I think it's a great idea! I may have only been on this site for a mere 5 days or soi, but I've browsed around enough to know the ins-and-outs of gardenweb and find it difficult to go from one exchage forum to the next simply tp see whats up for grabs, imasgine if I truly wanted something and posted.I know that I've been searching for some nice ghost wood or other nice woods from places other than black jung;e and would like some really really nice, terratium appropriate broad-leaved lpants and orchids for the one I'm making now, but when I went in serch I realized that the majority are extremely large and too waterintolerant or the like. Not to mention most ferns in the fern exchage are staghorns. If I wanted one of those, I'd get it from my backyard, but I'm not in need of one.hell if there was an exchange here I think it may even be as easy as saying " I need large plants for my WTFs(white's tree frogs) and possibly get a few good offers. I think this idea is a great one.... two thumbs up.. I'll give my go ahead in the other forum as well! -Andrew

Some responses to the items I pointed out earlier... 2 - Foyer closet--I personally prefer hooks + a bench BUT now notice that you don't have a coat closet in the mudroom area. As it is, you will probably hang your 'current season' coat on a hook in the mudroom and store your 'off season' coats in the front closet. Since your foyer closet is so close to the mudroom, I think this will work! :) The foyer does have a spot for a bench which I think is ABSOLUTELY essential (unless you want your guests to wear their shoes indoors at all times.) 3 - Depending on your lifestyle, having space to have guests over to watch TV is nice when you have small kids. It's hard to get out to see a movie and/or friends, so inviting friends over for a movie kills two birds with one stone. We were never 'TV people' before our son was born. It is amazing all of the small ways a person's lifestyle changes when a baby arrives! I'd suggest talking to other parents in your lives (your own parents and your friends who are parents) to try to get an idea of what your life will be like once children enter the picture. 6 - Is there seating room at the island? I know guests can get a little uncomfortable (both physically and socially) standing around while someone is working in the kitchen. I think seating makes their presence seem more comfortable for everyone. :) 7 - As an voracious reader, I find it unlikely those chairs in the study will be your favorite reading nooks, since the natural light will be coming in at your face instead of at your back. Think about where you gravitate toward for reading in your current home. For me, anyway, during the daytime I like to have natural light from behind or next to me. If it's evening, I like a LOT of BRIGHT light above me (can lights galore!) 8 - I also work on the computer. (I work from home full time as a web developer and stay-at-home mom.) Side-by-side is different from back-to-back. If you both spend a lot of time at the computer at the same time, you'll just want to make 100% sure your computer nook is comfortable for everyone. Don't just think about once you're settled in---thinking about coming/going for trips to the kitchen, bathroom, and nursery. (If anyone plans on working at the computer while caring for the baby, I'd recommend a computer set-up near the nursery, at least for the first year of each baby's life.) 9 - If the stair layout is the most economical way, I'm sure you'll get used to it. I just know it would drive ME crazy to have to make a U-turn when I'm SPRINTING to the baby's room to take calm him down before his 'sleep fussing' turns into real crying. :) 10 - Our builder's opinion on the pocket door to the water closet is mostly that they're a pain to use if they are frequently closed. At the risk of over-sharing, our master bath door only gets shut when one spouse worries the aroma will offend the other spouse's senses. So, for us, the inconvenience of sometimes operating a pocket door is worth the aesthetic of having it out of the way 99% of the time. Again, it just totally depends on your lifestyle. I think our builder charges about $150 more for a pocket door vs. a normal door--it's worth finding out what your builder charges before going crazy adding them all willy nilly, of course. :D 11 - If you're not bothered by it, I think skipping a closet door in the bedroom would be fine. For aesthetic reasons, I'd recommend having any closet areas that are visible from the bedroom be anything but shelving. My husband and I are neat freaks and we both worked retail so we know how to fold and stack clothes neatly...and our shelving still never looks tidy. Hanging looks better by far. (I'd personally have a closet door that swings into the room, but that's just a personal preference, not a game changer.) Hope that helps! It's all just my personal opinions. We're only in the planning stages too, so I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. :) (Hope you'll go comment on my floorplan since it sounds like we have similar lifestyles.) Here is a link that might be useful: Floorplan of my 4BR 2-story Minnesota home

Angela12345, we would consider black & so thoughtful of you to include the link - quite a variety of RangeCraft styles! - am just having difficulty envisioning anything of the bulk apparently required. Thinking I should get busy building a cardboard mock-up, although we haven't done any demo yet so spatial volume & ceiling height of kitchen-to-be are only in our minds right now. Plenty of blue tape marking things out on the floor, though... SparklingWater, it's so helpful to get your KA experience. Our current fridge is a bottom-freezer Whirlpool that we bought in 1992, & in 20 years it has never needed a single repair. I cringe reading appliance reviews and realizing that the chances of finding that quality again are slim-to-none! Come to think of it, was just reading the resurrected toaster thread, and our Salton long-slot toaster is from 1991 (still chugging along), and our Panasonic microwave is from 1990 and has only needed 1 repair. The Whirlpool will replace the REALLY ancient fridge that previous homeowners left in our basement (changing of the back-up fridge guard); even at 20 yrs. old we expect it will result in energy savings compared to the one down there now. Guess we haven't been doing our part to keep appliance manufacturers in business up to now!

shades, I have a dolly (no straps tho) but I still couldn't move things. could maybe stack a few smaller boxes on it. jed has some stretch bands? with hooks on the ends that he uses. I actually have 2 small ones like his. should buy longer ones. yes, I have different people say they'll come do stuff - but then something happens and they don't show up. I've been trying for over 3 wks to get new front tires. my mechanic said he'd get some for me and put on. then stuff happened at his shop (to do with wind storms here), after that his elderly mother needed help up in phx... I had a test scheduled and had to cxl it! he got here and took wheels off to have tires put on... then many days later on NYE day he made it here and put wheels on front. and left. about 2 hrs later I got in car to go to store and heard horrible noise when backing the car up. couldn't go anywhere. he finally made it back here on sat. Tires were wrong size. too big and were hitting the struts. He put those on the back and my back tires on the front so I could at least go to the store. he's coming back tomorrow to take car to the tire shop to have them changed and rotated back. good grief! that something so normally simple would be such a bear to get done. this has also had me stranded in my own house for days. I wanted to get out and pick up take out from local Mexican rest. - tired of my own 'cooking' - lol! (finally got my 'dinner' today!) Then Jed over watered my plants last sunday and ran me out of water - but I didn't know it... had to shut down the pump til more water could be delieved - on Wednesday! (that was today and I now have water again). just thinking of these things tires me... oh, and in between these things my son landed himself in the hospital in the Midwest with a blood infection. been in there 5 days, has something connected to him/in him by his heart. could have died / or lost his leg. will be able to go home (info from dd) but will need to return to hospital every day for 10 days to have more antibiotics put in whatever that 'thing' is attached to him. he says it's called cellulitis (what he has). I would have guessed that meant he had cellulite - he's way too thin and fit for that! And with my fibro I've been sleeping a ton again. and cold, damp weather outside here - that doesn't help. I hope anyone reading this survived...