@Stonesmama,thanks for sharing this,your pool looks stunning,love,love,love the pictures, I'm more into the lighter colors and I love the blue, we decided on the Aqua Blue Pebble Sheen Color( I had a chance to see that color in person and I think it is very close to what you have) I will add some Shimmering Sea to it for additional sparkle,you sold me on this, again, thanks very much, I'm excited to see my color next week !Have a great weekend, Mokay

I can't tell you if the extra expense is worth it or not. The advantages to the swim gym would be the fact that there is nothing obtruding into the pool itself. Also, with the fastlane you have the hydraulic hoses to contend with. I have not had enough experience with either system to really give you an educated guess. In regards to your questions about fiberglass pools: They are gaining in popularity all the time. They are easier to take care of, cheaper to maintain,and the installation time is measured in weeks as opposed to months. Salt systems are great and the pros outweigh the cons. The solar heating is a great idea but you should have some back up heating source for the spa. A medical write off is possible, but your doctor would have to write you a prescription and I'm sure there are other hoops you would have to jump through. Email me and I will give you some other information about fiberglass pools.

The more bumps, roof lines etc the more expensive. The cheapest to build is a box, so the closer to a box your footprint is the cheapest, therefore I would say the farmhouse would be more to build. I noticed the laundry was upstairs in the farmhouse also, will this be a home you live in when you are older? If so you may want main floor laundry. I do like that the dining room is part of the kitchen, never had any use for a seperate formal dining room myself. In #56 the master bath seems odd for some reason, and a long way to walk to get a quick change of clothes, I would probably put a sliding door to one of the closets from the bedroom. Laundry does seem ackward here because its not a straight shot or even semi straight from your bedroom to it, where all your clothes and towels will originate. I love the front porch and overall look of the house though. The William one has some good things, the sun/kitchen nook is large enough to be a dining area on its own, allowing you to re-purpose the official dining area and use it as a library/den, etc. You could even make the kitchen larger: taking away space from that dining room, and use the smaller new room as a office/workout room etc If you added 4 extra feet to the bottom of the kitchen, the remaining "dining" room would still be more than large enough for office/workout space. That is still larger than bedrooms I have seen in smaller houses! It has lots of storage and a great porch. And everything you need as you get older is all located on the main floor. You don't mention kids so I haven't really taken them into consideration much, but he farmhouse does have a nice activity/playroom on the 2nd floor, and the William one has the bedrooms spaced a little apart which could potentially avoid some sibliling conflicts, plus that huge future room as they get older and want friends over or a media room. For me I would narrow it further to the farmouse or William. And probably lean more toward the william one because its squareish, seems to have more useable space, and potential with just a few changes.

Ronin - it IS inside. Nancy; Love this idea - but you will more likely than not experience some residual moisture and subsequent mold underneath it over time, if it's a wooden floor. (Not from leakage, but from the contact.) I built an enormous indoors "raised bed garden" and made it look like a dense tropical jungle, in my former plant store - it was 8 x 28 feet, and sat directly on the linoleum floor - protected by several layers of tarp and plastic. When I dismantled it, I had to give the linoleum a good scrub. Wood would have rotted.