THANKS for your thoughts!! (Hope this isn't going to weigh you down with information, but, here goes:) EXTENDING MASTER WING: We can bump out the end wall 4 feet max, improving (from 12' L) to 16' L (a bit longer on the deck side) x 20' W. (The opposite wing is 22' L x 20.5' W). SYMMETRY: To help reference the driveway approach towards the house: take the floor plan and literally rotate it about 45 degrees clockwise: that's the direction the driveway comes from (imagine an imaginary line continuing out from that 12' master bath sink/counter and shower). Essentially it will be like driving on the driveway towards the house, then veering a little left once you get to the house (like on the plan the words: "FIRST FLOOR/Scale 1/4"); then for a parking space: backing up onto what's left of the land outside the master wing bump out. (gosh I hope I'm explaining this ok) I am hoping the symmetry issue will be overlooked because one never really looks straight at the front door. (what d'ya think?) BED SIZE/PLACEMENT: King size bed(even though it takes up most of the space I know). We're hoping we have our choice of placing the bed either on that end wall or the bathroom wall, but probably the end wall. I am thinking that's a great idea to change the casement unit on the end wall to a horizontal band of rectangular/square windows along the top of the wall as you suggest! Sure would help with layout, huh? MBR DOOR: Never thought of moving a door over towards the exterior wall! It's an interesting thought. I WAS wondering, from a professionals point of view, if the MBR door was sort of TOO ~ not hidden enough? but figured the FP sorta blocks it a little. My only concern with this idea is that a desk area is one of those important requirements we have & don't necessarily want it in a bedroom. This will be a vacation home but I want a space for a computer and writing desk. I'll definitely consider moving it inward (towards the stairs) but need to also keep an aisle that's not too narrow. STAIRCASE PLACEMENT: We experimented with stairway placement everywhere it seems! We concluded that if the stairs weren't right there in the middle of the "Y", WHAT would be there then? Ultimately, we decided the staircase with the stone of the fireplace (FP) could maybe be a sort of "feature", with interesting, open, spindle/railings all the way around instead of it taking up space on the wing sides. Kind of "embrace" it! STAIRCASE ISSUES: Problems we hope to address with the stairway is to make them wider (currently 36") and, we want a landing instead of winder style treads so that the stone work from the FP can end at that landing. That means we also have to push the FP into the great room some. Does anyone think the great room space will be too much infringed upon? CLEAR VIEW: One idea was to build a FP with a sort of "column" look on each side (where a chimney would go up one of the sides), essentially creating a "U" shape where one could see straight through from the front door to the great room window wall. That was using a gas FP. Since then we're leaning towards an energy efficient wood burning FP where we're pretty sure the chimney would have to be straight up (vs. offset). Because of this we're imagining rocking all around the FP, all the way down to the staircase landing, and then putting some sort of neat artwork or waterfall or ? on the rock wall facing the front door. (NOTE: there's only LP or electric available on this particular bluff) FIREPLACE PLACEMENT: We're in Wisconsin and the winter's can be super, duper cold, so the 2-sided FP idea is really cool sounding, but, unfortunately, probably not a possibility in this case (Also, no way can we deepen the deck or we'd go over a 600' cliff! haha). I also don't want to really block the view at all (from our living space that is ~ obviously we ARE blocking the view from the entrance). We have considered putting the FP on the far right corner in the Great Room (GR) but that's where we think the TV should go. As much as I like the idea of putting a TV above a FP, in this case I don't think we have the space to do that and sit far enough away so not wrenching our necks to look UP at a TV (+ the heat problem). That wall of windows in the GR is also facing NorthWest so #1: we're trying to avoid sunset glare on the TV and #2 we want seating to face the river. FP will be for warmth (and viewed w/swivel chairs). Ultimately, we went back to the FP centered in the house, as shown. (Also trying to honor the Frank Lloyd Wright trademark with a wide, stone chimney in the middle of a house). Any thoughts or ideas with these things in mind? DOWNSTAIRS: Is going to be pretty open and used as a rec room (nice pool table, foose, game table, etc) and some additional sleeping space. (We originally were only going to have one BR upstairs and a carport where the 2nd BR is now. All the other sleeping was going to be downstairs!) We decided though, if WE'RE old, then our friends would probably be OLD too and would need to stay on the main floor maybe too! haha) Here's the current Basement Plan: KITCHEN: We aren't going to keep that U-shaped kitchen as shown. We'd much prefer eliminating that breakfast bar section and instead having an island. As you can probably see, that right, master wing side, with needing the wider staircase & bumping out the MBR end wall,is what's causing us the most difficulty rearranging to make the best use of space. We'd still like to keep a foyer coat closet & a desk area. Also trying to figure a better designed master bath w/a longer shower w/seat and better linen closet design. Could have a pocket door vs. swinging. (Would like opinions on pocket doors!) Lastly, the master closet is dumb and of course should have either bi-fold doors or? Any and all ideas are very welcome. PS: Here's a home in Madison, Wisconsin that is one of my "Inspiration" pictures! Love the wide horizontal, dark brown siding and typical (for FLW and WI) stone! (also, notice the typical FLW centered chimney!) mmmmmm : ) (SMILE)

