Audric: I truly appreciate your feedback. It's funny but you zoned in on the two things that I was not sure of. I agree with you about the semicircles (My mantra is "Make it Simple) I put them in to provide a hard area for someone stepping out of a car but mulch will probably work just as well. Again, the stone walls were an afterthought - they are too small and not really necessary. So I will eliminate both those features. Regarding the center of the strips are you saying fill the space with stones or with plant material? bullthistle: (I love your web site!) Are you sure about crape myrtle? Everything I see about crape myrtles says full sun. The picture you are seeing was taken in "winter" (Florida winter) and that side does get some sun. But it gets nothing in the summer - basically it's under the oak tree. I was planning to plant some random mondos between the stepping stones. I didn't know liriope spread. I have giant liriope in the front yard and they have been very polite so far.

I agree that the master bath could work much better, and you have the space for a better arrangement. I don't see any point in installing a small fiberglass shower now -- not if you intend to remove it later and upgrade it to a large, tiled shower. It'll be more expensive in the long run, not to mention wasteful of materials. The master bath is plenty wide -- I'd look at stealing 1-1.5' from its width . . . and add it to the laundry room, which is kind of puny. This would allow you to have a narrow folding space across from the washer/dryer, which would be very practical. I'd also consider flipping the closets /bathroom in the secondary bedrooms. This would give you natural light in the bathroom. And I agree with the previous poster who suggested reach-in closets as sound barriers in these bedrooms. Or, you could bring the left-hand bedroom forward to the space that now occupies the closet, and you could place the bathroom through the wall from the master bath. Consolidating your plumbing is a money-saver. I'm not loving the kitchen. It looks "disjointed" to me, and I think it can be solved with one change: Lose the door that's interrupting your prime work space. Yes, I see that the intention was that you'd have a door close to the garage entrance, but if you bump that cabinet run to the right, you're only looking at a few more steps down the hall to enter the kitchen. I don't enjoy cleaning bathrooms, so I would absolutely rearrange the guest bathroom to open towards the hall so that it would be accessible to guests. I agree with losing some of the doors across the back of the house, but the one I'd ditch first would be the one in the eating area. Once you place a table in that spot, you won't be able to use it anyway.

funkycamper: Yes, the sink under the windows is a prep sink. Dishes, cutlery, and glassware would be stored near the dining room table and right-hand dishwasher. That would include the 30" wide drawers in the island, 30" wide drawers to the right of the wall ovens, and 30" wide upper cabinets to the right of the wall ovens. (The kitchen elevations currently show cabinets under counter height, but we are converting those to drawers. Still waiting on revised elevations from the builder.) I really wasn't sure where to put the second trash. I originally had it closer to the prep sink like you suggested, but I wasn't sure if it was a problem having it so close to the other trash. I put together a rough estimate of their current kitchen storage vs. the new design, and I'd say a pretty conservative estimate is that there's at least 2/3 more storage in the kitchen cabinetry (ignoring the pantry for now). Most of the storage gains are below counter height which is excellent for aging-in-place. I was surprised when I started really thinking through the pantry vs their current "extra" storage space outside of kitchen cabinetry. At first glance the new pantry is HUGE and you'd think it would fit so much more than the storage they have now. But take a look at the kitchen related storage they are currently using outside of their kitchen cabinetry: - 1 coat closet converted to a pantry (maybe 3 ft wide? but very inefficient use of space because it's so deep and hard to find stuff) - 1 small reach-in pantry closet that is an appropriate depth (maybe 18-24" wide) - 1 rubbermaid style storage "armoire" on the basement stairs landing, used for oversized and infrequently used items - 1 double door reach-in pantry in the living room (converted from a wet bar), used almost entirely for servingware and china - 1 china hutch in the dining room (though it doesn't exclusively house china, there are also collectibles on display in there) - 1 buffet/credenza in the dining room with special occasion flatware, bartending supplies, etc. Suddenly that new walk-in pantry doesn't seem so big anymore, especially with the freezer in there. For sure, there is a lot of stuff they aren't really using now that could be pared down. But there is a lot of special occasion stuff like holiday china and flatware, specialty serving items, etc. that I don't think they'll be willing to part with. Now I'm wondering if it might be worth bringing back the extra cabinets we had on the back of the island for storage of infrequently used stuff like that. Like I said, this really took me by surprise because their kitchen related storage is spread out all over the first floor of their current house. It's hard to picture it being condensed into one dedicated space in the new house. Thank you for suggesting this exercise - it has been eye opening!

