Couple of ideas: If you plan to have guests at any time, you could rearrange the closet from the hallway so it opens into the foyer. That way you could put away guest coats (or your own) near the front door without walking through the great room. (See mockup below.) This also puts the door to BR 3 further from the public spaces of the house. I like kirkhall's suggestion for eliminating the angle in the morning room. If you made that a sliding door with the opening toward the lower part of the drawing, you'd still have easy access from the kitchen to the patio (for carrying beverages, or bringing meat to/from a grill) and yet have room for a round table in there. Check your kitchen dimensions carefully, especially the aisle in front of the refrigerator. Even counter depth refrigerators stick out farther than the standard counter, and you have to account for handles, door swing, etc. (Plus most ref's require an inch of air space at the back.) Check the specs for whatever fridge you're buying and make sure that it can be pulled all the way out (e.g. for servicing) without removing the doors or moving the island. Definitely post your kitchen plan on the kitchens forum too for the best way to lay it out. Unless you need the extra upper cabinet storage, consider making the whole top wall of the kitchen windows, and just use upper cabinets on the right and bottom walls. That would make your kitchen nice and bright, and would be especially great if you have a nice view out the back.

Salmon: Thanks for your great work in compiling this. This link shows how to create a link within a document. A few things I'll add: 1. Another "where to buy" place is ABS Wood. I worked with Jeff at East Teak. 2. The decks.com guide is good. American Wood Products also publishes a good code reference. 3. I bought several deck books, and the most useful (starts with the basics, lots of photos) is Black & Decker's. It's updated for recent code changes. 4. I sketched out my plans and used decks.com's $99 plan drawing service. They did the load calcs, produced a framing plan, footer plan, and materials list in 24 hours. A great time saver! 5. Tools: I love the Bostich metal connector nailer, and have the Paslode framer and finish nailers (love them too, even if the framer took a nip out of my finger). I buy all my expensive power tools on ebay, and prices are generally 30-50% off retail for tools in good condition. If you're only using them for one project, you can put them back on ebay and probably recover most of your expense.

From the photo, it doesn't appear to me that the connection you mention overheated. The cut-down stranded wire's insulation shows no signs of excessive heat and its screw isn't discolored. Rather, it appears to me that the terminal strip's connection to the sauna's own wiring (top left of photo) was at fault. Thus, my inclination is to say that would be a manufacturing defect. However, two cautions - I don't know whether that terminal strip was installed at the factory, or by the installer. Also, I'm not looking at this in person. This is not to excuse the installer. The connection method itself is very poor practice and not a workmanlike installation. In addition, he or she committed a code violation in failing to follow the manufacturer's installation instructions on wire size and breaker capacity. My cautious judgement, based on the information provided, is that the sauna probably was not installed correctly, but that the damage wasn't caused by the faulty installation. This puts you in a rather difficult position in which both sides can keep pointing the finger at each other. BTW, what's that yellow wirenut doing in there on the white wire? And isn't a yellow wirenut too small for a #8 wire? Or did the installer just use that to cap off an unused white wire in the cable?

You have a lot of "no mans' lands" in the kitchen, living, master area. You could dance in front of your master bed placement - but to me that's wasted square footage. That area to the left of the huge island is completely wasted and not insignificant. The island needs to be shrunk - there's not room for 6 there, and the people sitting around the corner can't occupy the same space. Besides - sitting that many people around a cooktop just doesn't work. Shrink the island and get a proper table in that space. At least then someone would be close enough to enjoy that fireplace. Is the basement all below grade? is the main level at ground level to foster that indoor / outdoor relationship? If so - then agree on the bath accessible from the outside - but it it's up in the air - it won't get used. If the basement is all blow grade -I tend to agree with the statement that you are pushing too many "daily" activities below grade.