it look like you built a garage with an attached house instead of a house with an attached garage. The proverbial GARAGEhouse. If your lot is small and you have no options except a front facing garage, I would at least want the architect to push the garage back so that the house is closer to the front of the lot than the garage. I'd also rethink having the master bedroom over the garage. Anyone sleeping in the bedroom over the garage is likely to hear the garage door open/close. I'd see if there wasn't some way to move the game room to the spot over the garage and put the master bedroom in a quieter location.

I'm not accustomed to making the final payment until the job is done to my satisfaction. Once the job is 100% paid for, it seems to be VERY difficult to get anyone to come back to do anything. Just my experience.