Yan, ok, I'm back, with more information than you probably want to think about! Some of this is in addition to my other post, some is in place of it. Since you seem open to lots of ideas, I'm going to suggest many things since several aspects of your plan are similar to ours (although our lot is wide, and your east side is our front, with our entrance where your stair landing is). Lots of detail, but you can obviously choose to ignore it all if it doesn't suit how you live. Energy efficiency-- 1--You have 12" energy heel trusses, nice deep roof overhangs, and 2x6 exterior walls. You might want to consider doing the garage walls in 2x6s also. We did a thicker (ICF) wall for our house and garage here in Michigan, and even when the temperature outside was zero, our unheated garage never got below 50! The 2x6s won't do that well, but every little bit helps. 2--Regarding fireplaces, the most energy efficient place to put it would be between two interior walls. We put a 2-sided Heat N Glo between our living room and dining room and have really enjoyed it from both sides. (I'd put yours in place of the west half-wall--you did say that you think of it as a hearth room!--and shorten or eliminate the other short wall). The other night when the power was off for 5 hours, we used some sort of built in override system and were able to heat both rooms with the fireplace, although we were not able to adjust its heat as we can when there is electricity. 3--An HRV (or maybe ERV; not sure which in Wisconsin) should distribute the heat from whatever sun comes in your west and south windows. Our library has exterior walls on the SE and SW, and our living room's walls are SW and NW. I love the sun coming in in the winter, and both rooms are always comfortable. Now if I'm actually sitting where the sun is, it is warmer, but I designed both rooms to have walls blocking part of the sun so I'd have places to sit and enjoy the rooms. It really helps to plan your furniture arrangements as you decide where windows and doors go. 4--Suntunnels (Solatubes, etc.) are much better for energy efficiency than skylights. We used Suntunnels by Velux; the rigid ones give more light than the flexible ones, and the TGR type looks better on the roof if it matters to you. We put one in the stairwell, one in the 2nd floor bathroom which has no windows, and two in the kitchen, since it has a 10'x20' porch across the front of it that blocks the light. I LOVE the light they bring in, and so does everyone who sees them. DH would rather not have ANY holes in the roof, but I insisted on these because light is so important! Symmetry (or, when do you give up form for function?)-- 1--A lot of architects and homeowners like symmetry. By putting the fireplace where I did, I removed the symmetry from 2 rooms. Since you have a Craftsman style house, you can have a more informal style without symmetry if you choose as long as there is balance. 2--If the exterior door now goes out from what is now apparently the screened porch, I would change the symmetry of the French doors, since it makes it difficult to place furniture. If you want to keep the symmetry, you could put two 6-foot sets of French doors and have the two doors in the middle fixed, and the two end ones open. Then you could put a love seat in front of the fixed parts. Or you could just have one door operable at one end. Laundry/powder/mud/pantry/office suggestions-- 1--Move the pantry to the powder room location. Move the refrigerator to the west so there is room to cut a door through from the kitchen to the new pantry; make it a pocket door. Move the desk functions into the pantry under the window or into the new office, since it would just probably pile up with stuff where it was. Cut a counter- height 20"w x 36"h pass thru in the pantry wall on the mudroom side instead of a door. Extend the left wall of the new pantry to the mudroom wall, and move the laundry door onto the mudroom wall. Put a shallow cleaning closet on the laundry wall facing the kitchen wall. Move the cubbies to the back of the kitchen wall. Change the mudroom/garage door so it opens to the right. 2--Move the 12'7" (new) office wall west 1'. Move the toilet and wash basin to the garage wall where the closet was, and make the powder room 5'x5' with the door on the south wall, opening into the powder room onto the back of the office wall. Move the closet opposite the powder room wall that has the door in it, so that the back of the closet is on the dining room wall. Have the door to the new office be between the closet and the powder room, and wall off the door into the dining room, if you want the office private from the rest of the house. 3--Kitchen--Are you having a cooktop and separate oven, or will there be a range? Where will the microwave be? Some things to consider when planting trees as a screen, especially since you are so close to your neighbors-- 1--How big will the trees get? The sizes listed by nurseries are usually the height and width after TEN YEARS, and they don't stop growing! They will get much larger than you expect. 2--The roots will get at least as wide as the tree canopy, so they will extend into any cracks that might occur at any time in your basement wall, and they will extend onto your neighbor's property where they may decide to plant something. 3--The evergreens will make the rooms darker as they grow larger and block more of the sun. 4--Most evergreens need full sun to look good. Yews will be about your only choice if there's a house on the east or west side blocking the sun and you only get full sun for 6-8 hours. I would definitely keep the windows in the master walk-in closet. Before we built our house, I visited LOTS of builders' homes in the Detroit 3-county area Parade of Homes, etc. I always disliked the larger WIC closets without a window, and liked the ones having a small window. Ours is 28" w x 42"h and 4' above the floor (9' ceiling). It's opposite the closet door as I walk in, and I LOVE not having to turn on the light during the day, seeing the sky and trees, having the light spill into the bathroom and bedroom, but still having privacy. A 4 in 12 slope for the roof seems shallow for Wisconsin since you get more snow than we do. My draftsman said the least he'd recommend was 6/12. Maybe it doesn't matter if the roof is in smaller sections, and their are no large trees around for leaves to collect. I designed our house from scratch, and had no previous experience. I bought and looked at lots of books, but two that I kept finding myself going back to for major concepts and practical applications were Patterns of Home: The Ten Essentials of Enduring Design by Max Jacobson, and Not So Big Solutions by Sarah Susanka. These might be helpful to you at this stage. IMO, your architect has done a very good job with your very limiting factors. One thing I found while designing our house was that every time I moved a wall even a couple of inches, it could have a huge impact on everything around it, which then had to be changed. I used a 3D Home Architect program. I assume from your print, that your architect can show you the 3-dimensional views of each room? If he hasn't, see if he can show you each room from the various entry points, so you can decide if that's how you want it. Also, there are online programs that will let you draw your plan and place your furniture. I don't know what they are, but maybe someone else can give you a link. Then you can see if the room sizes are ok, what you will be seeing when you are sitting down, etc. Anne Here is a link that might be useful: TGR style SunTunnels

