....was looking at this tonight and decided to go with 2 set of 36" doors and 54" of those cheap accordian style vinyl door at HD in front of teh washer / dryer. It might look better with accordians all the way accross I guess but the hollow core doors will be more durable and I bet the accordian doors will just stay open all the time anyway. So, I have a soffit that will be about 19' long and maybe 5" high nailed to the rafters / joists above every 16" (again, this partition runs perpendicular to the rafters) and I guess 4 small columns, 2 one the ends and two in the middle separating the three areas. Question? Must I build the partition using 2 x 4 x 20s??? Can I just make my partition in 2 eight foot lengths plus a 4 fott and nail it up.

Thanks bspofford, I have been decluttering with a vengence for the past five years. The reno has been good for that, cuz not only do I get a chance to go through everything with a fine tooth comb when I pack it up, I am even more ruthless before it gets back into the new and improved space! And, when I packed up the Master closet (tiny though it is), I found two new bathing suits, a nightie and a T-shirt still in the bag, that had fallen out of sight. Thought I had imagined buying them when I spent months fruitlessly looking for them! I am so looking forward to having the space that things won't have to be so crammed anymore!

Lastcallracing, I have a pool that is 20X40 and its free form also. I have two lights and two skimmers. I also have 7 jets in my pool. I don't have a lot of trees, but believe you me until you get grass on the ground, you will have a lot of dirt in your pool. You'll be amazed at where the dirt comes from. And its not your yard you have to worry about. Any trees within 100 feet will have all of there leaves in your pool. Its murphy's law. Also your pool will be a magnet for all sorts of debris. I would think two skimmers would be better for you. I have a white finish with Hayward logic lights and it takes the place of a colored finish. Look around and you'll see how beautiful it is at nite with the multi colors. You'll love the bubblers and the tanning deck. But the biggest advice I can give you is get as much decking as possible that you can afford. I decided at the last minute to go with more decking and I love it. One it keeps grass away from the pool. And two, people can stand around your pool and not be in the grass. The mood and ambience is so different. Maybe its because we put up a gazebo near the pool. So look at your design when they come out to mark it and see if you can add more decking. You'll definitely appreciate it.

I used Building-Cost-Net which I found online to get a estimate for the house we are building. The program is fairly detailed and takes some thought and time to get through the questions. For example, it will ask you want type of exterior siding you plan to use and where your home will be located. Because the location, rural, city, etc. can make a difference to the overall cost to build. Another idea is to google price per square foot in your area. That also gave me a very good idea of what we would be paying to build our house. Having these estimates in hand did help us when we started meeting with builders. The builder we chose brought in an architect who worked with us to modify the plans to include our 'must have's and to improve the layout of a few areas; we needed to add two bedrooms to the main floor. We met with both the builder and the architect for a couple of hours the first time. During the first meeting the architect asked us a lot of questions about our likes, dislikes, family and lifestyle. During the second meeting he came with his changes. I'm not sure that anyone who doesn't have this information could help make changes to a floor plan. In my opinion hiring the architect was very important step and worth the extra time and expense. We originally felt the plan didn't need much tweaking, other than the addition of the bedrooms, but the architect came up with a layout that fit our lifestyle and family much better. We have a big family, by modifying the layout slightly, he was able to make the pantry, mudroom and laundry room bigger. And he did all this without taking away from the things we loved about the plan; open living area which flow well into the outdoor areas. He was also able to eliminate things that weren't important to us, such as a large built-in bathtub and a second, large closet in the master, which will save us money. The original designer may offer this as a service or may allow you to take the plans to a local architect. I personally liked using the local architect better. He went out to our land and was able to suggest how he thought the house should sit to take advantage of the best views and get the most sun in the winter. This was different than the original way we or the builder thought the house should sit.