If I read you right you are more concerned about heat buildup than I would be. If you get 20' of snow in the winter and since winter is the high use time for our root cellar then I'd be more concerned with stuff freezing in there, not any heat. The SW corner would work fine as long as it allows for at least 1 foot of dirt on top. More would be better. Ease of access should also be a primary concern (ours has access from the basement). On average ours remains 20-25 degrees cooler than the outside air temp. Sure that can be too warm in the summers when temps reach 95 degrees but then not much is stored there in the summer. We have very mild winters here but we have had to prop open the cellar door now and then to keep things from freezing. I agree with Ken that lights would be great - we don't have them and just use battery powered lanterns in there. As to the separate fruit/veggie storage. It isn't that big a deal. Vent to outside air takes care of most the ethylene gas if you keep the fruits stored nearest to it and the veggies further away. Adding a simple partition between them helps. Height - enough so you can stand up and have some shelves. Rotate stuff on the shelves now and then from top to bottom. Hope this helps. Dave PS: also makes a great tornado shelter for us ;)

My contractor and inspector both think the earth needs to be brought back up to the frost line of the foundation. Absolutely and as soon as possible. You may still have settling and frost heave damage come the springtime thaw, especially if the home has been sitting unheated. If you want a walkout, you have to underpin the foundation below the frostline. It doesn't look like you're in Florida. Frost Penetration Source: Decks.com

I read it's now possible to stain outdoor pavers so I would stain the red ones grey. I'm not usually a fan of astroturf but in your case I think it's something that could look nice and cover part of the backyard including the ciment patch. You can also continue the stones beyond the pavers towards the back fence and integrate a few pavers in the stone. The fence could be stained a dark charcoal or black, plants look great on such a background. You can also build planting boxes along the fence and plant easy to maintain grasses (several kinds, some have whites & pinks blooms, green or silver leaves), and easy perennials depending on the orientation. You have a beautiful area to work with, all you need is help to get things done...

We had the stair designer come by today, and it was a great meeting. I think the last time he was here we caught him on a bad day but this time he was really helpful, taking the time to answer all my questions and walk me through the design logic behind various aspects of his drawing. It helped that I came prepared with a better understanding of stair ergonomics and code thanks to those who have taken the time to share their thoughts with me on this thread. The end result is that we have made some minor tweaks and improvements to the plan, I'm getting what I want out of it, and I understand exactly why each of the various choices have been made. Key highlights: 1. We are doing away with the top 20" landing which @res2architect and @3onthetree objected to, and converting upper stairs to four equal 11.25" deep steps. The stairs will begin right when you open the door from the kitchen, but that door opens in to the kitchen (i.e. does not swing over the stairs) and in any case we plan to remove it in a few years once we're done the toddler phase and just have an open doorway there. I thought the point about the odd stride pattern from kitchen to backyard was an important one, especially as that's where we'll come in and out of the backyard, often carrying dishes and food to bbq and so on. The upper portion of the stairs are also the piece that guests will use the most so it will be good to minimize the quirks there. 2. We are going to have the stair railings built to be removable -- @Sandra Guistwhite sort of what you were suggesting (thanks, that was thoughtful). Not hinged or anything, just something that can be unbolted and taken off if we ever need to bring a sofa through or replace the washing machine, or if we really need much wider access to the under-stairs area for a project. 3. We are going to place the bottom newel post on the second step up from the lower landing and begin the handrail there to allow slightly better access to the under-stair area. This (and only this) part of the design is in fact a deviation from contemporary Ontario building code but since we don't have an inspector coming in we can get away with it, and I can see from some googling that it's a pretty common design that doesn't seem particularly risky. In fact, I only realized today this is how our other main staircase is designed, and my parent's staircase is the same, so I presume it was the norm in a previous era. At the end of it all, I think we'll have stairs which would alarm many Houzzers who are accustomed to a different type of housing stock and set of codes, but which will be relatively safe and work well for our needs and our quirky space. The stair designer told me today that he's done several sets of stairs in our immediate neighbourhood and designs like this are very often necessary. It turns out lots of people are putting in winder steps in high end contemporary renovations around here out of necessity. I do want to thank everyone who took the time to think about this and share their comments, even if the main thrust of many of them was "wow, you are/ your house is insane". I'll be sure to come back and post a photo when it's all done so you can see how it's turned out, even if it does end up horrifying some of you. I have a thick skin and can take it, and I do feel confident we're proceeding with the plan that's right for us and our house. I'm excited to see this come together!