OK... first time all day that someone is not screaming or crying in my house. Crazy day today. Lavender- I wish I could see more pics of that kitchen. It's great. It even has the same cabinet style/color, island color, and flooring that we are planning to have in our kitchen. The 1 car garage is 15'10" wide. Is that big enough to steal space from it? I'm pretty sure we are limited by the property line restriction on the sides of the house. Our lot is 110' wide and 235' deep with untouchable natural green space in the back 1/3 of it. (100'x235' treed natural green space on the west side that is owned by the development.) Bump outs are a bit tricky because of our lot limitations. We hesitated to bump the kitchen out too much because it will limit our backyard patio and landscaping space. A lot of the odd bumps in the floorplan is because during the design process we did a 1' bump out of the kitchen, and several feet to the music room. Both rooms used to be even with the rest of the house. Lyfia- we put the master in that location of the house because of the view. :) Plus, I've never liked the idea of the master bedroom or bath being on the front of the house. Peytonroad- Thanks! Someone else pointed out the wasted space in the mudroom/powder room area. I'll have to keep thinking about that one. You all have given such great ideas and things to think about! I'm not sure if I mentioned this on this thread, but we've hired an independent architect to oversee the build. I'm meeting with her soon so that we can go over any of my concerns. This thread has been wonderful to collect ideas and issues to bring to her. Would love to hear any other ideas if you think of more. You all have been wonderful! Thanks so much!

1. Piling on regarding orientation, southern light is one of a home's top assets, depending on the situation and preferences, often in the top one or two. In summer, the hot sun will strike the east and west walls of a building (if trees don't stop it) and leave the south walls relatively unscathed so that curtains can be left open for sunny daylight to pour in. In winter, from the time the sun rises until it sets, the sun arches south, pouring welcome light and warmth in through all east-south-west facing windows and heating the walls. Thus, typically the south wall, if at all possible, and in your situation it would be, should be the longest, and the most important rooms should have southern light. East and west walls shorter, with deciduous trees planted outside them. If cold winds blow from one particular direction in in cool and cold months, the garage could be used to protect the house and perhaps a patio from those winds. It can also be placed to block an ugly view or noise or provide privacy from a close neighbor. This stuff is very important, and not just because of utility bills for a long shot. Often when people find certain homes particularly delightful, it's because of plenty of welcome sunlight pouring in from the right directions. Human beings love sunlight. We're drawn to rooms that have it and turn away from those that don't. 2. Also a biggie: That plan was NOT designed for those with the luxury of acreage. It's meant to be built on a tiny tract home lot and is full of protective limitations that are all wrong for homes with plenty of elbow room. See the no windows on both sides? That's for privacy from neighboring homes only 16-30 feet away (8-15' setbacks), but in your case it means NO sunlight or views in two of your four open and free directions. See the seldom-used rooms on the front and the active living rooms oriented to the back? The active rooms are hiding in the back of subdivision homes as a way of retreating farther from a too-close and crowded world just out the front door. What need would this serve on your land that could possibly be worth the sacrifice of what might have been? Where are your views, and, of course, your sunshine? Developers build that type of design singly in detached rows and also tack 5 or 6, or a dozen, of those together as townhome blocks. That's what it is for, and since most people build in subdivisions plan sites are crammed full of them. Keep looking!. Specifically, look at plans that are right for land-rich people like you. This is so, so, so important.

Austin, I cannot address price, but I'll provide feedback based on my own experience and research... - A pool of that size is typically bid with a single skimmer. I'd imagine two skimmers are better than one. How much better? Dunno, so I'll defer to the experts around here. - In FL, code requires 2 drains... mine are T'eed. Reason is to reduce suction thru each drain, thus reducing the possibility of someone getting stuck on a drain and drowning. - Running the grotto and cleaner at the same time? Only real reason to do that is "because you want to." :) I do not know how long the cleaner will run per day, so having the grotto off for that period of time might be a problem... grottos are much nicer to see/hear than a cleaner system. - In general, if the pump is on then the skimmer should be on. Skimmers capture surface debris. - Good call with wanting a separate line for a vacuum My personal advice: - Reconsider the in-floor cleaning system. I have a ~880 SF pool/spa, and I manually vacuum once per week. Takes no more than 1 hour tops. Yup, I do not even have a auto cleaner, but that is by choice. Save the money and put it elsewhere - Leaf Vac is a gimmick for most pools... unless you have a LOT of leaves. I lived in Tuscon for a bit. We hand no leaves. - I strongly suggest you get another quote based normal cleaning equipment (i.e. no in-floor system, plain skimmers, no Leaf Vac). Once you see what these extra "cleaning" systems will cost you, you may have second thought. I know I would. -Gorilla Here is a link that might be useful: Is this what you are referring to?

I cant stand vinyl windows personally. Id look for good, energy efficient wood windows with an aluminum or vinyl outer shell for maintenance if that makes sense. And make sure they fit flush in the space where your wood windows went, and that the gaps where the sash weights were get sealed up... Otherwise the window is just as drafty as the old one might have been. My parents recently rebuilt all their 1920s windows themselves. Took some time, but they did it one at a time, and dont have any ugly, short-lived garbage vinyl to think about. IMO original windows with good storms on over top is far better, both aesthetically from the inside and protection-wise than these new vinyl windows are.