nidnay - at our current facility we have an 8 stall barn with a bathroom, 12' X 18' office, and 12' X 24' tackroom, with the barn being about 125' away from the back of our house (facing it actually). I've lived here for 18 years now and we RARELY EVER use the stalls, so we don't plan on building a 'stable' (or a barn with stalls). The horses are going to live out with shelters in each pasture. Our current barn had to have it's own it's own septic system. $$$ The current land we are looking at only had one perc site for 4 bedrooms. I don't want to pay for the test for a second perc ($250) plus the cost of having another septic system (about $4K), as well as creating a climate controlled office and bathroom in the barn (a mini split system is about $3K and a 2 piece bathroom probably around $2K). That is about $10K right there in a separate septic, a 2 piece bathroom, and office and climate control for both (as well as permitting, creating plans, etc.). All things that would have already been in the house at the square footage we had to build. Plus grading for a large barn was going to be expensive. We found a place next to the house to put in a modest shed row 'barn' for a tack room, feed room and grooming, that will work with the topography of the land for minimal grading work. We did this to keep things cost effective. It's just my husband and I living in this house, it's not like we have kids to keep separated from my business. We're both fine with this situation. The door up the stairs to the main floor will have a lock on it. And I don't have a lesson mill program, I focus on quality not quantity. I've been teaching for over 20 years now. I keep about 8 weekly students at any given time. I get to know my students and my parents well... my students tend to stick around for years. Same for my boarders. We'll have 2 or 3 boarders at the new location. At our current facility 3 of our customers have been with us for 5+ years. At one point or another I end up paying most of my students and all of my boarders to house sit / dog sit / farm sit for us when we go on vacation. I'm pretty confident they are not going to bust the door down to access the main floor of my home. And they won't be there at inappropriate hours of the day / night anyhow. Vigil Carter - I guess you didn't read my last post. We priced out a 1 story 'ranch' with the same builder. 2200 sq ft was going to cost $209,000 THEN another $15K because of the sloped ground to add more courses to the crawl space foundation. This 1700 sq ft two story house, without walkout basement, came in at $178K pre-basement. The cost of the completely finished 840 sq ft basement, with a grand total heated sq ft of 2540, came to a total less than the single story 2200 sq ft ranch. Though we could have gotten a separate entrance in-law space, the in-law space would have been way smaller (by over 150 sq ft) and I would not have had an office that was separate from my main living space. I lift 50 pound bags of feed and hay nearly daily and my husband is military / infantry, we are active horse riders and hikers. I think we can handle interior stairs for another 12+ years. :) At that point if it starts to bother us then we can add a master suit to the side of the house (which we had already spec'd out anyhow but we just do not need at this time).

I prefer 6’8” or better yet, 7 ft header height ( if 7 ft doors are in the budget) with 9 ft ceilings. If you have no intention of doing crown molding..ignore me. But I really dislike the look of beefy door trim almost touching beefy crown molding. And it makes it very difficult to use crown molding which consists of several pieces. I would not use 8 ft doors or windows at 8 ft header height with 9 ft ceilings. No expert..I just know what I like.

If it were only so easy… Consult with a local professional experienced in commercial in-floor radiant design and installation. The building code in Alberta for in-slab radiant might include 4-inch foam insulation between the concrete and the ground. To prevent freezing, the circulating fluid should be a glycol antifreeze mixture. For efficiency and use of a low temperature liquid, close-spacing of the loops should be included in the design. “Easily” is a loaded question, as is ‘working’ and ‘working properly’. Don’t look for shortcuts, there’s a lot that goes into a ‘simple’, well designed system with many parts that all have to work together, be installed in the right sequence with the right spacing and being of the right size. With Hydronics - everything matters - Done right, you’ll love it! IMPO SR

If I ever build a new house, a dedicated Christmas tree closet would be on my must-have lists. It would be on the same floor that the tree is on and big enough so that the tree could easily fit in there fully assembled. I would leave the tree fully decorated, ornaments still attached (I attach my ornaments with the wire hangers wound around the branches a couple loops rather than just hung there so they are secured and can’t easily fall off when bumped/knocked), and the whole thing would be on wheels so I would just have to wheel the tree out of the closet, plug it in and voila! My current tree is 9 feet and while I do enjoy decorating trees, it’s not AS enjoyable when no one wants to help or cares that much about it. I grew up decorating the tree as a family so it felt like a tradition with family bonding time rather than a chore/task like it does now. A large tree can be an undertaking when you’re stuck doing it by yourself, especially if you’re like me and like a full tree! I do get help when I ask but it’s much more enjoyable knowing others enjoy it and look forward to doing it without me having to ask.