Our basement ceilings were designed for 9' as we knew we were finishing the rooms down there...basement sq ft is the cheapest to add to the house as you are already building it. We ran the ductwork in the conditioned space for energy efficiency, and rather than know where all the ductwork was, our architect cleverly created tray ceilings instead. It gives the feeling of height and space so the lower level is not a basement at all. So perhaps doing a tray ceiling may be a way to give you more height without having to raise the entire basement. Also, to keep basement rooms from feeling like basement, windows and light are essential...besides being code as worthy points out.

I like the Birchwood plan a lot. No "keeping room" but you may not really need one since, in addition to the Great Room, it has a study AND a nice sitting area in the master bedroom AND a screened porch with a fireplace AND a huge bonus room over the garage that could be turned into a children's play area, a mancave, a game room, a media room, or just about anything else one can imagine. How many different "living areas" does one family really need anyway? LOL! The various ceiling treatments and varied ceiling heights should give you the drama you want and the plan is pretty nicely organized. There are a couple of things that I don't like about the Birchwood tho. They are: 1) the kitchen design with it's barrier island smack dab in the middle of the paths between sink, stove, and fridge; 2) the lack of a powder-room near the garage entrance; 3) the lack of a "mud room" or unloading area at the garage entrance; and 4) no powder-room easily accessible to the bonus room except by going into one of the two back bedrooms. I would either get rid of the kitchen island completely or make it a whole lot smaller. Or, alternatively, you could move the sink to the island, make the island a whole lot wider and get rid of the entire wall of cabinets next to the great room and open up that wall completely to get an "open floor plan." In fact, in the house they photographed of the Birchwood kitchen on the Gardner website, that is exactly what they did. (If you look closely, you'll see that the photographed kitchen is very nice but is definitely NOT the same as the one shown on the floorplan.) The folks over on the kitchen forum could probably give you some other suggestions for making the kitchen more user friendly. As for the other issues, first off, I'd turn the e-space into a mudroom/drop zone. Every family needs somewhere to drop coats, hats, bookbags, etc when coming in or that stuff always winds on the nearest flat surface! In this case, the options are: on top of the computer, on the kitchen counters or the breakfast table. So, I'd move the computer to the library - out of the way of traffic and where it wouldn't constantly be covered with dropped off junk and where I would have room to stretch out and get comfy when working at the computer. Then, I'd probably have the two back bedrooms share a single but slightly larger bathroom opening off the hallway. (I.e., incorporate the closet on the right side of that hallway into the bathroom on the right and make it a shared bath.) Then I'd use the space dedicated to the bathroom on the left and that left-hand hallway closet for a powder room and a pantry. Put the pantry in the half nearest the kitchen so you go right past it when traveling from garage to kitchen. That'll make dropping off bags of groceries convenient. Then, I'd take the original pantry area and e-space area and combine them to make a nice-sized mud-room. You would have plenty of room for half a dozen 18" deep cubbies which will help keep junk from landing on your kitchen counters. With a powder room opening off the mudroom, whatever you eventually decide to do with the bonus room, you won't have to run down the stairs and clear across the house ...or through one of the kid's bedrooms to reach a bathroom. Otherwise, you should probably plumb now so that you can easily add a bathroom upstairs someday. And that bath still won't be very convenient when coming in from the garage. Note also that by moving the pantry out of the kitchen, you can wrap cabinetry around the corner of the kitchen... which, if you look closely at the pictures, is what they did in the house that was photographed. You should also make sure of exactly how deep the garage parking BAYS are. If the 24' depth measurement includes the storage area, the actual parking bay may be less than 21 feet deep which could be a bit tight for parking a larger vehicle. You'll also want to verify the dimensions of the two master closets. To hang clothing on parallel walls you need a bare minimum of 6 ft which gives you 2 ft for each hanging rod and 2 ft for the aisle space down the middle. A two foot wide aisle in a closet with clothing on each side feels claustrophobic so for real comfort the closet needs to be 7 feet wide. Those closets look like they're maybe 5'6" wide. If so, be aware that you'll only be able to hang clothing in an L shape in the smaller closet and on three walls in the larger closet. That is still a lot of storage space but not nearly as much as the drawing suggests you'll have. In fact, with any internet plan, it is always a good to verify the actual wall-to-wall size of every room and closet before you buy. Some of the designs get pretty skimpy in rooms where they don't show dimensions. And, where rooms are not perfect rectangles, one can never be sure without asking if the listed dimension include the little bumpouts or the actual "useful" floor space. With those caveats, I think the Birchwood plan could make a very very nice home. As for the Betz Magnolia Springs, I can't say I like it at all. About the only thing about it that I like better than the Birchwood is that you have access to the outdoors via the laundry room... that can be nice for letting the family dog in/out of the yard when you don't want muddy paw prints on the living room floor. But you could easily add an exterior door in the laundry room of the Birchwood if you wanted one. Furthermore, the rear elevation drawing of the Magnolia Springs doesn't correlate to the floorplan AT ALL. Either the artist added a full second floor (complete with 2nd floor deck!) instead of the single bedroom and bonus room shown on the plan OR he added in an entire walk-out basement under the main floor. In either case, without extensive revisions to the floor plan, you rear elevation would not wind up looking anything at all like the one shown with the plan. It's misleading enough when sites post photographs of houses supposedly built from the plans but where so many revisions have been made to the original plan that the built house is a TOTALLY different house. But, when the artist's conception is this misleading, it is inexcusable.

