Thanks so much for the feedback. I spoke with the architect and he was enabling the bath to be large enough for 3'0 doors and a larger vanity that he thought I wanted. I told him we were used to just a pedestal sink and toilet and would be thrilled to have the extra space in the kitchen. He is working on our revisions, but it sounds as if it will all work out. Our master bath and bedroom are on the main floor and is wheelchair accesible. So, that would be an option if ever needed for someone or us in the future. I really appreciate the comments, time and pitures. It is so nice to have real people who can share and help us get our dream homes as pefectly perfect as possible! I count down to the days we can break gound and share pictures. I hope we will be part of "It's June and...!" We closed on our 8 acres yesterday and it is just screaming for some action!!!

Wait a minute, plucky, I thought it was you who was supportive of me? Anyhow ... I'm glad it makes sense. Waxing may become a lost art if it's not passed on. And it DOES make a difference if you do it right -- a few coats of wax give you a nice, durable finish that's renewable and feels and looks SO good. There's nothing as lustrous as a real wax finish. I wish I knew more about chemistry and physics. I'm sure I could have a better explanation about how the molecules are excited from the energy introduced into the lipid and make a conformational change and line up differently ... but I took Italian instead! Ha! And now I can just order nicer things in restaurants. I admire laxsupermom's scientific approach. (But a wooden spoon to the head to her husband for not asking if he could clean it up. Sorry. Even my dad would.)

I have both a pullout (on prep sink) and pull down (on cleanup sink) and use both all the time. They each have their pluses & minuses (e.g., a pull out reaches further out onto the counter than a pull down, pull downs are taller and you can fit taller pots under them, pull outs have a lower profile than pull downs if that's needed). It's so much easier to rinse a sink out or rinse several things at once when you can move the head around (all sides, front, back, etc.) They also allow you to fill pots sitting on counter. It's also MUCH easier to fill the fish bucket when cleaning the fish tank...5 gallons is a lot to lift up out of the sink and then over the counter...filling the bucket on the counter and just moving it off the counter is much easier! I've had non-pull out/down faucets with and without a side spray...they're better w/side sprays, but not ideal. For one, you have to constantly hold the button down to use the spray...OK for a quick spray, but not a prolonged use. (The rental I'm in right now for vacation is one of those w/o the side spray....what a pain!) I'll never have a faucet w/o a pull out or pull down faucet again! So...when have you "...noticed that many people rarely use a sprayer, and rarely pull their pullout out..."? That's certainly not my experience!

This is a tough one. The Ecovents themselves are pretty good. We’ve had them for six years, and they definitely work. On the other hand, the complaints about customer service and battery replacement are very real. We have 16 Ecovents in our home and have to replace the batteries every few months. About four years ago, we comtacted customer service about this, as that’s obviously a far cry from 3–5 years. Their customer service was awesome: they said they’d look into it and get back to me, and a couple of days later, they informed me that it was a firmware issue. Batteries were being drained much more quickly than expected, and as an apology (and out of gratitude for letting them know), they said they would cover my batteries for the next ten years: anytime I needed more, just let them know. Now, obviously, this was a great deal. Not only were they covering my costs, but it gave them another reason to improve the functionality: the better the battery life, the fewer they’d have to send. It was a win-win! A few months later, the batteries started dying and I contacted them. Obviously, they hadn’t fixed the problem; but true to their word, they sent me enough AA batteries to power all 16 vents. Unfortunately, that’s where it stopped: when the batteries started dying again, a few months later, I called for replacements and was told that free batteries isn’t something they do, that I’d obviously misunderstood. And, you know, that’s possible. I was probably just thrown off by the fact that after they said they’d send me free batteries, they sent me free batteries. It’s an understandable mistake. To be honest, the functionality has improved quite a bit, since then. The batteries still don’t last very long, but we’ve started buying them in bulk from Amazon. The Ecovents don’t seem to last much longer with high-end Energizers or Duracells than they do with Amazon’s own brand, so we save the money that way. I just replaced 40 of them, in the last 24 hours, and everything seems to be working just fine. Furthermore, Ecovent has been acquired by Keen Home, and they seem to have much better customer service than Ecovent’s eventually degenerated to be. (I won’t go into details, but suffice to say there were more issues than the battery one.) So yeah… a mixed bag. Personally, I think they’d probably do a lot better in addition to a traditional zoning system than on their own—which is, after all, an option they support. But since I’ve never had both Ecovents and traditional zoning in the same house, I can’t say for sure.