Just to update for those who tried to help but didn't see my photos posted on another thread....... I finally pulled out my stash of large Farrow & Ball chips and took Pigeon to be colormatched at my local Ace Hardware store. Turns out, they actually had the formula for it in their computer for Benjamin Moore paint, so I bought Ben Moore colormatched to Pigeon. We absolutely love it! It provides just the right amount of color, looks blue at some times, more gray green at others. We bought an old desk off Craigslist for $40 and spent another $40 spray-painting it black. I reused his leather desk chair and my DD's bookshelves. We put back the old persian rug and will consider wood flooring later down the road. I need to hem the Lowes canvas dropcloths I have hung as drapes, and then, I'll be done. In the first picture on the link I show, it looks more blue than in reality, but the other two shots are pretty true. All 3 pix were taken within a few minutes of each other one afternoon this week. Red Here is a link that might be useful: This photo and next 2 are Pigeon in the study

Depending on the cost we are planning to build the Tranquility plan in central Texas, but we can't build a basement to raise the height of the home due to hard soil. Has anyone added a second floor covered patio to the second story of the Tranquilty floor plan or one of the other versions that is similar to it that Garrell offers? Our lot we plan to purchase has a panoramic lake view, but we need to be up higher to see it. We are not planning to build any of rooms on the second floor, but we would like to have an interior staircase leads up through the unfinished second story that gives us access to door that opens onto a 2 story covered deck. If that isn't possible then we would need an exterior staircase with an easy walk up on the exterior side wall of the master/master bath. Our ideal location for our covered deck would be over the Master and Master bath, and we are hoping the roof line can be altered to allow a gable over the covered patio. Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated, as I email Garrell 2 days ago, but I've heard back from them.

Something to consider: Someday any children you have will live elsewhere and you will get older and likely have arthritis -- making climbing those stairs ever more difficult. You may also have overnight guests between now and then. For these reasons, I recommend that you keep one private room -- a bonus room that could be bedroom or study or craft room, with an adjacent bath, downstairs -- preferably with bath away from the entry / living room area. Could you close off the entry to the hallway near the downstairs bath and enter the hall leading to the bath the back left corner bedroom from the dining room ... and enter the dining room from the living room but via the other side of the chimney -- remove as much as possible of that center (left to right) wall that is to the right of the chimney. It appears you have a dining area (left of the kitchen) with just a small window. Unless you're enlarging the kitchen into this area, you might consider a sliding glass patio door or a large bay window in the dining room. If you're extending the kitchen into that space that appears to be a dining area, perhaps you need to keep that large front room one combined living/dining room.

Reality - centered desks look great until you add computers to the mix. Then you have the battle of the cords and the back of the monitor between you and the door and the first thing people see when walking into the room. That said, it is exactly how I have my home office set up. I am at my desk 10 hours a day and don't want to be staring at a wall. I am getting an outlet in the floor in my office and another one in my living room to eliminate cords going across the floor to the center of the room.