Thanks! I appreciate the feedback, I emailed Summerfield as well, I'm so anxious to hear what he/she? has to say!! I'm going to work on it some more today. I posted on the kitchen forum to get feedback on how to set up the kitchen (I've never had one so large and don't know where to begin - in a good way) One thing that was pointed out is how far the garage is from kitchen, so I think I'm going to flip the entire main room so the kitchen and dining area are on the same side of the house as the garage. That means I'll have to fit the pantry over near the media room and so major rearranging as the media room needs to stay rectangular, and then I'll have the pantry space as the close for BD 3 and remove the closet that goes into the play room. I'm hoping to turn this into a final plan within a month, do you think that is too fast?

Sounds high to me - esp. some of the upgrades. An automatic pool cover should be about half of what you're paying. The upgrade costs from standard plaster are also super-high. Unless prices have doubled from what I paid 2 years ago, the costs for similar upgrades and options for my 45 x 14 foot pool were about 40 percent of what you are being charged (and I'm in So. Cal., where construction costs are high). Also, if you're putting in a volleyball thing, it would seem that a sport pool (with the deep part in the middle and shallow on both ends) would be more conducive to playing volleyball.

I'd buy that one in a heartbeat, wow. I agree that making changes to the carport area wouldn't look right, and I like the idea of an additional garage (not attached.) I don't know how popular MCM homes are in your area, but in many parts of the country you might be hurting the resale value of the home if you make major changes to the architecture. I think a good deal of the value in that house is it's so well preserved. I love those bathrooms and the fireplace, and would try very hard not to change them. We are in our tenth year of living in a MCM Spanish style home (not nearly as pristine or beautiful as yours.) We honestly were not fans of MCM when we moved in, but that gradually changed over the years. What we're doing now is slowly adding and changing furnishings as we find them, at thrift stores and elsewhere, to reflect our changing taste. We'll probably sell some things on Craig's List. You really don't have to do it all at once, so don't let that pressure you. In fact, I have really enjoyed going slowly, because it gives me time to learn about MCM (reading books and online resources) and think it through. I feel like I am still finding my way. It's obvious that you're sensitive to design or you wouldn't be doing this thoughtful post and asking these questions. If you buy the house, I'd suggest living with it for a while before doing anything. I think there is a good chance that you will find a new appreciation for some of the features of the style as you learn more about it. We've already made some small changes to our house in the early years, and now I worry we shouldn't have...so I'm trying to help you avoid some of the confusion we've experienced. My heartfelt advice is to take your time. It sounds odd, but I think we are finally learning to let our house teach us a few things, instead of us forcing the house to be the way we thought it should be initially. We're currently trying to be open to letting the house help us grow and change, instead of the reverse, if that makes sense! I'll bet you could do the same, and you have a much more wonderful starting point than we did. That place is such a gem!

Most recommend minimum of 24" of width per diner. And that really is a minimum. I think it's more important to think about comfort than how many seats you can squeeze into a space. At 24" most adults are super-cramped and don't have much elbow room. And your kids will grow up so you need to plan for that. My DH wears a 46" jacket. When DS was in high school, he wore a 48". Can you imagine them crammed together with 24" each? Not happening. Even when kids are smaller, I think it's nice to give them more space so they can spread out and not be so close that it's fun to start pestering each other, like on purpose/"accidental" elbow jabs and such. And if you want them to do homework there, they will likely need space to spread out books and papers. Personally, for these reasons, we've never been happy without more like 30-32" per person for daily use. Closer is fine for occasional dinners but not for daily use. All imho, of course, and YMMV.