Adellabedella, I have to comment on your name. I mean this is the BEST way because I love these books but your name reminds me of the childrens books Amelia Bedilia. :) When my dad built his house he added an access panel to the wall behind the tubs which backed up to his closets so when/if he ever had plumbing problems he had access and didn't have to tear into the sheet rock. I have noticed in my neices newly built home that all the walls and ceilings are ONE color which I didn't like at first but it's seemless and in a way soothing. They painted the garage as well which I like because it doesn't show dirt as easily as white and reminds me of your garage. My sister also told us to add MORE LIGHTS and she said you can never have too many outlets (well maybe but have plenty) so we will do that, too. I hope you find a solution for your library door locks. Srercrcr - I like the idea of a larger propane tank. What a good idea. I'm glad you got your house after that many years of planning. I have a good friend who built about 4 years ago and I kept telling him "how can you leave your house where your kids grew up" and aren't you going to be sad to leave - but he told me over and over that he was SO excited about leaving and starting his new life. I couldn't understand at the time but now that we've sold and are finally coming to the point of building I completely understand. gopintos - I LOVE light too and our recently sold house was dark and cavelike for many years then we added a huge window and glass front and garage door (Which we found out later wasn't really up to code) but we were in the country and I loved having it since most people came to our back door anyway. I'm sure no one will notice or mention the arch over the front door so I know you'll learn to love it as is. I wrote down that saying and will print it out and keep it with me as I tend to second guess my choices. bdpeck - I never gave one thought to the venting so that's now on my list of make sure it's done right. I hope your mystery electrical issues aren't serious. That would make me crazy. I'd like to ask how many others put the small returns in each bedroom and what difference it makes. mairin - I'm very OCD too and I'd need my lighting in a line as you. I find structure and symmetry are calming to me. My just sold house had NO laundry room. It had a bi-fold door in my breakfast area. I HATED IT! When we were young and only doing 2 loads a week it wasn't so bad but after 19 year of having dirty clothes in my kitchen and eating area I promise I'll have an outhouse before I give up or have a small laundry room. LOL There's 2 things that are must haves for me: a man cave for all stuff and a decent size laundry room. I've reallly enjoyed reading everyones stories. I'd love to hear more. I have to tell you that I've lived in Texas most of my life (off and on 49 years) and this is the first time our lake has frozen this much since I've lived here. There is 20 feet of ice around the edges this morning. It's 2 inches thick with ice up the tree trunks and the base of the piers where the wind was blowing so hard the water Texas! Yesterday morning the wind chill was 5 BELOW zero here. I lived in Maine for 2 years and this reminds me of that time - but I left there who still lives in Maine that we need to move back there to thaw out. I'm sure many of you are having the same thing. Tomorrow is supposed to be better for us. Hope you all get some relief soon. Sunny

I am going to take pictures and upload them later today - headed over there right now - but my builder is suggesting using the 3x6 bullnose on the long edge and running it perpendicular. I know that is how this is usually done in a bathroom but what about a backsplash? Our counters are L shaped with the fridge at one end so this is only an issue at one end (the open one). The other option would be to use another one of their options for trimming it out on the end, like a molding of some sort, but I don't know that they would have one that would work. Any thoughts? Do people usually just run one edge of perpendicular bullnose? I guess theoretically that could be cut down to a super skinny bullnose but that may look even worse. Or a pencil liner???? I am at a loss. Here is a link that might be useful: Cappricio trims and moldings

I'm guessing "Tom" was the guy who promised them it would take six months. Seriously though I have a rule of thumb that has helped me with building or renovating. Whatever time the GC says, I double it. This way I don't stress when the G Cs timeline is proven to be inaccurate.

I have a 36" RCS and food definitely cooks a lot faster than on our previous Viking (12K open burner range-loved it btw, we got a good Viking). Like dorcasc I find the difference in sautéing to be quite noticeable, both in time it takes, and how well things turn out. We have All Clad copper core pans (have for many many years) and they are wonderful. I do find we are using our cast iron pans a lot more these days too. My dh didn't really like them on the Viking but now with the extra btu's from the RCS he finds the cast iron to work great for pan searing fish and chicken (also quite noticeably better on the RCS), which he didn't before. I always used them for a variety of things previously and still love them. We have a 24x42" Prizer hood with 1200 cfm. Definitely overkill but I love it. We mounted it 36" above the top of our range and it performs beautifully. I like having it mounted high, both for head clearance for my tall dh and so we have more backsplash tile showing (no one ever seems to mention that as a plus, but for me it's huge), which really enhances the look of our kitchen imo.