Thanks for your input :-) It's sort of half basement-ee; meaning, there's wainscotting w/ painted drywall walls above, and a drywall ceiling; but rather than lower the ceiling about 6 inches to cover the pipes, we left them exposed. The floor is a sheet of the cheapest vinyl we could find (I'd like to change it to an inexpensive click together "wood" laminate.) I saw Martha Stewart do a coat of sand paint on steps - in strips - to prevent slipping; followed by a top coat of plain floor paint. We did the entry portion of our porch floor that way and it isn't slippery, even in this dripping boot weather. (I wouldn't bother with the strips - I'd just do the whole surface of the tread.) I think I will THOROUGHLY clean the steps, use wood filler where REALLY necessary (and hope that it holds up), then prime. Then we can decide if we like how they look enough to go forward. We have to finish that back stairway (walls, ceiling and floor!) It is by far the ugliest part of the house - and probably the only place left in the house that I don't want anyone to see. (That 's an exciting thought!)

So a few things: -Be careful doing dark flooring and a dark ceiling. It may feel like the room is closing in on you. I'd go lighter for one of them -Don't do laminate in a basement. Laminate is water resistant at best, but even that's kind of a lie. Go for LVP (laminate vinyl planking) instead. It's far more durable for a basement. -Dark floors show everything. They're nearly impossible to keep looking nice so just keep that in mind when picking flooring. -The brick column looks nice, don't worry about it -Stair modifications (even adding drawers under) should be done by a pro only. Never DIY stairs because there's a lot of structural math involved and local codes. -Pick paint after everything else is installed. It will really help you determine what the best colors are.

Sorry, 2 different rooms. The pictures with the white couch and chairs is one room by the front door and the pictures with the fireplace and the brown couch and love seat is the family room off the kitchen at the back of the house. I’m not a huge fan of the huge tv either. I think it’s much too big. Would like to put something smaller there. My husband likes the big tv.