I look forward to hearing about the ideas she comes up with for you. Gardening is so rewarding that a truely lovely setting can be created just for you is very exciting. I envy you. I'm having to manage on my own and I can't say I have a great deal of talent so it's all trial and error.

just a thought or two - but did you research your planners pretty good? we thought we did - but apparently didnt. we got lured in by the fancy smancy computer drawings and when we met with the fella - he wanted to do everything by email, no face to face time. we convinced him to meet with us several times, but he had very little input into our actual design as far as giving assitance, if we had said we wanted a wall to be 10.37546 inches - he would have drawn it that way - instead of telling us what is more practical from a builders standpoint while keeping our ideas in mind. we ended up with a nice plan - but we did every bit of it and all he did was put it in his program. $3k. hindsight. we probably could have selected a default plan and had the company modify it for less. lesson learned. you have to remember - the way they are viewing it is the planner/architect is drawing out only what you express to them. if there is a breakdown in communication - that is where people go -- "what tha ....?" lady i work with is designing one and just got her plans back and she was griping left and right about nothing was right about the plan - when we asked her if she told the designer if that is what she wanted - she said no, "she figured she knew what she was trying to build..."

Hello, I have a few comments on you plan - I think there is too much hall space in the back , its really kind of wasted , you really have 2 mudrooms . You could put one bigger mudroom over by the stairs ( moving the stairs twoard the front of the house ) , then you have a ton more space to do something else with - I personally like when the breakfast room is more connected to the kitchen - If you are going with a 60' range , a 36 inch fridge almost looks small go for a 42 inch - The dining room and Kitchen are huge - you have about 40K in countertops alone in there , if it fits your budget great , I like it but I would not be surprised if your kitchen ends up at 200K+ by itself - The guest bathroom is arranged kind stange - again too much hall space -I saw the debate above on the kids bedrooms and I would have to say I dont like them much - here are my thoughts on it: 1) there is no window available from the sleeping areas , they get no "time to get up" light 2) I know you never plan on selling this house - but for some reason you had to - its going to be very hard. This a very unique layout that would not appeal to others. 3) the kids think this is cool now , but when they are 16 they are going to hate it , the girls will tear each other apart . your either going to end up redoing the upstairs or the kids will end up sleeping in different areas of the house - or spend less time at home ( I'm going to my friends!! ) 4) Why no tubs or double vanities for the kids ? I would consider figuring out a way to get 3 kids bedrooms and more windows in those rooms , you wont regret it . Do you have a budget for this yet ? Have you talked to any builders yet ?

J M if you have your message system enabled, I'll give you the name of an architect I worked briefly with in the past, who lives in the Boston area. Ultimately, I didn't go with him (not due to any fault in design, but due to the ultimate house price tag being not quite reasonable for my very rural locale at the western end of the state - although closer in to Boston the price tag would have been acceptable and even likely quite normal). (This is why, for HERE, I went with a modifiable kit home. Elsewhere you likely won't need to do that.) Mark is right, the architect will need to know many details about your site and needs. I met with mine without commitment of money the first time but if you want him (or any architect) to review a project from another architect, much less draw anything up, expect to pay a fee. I think that's going to be okay with you, but I simply had to say that. Having someone local is great as they will come to scope out your site.