Have you checked out countryplans.com? They have neat small and affordable designs, and there is a great forum with friendly and helpful people. I've gotten a lot of ideas and inspiration there. It fits in nicely with the true DIY (like me) with a limited budget. Even if you design your own place, which I'm doing as well, there's a lot of good info there, and you don't have to buy their plans to post on the site. I've thought about building our place in stages, but decided I'm too old. Once my place is done, that's it! Our needs are quite different- empty-nesters nearing retirement.

I agree with Pam about the function things, but, at least where I live, having the kitchen fit the style of the house, aesthetically, will have the greatest visual appeal. Make the whole house cute! Use the original kitchen as a style cue. Sochi phrased the plea not to lose the MCM as personal--I'll extend it to the rentability. Renters want function function function since there's nothing they can do about anything. Having the whole house read as a single style makes it so much easier to furnish and live in, and makes the house make sense to the renters when they're walking through while it's empty. I've lived in a '30's beauty of a rental with an unadorned, clean '70's kitchen, which wasn't bad. It was all function, white slab cabinets, white tile, and newish appliances. The kitchen had no charm but had lots more function than the '30's kitchen would. Lots of cabinets. Separate cooktop and ovens. Garbage disposer and dishwasher. So that was fine, if unexciting. The rest of the place was really cute, and had the original hardwood floors and walk-in closets, plus original tile and huge tub in the bathroom. Then there was the early '60's place with the panelled wall in the living room, panelled den with built-ins, and pink kitchen. Original, very clean, appliances. It was cute! The whole house was cute. The original kitchen, with it's display cabinet peninsula was cute. The panelling was a bit of a gulp, but it was clean and unmarked, and went so well with the style of the house. My furniture looked just fine. And the kitchen was very functional, other than too wide an aisle. Lots of cabinets, and more in the laundry room. Okay, as a former renter? LOTS OF CABINETS!! That's the ticket to pleasing a renter. And cute. Renters want the place to look like something. Keep that MCM thing going. Anyway, slab cabinets are easier to clean between renters. :) I also have experience from the landlord perspective (including surveying the competition), which also says that closets and cabinets are worth extra $$$, but generally, you'll get your rent based on location, pleasantness of surroundings, space, upkeep and storage. Utterly bland will rent at full price. Too much character (e.g., mauve walls or anything "weird") won't rent well, but a little style with neutral colors goes a long way.

Yes the wall between living room and dining room would be eliminated so that opens it up. I agree I like the u shaped kitchen, and can use that storage underneath the cupboards there. Although the banquette in the dining room is definitely a good idea. I've rethought the bay window nook though as I wonder if it will be chilly in winter? Will have to research that. Laundry is in the basement which I don't mind I am hoping to put a laundry shoot somewhere as well. Also hoping to put in some cupboards and folding area in our laundry room downstairs. If we end up staying there a long time we might switch our master bedroom to the downstairs, once the kids are old enough. More storage would be in the basement I have included the stock plan for the basement but we will probably make some changes to that. The third bedroom upstairs is mostly for resale eventually and when we have a second child. Although I mostly see us using it as a computer room until then. As I mentioned we have a spare room in our current rental that's 8 x 11 it has a double bed in it and a desk with a computer so I know it's small and would be tight but I think we could manage. I think a loft bed is a great idea though. I want to make a toy room nook in the basement next to our living space down there so they have a place to play. My fiancé has a lot of experience doing foundation so he thinks we should push out the living room a couple of feet to make the entire house a straight rectangle. Less corners means less money in framing, foundation and drywall. So that will gain us a bit more square footage but only in the living room and entrance way. Thanks for all the advice I'm hoping by keeping the design simple we can splurge on a few things like extra windows, custom cupboards etc.

There should be a separate listing here for Living in Temporary Housing. We had hassles with our town's Building Review Board that delayed our build. Otherwise we would not have had to do temp. housing for four fun-filled months. (The hassle was illegal, but suing would have meant *two years* in temp housing while we waited for a court date. I lost 30 lbs. fighting this.) It was just DH and me and our Westie. We had a 2-BR furnished apt. with one bedroom full of furniture and boxes. The apartment above us was rented by four college boys who were living there while they worked at Great America -- late shift. There were never only four boys up there! Across the hall was the local dope dealer -- who had a competitor a few buildings away. We moved into our house and were content to live with the painters for weeks. Then we moved back out again -- to a different furnished apartment -- for a week so that the floor guy's bad hardwood job could be re-sanded and re-stained and re-poly'd. (See, you may only *think* it will be OVER!)