Hi PIF! You specifically asked for my feedback but I do hope you'll understand that because mid-century modern/Scandinavian is about as far off as one can get from my favorite house style which is turn of the century folk Victorian. Thus I don't consider myself qualified to make any comments about the aesthetics of your design and we're just going to have to agree to disagree about what is beautiful when it comes to houses. LOL! That said, I'm happy to offer you my comments regarding functional issues. First off, you mentioned that in a few years you may become foster parents and/or possibly adopt additional children. Many of the children in the foster care system are special needs children so if you're serious about becoming foster parents, you may want to make certain that your home is wheel-chair accessible. For a wheel-chair bound child, accessibility would probably mostly mean having doorways that are wide enough to get thru (minimum 32"), hallways that are wide enough for a wheel-chair to make a 90 degree turn when needed, a bathroom with accessible fixtures and enough clear floor space to turn a wheel-chair around in (5'diameter circle), and an entry door without steps. I can't see the details on your drawing well enough to make out the widths of your doorways but none of your bathrooms look like they would be accessible. You might want to modify at least one of them to make it accessible. You do have a nice long space between the carport and the front door so even if you have several steps up to the front door you should have plenty of room to build a ramp if you ever need one. Anyway, I thought I'd mention it because if/when you become foster parents, I'm sure you wouldn't want to have to turn a needy child away b/c your home won't accommodate his wheelchair. Accessibility issue aside, I applaud your desire to go "green" but you might want to do a bit more reading on passive solar design. I think you may have gone a bit overboard on the amount of glass that you have facing towards the south. South-facing windows are good but TOO MUCH south-facing glass can turn your home into an oven. I have family in NC and spent many summers there as a child. What I recall are long terribly HOT summers. Depending on the altitude of your land, it might not get quite as hot where you are as I remember it being down around Wilmington. Still I'm fairly certain that your dining room (with it's south facing windows AND sliding patio doors on both the east and west sides) is going to be unbearably hot. We had a friend up in Maine with a south-facing sun room very similar to your dining room design. Her sun room sometimes got uncomfortably hot when there was still snow on the ground outside! If you haven't already done so, you might want to contact the NC Solar Center (on the NCSU campus in Raleigh). I believe they offer design assistance for those wanting to build passive solar homes. If not they ought to at least be able to put you in touch with local passive solar experts who can advise you on just what percentage of glazing to square footage would be optimal for your area. Okay, now for some specific floor plan issues. 1) The walk-in closet in the master bedroom is pretty much a space-waster. It is too small to put hanging rods or shelves anywhere except on the back wall so you won't get any more use out of it than you would a reach-in closet but it takes up twice the square footage. And, while you indicate that this closet is also the "safe room", I'm not sure what you mean by that term. A place to protect you and your family from severe weather? Or a place for you and your family to retreat in the event of a home invasion? In either case, sliding "bypass" closet doors such as you've shown won't do you much good. Those things tend to pop off their sliders if bumped wrong so that closet probably wouldn't be of much use in a hurricane or tornado and would be of no help at all in the event of a home invasion. If you're on relatively high ground where flooding is not a concern, you would be far better off to dig an old style "root cellar" next to your home for tornado/hurricane protection. 2) I understand the concept of the sliding "barn door" for the playroom/schoolroom but I don't see any place for the barn door to slide to when you want the room open. You have another door in the hallway that is in the way of the door sliding to the left and it looks like you're planning to have a bookcase that would be in the way on the right. So, where is the barn-door going to slide to? 3) Having two doors into the playroom/classroom limits the amount of closet space you can have. If you want that room to have access to the bath without having to go out into the "public" portion of the hallway, why not swap the bathroom fixtures to the other wall and then put a pocket door between the playroom/classroom and bathroom? I'm not a big fan of J&J bathrooms but it seems like a better option than wasting space that could be used for a closet on a second door out to the hallway. 4) Are you really sure you want all those windows in your showers? Are they going to be "glass brick" or regular windows with opaque glass of some sort? With regular windows, sloping the interior sill and waterproofing the window surround will be crucial to keep water from the shower from getting into the wall. 5) I don't quite understand the bookcase walls you have dividing the living room from the flex room. Are you thinking floor to ceiling bookcases INSTEAD of walls? If so, I'd be concerned about things. First, this creates an awfully long stretch (from kitchen to edge of the porch) right down the center of your house with nothing to support to roof above. In long skinny houses such as you've designed, typically there is an interior LOAD-BEARING wall running parallel to the roof-ridge near the center of the house. In other words, the very wall that you've removed half of probably needs to be a load bearing wall. You definitely need to talk to an engineer but I suspect you would need at least one or two support columns. 6) If that circle next to the washer/dryer represents a water heater, you need to arrange for access to it. I suspect that code may require that water heaters be accessible but even if it doesn't, if/when you need to replace your water heater, do your REALLY want to have to completely remove your washing machine in order to reach your water heater? 7) Your masterbath toilet room looks like it might be too small. Minimum interior width of a toilet room (required by code) is 30". That is wall to wall. And I think code requires 24" of standing room between the front edge of the bowl and the wall. 8) Entry into the master shower looks pretty cramped. I do hope some of this is helpful. Good luck with completing your design and building the home of your dreams.

