Leahcate, I think euphorbia and I are challenged on how to move to discussions. I wasn't able to post a link in discussions. Help!

This chart is from 2013 and shows the percentage allocation of various rooms for new builds. I will have about 2200 square feet on the main floor and 2000 finished in the basement. At only 16*16, my master bedroom is small according to this chart...however that is in part due to we chose not to have a separate “sitting area” as we will have the master deck to serve that purpose 9+ months out of the year. DH actually wanted a full wrap around porch. That is the only thing I vetoed. (He did not want a deck blocking his living room view though). I would imagine he will hang out in the master deck a lot watching for wildlife. For a 3,000+ finished home, it shows a master bathroom of 210 sq feet, mine is 194. For the same size home, it shows closet space of 201. That is about the size of both master closets. I would assume that the 201 must mean ALL closet space in the house. I am hoping for 5*8 closets in each kids rooms as I like to keep most of their toys organized in the closets. That would be 120 sq feet right there....so I may be over the closet sq footage, but Considering most homes lack storage, I am not worried there! My closet is probably the only one that is truly questionable. But I know lots of gals truly enjoy a nice closet space. I doubt I am taking away anything from my husbands’ life by having some extra space here. My pantry space is way out of whack also, but given that we will have a huge garden plus an orchard, I will actually need a basement pantry or an outside root cellar. The only room that we want that we may not get a dedicated space for is an exercise room. I am hoping the basement works to get a defined space for that, but it may get merged with the guest bedroom. We could get it by making the kids rooms smaller. But our current house has a 13*16 room that we turned into a bedroom for our oldest. It is such an awesome space! Our kids have friends over often, and we want them to be able to hang out with large groups in their own rooms (if that is where they want to be). Later, the barn will serve this purpose during warmer weather. In the few years we have been here, my oldest has had 10 girls sleepover each birthday. Her room was large enough to have all those girls have a blast. I am one of the few moms I know who allows that many to stay over. (DH hides in the cabin!). I would imagine my youngest will have a minimum of 15 for her sleepovers when we build. There are 3 times as many girls in her grade and she is more socially active. So I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t have a 20+ group for a birthday sleepover. I can’t wait to have the space for that!

This is our existing fireplace. We’d like to put rock on the lower portion, black tile around the fire box and a wood mantle. The floor colour is red oak hardwood. Walls are greige. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you!

What? Faux wood tile as a hearth? The brick is still way too busy, and. The faux wood is worse. Paint the brick so the grout lines disappear.