Karen, thanks for the humor, enjoyed this. Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving. I hope you get your BOP decorated so you can add to Jeanne's post. This makes me wonder where my silver deer is I normally use in there.Sigh I dug out a few decorations this afternoon but...... Punk

Per your request, here's my 1.5 story houseplan. If you'd like to see the "original" online, here's the link: http://www.familyhomeplans.com/plan_details.cfm?PlanNumber=41000. Our floorplans have many similarities: Same basic rooms, though yours is a more open floor plan and all your rooms are larger. I absolutely love yours -- especially that porch area, which is beyond perfect -- but I'm still sold on mine. My my square footage is smaller (1694 sf + 192 for the two rooms we're adding = 1886 sf). You'll note that my rooms are smaller than yours overall. Taking away one bathroom upstairs cuts out some square footage. Also, I don't have the large entryway and the spacious garage-entry hallway space. All this adds up to less square footage. I'd also point out that mine will be less expensive to build because my roofline is much simpler. And my overall shape is simpler. I have kicked around the idea of adding 2-4 foot width to the kitchen/dining room; look at the roofline and you'll see that for this house it'd be easy to add width, but adding depth would change the upstairs and the roof, which would get expensive. To give some specific details about my plan: We are building a retirement house, so our focus isn't the same as yours. Our oldest is already out of the house, and our youngest will be gone in a few years. So this is a "the two of us" and occasional guests house. We are definitely building with an eye towards "aging in place". I drew an arrow to show that we're flip-flopping the kitchen and dining room. I am certain of this choice for several reasons: - When walking in the front door, I want the sight-line to be across the dining room table and towards windows or glass doors. I do not want people at the front door to have a view into my kitchen /my sinkful of dishes. - I imagine my sofa and love seat forming an "L" in the living room, and I want the wall space to place a big-screen TV in the living room -- right in the space that is now the door to the dining room. - Garage - Pantry - Kitchen is a sensible flow for our "everyday entrance". Walking through the dining room isn't quite as natural, in my opinion. - I like the idea of the pantry and the kitchen being side-by-side. I suppose we could walk through the dining room to get to the pantry, but why am I building my own house if not to have things just as I want them? - On the negative side, this means our plumbing has to run a little farther, and that means a little more cost. - Also on the negative side, by moving the kitchen to the corner space, I am losing those wonderful windows that're all over the downstairs. We're adding on an 8x12 pantry, which will also serve as a pass-through between the garage and the kitchen. The kitchen is small, and my cookware collection is large. I also can my own vegetables, so I need the storage space. Pantry shelves are much less expensive than kitchen cabinets. We'll also have a 4' workspace in the middle of the pantry. This'll be for setting down groceries to be sorted, for measuring our a cup of flour, for setting a crock pot out of the way of the kitchen, for setting dessert out of the way during a dinner party. And we're adding on an 8x12 office (with a large bay window in which a small round table will sit -- this'll give us a space to leave a craft project out overnight, without interferring with the dining room table). This will have built-in shelves for books, crafts, collections of various sorts. And we'll have a built-in computer desk. I didn't draw in doors on my floorplan, but we'll have a door between the kitchen and the living room on the faaar left, and the office door'll be right there. These doors could change. Note that we have no attic space. Thus, we're doing a 3-car garage. 2 car spots, plus space for tools, floor-to-ceiling shelves for holiday decorations, camping gear, etc. Though I am the exact opposite of a packrat. This area will also house a couple exercise machines. Note that I added an exterior door to the laundry room. We are going to eliminate the wall (currently marked pantry) between the laundry and the half-bath. Living in the South, we're building a pool and a large covered outdoor dining area, so this door will be very functional. People can come straight into a room where it's okay to be "drippy", and we'll have hooks on the wall for towels. And this'll allow guests to come straight in to a rest room without walking through any other rooms. I am not entirely settled on this long, narrow laundry-and-bath combination, but I haven't figured out anything better. If I flip-flop the bathroom /laundry room, guests don't have access to the half-bath from inside the house. I do not like the layout of the master bath, but I don't seem to be able to do any better. I want a large shower (with seat), a tub, a five-foot vanity with single sink and a toilet. I want a door into the laundry room. I want nice sight-lines as I enter the bathroom. I am a little concerned about too many doors in the master bath /closet area. I'm thinking we want just an open space from the bedroom to the closet area . . . then bi-fold doors (with mirrors would be practical) on the closet . . . and a real door leading in to the bathroom. I'm concerned about getting too many doors in one spot. Oh, and we are going to replace the smaller closet with drawers /put a mirror above. This will replace the dresser. We will have NO clothing storage in the bedroom. I love that the closet acts as something of a light/noise barrier between the bedroom and bathroom. Upstairs, I am making some changes in the right-hand bedroom. As I said, we are concerned about aging-in-place, and I want the upstairs to be appropriate for one of my adult children /grandchildren (or a paid caregiver) for the future. I'm thinking of eliminating the existing closet (to allow a door straight into the bathroom) and making the "bonus space" (which is too small for any other use) into a large closet for that bedroom. I also want to double the windows in both upstairs bedrooms. Since your boys are still young, I'm sure that my upstairs plans do not mirror yours in the least. So, that's my house plan. I am very open to anyone's thoughts on my 1.5 story house. Thanks so much.

