The whole idea is to be self sustaining downstairs so you can turn off the heat and cool upstairs. Putting a master upstairs defeats that. Sure an extra unit upstairs cost more, but how'd you like to pay an electric bill based on cooling just downstairs and your 2nd story only gets to upper 80s? I don't have a floorplan available. I come in from the front porch into a living room with fireplace. Staight back in an openness is the kitchen with the dining table off that abutting the bay window. A big 30 x 30 deck is off to the side. In the back is an office/computer and utilty room and pantry. Back up to the front room...theres a powder room at the foot of the stairs, and to the left is the master bedroom with bathroom and walkin back behind. Width is something like 36 ft. depth too. Door at the top of the stairs leads to a central hall, windows in rear, doors in front, serves as a breezeway. I open it up at sunset so "my attic" immediately starts to adjust to the outside air temp. I don't have that dreaded heat load coming from an attic all night. Porch in the front. Off each side of the hallway are bedroom suites each with their own bathroom, each a mirror image of the other. Opposite where the stairs meet the hallway is a nice storage room.

theboneskes of course the nation including your area, the South and Southeast have been experiencing below average winter temps for an extended period of time. Heat pumps are normally sized for cooling. Depending on your home's building characteristics and insulation qualities, a 2 1/2 ton system may be undersized. How old is system? Is it original to home? What size backup heat strip? There have been many anecdotal stories in the past week about heat pumps struggling and not being able to maintain normal inside temperature settings. I wouldn't judge your HP's performance by this extreme weather. Wait until outside temps moderate and then make some observations. IMO Good Luck!

yes, it's ok. do something bold in there. these are two of my favorite powder room designs. using a sink like this would fit in, period-wise. you could also do the tile wainscot in a marblier subway tile, or the standard white wood work. I love this cobalt paint w/the blacks and whites. you could avoid the wallpaper if you chose a bold color. or do the black wainscot and a cool metallic wallpaper. Paint your ceilings a glossy black or navy to help bring down the height.

This is really helpful to me as well. When we moved into our home, we had the entire thing painted (walls, ceiling, and trim) by the realtor's painter at their repeat client rate of $12k. I knew then it was a bargain, and we just needed a clean slate to move in and get to know the space. Now we are undertaking a partial renovation, and the GC's painter quote is $36k for about half the house. That's 6x the cost of the painters we used originally. I'm strongly inclined to use our original painters again and save over $20k, and they've said their quote will include getting new surfaces "paint ready" this time (filling nail holes in new woodwork, priming, etc) before painting. Am I missing something critical here? The GC and architect have agreed I can use my painter if I want, but seem skeptical it will be good enough.