TheBobo: Thanks for the input. It's not as idiosyncratic as it appears, for small town New Mexico. You have 14 risers in the stairway before the fold back and a total of 22. This would make this a...12 foot ceiling? Seems way overkill for a small space. The staircase design was driven by two requirements: Tread depth sized for the owner's size 14 shoes and clearance for a 6'4" human where the top floor crosses the stairwell. That, combined with the desired landing size and the NM code for rise/run results in nearly 12 foot ceiling in the lower floor if the staircase doubles back. The upside to that is that we can have ceiling fans and chandeliers without the owner risking scalp wounds. It's a real help in hot weather. The pantry is the same size as the kitchen. Do you really need it that big? Yes. It's a small town 1.5 hours from the nearest Costco or Trader Joe's so we will be making infrequent shopping trips and buying in bulk. Wine, flour, paper goods, detergent, cat food, canned goods, etc. will be stored there. By putting the bulk of the storage in a utility area, we minimize the amount of finish cabinetry needed. It can have painted pine open shelving instead of the custom mesquite stuff I want for the kitchen. It's a huge cost savings. The powder room is directly visible from the living area. Yes, it is. With the constraints of "must be accessible without nose-powderers getting in the way of the cook or going through a bedroom" that's the only place it can go. If the door is wide open, you can see the sink and from one area, the front half of the toilet bowl peeking out of its niche. So it's going to have to be REALLY pretty just in case the door is open. The living/dining space is more than twice as wide as it is long, which will give it the feel of a hallway. We debated and dumped the idea of separate LR and DR areas and went with the "open" American Foursquare plan, where the combined LR/DR runs the full width of the house. It's like a typical Mexican Colonial "sala" (living/dining room) that is meant to have furniture moved around for events, and has the traffic along one wall from entry to stairs and kitchen. The neighbors across from our current NM house - in an 1880 or so adobe - have an amazing 14x40 sala with 15-foot ceilings down one side of their house. This is the concept: http://media-cache-ec5.pinterest.com/550x/60/38/77/6038770800a92560cb1beb4261e83662.jpg http://media-cache-ec5.pinterest.com/550x/60/38/77/6038770800a92560cb1beb4261e83662.jpg It's serving triple duty - dining area near the kitchen, living room chat area in the middle, and a small reading/chat area near the front windows. With 12-foot ceilings, vigas going across the short dimension, big rugs and well-scaled furniture set mostly across the short dimension it's should avoid the bowling alley look. As you enter and turn right, you can see down the long dimension through french doors to the veranda into the south garden ... or you can look across the short dimension into the east garden through the windows. We're still discussing windows VS french doors on that side. ============================= GreenDesigns: Do you have specific design solutions to offer, or is your "not gonna work" reaction your final word? Not gonna be accessible at all. You're not leaving enough room for that. What is "that" and where do you think "that" needs more room? If you have a specific area that falls short, please let me know. Pocket doors take walls that are twice as thick and take space from your rooms. No, there is a hardware/frame combo for standard 2x4 walls. At worst it takes a 2x6 framing. Minimizing sound transmission is easy if you build it correctly. It's just applied acoustics. They are a poor solution to a problem that should get solved another way. What are your suggestions for the problem of eventual handicapped access and the desire to eliminate wasted door swing area? I'm afraid that the only thing that I see working about the plan is to have all 4 sides have porches on them. That works in a cooling climate, although it will rob the interior of any natural light and you will need to pay extra attention to the lighting plan. It's in New Mexico - 320-340 sunny days a year, even when its cold, and dry temps in the 95-105 in the summer. "Portales" (wide arcades over walkways and patios) are the rule, not the exception. It's comfortable being outside almost all year if you can get into or out of the sun as needed, and walking into a cool, dark house is a blessed relief in the summer. Skylight over the staircase, aerogel light panels (should count as walls, not against our precious window allotment) in some "windows", transoms, whatever they call the traditional small windows near the ceilings in Pueblo architecture, and 10-foot windows under the veranda should help.

your mother would live in the room(s) over the garage? think about if it would be or would become difficult for her to climb stairs. most folks I work with that plan future rooms over garage (frog's) go ahead and do the electrical plumbing & sheetrock as it is cheaper while these trade are onsite building main house. also think about wider doors ..36" for walker or wheelchair acessability. these rooms and rooms in attic are often hard to heat and cool. this is because they are essentially located in the hottest/coldest part of the house..the attic. hot/cold air is on all sides, top and bottom of these areas so they should be better insulated and air sealed than exterior walls where temps are not as extreme. walls should be insulated and sealed with foam/foil boards to exterior of wall in attic..to stop air movement, temp transfer and to reflect heat back into attic space. sole plates sealed to flooring, recessed lights air tight. planning on how to heat/cool at this stage is also a good idea. sites like southface inst, florida solar energy center and bulding science will show diagrams of thermal/air boundries these are very helpful in defining where & what types of insulation to use, and where and what type of air sealing should be done. make sure that you view info for your climate best of luck.

The response to this incident has been much different on this forum than I have heard from anyone else:old neighbors, new neighbors, our kids' co-workers, etc. I really appreciate the different perspective from those who do not know either of us personally. I know that I have looked at this totally for all the grief it caused us then, and since. However, I do not understand why my saying that I would just like to move on--lots more important and earth shaking stories, and interesting, ones--makes me self-righteous, revengeful, nasty, and ugly. I have no control if some of you want to continue to debate this, and tell me how wrong I am, but I do think I have a right to say that I am done, and ready to move on. In spite of the fact that some of the posts were quite personally attacking, I don't feel that I was cruel, or personal, in my responses.i am sorry if anyone felt that I was.

Phoggie- I keep running into this plan, when I look up french country kitchens :) Anyway, I thought I'd link it for you...if you don't want a tub, it would be easy to put in a bigger shower with the toilet, and have the current toilet space increase the size of the mechanical room. I would make the laundry area larger, with the sink and more pantry space. This would give you work space on both sides...and easy access to the mechanical room. The garage could have the doors facing the front...and it could be two or three car size. I like the covered back deck, you have the dining room for your bigger table (could add a few feet on the front if necessary) and your nook would be a great breakfast/sunroom space! The kitchen has a really BIG island! The second bedroom could be the office and the guest room would have views out the back. I would put bigger windows looking out the back, from the master bedroom, with the small windows and bed on the 'west' wall. I like this plan...and I don't think you'd need the complicated roof lines. It's basically a rectangle with a garage on the front. A little front porch would be easy to add on, too. If my recommended changes aren't clear (and no one comes along to draw a much prettier house plan) I'll break out the white out and give it a try! LOL Here's the plan, with the link below, having more information. Hope it gives you some good ideas! It's 1800 square feet :) Here is a link that might be useful: Link to houseplan