In Australia and many places in Europe this second floor drain is a most and required by their countries "Plumbing Code". I think these second drains should always be used with a channel drain / curbless shower installation. I reviewed this subject with my local plumbing inspector and he informed me that a plumbing system designed and built properly to code does not need the second drain to pass inspection. "But is it a good idea?" I think so. David's concealed drain the most applying concept to me so far! - buried under the vanities kick or deep behind a free standing or floating piece (a second channel drain up tight to the baseboard?). Some of the options for designer drains available through California Faucets are amazing - all the top bathroom shops carry them. This second drain and fail safe would offer up better protection if a clog caused by blocked hair, wash cloth, foot, toys ("Little People & their stuff") went unnoticed in the Peak of Play Time. There are issues with priming this second drain line and many was of doing just that - have a ticketed plumber help you with the lay out to be approved by city hall. My kids bathroom floor is heated and I slopped this floor a hair so dripping water would not sit up against the tub base and baseboards (Wood). If a drip or slow leak happen I hope this will bring it out to the center of the room for us to notice and repair. I designed my daughters vanity piece to have 6 drawers, 2 sinks and an open back to work on and service the plumbing connections. In my en-suite I will rip up the floor and follow David's advice on a concealed back up drain. This second drain will cause my curbless shower to have compound angles so I'm thinking we should look at a 4"x4" tile or smaller for the floor. More work.... Safer.... Nice.... Perfect.

MeenaJo- Welcome to the homebuilding process & GW!! The value of your home will be based on the appraisal. The amount the bank will loan you will also be based on this value. Any cash/out of pocket funds you put into in the house up to the total appraised value will count toward your down payment or equity. Any cash/out of pocket funds over and above that amount will not be counted toward your downpayment or equity. Most banks require you to put your funds in first before you can take your first draw. If at the end of construction you actually come in under budget on the build you can generally pull that extra equity back out of the house at closing. Double check with your lender on their rules regarding PMI--most require 20% equity/downpayment to avoid it. Hope this helps!

Thanks so much everyone for the kind words. Finding a place to bounce ideas off of will really be helpful in reassuring me of my choices. And thanks so much to those who took the time to post some additional photos! I really like a couple of those granites as well, might have to take a look at them in person. All in all - I still love my stove (purchased 6 yrs ago) but don't necessarily want to play up the blue. A big factor to redoing the kitchen is the matching fridge gave out so I had to purchase another one. I am also not thrilled with my Bosch dishwasher that has a matching panel so it too will be replaced. This is an old picture - amazing how my tastes have changed!! Since my husband passed away I have completed many home projects that we planned together, front porch (my favorite by far!), guest bath, garage (2nd favorite), breezeway, and exterior landscaping/gardening. All these things keep me busy and while so good to see the results, it's very bittersweet. Thanks again for the warm welcome!

Mmmm, nice visual with that oats analogy, John. ;-p I've got a layout now. I was working through all the load calculations by hand in figuring out where the piers needed to go, how thick the beams and joists needed to be, etc. when I saw an offer on decks.com. $100 gets you a deck design. That was hard to pass up, so I bit the bullet, and 24 hours later I've got them in hand (how cool is that?). It's bare bones, no 3D rendering or anything, but it did my engineering calcs for me, so I'm a happy camper. Here's my excel mock-up, showing some of the detail. Here's the framing plan and the pergola plan. The left portion is about 15x20 and pergola'd. The upper right portion is about 10x20 and pergola'd. (this is west-facing). The bottom right is just benched, with a fire pit planned. Decking is going perpendicular to the house so I can use full boards and avoid butt joints. Any input welcome, as to our layout and any issues you potentially see with construction.