We are looking at Anderson's 12' 4 panel slider. My father-in-law, former contractor, warned against them due to difficulty opening and closing and difficulty installing. Does anyone have any thoughts about their functionality? The one we are looking at is pine interior and vinyl exterior. We are considering going with (2) 6' sliders, but they won't be nearly as attractive. Opinions?? And we are planning on installing ourselves...

Also check out Milgard windows and doors. I think they would be cheaper than Marvin. For my house, I installed custom commercial floor to ceiling windows and sliders (over 100 linear feet). They are very good quality and very well priced. Unfortunately, the guy who did them is no longer in business. You could google custom windows and see if you can get an estimated price quote over the phone.

I am late to this post, and I fully admit I haven't read every comment. But here are my thoughts: First of all, this is BY FAR the best post I have ever read in this forum. Thorough, detailed, specific and with a wish list to boot. And there aren't even any spelling errors! Congrats to the OP As for the plans, a few comments: The upstairs layout seems fine. My only suggestion would be to make sure that you can fit the furniture that you want in all of the bedrooms. I would leave the stair where it is. It works well for the second floor, and is centrally located in the house. Make a design feature out of it; stairs can be beautiful and yours should be since it's visible everywhere in the house. Don't move it. As others have mentioned, the living/dining/kitchen space seems small, especially for a family of four and for entertaining. I would explore adding two feet at both the front and back, four feet in all. Give all of the extra space to the living room. The kitchen layout is OK, but perhaps the pantry at the top could be deeper without impinging on the eating space at the island. Finally, I would add more windows on the south wall to bring in more light. Even in San Diego it will be advantageous to have as much southern light as possible. Explore opportunities for this with your architect. Good luck!

We installed two LaCantina doors a few months ago. The 144" x 96' cost $10,200 plus $1500 install. Our general contractor installed the LAM header. We also installed a 158' x 96", it cost $11,530. I dislike the screens La Cantina sells. We just ordered Vista View retractable screens. Centor makes nice doors with a nice hidden retractable screen, but buying two of those was just too much more money for us. I'm very happy with our La Cantina doors, we are in Southern California so they are local for us.