***update*** According to the sales person, the deal I received is still better than their current incentive. When I purchased in November the homes were slightly discounted and all my options and upgrades were 20% off. So after adding all of my upgrades the home came out to $165,700. With the new deal the base home starts at $163,000, and they throw in hardwood floors (in the kitchen only), stainless steel appliances, and the granite counters. Customers THEN have to add in my upgrades and washer/dryer/central air at full cost. Incidentally, my upgrades and options were: -crown molding in the kitchen -42" cabinets with upgraded (level 2) trim -central air -brushed nickel lighting fixtures, door handles, etc. -Upgraded kitchen sink and faucet (Blanco) -upgraded carpet and padding -garden bath -added a loft and removed the 3rd bedroom I'm having a difficult time verifying the numbers, but he said my upgrades and options came out to $36,000 in credits. The new incentive is $22,000 in credits. I still feel like something isn't quite right, but he seemed very honest during my initial purchase. He actually talked me out of a few options as "unnecessary", and for each of my 6 change orders he waived the contractual $100 fee. So I would like to trust his explaination, but I'm still a little uneasy. In regards to cearbhaill's comments, I feel the situation is quite different than buying an item today and seeing it on sale next week. First, most reputable retailers (amazon, best buy, etc) will refund the difference if the price is lowered within a certain timeframe. Also, unlike other purchases, and home is an investment that will appreciate, and I will later need to sell against other competition in my community. To me this is significantly different than any other standard purchase.

We remodeled a 1957 ranch a few years ago and had a similar problem. In our case it was the dining room that was at the center of our floorplan and had no natural light. You didn't say what your roof looks like, but in our case we were able to redesign our hipped roof so that we had a gable-end with a window opening to the south right over the old dining room. It's kind of like a skylight, but with less leakage potential. We opened up a portion of the ceiling to make a tunnel of light, and kept the rest of the ceiling at 9'. It really changed the way our house functions. One of the reasons we were able to do this is we remodeled after a fire which destroyed about 1/2 of our roof. So that was an opportunity we grabbed with both hands. We made the old dining room into a study and put a transom window on the wall between the new study and new DR. It works really well to brighten the whole middle of the house.

I agree with most of what's been said. The big issues in my mind: - Lack of proportion; that is, some of the rooms just aren't wide enough for realistic comfort. - The bathrooms aren't efficient. The basic 3-piece American bathroom is usually built in a straight line so that all the water lines are in one wall ... something like this ... you could flip-flop the sink and toilet, you could make the vanity longer, you could add a small closet ... but this is the best bang for the buck: - You want to have windows on two different walls, if at all possible ... you don't want to give the coveted corner positions to a storage room. - You want your table to be near the kitchen. - Here's my best suggestion for tweaks to this plan: It's an efficient, inexpensive to build rectangle, which means you can have a simple roofline. Every bedroom has a closet. The bathrooms are simple but efficient ... the master even has a small linen closet inside the bathroom. The laundry is near the bedrooms. All your water is consolidated in the middle of the house, which is efficient and cheaper to build. Your pocket office is small (definitely a one-butt office) but can have a window ... I'd close it off with pocket doors. Having it open to the foyer will make it feel a bit larger when in use. The kitchen isn't big, but it is hidden from the front door, and the large pantry will make up for its modest size (and your hot water heater can fit in the deep corner of the pantry). You can have a window in the kitchen. Your living room and dining room are one long, narrow space -- and a good-sized space -- which means you'll have great cross-breezes in good weather. You can have a large table, which , of course, will go next to the kitchen. You can have windows on two walls of your most important space -- your living room -- and one of those windows will be a bay window. The garage is front-facing, which is least expensive /works on a small lot ... but is set back from the house, so it isn't the first thing you'll see.

Is that closet usable as a passage from the master to the nursery? It sounds pretty useless, so maybe you could punch a door into the back wall and not have to to into the hall to access the nursery. Where is the air duct vent? Are you talking about a big return air vent or just a small vent on the floor or wall? Point out its location and size on your floor plan. I would put the changing table on the hall wall, the crib on the wall perpendicular to the hall door (so it can be seen from the hall without going in and disturbing) and the chair and dresser on the closet wall. Angle the chair in the corner so you can see the hall door to speak to dad when he comes to the door while you're rocking/nursing. The dresser and changing table will be in close proximity for dressing baby.