Definitely following. Seems like a very unique and interesting project!

Very very cool project!!! Beautiful lot. Paint tie garages same colour as house and they will stand put far less.

If I had a place in Napa, I could probably be able to put up with interior barn doors.

The garage doors are being replaced, as are all windows. Good point re color though.

Cool project! I'm curious why the gym, which seems enclosed within the master suite, has its own bathroom when there is a luxe master bathroom mere feet away. If I were working out, I wouldn't want to shower off in that dinky shower in the gym bathroom... I'd head over to the sweet luxury master bathroom to treat myself right after a good sweat LOL. Was the gym bathroom a marital compromise? :-P

In the guest room and master ditch the angled wall entrances. They are dated. You don’t need them.

Loved Napa. Definitely following this awesome project.

Wow! Incredible location and views! And what a project! Please post progress pics as you. (Or start a blog?) My SO would be all over that garage space and would have loved picking through the junk there. Me, I'd love the outdoors and the eventual finished inside space :)

Re angled walls: Yes, I've heard this before. High 1970's. It turns out that these solve very specific design issues, especially in the master. The entry to the master has to be all the way on the east side of the room otherwise it would be in the middle of living room. If it was straight, it require a left turn and short corridor into the room and moving other walls. We feel that this approach flows better. That said, if you want to shoot me over a proposed layout, feel free. We're open to changes that get the best result.

The gym has a bathroom and sauna, and there's a door to the outside to the pool area in the backyard. Thus the gym serves as a bathroom for guests outside. Access to the master bedroom will be keypad controlled from that side.

Please educate your draftsman that a "butler's pantry" is a service room between kitchen and dining room. Mislabeling rooms can create problems and questions one's intellect.

Fascinating. I'm interested in following along as you renovate. Love the views at your locale!

Mark, thanks. The designation of living room and dining room is flexible, and most likely will be swapped as we progress. Anyway, this was our designation, not the draftsman's. We know what we intend, and everyone on site is on board with that, so there's no confusion.

What an incredible project! Excited to follow along. Small suggestion: In the living room, could you tuck the wet bar in where the wine display is rather than have it jut out into the room, which seems a little awkward? I know you may be trying to piggybck off the sauna plumbing, but If it's sticking out of the LR wall, you'll always have to decorate around it. It seems like you could do something really awesome with your wine display (given your location) as a true focal point for the LR instead, and not be walking behind people to mix drinks. It would also be nice for the bar to be a greeting spot for people as they enter when entertaining.

And then, if you add plumbing to the back of the pantry, you might as well consider adding an extra sink there for dirty dishes during parties, and maybe a spare dishwasher, too. You'll find that since your kitchen is not giant and your sink and DW are in the island, dirty dishes will pile up on the island and you'll see them. Just a thought! (And also an introduction to the three most expensive words in home renovation: "Might as well...")

Let me know when the guest room is complete. :-) Looking forward to the progress.

Hannah, interesting suggestions about swapping the wine display and the wet bar, the sink/DW for the pantry. We'll consider that.

You say the upstairs is for your daughter's family? Do you think they would appreciate a kitchenette? Under counter fridge, micro, two-burner cooktop would let them have breakfast up there, make snacks, stay out of the way if not well and you're entertaining.

They are the real cooks in the family (both professional chefs) so the main kitchen is for them to cook for us in lieu of rent :)

@3onthetree thanks for the very detailed comments. I'll study them closely and bring them to the design team for consideration.

@3onthetree said

"Love the attitude too, of "we're open to changes that get the best result." The checkbook usually is the judge and jury, but always good to think about stuff."

--I have strong ideas, weakly held. I know what I like, and come up with lots of suggestions, what if this, what if that? Everyone on the team has been explicitly told to push back on these and tell me which ideas are bad, too expensive, etc. and offer up better solutions. We're we very interested in having steel I-beams suspended across the family area, but the cost, complexity, and mass are too high, so we're going to use box beams, possibly metal clad.

"I'd probably check on that existing balcony structure. If it's a pole barn frame, then the balcony may only have a ledger and those brackets holding it up, rather than cantilevered."

--Nice intuition. The balcony is supported by very large L shaped wooden beams. Too expensive to replace with cantilever, but we're going to reduce the visual mass by using steel angle iron and plates.

" The entry is tall, vaulted and skinny. I might try to re-orient the Powder block to give a better proportion of vertical space..... Seeing through from the Foyer all the way to the Laundry door may not be the best view, maybe move the door and the skylight at the end draws your eye."

--We will have an interior door at the end of the hall so you don't see the laundry room, and make that section of house more private. Reorienting the power room doesn't work. My office entry is in the hall in the entry, and moving it to the interior hall doesn't feel right to me.

"Wine display/bar, which should be the "WOW." I like @Hannah Wolfson idea of moving the bar here. A groin vault ceiling, with brick groins (the 'ribs'). It's kind of a purposeful "ante-room" to the Living and turning into the Master Suite. So the essence of Napa with wine, brick, and vaults right away, then with glass in hand move forward to the . . . ."

--Brick is out. We're very modern inside. Moving the wine display elsewhere is under consideration.

"Maybe visual straight out the window to the pool area/fountain".

--The pool is to be centered out from the kitchen/family room currently, not the dining area.

"Why do you have a 9' flat ceiling in the Living?"

Excellent question: that's the current ceiling. This was heavily discussed over the past week. The option was to slope from 9' to 12' into the family area. The view from all was that flat was more modern: "The only good angle is a right angle." (Yes, I know there are angled walls into the master bedroom--the architects are reviewing for alternatives).

"

- What is the A/V along the wide hallway next to Theater Room? Can the Theater access with double doors into this hall? With a snack/beverage counter, or room for retro arcade games? A nice barrel vault ceiling?"

--Not really AV. Just a temp label (Sorry, Mark). The entry to the HT has to be in the rear, not the side, for the best acoustical performance (and for the WOW factor when you enter and find yourself inside a Star Wars Death Star hanger deck).. Snack/beverage counter, arcade does not go with our 'look'. Spare, modern.

"Have you done elevation studies? I see a lot of 'punched' openings creating a standard rhythm on each side."

The upstairs window locations are under review this week.