tncraft - What did you use as a secondary exit? Tunnel, stairs leading outside of house? That was our first concern was getting stuck if the house fell on the basement door, some forums mention breathable air can become a concern in the concrete rooms too so second exit is a good idea. Yeah this idea does seem excessive to some, but better safe than sorry right? When SHTF everyone will be crowded around my basement trying to break in to my vienna sausage and tuna reserves ;)j/k but unless you've went through Hurricane Katrina or cleaned up the damage from the Tornado that hit Tuscaloosa, AL last year then you just can't understand what it's like. I have two children and if a 10k basement only saves them once in their lifetime it'll be worth every penny and being labeled as crazy ;) live_wire_oak - My grandfather did the same thing but used a large round cylinder (maybe was used to hold oil?), he only had to use it once during Hurricane Fredrick, it saved 10 peoples lives (my mother included) a tornado hit during the hurricane and went straight through the house. The cylinder was pounded a few yards away but stayed in the ground. I think some beams penetrated it but not enough to reach everyone inside. I say use whatever works.

Landrey-great job on the plan! I think that's why you didnt get alot of responses initially. There are only a few things I see that I would do differently other than those mentioned above. -I would move the powder room into the mudroom area. Reduce the size of that giant walk-in closet in the guest room to about 4.5'-5' wide by sliding the mudroom wall to the left and move the closet entry over toward the side wall of the bedroom as far as you can. You should have enough space to do a 1/2 bath there. My reasoning for this is that right now if someone is outside playing/working and needs to use the bathroom, they will often come through the garage and now have to traipse all the way through your house to get to the powder room potentially leaving a trail of dirt/mud/debris behind them. Or they can come in the front door and trail dirt/dust/debris through the foyer (granted a shorter trail.) Just my $0.02. Laundry room upstairs--I'm guessing that's a counter next to the W/D? How big is the sink you're planning to use? I would shift the W/D down to where the sink is and run a counter from the end of the W/D to the corner and then down across under the window. I'd put the sink next to the W/D with a sink base cabinet and hanging space above then I'd put pullout hampers along the short wall like these: Reasoning--that's a small space and as the kids get older, the laundry only gets worse. Having an efficient space that easily allows for sorting and storing the dirties, as well as allowing for plenty of folding and hanging space will help keep the laundry (and potentially the rest of your house when it comes to laundry) neater & more organized. I think you posted the kitchen in the kitchen forum and asked about building in a regular sized fridge or making the counters deeper. Personally, I wouldn't make the counters deeper--that will significantly increase your cabinet & countertop costs. Since you have the fridge placed on an exterior wall, recessing it back likely won't work as you need space for insulation in that wall. I'd suggest either going with a counter depth fridge (we love ours & I was really worried about going from full depth to counter depth--link to ours below) or moving the fridge to the opposite wall where the bar sink is and you could either leave the bar sink there or move it to the island. Hope this helps! Here is a link that might be useful: mydreamhome's CD Fridge

This is great advice, BUT...what if you and your spouse aren't on same page or timetable. My husband is all about the nuts and bolts of construction, but I am trying to be proactive and get some other decisions made about what he deems more "decorator/cosmetic" type stuff...i.e., cabinetry and interior trim/casing, etc. I tried to tell him the cabinets could have a lengthy lead time depending on what we pick, and that BEFORE we can decide on cabinetry, we have to make a decision on appliances. In other words, we can't plan cabinetry around the 25 year old refrigerator he doesn't want to get rid of until it croaks... We should "plan" for the refrigerator we "want" rather than what we "have". I also want a 36 inch rangetop instead of a 30 inch gas cooktop, and that too has go into the planning. I know he's thinking we'll take a wait and see approach - meaning what we have left $$$-wise and then make appliance decisions, but in the real world it doesn't work that way. I've just run into the same issue with the siding on the house - the plans were drawn with hardie board & batten siding to give the project a fresher mountain farmhouse look. Our GC assumed that meant we wanted to paint the siding after installation because my husband really didn't listen to me when I talked about using a rustic prefinished hardie siding. He thought the "rustic" could just be painted on afterwards, and now is crazed because the GC is telling him the local company that prefinishes the hardie has a 3 month lead time due to their volumes, and the other company that does that type of prefinishing is in Canada and the Pacific Northwest and we'll have high(er) freight charges. It goes back to thinking that "painting" is just "painting" and is a cosmetic thing...

I did! I also had a blast shopping at a huge, annual plant sale (100+ vendors) with one of my best friends. I've got lots of planting to do! I think closing off one of the doors to the den is a good idea. Here's an option. I eliminated the den door at the front of the house and enlarged the rear entry to a double door, mimicking the entires into the LR and flex room. I added a bookcase from the fireplace to the front wall. You can treat the fireplace and bookcase as one unit and center furniture on the middle of it. I added furniture to show you what I mean. I offer the above with a caveat. Furniture arrangement is not my forte so it would be a good idea to post in the [Home Decorating [(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/home-decorating-and-design-discussions-dsbr0-bd~t_28578)forum to ask for help. Do you have a design savvy friend who could come help you? I have a neighbor with a great eye who helped me arrange items on my bookcases on either side of my family room fireplace and the furniture in my living room (it's a rectangular room with a corner chopped off so I had a hard time figuring out how to place the furniture). If not, consider hiring an interior designer or home redesigner (they work with what you own) for assistance. In the meantime, I found a few living room photos with off-center fireplaces and bookcases. The above has a very similar set-up to what I drew: double doors to den, off center fireplace and book case in living room. In the room above, I would have spec'd that the top of the base cabinets lined up with the top of the mantle for a continuous line across the room. I think that would be a better visual, IMHO. In fact, I'd choose finishes and details in the above rooms to tie the fireplace in to the bookcase more and vice versa for design cohesiveness, like this: Here's an arrangement not centered on the fireplace and without a bookcase next to it. Another view of the room: Another option is to reface the fireplace, making it wider on one side, shifting the visual center of the fireplace over. Here's one way that would work: The above has a contemporary flair but I'll bet a good designer can suggest a more traditional or transitional treatment if that's your style preference (also likely would tie in better with your home's architecture). You may still end up deciding against Plan E but I hope the above photos show you that there are ways to make the living room arrangement not just work but work well.