If would be nice if you could filter out the neighboring house beyond the end of the drive. My "take" on what you could do is fairly self-explanatory.

Hi Caterinms, I sort of agree with brickeye in the respect of the 'One Solid' wall enclosure is a bad thing in a flood area. I believe the reason is that your foundation may float in a bad storm. Imagine your basement as a large bathtub. You have walls and a concrete slab. I agree that it will not be 100% water tight and some water will seap in. The failure mode is if the water rises sufficiently fast such that your basement become bouyant enough to shift. That will essentially take out your foundation. I think it may be worth looking into housing building techniques in Dubai. The artificual island homes build on reclaimed land have water tables just below the surface, lots of sea water pressures. The technology I used is Dutch which allows for basements below the water line. Granted however that there are fewer storms of Katrina magnitude in that area of the world. In your situation what would it take to add the extra four feet of concrete height? Also could you try and divide your basements into smaller enclosed chunks? This will add cost, the question is how much? Also I guess is will it look different to what you have already in mind. 4 Feet of fill is alot of fill dirt, and trucking will be expensive. Just an idea, say you did not fill. Your house would not be anchored, and your door will be say 4 feet above grade. For aestetics, you would like your house anchored to grade. Maybe there is a deck, porch, or other structure that may facilite this? Difficult to suggest in that I cannot see your picture for some reason. From the height requirments, it is almost as if the best solution for your location would be to build the house on some sort of stilts, almost like a pier. Then you would not have to bring in all that fill. Stilt houses are quite nice. One example is the Farnsworth house by Miles van der Rohe. This is sort of late into the process to think about a redesign, but I think some sort of redesign is required in that I think the local inspectors are not going to sign off as is. For piece of mind, I think building it higher is better. Also you would get a better view. Warmest regard, Mike.

We replaced every bulb in our RV with LED bulbs and I can attest that they are definitely bright enough to read by. The leds are very bright compared to other bulbs, you need to look at the color brightness scale on them not just the equivalent wattage. A 2000k bulb is much less bright and more yellowish, 6000k and higher are brilliant white and extremely bright leaning toward the blue spectrum. The best source I have found for good Led bulbs at extremely good prices is eBay. I only order from sellers in the US, most of the brands are the same you find at Costco and the big box stores. I researched the differences between the types of bulbs and how to determine what an actual equivalent would be. Also an led is instantly on unlike the cfl that comes on low and brightens slowly. Get a good led 6000 - 6500k (super white) bulb and try it out, some are definitely dimable but don't think you will find any 3 way. The wattage of an incandescent lamp or LED lamp tells you how much power consumption that particular lamp will draw, not necessarily the power output of the lamp. This is how a smaller wattage rating on an LED lamp can give a higher lumen output than incandescent lamps; LEDs save more energy and are also brighter. For example, an LED bulb with comparable brightness to a 60-watt incandescent is only 8 to 12 watts. If you want to get technical, light color (color temperature) is measured in kelvins. The lower the number, the warmer (yellower) the light. So, your typical incandescent is somewhere between 2,700 and 3,500K. If that's the color you're going for, look for this range while shopping for LED bulbs. If you want a much brighter light, like for reading, go for a bigger number. So for your 60watt incandescent bulb an equivalent in led would be 8-12watt and 800 lumens, then choose your preferred color intensity, warm 2700k, bright white 6000 k. 100 watt =16-20watt led 1600 lumens. You can find lots of conversion information on Google. That's where I have been researching to change out our rv and house.

The "why" of uniform wood flooring in a typical American house is definitely not for mindless conformity. It is to allow the floor to be a canvas for the major decorative elements - furniture, rugs, and art - without calling attention to transitions from room to room, which can tend to chop up the space visually and make it look smaller and cluttered. A small number of houses can have varied floor surfaces and have it look good, e.g. if all of the following is true: * The house is much larger in square footage than typical * The house has high ceilings (10 ft+) * Rooms are well delineated with walls and doors such that each different flooring is well closed off from the others * Each flooring is coordinated with its neighbors as to scale, color (warm vs. cool), mood (formal vs. rustic vs. ??), texture, etc. * Each flooring change is made with a clear purpose based on a logical factor (this is why tile entryways in a wood floor house look fine - it's logical to have a water-resistance material at the front door, or in a bathroom) If the ground floor flooring materials are very grand as to formality and large scale - say polished marble slabs - you're right, they should not be used in smaller- scale rooms upstairs. But a beautiful pale oak 5" or 6" plank would look awesome on both floors. The unity of flooring would provide a calm continuity. You can then layer furnishings, rugs, accessories and art of the correct level of coziness or grandeur in various rooms as appropriate. And that's why we are all giving the same, overwhelmingly good advice.