oh, also wanted to say, we almost built the yesterview. but builders were quoting us about 20% more to build the yesterview than the fitzgerald so we added sq. footage to the fitzgerald to make it suit our needs. it's now 3,600 sq. ft with a 2,400 sq. ft. basement and a 400 sq. ft. bonus room upstairs that we're about to finish. someone else made a good point about the garages. the gardner plans have shallow garages in general. we lengthened ours to 25 feet and we're so happy that we did. I can pull my vehicle in, close the garage door to keep out winter winds, and then get out of the car and open the back hatch to unload groceries, etc. we also reconfigured the master bathroom so that it suited our purposes better. and we widened the entire house by two feet, putting those sq. feet into the kitchen, dining room and breakfast room. I don't like narrow kitchens. now mine is 15 feet wide and that was just right for what I wanted. my previous house had a kitchen that was 14 feet wide so I knew that one extra foot would give me the wider aisles that I wanted around my island.

Here are updated links for the pictures I posted above. http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/gallery/20120714-930415a.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/gallery/20120714-930415_1-me.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/gallery/Back.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-IMG0406-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/gallery/20120714-930415_2-me.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-IMG0415-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/gallery/20120714-930415_5-me.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/_data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-listing_photo_1_16958325-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-IMG0404-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-IMG0405-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/gallery/photo1.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/gallery/20120714-930415_3-me.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-IMG0418-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/gallery/20120714-IMG_0416-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/gallery/20120714-930415_4-me.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-IMG0407-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/gallery/20120714-930415_9-me.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-IMG0409-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-IMG0408-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/gallery/20120714-930415_7-me.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-IMG0410-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/gallery/20120714-IMG_0411-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/gallery/20120714-930415_8-me.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-IMG0412-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-IMG0413-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-IMG0400-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-IMG0395-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-IMG0401-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-IMG0398-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/gallery/20120714-930415_10-me.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-IMG0397-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-IMG0396-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/gallery/20120714-930415_11-me.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-IMG0402-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-IMG0403-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/gallery/20120714-930415_12-me.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-IMG0394-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-IMG0393-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-IMG0391-la.jpg http://www.katielynnhall.com/gallery2/data/i/galleries/Images/20120714-IMG0392-la.jpg

Why do people build these houses with no natural light coming into the part of the house that they will use the most? All your public rooms have huge porch in the front. If you live in the subtropical or tropical region, they will be great because you will use the porch year around. Otherwise, you will have a dark house for 9 months of the year for 3 months of outdoor rooms at the expense of light in the rest of the house. Where do you live? I am seeing this more and more in house design. Outdoor indoor connection is good. But people have taken it to the extreme and pretend that they all live in the tropics where they have outdoor access 12 months of the year. Most of us living in the USA is not so lucky. Since many of these designs have not paid any attention to where it will be built, the occupants have to turn artificial lights on all day. If natural light is important to you, this is a terrible house. The only room that will feel welcome in the midst of winter is your sitting room off of master. The location of the kitchen makes no sense since the whole point of the house is to use the outdoor rooms by devoting so much of the design to them. You have to cross the DR with huge plates to get that BBQ going. They have wasted fenestration (window) opportunities by placing things like closets and bathtubs next to the exterior walls. This is where the bedrooms and other rooms that benefit from the light need to go. You have the master bathtub, shower, toilet with windows facing the front of the house. Is that for real? How will your house be sited on your lot? if that faces the street, you don't need anyone to tell you why that is stupid. Your master bath where you will spend about 30 minutes each have 4 windows. Your GR where your family will spend most of you day has 2 window that look out to the porch that has a covered roof. Wow! Who designs these things. Which direction does the porch face? If S or W, it maybe too hot to be useful in the heat of the summer without proper shading. These are really important questions in designing a good functional house. Sorry to be blunt but this is a forum to gather pros and cons of what you are looking at.

Congrats on the 63 acres and, even more so, being able to plan for your "forever" / retirement. Not liking the angles or the many small rooms in this design. How many of you will be living in the home full time and how many will be visiting more than a few times each year? A great room -- "I" or "L" -- will enable you to have plenty of windows and/or patio doors opening toward the lake. For livability, an "L" 16' wide shaped great room is far better than several smaller separate rooms. Bedrooms: If you're adding an upstairs (best place for children's rooms is in the "attic", especially for those about to become empty nesters), and unless you're adding a lift (elevator), you will find that, as you age, you will need to have at least one master bedroom suite downstairs and two (his/hers) walk in closets -- as well as all the other essentials of any home( in addition to a great room living/dining/kitchen): ... A front entry: with coat closet (with upstairs -- the stairs, designed to give you the OPTION to close off the upstairs from the downstairs when it's just the two of you); ... A mudroom: back entry with storage and connected to garage via covered passageway -- perhaps via screened porch or sun room -- with a laundry w/d closet and w/access to a powder room via the mudroom. Note: You want every bath and powder room to have a window. You don't want any bath or powder room to open directly into the living space or the front entry where guests arrive. Bedroom: You'd need a full master bedroom suite downstairs but you could also add a bonus room -- a second master bedroom suite -- with that full bath being a bath and a half, with the half bath accessible from the mud room rather than a separate powder room. You could use that bonus room as a nursery or guest room or den or home office or game room or craft room -- using it differently at different stages of your life. Other bedrooms: You could also have two or three smaller "children's" bedrooms upstairs, with a bath and a half (for sons/daughter or grandsons/granddaughters). The third upstairs bedroom would enable a parent or nanny to sleep near smaller children but then used as a playroom/homework/game room by children as they get older. Such a design would protect your resale value. If you don't want an upstairs: If you don't want an upstairs, and if you still have small children living at home, then, addition to the master bedroom suite, (and rather than a second suite as a bonus room), you could add two bedrooms with a bath-and-a-half between them. With or without an upstairs, you could have extra quarters for children with grandchildren coming back to visit or for guests or staff: ... you could always add an additional master bedroom suite above a garage -- perhaps for a housekeeper or nanny; and/or ... you could have a separate "boathouse" or "pool house" with an additional master bedroom suite.