I think Hubby's come around to floor plan #2 -- the one with the back stairs centered in the box bay. (That was my favorite.) Your comments were very helpful and insightful, and I think hearing then from someone other than me was also persuasive. What also helped was running into a guy over the weekend who designs and sells timber trusses. Hubby is a stone and timber and metal guy, and the idea that the staircase, catwalk, front porch and trusses could all be part of this grand master truss design is starting to catch on. I've been looking at a lot of inspiration photos on Houzz lately, and have seen some neat pictures where the catwalk is actually suspended from the ceiling trusses. There's got to be some way to do this that's drop-dead gorgeous: [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/ski-house-rustic-living-room-austin-phvw-vp~101894) [traditional living room design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-living-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_718~s_2107) by austin architect Webber + Studio, Architects So now onto the exterior: There'll be a balcony, like in the 2nd and 3rd sketches. Our main issues are windows on the garage/master bedroom section (far right), and dining room (below the balcony), and the front porch section. The windows at the top of the master are pretty much set due to the placement of plumbing fixtures. They could go a bit taller, but frankly, I like the squares, and keeping them short and high up gives us privacy in the bathroom. The 1st floor area there is garage on the right, with a small garage bath on the far left. There really are a lot of trees and shrubs out front there, so whatever we do won't be terribly visible. (See the 2nd and 3rd exterior drawings for possible windows.) The dining room will have very low ceilings, just over 7 feet, which can't be helped,(raised slab) so I'm thinking the room needs to be 'dark and dramatic' by design since it can never really be anything but dark, no matter what we do. So my thoughts are that the windows there should be more for what looks good from the outside. The windows shown in #2 & 3 match one on the wall to the left, shown on the floor plan right below the closet. But we're definitely open to suggestion there. The front entry and porch is where we have the most design potential -- What I've attempted to draw is a copper metal roof over a grouping of French Doors and a 6-foot deep stone-floored porch. The wall behind the French doors would be stone on the bottom, and could either stay stone all the way up, or switch to wood siding above the copper. (Same wood is used elsewhere on the house.) We're also trying to decide on support columns, visible rafter tails, etc. to support the roof overhang. I'd like a 'woodsy craftsman' vibe, and Hubby likes lots of beefy structure... Also, if the catwalk stays centered, and is integrated into the trusses, it would be possible to lower the walls of that section slightly, giving us more height-variability on the front facade. Does that make sense? And is that a good idea? I'd welcome your ideas --

Purplepansies Blue Louise--I love the combination of the copper brown and the blue. Florantha Starry Night--Good job finding swirly tile. I tried this exercise, but was stumped searching for swirly tile. I love the dark blue drapes. Purplepansies Approaching Thunder Storm--Oooh, I love the artwork! You did a great job of capturing the colors and the mood of the painting. I love the magma supreme granite. Honorbiltkit Vuillard--Also a beautiful painting, full of interesting details and patterns. You captured the color of the rug in the painting, and the painting you chose for your design does a great job of mimicking the painting in the painting. If that makes any sense. Palimpsest Vuillard--You also did a great job of capturing the colors of the painting, playing up the neutrals a bit compared to Honorbiltkit. The floor--is it Marmoleum?--mimics the colors of the rug. Style-wise, the table is unexpected, but I really like it in the design. Pricklypearcactus Lanadscape with Butterflies--I like the interplay of colors in your kitchen just as much as in the original painting. I just want to say how very much I've enjoyed this thread. I liked the artwork, I liked the kitchens, and I liked all the creative thinking that went into putting them together.

The reason code compliance is still important is that some codes (e.g. CA codes) require that if you change any aspect of a stairwell, it needs to become code-compliant to today's standards, even if the original stairwell was built before the code was put in place. In some cases, it's actually impossible to be fully code-compliant and you would not be allowed to make the stairwell slightly less dangerous without ripping out major parts of your entire house construction. The only option in that case would be to rebuild the stairwell to the exact same old configuration, to preserve the grandfather exception. I am going through this right now. Here is one resource to help with stairways standards: 2006 Stair Building Code

I much prefer the look of painted risers. I have found that scuff marks seem to depend a lot on the kind of paint you use. In our last house, we pulled up carpet and painted the risers with a latex semi-gloss paint. They scuffed horribly and I was constantly repainting them (because they scuffed so bad I couldn't get them clean). In this house, which was painted with Ben Moore OIL based semi-gloss, the stair risers hardly ever scuff. Same people, same shoes -- only difference is the paint. Now, we can no longer get oil paint in our state and our stair area really needs repainted (the walls are wood paneled and painted in the same paint as the risers) so I started putting Zinsser 123 over the oil paint in preparation for repainting it with latex. I got interrupted, so only a few steps have the 123. They too are scuffing horribly. They're only primer, so I wouldn't expect it to hold up, but still - it's amazing the difference between scuff level after just a few days. I'm planning to repaint with Cabinet Coat by Insul-X, which is the toughest latex trim paint I have found. It has held up well on my baseboards so I'm hoping it will be good on the risers. If not, I guess I could make an out-of-state trip to smuggle in some oil paint, LOL!