If you have or will have pets as well as kids, definitely buy a steam cleaner == probably $200-300 and well worth it. As one who recently installed wood, I wanted to point out that your options for wood flooring will never be greater than they are in a new build. Now, you builder might want to limit what they do or charge you a lot more for upgrades, but at least in theory, you will never again have as many options for types of installation, price, etc. Later on, you are stuck with the foundation, transitions and other factors. I couldn't put down the kind of solid floor I would have loved -- I was limited to engineered floors. If your foundation is not the same under the carpet, you could have issues if you want to later put hardwood in your family room. My utility room and bathroom tile were set in place, so the flooring has to match or transition to them. Rugs don't have to double your flooring cost -- we have bought 5 cine we put down the wood floors, ranging from $49 for a hall rug to $135 for a room sized wool rug on clearance at Marshall's and about $300 each for a couple of room sized rugs at Macy's. I know some folks use outdoor rugs inside, but they would not be soft for little ones sitting or playing on them. I have heard that some folks use polypropylene rugs and hose them down. I have a couple, they are very soft, but I have not cleaned them yet. The synthetic fibers should be easy to clean though -- and much easier than carpet fixed in place over a pad as pointed out. Anyway, I wish we had installed the wood when we bought the house (some of the wood replaced tile that was not properly patched in our kitchen remodel and some replaced carpet we installed and didn't wear well). If I ever had the opportunity to install wood from the get go, no doubt I would. Keep in mind that your builder and real estate agent will not live there and will not have to deal with making changes later. The only negative that matters in my mind is your DH and I would look at that is something for the two of you to talk about. Listening to other people about what you want can be an expensive mistake. I am sensitive to that right now because I let DH talk me into trim paint I didn't want twice (pick your battles) and we are redoing it all now because of those. More time than money in this case, but still....

jynxed - Your home sounds like it's going to be beautiful with your new window treatments. And I can't wait to see the pictures. sallymo - You're the greatest. Thanks for the visuals. It really helps me a lot. I agree that the black might be too strong in the living room. There are eight total windows in there. Check out the picture below. Plus, I'm thinking of doing panels for privacy, versus valances alone. I think it would be great if I could get touches of red in the fabric for the great room to accent the kitchen area. caroleoh - I love your colors. Your tastes are a lot like mine. Is your kitchen valance the cuffed top pattern by Pate Meadows? That's exactly what I had in mind for my kitchen as well. Les - We don't have any furnishings in the great room that we'll be keeping. The stuff we have (a microfiber couch, love seat, and two end tables) don't go well with the decor and have been well used. So at some point, we'll need new furniture. You're right about the fabric matching and that it's better to choose the furniture first. So that's another whole ball of wax. I'm just wondering if it's okay to go ahead with the window covering fabrics in the kitchen now, or if I should wait on that too, until we figure out the living room furniture situation. We don't plan to buy furniture until probably next year. I love the caldwell espresso. We probably need panels in the living room because privacy is an issue at night. There are a total of eight windows in the room (3 singles by the fireplace, 4 connected toward the opposite end of the room from the fireplace, and one more on the long wall, also toward the front of the house). Here is the wall toward the front of the house, opposite from the fireplace:

I think all dark walls would be awesome! In fact DS1 was helping pick a shade of deep blue for a decorating project and he went directly to a SW chip that I had called Sea Serpent and and called it the color of outer space. The other color that he liked was BM Polo Blue (the one we're going w/) which is a deep navy, almost black color. It will be on the top quarter of our DR walls and ceiling. I've never really gone for the whole accent wall. A deep blue almost black w/ white trim in a light filled room would look killer! This is also coming from a person who does not mind painting though. Deep colors take lots of coats if you don't use a tinted primer and vice verse if you decide to take it lighter later. Love Spitfires idea about the room being a space ship looking out into space! DS1 & DS2 have a different themed room of transportation but they do have tin planes, helicopters and a zepplin hanging fromn the ceiling. These pics are old and I've transitioned it into a big boy bedroom now (they are 3 & 6) but the planes are still on the ceiling. Proper planning is key to being able to transition it through his growing and changing tatses over the yrs. One cool idea that DS1 came up w/ last yr. after we made Halloween costumes was to take a leftover box, cut off 2 flaps opposite each other and paint it grey. He put spaceship markings on it in marker and glued leftover Wawa hot dish cups on the bottom outside of the box. They got painted grey too. These were the ships boosters. We crumpled up orange and red tissue paper and stuffed inside the cups to look like flames shooting out. We tacked it onto the ceiling. The 2 box top flaps that we left on were the wings. Now they're into antique British sports cars and the Beatles (every Sunday they listen to Lunch w/ the Beatles on the radio). They want British and American flags over their beds and a deep navy blue ceiling becuase they still love all things sky related. I'm sure that I'll have blue paint leftover from the DR so I bet they get their wish.

I love how her room is coming along! It's fun,sophisticated, and entirely appropriate. The wood tones fit in really well. I didn't go into my personal experience with letting children choose their decor, but overall my attitude is that they should have choice within a set of parameters; I have boys who are not highly opinionated and my decor style is not highly feminine.