Hi Robbie and Shankins! Nice to meet you both! Robbie, you and I don't live very far from each other. I'm just down Kelley off of Main. It would really be lovely to arrange to all get together somewhere! Perhaps after school starts and things settle into a routine here we could set something up! I grow veggies and during the heat wave we just went through I've pulled all but two of my tomato plants. I'm getting ready to start my fall veggies. Hoping to get some purple hull peas before the first freeze. And I'm working on deciding what I want to plant next year as far as veggies go, especially more tomatoes for homemade sauces, salsa, chow-chow, etc. I'm stuck in the rut of planting only what my Dad use to plant. So I'm having folks give me their opinions on their favorite tomatoes :) In case I haven't mentioned it, I have five biological children aged 21, 18, 15, 11 on the 16th, and 8. I also raised two nieces and my first ex-husband's baby sister- they're ages 28, 24 and 36(my ex-husband's sister is mentally retarded) The two nieces live in Alabama now and the ex-sister in law moved back to Texas in May and is in her brother's care for the first time in 9 years. My oldest two boys (21 and 18) live here in Edmond in a shared apartment. So that leaves me with just the three younger children, my daughter being the 15 yr old and my two youngest sons. I got married in May to my wonderful husband, Cliff. He's an amazing man :) Right now I'm pretty much a stay at home Mom trying to start a home business, so I pretty much set my own hours. Like I said, we start school here on the 20th, so things should start settling in for me after that once we get back to our regular routine and I see how much more expensive middle and high school are going to be, because of course my 15 and almost 11 yr old won't get their complete school supply lists until the first week of school. Between school stuff and gas for my DH, who is a rural postal carrier (and has to front his own gas money), things are a little tight at the moment for me to be able to drive to OKC to meet. Lisa and I have "chatted" via email a few months ago and I'm really looking forward to meeting her, especially after some of the GORGEOUS garden pictures she's shared! (Nah, the Iris have nothing to do with it! :P ) I'm really looking forward to meting the rest of you as well! I really need to make some friends around here! And what better friends than Garden Buddies? So, who works and what times and days would be better for everyone? Perhaps if we start working on it now, we can find something that will fit everyone! Kathy

I honestly think you should take a deep breath and back off from any plan to "finalize" next week. Your plan needs a LOT of work. In answer to your questions: Too many windows? No! Well, you might have too many in the great room but the other rooms could use more windows. And, as another poster has already pointed out, you've wasted prime exterior wall space - especailly corners - for closets that don't need windows! Natural light coming from 2 directions makes a room feel SO much more livable so those corners should be dedicated to prime living areas. Also, in deciding the number and placement of your windows, you should also take into condideration the climate you live in. Spend some time looking at some green-building sites and you'll see what I mean. Enough wall space? That is hard to say. Depends on how much furniture you have and how you like to place it. Your posted image isn't large enough to see the dimensions of various rooms. It would help if you would tell us the dimensions of each "box." My suspicion is that the interior dimensions of each module are something like 13 ft wide x 55 ft long - which means that none of your rooms can be wider than 13 feet. That could create furniture placement issues in the great room b/c, with only 13 feet to work with, you're going to be pretty much forced to push some sofas and/or chairs up against the walls. River water, sand and clay/ mud around, and only one entry. Yes, this is a problem. And, with small children it is going to be a MAJOR problem. You NEED a side entry with a mudroom. I'm assuming you're planning a stand-along garage. If so, it ought to be located on the kitchen side of the house and your side entry and mudroom should be on that side as well. That way, you won't have to lug grocerys clear around to the front door and acoss the house to reach the pantry. I'd shrink the foyer by half and then double the pantry area and then make it include a mudroom and a side door. 15-foot high basement with 9 ft and 10 ft ceilings on main and second floors - will it look funny? I think it'll look okay from the front - though the steep roof line may make the roof a bit too prominent especially with such a plain-looking front elevation. From the back and sides, I think those floor heights could wind up looking pretty awkward. Especially since, if I understand you correctly, you won't actually have a