We generally lounge in the living room with the laptop and iPad while watching tv. I take the iPad with me wherever, be it the kitchen for a recipe, up to the library (I know, sounds grand, but it's just a 9x13 bedroom I converted), or outside. They slide under the couch when not in use. We also have a desktop in the office (another converted bedroom, we only need 1 and have 3). DH mostly uses that for things like paying the bills, photo editing since he is really into that and it needs tons of processing capacity, and I use it when I need to print things. Someday I will updat my iPad software so I can print, but I've got other stuff to do. We also have assorted cords for things on every window sill downstairs. I am trying to find a place for a charging station thanks to GW. I would LOVE to get all that stuff organized and tucked away. I think the above suggestion to think about why you gravitate to the current location will help a lot with where to put a computer area in the new space. For me, since I do not currently have a job that requires me to tote a laptop around, it's not a big issue. Plus between residency and traveling to assorted professional meetings I have become pretty good at balancing a computer at just about any angle. Being tied to a set spot with an actual chair to sit upright in feels a bit boring now. I also like to multitasking my time wasting/procrastinating.

The 30" Ikea cabinet is shown in displays and on the ikea site as if it all came as a kit, with two wide deep drawers, and two shallow narrow drawers on top. Everything you get from Ikea is a separate piece. Good to know: you can get a single shallow drawer, full width. This replaces the two narrow drawers that require two front panels and a Filler piece. This is less time to install and less cost to buy. You simply deselect the small drawers, small front panels, and filler piece. Since it's not a kit, you don't have to buy the ensemble and or ask for exceptions to get parts replaced. Here is the shallow drawer: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10107072 $30 . It's been documented on ikeafans extensively, as the "oven drawer" in the base cabinet. If you have the urge to say you prefer having two small drawers, think again. -- When I went to a Viking showroom and looked at a 24" wide range, I was told it was discontinued. I didn't ask if they meant the one model I was looking at or all the 24" models. If the latter, I think there will still be many available at a discount price. A smaller oven takes less time to warm up. We have a 24"wide wall oven. We are very happy with it. In it we can fit a huge roaster: it's an oval shape, 13"w by 17.75" long with handles in "corners" not at the ends, about 7.5" high. I could fit fair size animals in it but I don't know what size that would be in turkey pound speak, specifically. We have a 24" induction cooktop. We never use four burners. In fact, we could make do with one burner almost all the time, by using pots with strainers, bain-marie tops, double boilers, etc. So now we understand why a three-burner cooktop can be sold without generating any complaints. -- Having one fridge will do the job. A fridge/freezer, all by itself. Having two appliances will change your life. The small LG is high quality at a good price. hth

Some people really like to do-it-yourself. I do. For example, I trim my own bangs. It's a money saver and I think I do a pretty good job. (And if I make a slip, in a few weeks they're long enough to trim straight again!) And if I was looking for a pretty standard type of house, I might just find some standard plans that worked for me. But if I had the kind of non-standard wants that the OP did, and was laying down $$$ for a house, I'd want someone who had the right training to do a custom job for me. Especially if I'd been looking at standard plans and finding nothing that suits me.

We used an Energy Star rater as consultant. I suspect initially it was a web search - our prior builder found them. They had worked with our HVAC company before. They reviewed the manual J from the HVAC company and it still had relatively minor issues. Did blower door test, inspected insulation, made suggestions and ran (up to 6 hours) comparative analysis of decisions. Their base fee was $550. Additional work was $95 an hour (which I never used). There was a $200 Energy star inspection/cert fee, $150 local utility rebate fee. Overall pretty minor. They found some problems with the HVAC install which was fixed under warranty. Rebate from utility (Duke Energy) - $9000 for a program I knew nothing about. Not a bad ROI.... Does not include the $6k they paid for solar panels. I am nearly positive that the entire cost of our upgrades was not $9k so they literally made money from day 1. But some things are hard to calculate costs - sure we could have used cheaper windows but that wasn't going to happen. The only specific line items were about $6k in insulation/air sealing costs. Much of the savings were in design which is really hard to line item but mostly were cost neutral. We survive on 2 single stage heat pumps - total install cost was $15k. We put a ducted mini in our bedroom because we like to sleep cold. It is totally silent and has almost no cycling at all which was important for us. It is impossible to design a conventional system that cools at 8p down to the upper 60s and then can maintain that at 3 AM without cycling. Especially when the largest west window load in the house is the bedroom (every design is a compromise). But even when totally silent, the mini can't be heard.