Yup, men, you gotta love them in spite of..... Sometimes their minds ARE on other things. A guy had been stranded on a deserted island for a long time. All of a sudden a beautiful statuesque woman, wearing a wet suit with a lot of zipper pockets, walks out of the ocean. She says seductively , "you have been here all alone for a long time, is there anything I can do for you?" "I would love a nice cold martini with a lemon twist" he says. The woman opens one of the zippered pockets, takes out a martini shaker, ice, a bottle of gin and one of vermouth. Proceeds to mix up the drink, takes a martini glass out of another pocket, pours in the cold martini, puts in a twist and hands it to the man. " now, what else can I do?" she purrs "You know.....a nicely tight rolled cigar would go excellent with this drink." She opens another pocket, pulls out a large cigar, nips the end off and lights it then hands it to the man. Giving him her best sexy look, she says "Anything else?" Sitting with his back against a palm tree, martini in one hand and the cigar in the other, he says, "No, this is about as good as it gets." She can't understand why her seductive powers aren't working, "Don't you want to play a round?" The man looks at her is astonishment. "Hey, don't tell me you got a golf course in that suit?!!"

I think this plan works better than the old one. A few points though. 6' wide is narrow for an office but is doable. However you have a "sitting"area before you go into your office that is also 6' deep. I can't see that you'd be able to put anything there except maybe a window seat. And then nothing in front because it would block your entry into your office. Do you really need the sitting area and the office? Can you move the office down to where the sitting area is instead and maybe pull the wall for the kitchen down more to give you more linear counter space? You already have the sliders to the screened deck. Is it really necessary to have an extra door? Unless of course you make it your office and then have the door from your office to the screened deck. By moving the office down a bit, then you have room to add a window into your kitchen area too. Your bedroom has wasted space where you come in and then where you have the door to the master closet. Why not make the closet open not directly into the bedroom where it then means walking around your bed in some way and also seeing the closet door all the time, and instead make it open to the bedroom "hallway". Lastly, I don't like the toilet on the outside wall of the bedroom like that and I wonder why with a 12' x 13' bathroom you can't figure out a better arrangement to have it within the main space of the bathroom? If you figure your sink bases are 24" deep (and most bath ones are 18"-21") and then figure your bath is 42", that still leaves you with 78" of open space in the middle of the bathroom (6'6"). think about it. the space in the center of your master bath will be larger than the total width of your office!

I have some tried-and-true recipes for cakes that I could/should have made. I had made a good coffee cake once before with canned pears using a Penzey's recipe, but it called for chopped candied ginger which I didn't have and can't get locally. Since I knew the candied ginger was a big part of the cake's appeal, I tried googling a recipe that didn't rely on that ingredient. Hence the one I found, which had a great streusel top and I guess might even be a great cake made with fresh pears, but who knows if I will try that again. If I make a whole cake in a 10 inch springform pan for just myself and dad, it will mold before I can get it all used up. I know this because I have had umpteen cakes mold on me and even go bad in the freezer since I just can't eat them up fast enough. I have tried to find a definitive recipe for ginger pear muffins without a smashing success so far. As for the yogurt container being filled with cooked white beans, and not knowing I was out of brown sugar, that I can rack up to my crazy life where I am running around between my folks old house where my mom's stuff is, my dad's new condo where he is living, my apt. in another town, and the two storage places where the rest of my personal belongings are. I had just gotten brown sugar, but it was at my dad's condo, not my mom's old kitchen where I made the cake but the kitchens look somewhat alike and I got mixed up. I had two containers in my apt. fridge that were for yogurt. One was an old one I put the white beans in and didn't take time to label with masking tape, and the other was the real yogurt. I forgot about the beans and grabbed the wrong one. The rest was trying to kill too many birds with one stone, which I am guilty of lately since I have so many birds in the air around me! I was overly optimistic about how a little sugar and spice might counteract the lousy tasting pears. I am not just a scientist but an adventurer. It could have been an epic good tasting Rube Goldberg cake, but instead it was (thankfully) a marginal but not awful cake. The spinach dip was just the recipe from the back of the Knorr vegetable dip packet. Mom had it left over in the cupboard and I had the ingredients on hand to use it up, along with a bag of bagel chips. I don't normally use the Knorr veg. dip for spinach dip since it has MSG in it which I am mildly sensitive too, and WAY too much salt for my taste. The best part of the tea for me was the Edam cheese, which I almost never buy, it is too expensive!