basement at first... just some arches that will support the module that is at the back. That means that the space under your house will be open to the elements (and critters). Frankly, I would go aheard and have my builder do the necessary regrading to provide for a reasonable height basement and then I'd enclose the space properly even if it was left unfinished. Heck, depending on whether you can build a driveway to get aound to the back, the "basement" it might be a great spot for your garage. Besides, your plans show stairs going down to a basement. Is that door going to just open up to a hole under the house until you get around to finishing the basement???? With small children, I definitly would not want to live in a house with that situation - even for a few years till we could get the basement finished. Plus, you're likely to find that insurance companies will refuse to insure you if you have a door that can be opened (even if kept locked at all times) to what is essentially a hole in the ground. Enough storage spaces? No! You need storage in office/schoolroom/current children's room. You need a mudroom. You need space for more wall cabinets in the kitchen. Your masterbedroom closet is plenty large, but is not laid out for maximum storage. Your utility room needs more storage and a spot to fold clothing and lay things like sweaters out while they dry. Your pantry is plenty big but is a long dark narrow tunnel. It needs some wide/deep shelves for things that won't fit on a 12" deep shelf. Your entry way closets are miniscule. Unless you're planning to have a tankless water heater or two, where will you hot water heater go? With 2300 sq ft on the first floor and 1600 sq ft (eventually) on the second - even if you don't heat/cool the basement, you're probably going to need two HVAC units and I don't see any spot for them. Even if you plan for those to go in the attic/2nd floor, if you plan to eventually heat/cool any portion of the basement, you're going to need chases to run ductwork down to the basement. If your plans don't specify where those chases are to be placed, the HVAC guys will tend to just run 'em thru whatever closet is handy - thereby further reducing storage space. Speaking of HVAC units, if they will be in the attic/2nd floor, you need to have planned the 2nd floor enough so that you don't wind up with ducts crisscrossing thru areas that you want to turn into 2nd floor living space. Now, my 2cents on style and livablity issues: Style: I have to agree with previous posters re your home elevations. Double windows with "shutters" make me shudder. (pun intended). Shutters originally served a purpose. They closed over a window to provide additional protection against storms. Even when shutters are merely decorative, they ought to LOOK like they can still serve their purpose or they just look silly. The front of your house would look much nicer and more balanced with four separate windows, each with shutters that fit the window. And, since you don't have a porch, your front door NEEDS some kind of overhang to protect it. Plus a small gable over the front door extending outward to create a small front porch would lend some style to an otherwise very plain front elevation. Since the roof is so steep, I think the front elevation would be improved by the addition of dormers. Dormers would also bring additional light into the upstairs rooms when you get the 2nd floor finished out. I'm sorry but your back elevation looks totally haphazard. YOu have too may different sizes and styles of windows with no pattern to their distribution. Pick one style and size of window and stick with it. If you have to use a different window in the bathroom, it should at least be chosen to coordinate with the other windows. If you have double hung windows everywhere else, the bathroom windows could be chosen to be the same size as the upper half of the double-hung windows. If you feel that you MUST have some wider windows in the greatroom, at least make all the windows the same height and style. All double hungs. Or, if you want a picture window with smaller windows to the sides, use casement windows that are the same height as the central picture window. I'm assuming your views of the valley are to the east. Have you considered that you may someday want to add a deck off the back to further enjoy the views? Wouldn't it be a good idea to plan a spot for a patio door in the great room? As drawn, your side elevations are simply wrong. Neither side elevation shows the 2nd floor dormers and both of them should. And, the left side elevation shows a door opening into the west edge of the study instead of the window in the middle of the room that your floorplans clearly show. These kinds of errors make me wonder just how qualified your builder's "architect" is. Livability: The foyer is way too big. The dining room may be too small for a large family (hard to tell without dimensions). The kitchen doesn't seem very workable. To get to the