Bathrooms could really use some work. For starters, consider that the bathroom parts that're used most are the sink and the toilet ... and in your master, although you have lots of space, yours are all crammed in the first few feet. The toilet-closet door blocks the main door, and a person at the sink will be in the way of either door opening: Meanwhile, you have all that empty space at the far end of the bathroom. You really don't want a pocket door on a bathroom. Pocket doors are ideal for doors that remain open most of the time -- mudroom, laundry -- but the bathroom door will be opened/closed multiple times a day. Humidity isn't kind to pocket doors, and when they break, you have to open up the wall to fix them. But, really, I'd give the whole thing a re-do ... it's hard to beat a simple two-sided bath layout -- this allows a bigger shower, a bigger linen closet, and ample access to everything -- and it uses slightly less square footage. If you insist upon keeping the toilet in a small, uncomfortable, and difficult to clean closet, here's a slightly different layout. Since no one ever actually closes doors on toilet closets, this would be an appropriate spot for a pocket door. For the guest bathroom, you want the "water items" to all be on the same wall. Ideally that'd be the wall shared with the master ... but the door doesn't allow that. You could steal 1-2' from the master to make this possible ... but "as is", your easiest switch is to move the toilet to the same wall ... and flip the tub's faucet to the other end. With a clear pathway through the bathroom, this also allows you to enlarge the vanity ... which will allow for a stack of much-needed storage drawers. The toilet can go under the window without any problem. This isn't the best of plans because it places the water items on an exterior wall ... this can be a problem if you're in a cold location (freezing), and if you need work on the plumbing, it can be a problem. I'd consider my first suggestion and consider stealing a bit of space from the master bath. The downstairs bathroom is wasting all its space on a big, empty walkway in the middle ... and the sink, the most used item in the room, is hidden behind the door, meaning you have to enter the room and close the door just to wash your hands. At 6x9, the downstairs bath can be a simple 3-piece (identical to the one above, actually) ... you can move the door so that you'd see the sink first /have the opened door rest against the top wall. I drew it in as a tub, but a standup shower would work just as well in this spot. you mentioned tub in guest bath is 6'6" and big. We def do NOT need a large tub. We actually considered just a shower in there, but put tub only for when we have grandkids some day and need a tub for baths. Any suggestions for that bath if we skip tub and just put shower in instead? If you're not going to use the tub yourself ... and just want it for future grandchildren, go with a standard sized tub (5') instead of something extra-big. Definitely needs to go bigger then. And maybe wider if it's only 3' wide. Take a look at just how big 3' wide is ... or, more accurately, isn't. I'm not 5' tall, and I hate using the toilet in my daughter's new house, and I can't imagine how her husband -- also a big and tall guy -- feels in that bitty space. regarding cp's comment on tubs and grandkids: there definitely ought to be another tub besides the master. When we visit my inlaws, we have to bathe our kids in the master bath and not only is it inconvenient (clear across the house from our rooms) it can be awkward and there are times that we simply can't use it, like times when everyone's getting ready to go somewhere at once. Just my experience:) I'm not saying this isn't a problem, but you have to consider how often this is going to be used for bathing small children. If you're talking about a couple times a year, I'd say put up with the trouble ... on the other hand, if the grandchildren will frequently be bathed at their grandparents' house, then I'd spend the money to get what's most convenient. That is my experience too at my parents house. They have a spa tub like I want and my arms couldn't reach into the tub from sitting outside it. My husband stayed at a certain resort numerous times for work, and he came home telling me that he wanted THAT TUB for our retirement house. Finally I got a chance to go with him, and I hated it: Oh, I loved the built-in arm rests, but the tub was 48" wide, and I could only put my arm on one at a time ... and since I like to read in the tub, that wasn't working out too well. It also held SO MUCH water that it would be expensive to use. After discussion, we've decided we want the features of that tub and the depth of that tub ... but not so long and not so wide.