Renee, you have done a beautiful job! I think it's perfect as-is! I had to laugh, as today's task is to re-pot "some of those cereus-trailing-cactus thingies" that I stole from my son's yard. I hope I get it right this time. Your question? I try to improve the view from my bedroom window, as I sit there online, for 12+ hours a day, with a few gardening breaks throughout the day. So I look at a huge Catalpa tree, and some Bird of Paradise... One important goal is to improve the view I see as I drive up the street TO my house. I landscape or garden for MY pleasure, not the neighbors, and I prefer to see a tropical paradise, like the one you are creating at your home. Well done! What city do you live in? Everything looks very lush and healthy. Honestly, I wouldn't change a thing. Best of luck! Thanks for sharing those photos with us.

Bathrooms: as others have pointed out, you should have a full bath on any floor where there might be sleeping rooms. If you intend to ever sell this house, there should be a full bath on the 2nd floor and in the walkout basement. (Currently, it looks as if the master bath is the only full bath in the plan.) The laundry location will be very annoying to anyone who has more than a single couple in the house--they go up/down stairs, **across the house**, up stairs and then into a laundry room. Stairs: How do you go downstairs? Do you really want the stairs between the great room and the kitchen? The stairs take up a lot of room in the middle of the house--especially considering you don't intend to use them often. Accessibility: By adding stairs to the master bedroom, the master bedroom will not be accessible to someone with limited mobility. As others have pointed out, that negates some of the advantages of a first floor master. Kitchen/Hearth area--there's a lot of space there but I'd be concerned about the actual cabinet layout before I started building. Since the back wall is primarily windows, that will influence how the cabinets are laid out. You'll also want to be sure there's sufficient room for a large table, since that is your only eating space--at least, I assume there will be eating space in there someewhere! Although the space is large, it is fulfilling 3 functions: kitchen, dining, "hearth". Entry way: The entryway looks as if it's over 160 square feet. At even *cheap* construction costs, do you really want to spend $16,000 for an entryway? It is large and will be a huge empty space when you enter the house. What is the purpose of having it so large? I guess you could put a large sculpture in the middle. Flows: The pathways from the garage to the kitchen or garage to the bedroom or garage to the great room are all filled with turns. I think the flow could be improved. Pantry/Officette: What exactly is an officette? How would furniture be arranged here? Pantry shelves don't need to be very deep--the room is too wide to just be a pantry, but isn't really big enough to be an office. Also, does it make sense for one of you to have an 'officette' in an INTERIOR room when the laundry room and mud room both get windows? Office: At that size, it should be big enough to share. If you don't want to share it, I'd consider making two separate offices. For that matter, I'd consider making them "bedrooms" with the intent of using them as offices. That would mean putting in a closet--and turning the powder room into a full bath (or adding another bath). Master bath: There is a lot of wasted space here--it looks as if it's about 11' from the vanities to the shower--that's an entire room--all empty space. The tub gets a back window, but there's a lot of unused space in front of it--on top of all the empty space in the middle of the master bath. Master closet: Some people don't like walking through a bathroom to get to a closet, but that doesn't bother me. What does bother me is what you're gong to do with an 11' wide closet. I *like* big closets, don't get me wrong. But closets are most valuable along the walls--what are you going to do with that space in the middle? Some people put dressers and benches in the middle, but if you're going to do that, what are you going to put in the 16x18 bedroom? Foyer to master bedroom: It is big enough to walk through, but not really big enough to put furniture in. You said your girlfriend was interested in making it a sitting room, but given that you have a HUGE bedroom, a great room, and a hearth room, why would you consider putting a sitting area in an interior, private space near the laundry? Owners Suite to bathroom: I can't tell if there's really supposed to be a door there--it looks too big for a pocket door--and most people do want a door to their master bath, since couples don't necessary get up at the same time. I admit that a 4.5 car garage would be fun to have :-). I'm afraid I don't like this plan--it doesn't use space well, I don't think it'd be easy to live in--even looking at it as a two person house, and you'd be walking through a lot of open space. This house is big and would take a lot of money to build--and I don't think it's a particularly livable plan. I think you ought to look at a lot more existing floor plans or find yourself an architect.

You could put a door in that greenhouse. Actually, you say you are considering taking it down? There is probably a door in there to get into the greenhouse that would become a door to the back yard as soon as the glass wall is gone. That big well frightens me. What happens to it after it rains? Is there a drain in it? Any sign of basement flooding? I'd arrange a visit during a downpour and look for signs of flooding...

I don't know where you live, but really think hard about what you want to do outside. Where I live, our time outside is limited to before "M" hour (mosquito) and never during big mosquito hatch-outs. So not that often. For hanging out in the warmer months, we use our screened in porch. The three things we do outside occasionally are have a campfire, grill, and I have a lounge chair in the front where one of us can sit and watch the other putter in the front yard. At my last house, I did invest in a staged redo of my back yard, and I never regretted it. The hours and hours of pleasure I spent out there added up fast. But we didn't have mosquitoes at the old place so were outside for dinner many, many nights. Plus, I designed a pleasure garden for viewing from an outdoor swing, and we often just sat out there at night and watched the garden. It had lots of white flowers that looked good at night, and lights and a fountain. The reason I am saying all this is if you are going to spend the money, really think about what you are likely to do out there. Maybe you need an expanded outdoor cooking space? If so, I'd be more likely to create an additional screened in area. Also, if you want to sit out more, like around a campfire or something like that, plan your landscaping around the views you want from the seating areas. Finding a good landscape designer is not easy. Mine was pretty bad. I could have done better myself and just taken some ideas to the installation contractors, which is what the designer did anyway.