I'm so sorry. Please rest and take care of yourself, that is the most important thing right now. FWIW, I lost four babies, and have four children upstairs sleeping right now. I was always heartbroken, but after my children were born I always looked at them and thought "You wouldn't be here if I wouldn't have gone through that. It was worth it". Don't give up. Regarding your question, of course it's a build. Please keep us posted. The place looks beautiful, and the setting is so serene! Amy

Thanks for the ideas so far. The window wall in the kitchen faces south and looks directly at a neighbor's bedroom but we do want more natural light. We are definitely including solatubes in the plan and there is the slider plus the windows in the family room to help. blfenton - the raised bar is angled since that opening into the kitchen is line-of-sight from the front door. We experimented with the iso view with it straight and it looked disconnected from the rest of the kitchen, almost "floating" between the kitchen and family room. We're still working to figure out what will be best there. I will try to get a pic of the overall floorplan. MG - we aren't fans of speedcooking ovens (have one in the RV and don't like the result) so we do want a set of double ovens and a separate microwave. That's what I've had for the past 20 years (in 2 different homes) We were also thinking more windows. I hadn't considered a sink in the corner; that might make for a convenient place for the espresso machine. I tend not to like to have my back to the family room which is one of the reasons the rangetop was placed on the side and the small prep sink somewhere in the island. I like the idea of the fridge closer to the family room. (fun face you drew on the island ;-) - those eye circles are supposed to be pendant lights) lharpie - the rectangular island is 4' by 4' 9" plus counter overhang so it's pretty good-sized. The prep sink we'd planned would be maybe 16" or 18". We had a similar arrangement 2 houses ago so that's where this comes from. bpathome - yes, most glassware will be in the uppers above the wine fridge. Special occasion glassware will be in the flex/entertaining area. Dishes would be in drawers in the island as you suspected :-) We'd mostly eat at the counter and family room. The flex space will have a table in it and will have a slider that goes to the (large-ish) covered front porch. Folks in the community tend to gather on each others' front porches to socialize and the flex space is there to give us some inside options. Thanks, Michelle

“Pulldowns are more ergonomic.“ Not necessarily. Many of the high arc pull-down faucets have short spout reaches - meaning they are closer to the back of the sink rather than reaching farther toward the center of the sink. A faucet with a short spout reach means you have to lean farther into the sink to rinse things, and even an inch or two will make a difference in the strain on your back. Of course different people have different tolerances for this. But often when we see people complain of back pain at the sink, it turns out that their high arc pull-down faucet has a short reach. Pull-out faucets have longer reaches, and so are easier on the back. ”And, with a pulldown, you don’t have to hold down the spray button to use it.” That function has nothing to do with whether the faucet is a pull-down or pull-out style. There are many pull-out faucets that don’t need the button to be held down to stay on the spray mode. ”Pulldowns also have greater reach.” If you mean the length of the hose and the ability to get into all corners of the sink, the pull-out faucets also have long hoses and the ability to get into all corners of the sink. As mentioned, the spout reach is longer with a pull-out faucet. I think there may be a confusion of terminology regarding what is a pull-down vs a pull-out faucet. Delta Linden Pull-out faucet: Kohler Simplice pull-down faucet:

The "large" production builders to which I referred are not the big national companies, so I should have chosen a different adjective. In our area there are no national or large regional home builders. There are several local tract home companies that do the vast majority of the building in this area which includes the largest city in the state. They have cornered the market on labor as our builder and others like him have been told repeatedly over the past couple of years. I realize now that this may be unusual for other places. In addition to getting quicker response times from trades, these few production builders are favored by the local/regional suppliers for materials. Whether it's concrete for the typical slab foundations here, lumber for framing, roofing shingles or bricks, those builders are prioritized. This is a LCOL area, and only a small percentage of houses exceed $600K. Our builder's stated price range is $500K - $3MM, and our house was at the upper end of that range. We haven't been in our new home very long. I've already found problems, including some egregious ones, with cabinetry, electrical, plumbing, the installation of windows and doors, etc. Over the years we bought three houses from the largest production builder in this area, the most recent as a temporary/part time home while our new house was being built. Those three houses combined cost less than half of our new custom home, yet the finish quality (as in trim carpentry, installation of cabinets and counters, etc.) was better than the work done on this house, albeit the materials weren't the same quality. I realize there's a lot of antipathy toward production builders on this site and some of it is likely justified. However, not every market is the same and not everyone has access to the same quality of architects and builders. Three years ago, I thought we'd lucked out and found a builder who could build our last and best home. At this point, the only things I'm truly pleased with are the lot (>1.25 acres in an area where .25 - .50 acre lots are the norm) on which we tore down the original house, the proximity to grandchildren, and the pool. Sorry for writing a book here. If we'd been able to find an existing house on a lot that worked for us, I think we may have been better off GC-ing a remodel there while living in the temporary house.