I agree with Greendesigns on the color--the darker they are the more maintenance they will require with dust mopping or swiffering. I am guessing with all you have going on, you don't have the time to be swiffering every square inch of flooring twice a day. Going with a medium stain or even clear poly is a more practical option. Handscraped floors are beautiful without a doubt, but as you're finding are very $$$. Going with a #1 common grade vs. a select grade or clear grade hardwoodis a less expensive alternative to handscraped that still gives you plenty of character. On-site finish vs. engineered finish is really a personal preference IMO. With engineered, once it's installed you're ready to go, but if your floors are ever damaged (think dishwasher floods kitchen), you run the risk of not being able to match it to the rest of the hardwoods in the house at a later date, and you are limited on how many times you can refinish the floor. Going with site finished gives you the advantage of unlimited refinishing, ability to match at a later date if need be, but it does require drying time. I think the engineered prefinished floor have come into favor with builders who want it done quick + current homeowners who are upgrading their existing flooring and don't want to deal with the sanding & drying time required with unfinished. When building new, as you are, the sanding & drying time really don't play in as much--the builder has a cleaning crew come in to take care of any sanding dust + most hardwood guys use the dustless sanders now anyway & typically the floor finishing is done last--so while you're working on closing on the house, the floors are being completed & drying). Hope this helps!

Yes, it’s loud. I’m not saying you shouldn’t love it or that it’s hard to clean, and I, too, get many compliments. Want to know what it sounds like? Take a small plate to a showroom that has a piece and slide it across. We have the leather at our lake house and polished at home, and I like both, the leather because it’s unique, the shiny because it’s so beautiful in my newly remodeled kitchen. My mother-in-law, who is 94, comes to the lake with us and slides EVERYTHING across the leathered granite surface, and by the end of the day my nerves are frazzle.d. Just know what you’re buying and be okay with it. Both are wonderful choices, as far as I’m concerned.

Oh crum! I can't really do a molding b/c there is a duplicate unit right across the doorway from it. I can't put a matching molding on the other unit b/c it is actually a tall broom-type cabinet (not a separate top and bottom unit). So a matching molding on it would look very strange. Nothing else in the kitchen has any kind of molding. Molding on just the defective unit would be so out of place. I think it would look odder than an eased edge. Rats, rats! Such a teeny problem. But such a big problem too! Thank you for the suggestions! Francy

The more bumps, roof lines etc the more expensive. The cheapest to build is a box, so the closer to a box your footprint is the cheapest, therefore I would say the farmhouse would be more to build. I noticed the laundry was upstairs in the farmhouse also, will this be a home you live in when you are older? If so you may want main floor laundry. I do like that the dining room is part of the kitchen, never had any use for a seperate formal dining room myself. In #56 the master bath seems odd for some reason, and a long way to walk to get a quick change of clothes, I would probably put a sliding door to one of the closets from the bedroom. Laundry does seem ackward here because its not a straight shot or even semi straight from your bedroom to it, where all your clothes and towels will originate. I love the front porch and overall look of the house though. The William one has some good things, the sun/kitchen nook is large enough to be a dining area on its own, allowing you to re-purpose the official dining area and use it as a library/den, etc. You could even make the kitchen larger: taking away space from that dining room, and use the smaller new room as a office/workout room etc If you added 4 extra feet to the bottom of the kitchen, the remaining "dining" room would still be more than large enough for office/workout space. That is still larger than bedrooms I have seen in smaller houses! It has lots of storage and a great porch. And everything you need as you get older is all located on the main floor. You don't mention kids so I haven't really taken them into consideration much, but he farmhouse does have a nice activity/playroom on the 2nd floor, and the William one has the bedrooms spaced a little apart which could potentially avoid some sibliling conflicts, plus that huge future room as they get older and want friends over or a media room. For me I would narrow it further to the farmouse or William. And probably lean more toward the william one because its squareish, seems to have more useable space, and potential with just a few changes.