Thank you all for your comments (except for vhehn - seriously, if you want to tell me I'm an idiot (or, conversely, that you are the smartest person in the world), why hide it, just tell me you think I'm a moron and be done with it. You don't know me, and you assume that I'm throwing away perfectly good (and hard-earned, mind you) money because I'm a d*mb*ss. If gloating in front of someone who's down is the way you roll, I'm so glad I don't know you in person.) - 15 hours after the initial discovery of "OMG, it's happened again" (and the resulting pit in our stomaches), our anger and sadness has mellowed a bit, abut we're both intent on salvaging this situation in a professional and drama-free manner. I probably haven't chewed on the situation enough, but after digesting your comments and putting all the pieces together, I'm inclined to do the following: 1) wait for her response (except I really really really want/need to know if we submitted, and/or if we're submitting on Monday, omg......), 2) unless there's a fantastic reason why Friday didn't go as agreed, request an off-site coffee meeting with the architect and synthesize your comments in to a conversation that says, basically: look, we think you're a really talented architect [she is!], but it's clear you're extremely busy, and maybe too busy to devote the type and timing of attention on our project that we need. It's causing us a lot of unnecessary stress and heartburn, especially this early in what we know will be a stressful year and a half [between the rest of planning and the build]. We see a couple of good solutions: a) now that you know how difficult the slipping of schedule has been on not only the timing of our project but on us personally, if you'd like to continue working on our project, we'd like to continue working with you, but we need hard milestones. [and then discuss the milestones, timing, etc....maybe these need to be in writing.....]. 2) if you're just too busy and don't see that changing, we'd be disappointed but would be willing to transfer the plans to another architect to complete - do you have any that you'd recommend? How do we properly transfer the plans? As you can tell, I do soft-pedal rather than throw blame in situations like this - I'm very willing to be firm, but it needs to be in my own voice, and unfortunately (I guess), that's my voice when dealing with people that I actually like (err, you "heard" my other voice above, when responding to others!). chisue - thank you for understanding, and yes, she's licensed, has a nice boutique business, and is actually really talented. she just sucks as client service. We found her as a referral from a neighbor who has (in our opinion) the prettiest new build in the neighborhood - we live in a 50's era rancher town on quarter acre lots in a part of the country where that's considered really big - most of the Bay Area is on 4000-5000 sq ft lots). To his credit, he DID warn us that while she's a terrific architect, she'd be "tough to get a hold of, as she's very busy" (maybe that was neighbor-code for "she'll miss every deadline"). dixiedoodle - agreed, I'm not planning on getting any $ back, so that's not what I'm after. Actually, for the $ we've paid thus far, we ((heart)) the house plan. Yes, in hindsight, the comments that translate to "they're more important than you" are, at best, inappropriate. At the time(s), it seemed more like casual chit-chat. feedingfrenzy, sue36 and sovra - thank you all - your comments and thoughts are the basis for the planned conversation. We actually *would* like her to see the plans through, just need to figure out how to tell her that we can't continue this way, it's too painful. I will go post this in Conversations to see in M-A has additional thoughts. What do you all think of the planned conversation, and how would you tweak it?

Thanks, Martha. I tried both suggestions, but no change. Not sure exactly I've been using IE7...a couple of months, maybe? I'll be interested to see if the problem exists on my other computer. I can't tell at the moment because it needs a new monitor. Since posting the first time, I discovered that I can't open the comments to one of my blogs and I can't open the log-in screen that will let me download archived articles on a newspaper website. This is getting very irritating! I'll go see if Microsoft has some sort of help forum... Susan

I tried the Crap Cleaner on my XP machine since I'm getting ready to give it to my mom anyway. :) It didn't work - as in, it didn't make me able to see the site. The problem I have with the Crap Cleaner theory is that I'm having the same issue on an XP and on my Vista. I have a brand new Vista laptop, so I tried accessing the site from that last night just in case my desktop is just "junked up." Wouldn't work on the laptop either. I have the latest version of Java. FWIW, I am able to ping the site, which tells me the site is not being blocked (like by my ISP). Correct? I did add the site to my Trusted Sites, too. Now instead of the Page error, I just get a blank white page like Randy.

We produced the “design” above and showed it to several builders who would work with their architects to create, make recommendations, and finalize drawings. Are you sure you'll be working with a truly licensed architect? I ask because our builder told us the same thing. We are required to use the builder we bought the lot from. Thankfully for us, he comes highly recommended and does superb work. However he said, don't worry our architect will design your home. His "architect" turned out to be a draftsman with an engineering degree, a CAD program and a horrible sense of design. The only reason I got what I hope will be a great house is because 1. I have a design background (at one point I was even planning on being an interior designer) 2. I listened very carefully to every person here but especially the architects on these forums. I am getting a well laid out house with good flow and with just the right amount of space for our (DH's and me) needs. Having said that, if I didn't have a design background and if I didn't truly listen to the advice given here, I'd have had a hot mess of a house. And it would have looked a heck of a lot different than it does now. Did I disagree with some of the advice? Of course but I made sure to check my ego at the door in the sense that I tried very hard not to be married to what I produced when reading through all the advice. In a few cases I at first disagreed with advice given, but when I went back and stared at the plans and advice, I realized the good people here on this forum were absolutely right. In some cases the changes weren't exactly what were proposed but by being open to change, I was able to find a solution that still gave the house flow, but also worked for what we needed. You still seem too married to your plan even though the experts here (and no I don't put myself in that category) keep telling you it doesn't work. If you truly are interested in getting the best home possible, make sure that 1. you will be working with a real architect and not a designer or draftsman, and 2. that you're willing to really keep an open mind.