FlyLady was an inspiration for me, for sure. I also found the Speed Cleaning books and there was a couple other organizing books that I found useful, a lot just for motivation. FlyLady kind of took it to the basics and reminding not to obsess over it, just start, anywhere, since you'll come around to it. And if you miss one because you're sick, on vacation, death in family or something, again, no big deal, you'll make it up next time. I tried the chore cards thing that another place recommended and I liked it but I didn't have the cards organized enough. I wound up just making lists, similar to what mc_hudd does. I had my wake up, mid-day evening and before bed routines worked out that I was able to do them (pick up dirty dishes before bed, etc. The shiny sink thing sounds so stupid but it REALLY made an impact! Try it for a month and see how it works. Then there was the normal daily things that eventually just plain are habit anyway, sort the mail before bringing into the house, the weekly that you might be doing on certain days, garbage to the curb one day, etc. Then there's some that should be every couple weeks, monthly, bi-monthly, annually, semi-annually, bi-annually, etc. Don't be afraid to modify it if it doesn't seem right. My gets constant revision. My biggest modification that works for me is using a reminder program in the computer. Reminds me to pay the bills between the 8th and the 12th of the month, put out garbage/recycling the night before, certain TV programs that I treat myself to watching so have the work done beforehand, pay property taxes and income taxes on time, etc. So I have a modified system and it works for me. I was getting a very organized and respectably clean house. I was very proud. Did you notice the "was"? Well then I got laid up for 6 months. Well everything went to pot. It took years to get back on track. I still was able to keep up on bills at least but the housecleaning suffered. But I went back and read some things at Flylady and here in the forum and got some motivation to start back in. Getting more organized. Can't physically clean as much but do priorities. Try to get something done on certain days and well, it's getting better. I work a strange schedule. Some days, like this last week are long days and I'm exhausted when I get home. So many things get pushed to the weekend. Tomorrow I'll get some more done and spend some more time doing the 15 min in the kitchen and just make it better. Once I realized that even just 15 minutes means 15 minutes that don't need to be done later so it's still an accomplishment. My mantra became doing SOMETHING, no matter how little, accomplishes far more than doing nothing. (if for nothing else than the satisfaction of doing something) The one routine that needs to be included and made a difference for me was to pat myself on the back and feel good for doing something instead of beating myself up for what I didn't get done. The world didn't come to an end because the steps weren't dusted last weekend. I did them today. Now I need to get out the vacuum..... Good luck!

We switched our plans from round to rectangular after realizing how much less space it took up...there are some general rules of thumb, though they vary depending on where you look. But most books I found suggested 21-24" wide per person and 15"-20" deep. (We're probably going with 32" x 48" to seat three people on an L with one chair on the end, but just started testing it this weekend in our existing kitchen to see how it works!) If your only seating is the L, then a square or rectangular table will take up a lot less space than a round one, though. It also depends on what's on the other side of the table---ours will have open space on the fourth side, so in a pinch we could bring two more chairs in and (cozily!) seat six. HTH!