yes joel, quiet a shift you pretty much have it one mate, yes a shift in lifestyle to a degree definately a shift in location, but not a shift in the philosophies i aspire. yes i will in all aspects adhere to what i suggest recommend to others, no i can't change the mcmansion manicured lawn set, yes the lawn on our place won't look that manicured it won't get any watering from us nor will it get any other man made or chemical application. as we are on a corner block the footpath represents app' the same area of available lawn space, so we will be planting the footpath with habitat trees as mauch as we can, that will minimise that grass area to a small degree, however there will not be much lawn in the yard, the yard will be utilised for those supplementry type activities (i find terms like sustainability and self-sufficiency don't carry any attributes to attract the masses it is like "tooth fairy" stuff isn't it, and sad to say with the undercurrent of making dollars in the permy' sector that word to is now being rejected by the lack of following building in the simple terms of it). so we need vege' gardens and as much room as possible for food trees as well as some of the more exotic natives especially to create atmosphere around the pool/patio area, where we will pretty much live in the summer time. at present (this could be modified) we are wanting to put in two 5,400 (24,500 ltr) imp' gallon water tanks, they will take up app' 14.2 sq/mtrs of space. the tank size could yet be settled back to the 3,200 imp' gal' (14,300 ltr) size, city administrators think that a tank in a garden looks uglier than most garden sheds but you can put as large a free standing garden shed as you like where you like, not so when it comes to water conservation, silly hey?? but yes i am still very much critical of what we humans are doing in the name of providing accomodation, in these new suburbs now the ruling bird is the crow (in my opinion not native but so out of control the officials don't want to deal with it) and the indian myna(h) ferel. so we have new generations of children who if they don't get to go to an expensive tourist attracting nature park/zoo/circus will never know that we have more birds than the 2 afore mentioned species winging our skies. where we are is close to some nature reserve so at least i can attract some of a small variety of resident good birds. there are no frogs but we can change that. still after spending many months living in a newer sub-division than that where we currently are there is no likleyhood that i can see of this mythical but wonderful shed-culture that existed in the 'burb's way back in the 40's & 50's and in rural up to about the 80's, but i would welcome it with open arms. and as our 2 car garage will be converted to a games room for the pool table and an area for tall tales and fishing stories we may well attract some of the neigbourhood hey? of course in today's world of litigation they will have to sign a waver won't they?? one neighbour has come over and introduced himself as i will when i catch site of other neighbours in their gardens, certainly want to be friendly at least. and our quicky vege' garden has already been a trail blazer though it hasn't attracted any looks from neighbours so far. and where the yuppy standard for water conservation is a tank of less than 1,000 litre capacity (no enough to brush your teeth with hey chuckle) our tank(s) will reset the goal posts. please excuse the typo's len

raehelen, Congratulations with starting you project! Starting the project means 50% of work is done, just don't forget to multiply estimated time by three! Thank you for the link. Believe me or not, but I prefer old fashion toggle switches, they are more convenient and are easier to handle in the dark. I will replace bathroom switches with the fancy ones anyway but for another reason, I have a z-wave network at my home that allows to control lights, locks and other stuff but old fashion z-wave toggle switches discontinued and only rocker z-wave switches are now available. When you turn lights and fan in the bathroom on, Z-wave controller will automatically turn them off after 20-30 minutes. Very convenient feature. Good luck with your project, have fun!

We did our 2nd floor laundry about 5 years ago. About the same size as yours. We have top loaders, so not the same concerns as the higher rpm front-loaders. My recommendations are to install a nice bathroom-type fan to run so your bedroom won't smell like bleach or detergent. Good lighting. Enough electrical and floor space for an iron and ironing board with convenient electrical outlet. And hanging closet rod for hanging up clothes from the dryer. And floor space for a "clothes horse" to air dry sweaters and such. Ours was also a new build-over our 4 season porch. We did 2 closets, laundry/dressing room, and office. I don't know what your Master Bath situation is. Our home is from 1931 and our bath is tiny. So now I use the bathroom to shower, but do my makeup and dry my hair in the laundry/dressing room. This has been really great. Like having his/her bathrooms almost. So we have a basic 5 foot length of formica counter with a small but deeper type of SS laundry sink in it at one end. We used basic grade unpainted kitchen cabinets, which were painted white. This give fantastic drawers and under sink storage. My drawers are actually big enough for my hair dryer and hair products. We have a large mirror and vanity lighting, as well as ceiling can lights. Also put in a medicine cabinet on the end wall for more storage. Geting back to your construction questions, our code did not require floor drains. Our machines are standard top loaders and don't have the RPMs when spinning that front loaders have. So our floor is engineered for the weight but nothing special beyond that. We did have architect/engineer on our build. Good luck.

This is a great thread for those contemplating building a new home. Clients are often bringing me sketches of floor plans or plans they've found online. Such plans can be helpful as a point of departure but almost always require a complete redo. What helps me more is a detailed conversation about lifestyle, philosophy of art and design, and a deep understanding of the site.