Have friend who was redoing her kitchen--she likes blue and for while throught she might try Labrador Blue but much too strong a color to go with the other colors in her open kitchen/breakfast/den... she went with uba tuba green (the verde was too expensive). She has white cabinets and tile flooring and wanted very little movement... she thought about Kashmire Gold but with white cabinets and tile her daughter told her it was too bland... We bought granite to put into house we own and were getting ready to sell...thought with the market so dead 3-4 yrs ago even more than low price having upgraded kitchen and baths would be better selling point... so I picked NVG to go with medium dark oak cabs (original) and a light tan new larger format tiles, and tan walls...they look good but they are not striking...that kitchen as no long runs except for bar counter behind sink and it is not really focal point of kitchen.... thought in THAT kitchen having a strong pattern was more distraction and jumpy look...so went with NVG... in MY house with a long raised counter top behind sink and long island a more dramatic pattern would have been good focal point...but I didn't get to make the choice.... so it is not just what the colors are of the elements...but also the "runs" of the countertops you will have... short, broken runs separated by appliances or cabinets to me says use a less dramatic, more even pattern for several reasons....but I am not kitchen designer or artist... I bet your choice will be great---but I do see your point about building a kitchen around the Lapidus...I loved that pattern when I was shopping...

Another couple of thoughts, FWIW. All of your "social spaces" are facing north or east, while your bedroom is facing south and west, the hottest part of the house. Personally, I like to sleep cool, and have my living areas warm and sunny. You could do this simply by flipping the plan. That way your kitchen, dining room, and living room are getting sun, and some sun should penetrate all the way into the "hearth area" in the winter. If you eliminate that back hall and turn it into closets for the master bedroom, you can make the master bath and the office bigger. The office could then have a seating area, and serve as an "away room" a la Susanka and Chris Alexander. I would center the fireplace on the living room wall-- just plunking it down anywho will not look good. The big opening between the kitchen and the hallway needs development-- if it's just a wide cased opening, it will need a lot of support. One thing you probably don't want is a huge beam there that is lower than the rest of the doors and windows-- in a traditional design, most of the windows, doors, cased openings, wainscots, etc. will "coordinate" and harmonize with each other. To achieve that effect here, you could break up the wide opening with columns, or even columns and half-walls. I can't see any good reason for a wall between the cubbies and the laundry. It's really one big mudroom, and that extra wall costs money, even though it serves no real purpose. Personally, I hate the sound of HVAC/HW etc. so I would never put that stuff near a bedroom or office, where you are presumably trying to concentrate on some brain work. Nor would I put it in the garage, unless the garage is heated and you have a backup generator, because you don't want the pipes to freeze. In some jurisdictions, you can't put that stuff in a garage anyway, or only under strict rules. it's a safety issue. Why not build a small storm cellar, which should come in handy during the next tornado, and put your mechanicals down there?

Well how nice to be called an angel today! Made my day. The soapstone does not have any green in it- charcoal grey with caramel & white veining. I chose it for the color but it is VERY soft. The scratches kind of go with the age of the house so I don't sweat it too much but it does chip very easily. I had a much harder variety in another house that did have more of a green tint to it. Love the drain runnels for both looks and practicality- since the sink wasn't centered under the window we did the runnels to offset the imbalance. The glass doors open to a walk-in pantry and access to the AC behind the fridge/micro run. I think that door is new but previous owner installed it so not sure- the glass is frosted to hide a multitude of sins. The front of the house was built in 1924 and the addition (in 2000) starts right around where the sunflowers are on the counter. Previous owners added a family room and back staircase down and master up. We used Pale Oak throughout the downstairs and second floor landing. It's a great neutral color. It looks more taupe than grey in my house but is chameleon like. I would definitely get a sample, paint it on a poster board and try it in different places in your house. It offers just enough contrast between trim and walls. Hope your reno goes well- I'm always jealous when I hear someone starting a renovation, then I think back to the reality!