Thanks for finding that, Digit! I was planning to go back and look for it--but no telling when I might have gotten around to doing it! What thread did you find it on??? I just tried searching a couple different words (including barn) and couldn't find it! DID find pics of a couple outhouses I've posted!!! That barn is a hundred years olde--IF it's still there. I'm just about crying looking at it too! It's about 20 miles NW of Pagosa Springs, and the owner--with whom I've become friends--was forced by her family to sell the ranch the year after the last really bad wildfires we had when a fire down that way burned right down to the ridge above the ranch--but didn't go down into the valley or to the ranch buildings. She lost a whole summer's worth of income, and her family used that to force her to sell! That, the V.A. Poma Ranch, is where I used to go for a few days of R & R before returning to Denver from my fall trips! Don't know what the new owners have done with it, or any of the buildings. What a loss if they tear down the Olde ones! Found an isolated homestead cabin on Grand Mesa where I now do my R & R, but that one is only 15 miles from the North Rim of the Black Canyon, so my R & R isn't quite so R & R-ee anymore! Now I spend a day of my R & R hiking! But I'll always miss the Poma Ranch in the Weeminuche Valley! Thanks again for finding it, Skybird

Well, it's onward and forward for us. Our house is looking so big at this point! I knew it was a big house, but it's hard to visualize from a blueprint how big your house will actually be. We are loving it though and have been very pleased with the progress so far. Framing is almost finished. The roofer is starting tomorrow. And the siding starts on Monday. Oh, and I forgot to mention that about a week and a half ago we almost lost our house. Our framers had just put up some very large trusses and had already left for the day when a huge wind storm hit. Luckily our excavator was still working at the site because it wasn't long before our walls and roof starting moving back and forth. He quickly called the framers back and they quickly tried to secure everything. There were braces everywhere and chains bolting trusses to the floor. Our framers were quite creative and they saved our house with minimal damage. We really do have the best framers working on our house and feel very blessed that our house is still standing! Anyways, here are the pictures for this month: Front of the house. I know a lot of people don't like garages that stick out from the house like this, but I love the way it's turning out for us. This is the view our guests will have when they walk in our front door. Looking out from my kitchen into the great room and dinning room. The back of our house. (The window on the upper left still hasn't been cut out). When standing in my backyard, this is when my house feels so big, but I love it!

Well...as a retired architect and educator, I've never heard of the term "purpose based or driven architecture". Bob tells me I'm old and don't get out much any more...which is true. Why do you feel that every set of words must be an official term? No one is claiming that there is a term purpose based architecture or anything of the sort. They are simply three words used in sentence, a compound predicate with an object (don't quote me on that, my sentence diagramming is a bit rusty). I am most definitely not talking about form following function. Form is a purpose as is function. You can pretend that most tract builders don't have an architect, but they do. So you can defend the idea that tract homes aren't architecture, which again is getting a bit into silly semantics. Architecture is unfortunately a very broad term. Tract builders and drafters aren't architects Architect - from the Greek Arkhitekton which means master builder. It later came to mean superintendent and eventually what we have today. What we have today is a word with very broad acceptable meanings. In the U.S. architects have licensed the title, yet the term architecture is still very broad. You can assert that it means the earth is flat if you want, however, that doesn't make it so. I too have this friend who I feel can contribute our discussion, his name is Richard. Richard is mostly a great guy but a bit territorial, whenever I step into Richard's yard he will start yelling at me and then start chasing me until I leave his yard. The problem being that Richard often leaves an obstacle or two on the sidewalk so that walking into his yard just seems appropriate. The moral of this story is, don't be a...

Overall it's a nice layout. Specific comments: - The half bath couldn't be worse placed. Instead, flip-flop it with the mudroom ... this also allows for a bathroom that's convenient to the outside. This gives you a large walk-in pantry between the kitchen and the dining room (not ideally placed, but I'd do it). And that'd allow you to have mudroom-type storage where you currently have the pantry. - Still on the subject of the bathroom ... with a bathroom available to guests near the kids' room (which I'm thinking is kind of a den?), do you need that half bath? Bathrooms are the most expensive rooms in the house, and they continue to cost in terms of maintenance. - What's going UNDER the switchback stair? This is a large space -- I'd make it into half-height shelves or cabinets, which could open into the full bath, making it into really nice storage. OR it could open in to the office. But don't let that big space be boxed in /useless. - Still thinking of bathrooms ... I'd definitely lose the double sinks in the full bath. - Do you plan to have a TV in the living room? The only spot I can see for its placement is above the fireplace. Do think long and hard on this one. - Do you have doors between the living room and the kids' room? I grew up in a house that had a similar fireplace, which was flanked by single glass doors (in our case, they led to a sun room). My grandmother always had lace sheers on the glass doors, and it was a lovely set-up. - Consider that you have access to the backyard through the kids' room ... but once you place a table in the breakfast nook, that door will be useless. If this were my space, I'd leave the windows as they are in the living room, and I'd put a glass slider into the mudroom /on the side near the kitchen ... this'd be useful for carrying trays out to the grill. - You'll have nice light everywhere in the house ... except the kitchen. It won't be dark-dark, but you also won't have lovely morning sunbeams on your countertops. - 36” range + wall ovens vs. 48” range (familiar with MUA etc) This is a large-but-not-huge kitchen ... I can't see the justification for a 48" range. They're quite expensive and they keep on costing: oversized hood, amped-up electrical, additional floor support. And why? 30" is enough ... 36" is more than enough. Don't give up your average-sized cabinet storage for this. If you're thinking of parties (15+ isn't that big a group), I'd much rather have an extra refrigerator in the mudroom rather than an over-sized range. - General Cabinet layout Eh, it's okay -- good circulation, but things aren't really top-notch functional. Plenty of counter top space without going overboard and inviting clutter. Someone will say not to place the sink and the range back-to-back, but I'm okay with it. The dishwasher is on the right side -- no, left, but correct side -- of the sink. Glasses are a pain to put away, so you want it to be near the cabinet by the fridge. This gives you one good-sized drawer for knives /things you'll want near the sink. How much space do you have between the main cabinet run and the island? I'm concerned these two items may be a little too far apart to "play well together". I have that now, and while it's better than too little space, I wish-wish-wish I had right-sized instead of that extra step between the two. Questions to think through: - When you come in with groceries, where will you set them down to sort them out? - Where will your dirty dishes sit? - Where are your small appliances? - 15+ people not uncommon You have plenty of space for seating and setting items out in a buffet style. I like a kitchen flanked by a breakfast nook and dining space ... it allows the kids to sit in one area, while the adults are in the other ... and the food can be laid out between them. I'd skip the island seating. With large groups, you have enough seating ... but you're going to use this space for setting out food. I'd rather have another row of shallow cabinets on the "back side" of the island for extra storage. Where I think you're skimpy is the space beside the refrigerator, which is likely where you'd set out drinks for the group. You could place drinks AND dessert in the butler's pantry (for self-serve). Leaning towards a 48” AG range, partially to preserve the space next to fridge for a tall, pull out pantry. Definitely no to a tall pantry next to the fridge. You need this space for glassware and "landing space" for the fridge. I think this is also your "away space" where you'll place your coffee maker, bowl of fruit, and cake-under-a-dome. I don't see a natural place for a tall pantry cabinet ... but with a walk-in pantry, you don't really need it.