Thanks everyone. I was definitely leaning towards the equidistant columns plan. Holly, that's a great idea, but my concern with that is two fold--first, these columns are bloody expensive, but second, our porch isn't terribly deep, and if these are 18" x 18" at their base, it does not leave much room behind each column. Four columns would leave little space for chairs between the columns, and I'm afraid would look a bit busy. Thanks Autumn, we are thrilled with the little girl! But there are definitely some bright spots form the house planning, as well. Frankly, the plan we're getting is not clearly worse than the one I created, and in a few ways is better. And, had I not struggled over that plan and received acres of great advice here, I would not have known what to change about the plan to make it really work well for our family. Here is a cut out of the floor plan of the front. I know this builder has had problems with people copying this plan illegally, so I'm not sure I'm comfortable posting the whole thing without his approval. The plan is scanned a bit crooked, but assume it's straight (and I had to reverse the plan to match our house). I've drawn in the lines and measurements to the center of each 18" column base, the window, and the door. Off to the left is the garage; the room on the front right is the living room, and there is a 6' deep entry hall as soon as you enter the front door. See how I really don't think it changes too much to have the door move the door around--it might change the view through the sidelites and what you see when you first walk in, but I think that is minor compared to how the house will look from the street.

Our bud who has worked in the concrete business for decades says there are only 2 kinds of concrete...that with cracks and that which hasn't cracked yet. It is part of the natural curing process. Hairline cracks are not an issue. What is an issue is wide cracks and esp if the sides of the cracks are of different heights demonstrating shifting underneath.

Hi, and thanks for the responses! Under the tile is 1/2" plywood. We originally had planned to have tile here (we're the original owners), then changed our minds. Our builder told us we'd be able to put tile down anytime - that the 1/2" plywood would be ok. It wouldn't surprise me if this is something else he was less than honest about. The area with the tile is very small, maybe 4x4. Oh, and I know the pictures don't show it, but the tile is higher than the carpet, but not by a whole lot. There isn't a horrible height difference right now. If we extend the tile any farther, it will look really weird. Right now the tile/carpet edge is right at the edge of the stairs. So if the tile ran any farther, it would jut out past the stairs. I have a pic hubby took while doing this that might show what I'm trying to describe. Notice where the edge of the stairs is. This entryway extends through the living room to the kitchen, so the only option we'd have for extending the tile would be to extend it all the way, which would look really weird! I think... So hubby talked to some work friends (weekend warriors) about this today and here's what they suggested. Use a rubber mallet to "pound" the curved metal carpet gripper as flat as possible. Then buy some wooden carpet -> tile transition, the kind with pre-drilled screw holes on top, and just screw the transition down into the subfloor so it "covers" the existing metal stuff, the tile edges, and part of the carpet. Kind of like this: *sigh* Is this salvageable? :( I know we can cover the wall edge with quarter round, but then there's still the issue of what to do with the tile edge that hits against the threshold/door area... Normally I'm picky about aesthetics, but right now I just want this to be done. :(

Riana started her structure of Sam & friends three years ago (it was quite an undertaking!) and worked on it each year she had a workshop in PV. BUT to answer your question. The concrete is only as thick as a double thickness of hardware cloth--in other words, pretty thin. 24 hours is all you need for drying, unless you have packed it in. Also if you have a huge project you're going to be working in sections anyway. There is a lot of opportunity for drying time there. A few who made small projects in PV started mosaicing the next day (again because the concrete is a thin almost skin coat on the hardware cloth).