Thanks, Autumn 4! We have a large covered porch right now, and although I love it, I can't say it gets much use. I think if it didn't open onto such a ho-hum yard, we'd use it more. I'm a bit up in the air about a covered porch for our new house. On the one hand, it would require a change in our roofline, and that ups the cost. And the downside of our current covered porch is that we get less light in our kitchen /dining area than I'd like -- so that makes me think that the answer'll be no. However, we are planning a pool and nice patio out back. We're in the South, so such a spot would get plenty of use. I'm leaning right now towards a covered area NOT connected to the house, but located 10-15 feet back -- to be closer to the pool. This would have a nice, substantial roof, a built-in cooking area, a fire place and an eating area. Then, when we have large groups, we could add more tables outside the covered area. If I had to pick right this minute, the desire for a light-flooded kitchen/dining area would trump the convenience of attached. In the end? I'm not sure. Which direction will our house face? That's a good question -- one to which I've turned my attention numerous times, and I haven't decided yet. We have a little over 40 acres, so our options are not limited: If I do the easiest thing and place the house near the main road /facing the main road, the front will face East. So that'd give us sun in the bedroom /living room /study in the morning . . . and hot western afternoon sun on the patio. IF we do this easiest thing, I'd probably flip the whole plan so that the garage would be to the North and the side of the bedroom side of the house would face South. This easiest thing would also cost less because we'd need less driveway. Finally, the large trees are laid out in such a way that this would mean less clearing. Honestly, I think this is the way we'll go -- too many things seem to conspire to make this the easiest, best choice. The only thing holding me back from saying, "Yes, this for certain" is that hot, harsh afternoon western sun. Or, I could do a little in-road onto the property and could face the front of the house either South or North. I see value in facing it North. That'd mean that the kitchen/dining area and the patio/pool area would have the Southern exposure. If I do that, when you turn off the main road, you'd approach the garage, which would give a little privacy from the main road -- but with this relatively large piece of land, that isn't something we need badly. Also, this would cost more because we'd have to bring the driveway and the utilities farther onto the land. And I don't think this option is as attractive as having the house simply face the main road -- regardless of how far off the road we may choose to build. The whole piece of land is fairly well flat, and any number of sites would do for the house. We're set to pick "the house spot" the first weekend in November, so I guess we'll be making up our minds about the house's orientation then. I'm excited for that day to arrive and to walk the land with an expert and hear his opinion.

Well I know it's kind of late but I was not online all weekend. My TG table is significant because for the first time ever I was able to get all 15 people at one table. Well technically two tables end to end but it reached the desired effect. Excuse the folding chairs used for little kids, etc but overall I think it turned out well. You'll have to imagine the candlesticks china, crystal, silverware and flowers on each table as well, I forgot to take one after it was finished except after everyone sat down. The photos with people and other missing items in them look at lot better needless to say. During our recent kitchen remodel, we widened this opening from the breakfast area into the dining room in order to allow this. Up till now, I've turned the tables sideways and gotten them both into the DR, but it was tight. This was much better. The DR table isn't centered in the room because the opening isn't centered, so we're not exactly under the light fixture but hey what the heck. Having a sit down meal served on actual dishes for 15 people in this day and age is something I'm proud of. It makes me sad that no one wants to keep china and crystal anymore. I have two sets, one from one of my grandmothers and one that my MIL got in Germany while there were in the Air Force and some really beautiful crystal that we asked for as wedding gifts. Really fun TG cooking in the new kitchen and getting everyone together to eat.