Thanks for the compliment on the hardwood. It's actually bamboo. It's the Java Fossilized bamboo from Calibamboo. I think I'm there first residential install on the east coast. This stuff is absolutely gorgeous and I love it so much so far. We've been in the house a few weeks, just haven't had a chance to update the pics. I can tell you, whatever you decide to go with will be the right thing for your family. Facing the disability with my husband, and having it be very real and in our face forced us to look at some very real issues. We have a 12yo daughter. It spurred us to decided to go 100% handicapped accessible. My husband couldn't stand the thought of a future time when my daughter might need him in some part of the house, and he couldn't get there to help her. The idea of her sick with fever throwing up in the only non-wc accessible bathroom as he sat in the chair outside trying to comfort her...or having a nightmare as he tried to make corners to get to her bedroom. We knew that at age 12 there wouldn't be too many more of those times, but grandchildren will come one day.... He couldn't live with those thoughts... so we made the whole house accessible. Today a paraplegic could move into our house with access to all but the basement, and we are 100% ready to pop in the elevator as the shaft is prebuilt. However, if he did not have MS...and we only had our minor mobility issues and those of guests to think of...our decision might have been totally different. My inlaws built 100 feet from us on the same 17acres. They both have serious mobility issues. They lowered the switches, raised the toilets, raised the outlets and made the master wc accessible. The other bedrooms and second bath however are not accessible at all. At their age, and with their only surviving child and grandchild living next door...the money just wasn't justified. My grandparents, both just shy of 90 on the other hand are living quite happily in their 2 story home. Nana is blind, Grampa has COPD and a heart condition and needs oxygen frequently. They both can still walk, if a bit unsteadily and refuse any changes. On bad days Grampa sleeps on the sofa downstairs instead of heading up. I just wanted to give you a bit of generational prospective from my family....thought it might help. Laney Here is a link that might be useful: Calibamboo for flooring

Appreciate the info on the Deckstone, I like how the tiles look and the materials sound so much better than composite deck materials. Never understand the logic of putting material that would rot or go bad into a product for exterior use, like putting wood in the composite wood, and those masonite sidings that had paper in it? It is like waiting for disaster to happen. Tried to figure out if 'regular' exterior tiles weight less than Deckstone, and found this site:http://www2.daltile.com/exteriors.cfm. It lists a lot of choices just not able to get the info of the weight per sq.ft. like Deckstone has listed. John made some excellent points, I would need steel frame for a concrete deck. That would be costly. I am leaning on tiling the deck. So far after talking with two contractors, I basically had to redo the decking to hold the extra weight of the tiles. I am waiting for my handyman to come and confirm the cost and whether he is comfortable to do it or not. I think he is pretty honest to let me know his comfort level. I will let you know how that goes. If you find anything else please let me know.

I've done this for a cottage and a garage loft on the Cape and two second floor additions for cottages on a lake in Maine. First make sure the upper floor joists are adequate. they are usually sized to only support a ceiling. Measure the span, spacing and size of the members and let us know. Then you need to draw the floor plan carefully to scale. For the stairs, measure the floor to floor height in inches (including any flooring changes), divide by 8.25" then round up to the nearest whole number of risers. Subtract one from this number to get the number of treads. Multiply this by 9" and convert to feet & inches which is the total length of the stair not counting the landing dimensions top and bottom. Assume the stair will be 3 ft wide and the landings 3ft x 3 ft. It is also possible to use an alternating tread stairway which cuts the stair length in half but might be difficult for small children to climb. If the upper floor area is under the eaves of the roof rafters it is a good idea to put as much of the stair as possible in the low ceiling area and have it rise as the roof increases in height. That may be difficult to do on the lower level but give it a try. It helps if there is a hall or entry foyer available so you can enter the stair without creating another hall space. A stair that turns 90 degrees half way up sometimes fits better in the lower level plan but it takes up considerably more space on both floors. Beadboard paneling is available in 4x8 sheets for paint and in 3/8" thick t&g pine strips for clear finish.

The need for Circulation paths depends on the layout. A fat wide design usually needs more paths inserted than a shallower home with an organizing axis of a central hallway. Circulation paths aren’t negatives. They are important connectors. A poor design, that’s wide and fat, forces meandering circulation paths through rooms, taking away from their size and purpose, instead of through distinct connecting rooms. That is what a good hallway is: a room that connects other rooms. A bad hallway is one that’s not direct, not wide enough, and only connects a few spaces. A 20’ hall to the master needs to have other rooms along the corridor, or it’s not the best it could be. It doesn’t have enough connectivity, enough multi purpose. Halls as a % isn’t a good metric. Assess connectivity. Assess the percentage of a room that is lost by having traffic through it rather than a separate hall. Assess how the room design addresses the non hall path through it. We see bad connector paths frequently in great rooms where a wall has a fireplace centered on the room. But because of a traffic path going through a room, the furniture can’t center on the fireplace, or traffic is blocked. If you create the fireplace off center, the visual balance is disturbed, and it never looks quite right. That’s a case that a distinct hallway might help to balance out things, since that space can never be used for anything else but traffic.