Hi mclarke! You're right, I should probably hold off on the bedroom for a bit. We do have a large silk kimono that we'll be hanging on the wall in there, so I guess I need to choose a paint color based on that. The walls just look terrible right now though (awful color, lots of patched holes) and it's depressing to even go in there! I need to pick a color for the kitchen NOW though! I have to paint the walls so I can set up a free-standing pantry so I have somewhere in this teeny kitchen to store food so we can stop living in chaos with food in boxes and bags and a teenage boy constantly complaining that there is nothing to eat.... I did get a sample jar of Palladian Blue and put a big patch on the kitchen wall. The color is nice, though maybe a bit minty? The problem is it looks to me like it kind of clashes with the Shaker Beige color in the adjoining room. As I've said though, I have zero ability to tell what colors will look good together. I'm about to give up and just paint it Shaker Beige too, but I think this poor little kitchen would look so much better with a little bit of color. Please help, all you color experts!! I need some more ideas for a color that would liven up this kitchen and also look good with the living area. Thanks! Jane

I have posted to the other forum as well. I just recently found these forums and am so happy I did, I love all the input. The builder will be putting some sort of sound barrier to the master. The upper two bedrooms will be for my daughters, ages 8 and 14. We requested a bathroom not be in the middle of the rooms upstairs and that a jack and Jill style bathroom not be put there just so that if one girl Wales up to use the bathroom, it won't wake the other. As some have mentioned, I do think with two girls, the bathroom needs to have a bigger vanity area for sure. It's hard to see from these plans but there is a dotage area between the stairwell and the garage downstairs. I will utilize this area as our "school station" where we keep the book bags, extra school supplies, a tack board for school calendars, ect. There will also be a walk in storage built into the side of the stairwell. We originally were going to add a fairly large bonus area to the upstairs but recently decided to do away with that. We felt like if we did that the kids would tend to try to be up there all the time and we would not see them much. All the kids currently have their own tvs in their rooms but of course, they aren't allowed to watch tv for extended periods of time. The back patio will also be large. We will mount a tv out there also and we will spend a lot if time out there. It will function as an additional living area with deep seating our door furniture. I'm thinking that in about 4 years once my 14 year old is moving away to college, the 5 year old may want to move upstairs by then. Of course the downstairs bedroom would then be her room for when she comes home on weekends and holidays. The kitchen was my first primary concern as the concept in these plans is what I want but with a larger pantry. Then, once we felt like we would like to switch the kitchen and living room that became our next big concern. We did meet with two architects and builders before deciding to use the one we did. We have seen and been in multiple houses he has designed and built and we fell in love with them. We live in Louisiana so we told the builder that we didn't want a coat closet because we actually do not use the one we have now for that purpose. Ours is being used to store crafts which we plan to store elsewhere. The attic will be a walk in attic that can be accessed from the garage and from the second story.

Follow up question. Will the 3000k appear yellowish? The CRI is 95. When I looked in the store it didn't seem yellowish--I just wasn't sure next to the white cabinets. Thanks!

Maybe zero in on your program requirements a little better and more firmly. You say you don't really need the Family Room, yet it is a 2 story. So what is upstairs, and is that a necessity? How critical is a bigger kitchen, and having an island at that? How is the existing Sunroom used? I do not know the site plan and existing house, but if it were only a Mudroom/Powder, Kitchen and small sitting area, it's possible that could be done next to the driveway with only a smaller 1 story addition.