pantry, one must walk right past the stove. I much prefer to see stoves tucked out of the way as much as possible. The stove, main sink, dishwasher and refrigerator are all basically line up in a straight line - which would be okay except that that "line" is the area of the kitchen you will use 90% of the time. So that means the rest of your kitchen is likely to get very little use. Problem is, with the island stuck in the middle, moving any of the major appliances would mean you'd have to walk around the island to get from one appliance to another so you need a complete redesign. The secondary bathroom (that you need as long as the kids are using the study as their bedroom) is poorly positioned for access from the study or access from the family room. The laundry room is too small for a large family and it is going to be difficult to run a vent for your dryer. While some European countries don't require dryers to be vented to the outside, US codes do require venting - and their are rules limiting just how long and how many turns the dryer vent can have. Since you're going to have a high 2nd floor (and apparently haven't yet designed the floorplan for that floor), you need to make certain that you CAN vent the dryer now and that the dryer vent placement won't impede your 2nd floor design later. Would be terrible if the vent ran right up thru the middle of where you HAD to have an upstairs hallway and you couldn't move the vent b/c you'd already maxed out on length and number of turnings in the vent pipe. Okay - that's a lot of words for my 2cents worth but, hey, I work cheap. LOL! Good luck.

I just finished a 4.5-5hr long walk through going through every single detail (as far as I remember). The builders contractor was courteous enough to patiently note all the items, however small and did not just push back. Someone may say they not supposed to, but I just think a long inspection might just give them the headache to get done with the process. :) Yes, despite all the responsibility on builder, finally no one is as invested in the house as the buyer (including the loads of money that has gone into the same). This is what I did: 1. Create a sheet with one tab per room or area such as Garage, Drop Zone, Powder Room, etc. 2. Went through each upgrade selected and copied it into each room/area that it will appear 3. Added a test plan in each (although duplicate, it just means I ensure I go through the rigor of checking all items where it shows up) 4. Added enough detail what to look for especially lights, dimmers, etc. So I know what to look for and where. My builder had missed a lot of dimmers which were supposed to be in place and it was easy to identify and show the line item from my sheet to the contractor so he knows I am not just asking for something last minute. 5. Checked each and every small item including cleanup. 6. I focussed on outlets in the very end - this is where I switched off the circuits from the garage, switched them one by one and verified the outlets using the test pin (given by the contractor). I also identified that the circuit breakers were not tightly installed - because they moved when I switched them on. 7. I also tested appliances including the water heater. One more thing - when you check the windows, please check the outer window sill and walls for cracks, dents, damages. This is the best you can do since you will not be getting similar closeup for the rest of the outer walls. I did not take notes during the walk through (I would have been there forever), but did note down everything on my sheet once I came home so that its a ready checklist to validate for the next week's follow up. Btw, I have not yet reviewed the exterior - its scheduled for next week. Big items found: - A cabinet wasn't installed correctly and it was scratching on one side - Waste basket drawer not opening properly - Some cracks and dents on window sill - Issue with a lock During construction we had identified bigger issues which they fixed: - A window not installed symmetrically - Wrong shower tiles (this was probably because I changed the tile selection and the revision was not properly captured - but they fixed it without a whimper)

Long grass wouldn't worry me, nor a bit of a mess I suppose, but what I can't understand is when what I would consider a part of the sale is taken away. The gazebo for instance, or shrubs. I would feel that what I had seen, was what I was buying, unless the sellers asked me would I mind if they took this prized rose that reminded them of their old dead Aunt Mary. Or, could we take some of the daffodils, would that be all right? And yes, of course it would be. Yet, with some people, it is considered normal to rip out shrubs and young trees to take to their new place, after the sale. So strange. Anyhow, I am glad that you've 'moved on', musicgold, as it's NOT worth the angst to pursue this sort of thing. But please, next time, refuse to settle unless and until they put back what they take.