Having been involved with rebuilding thousands of properties from every type of catastrophe imaginable, it's been my experience that the insurance companies don't make a habit of valuing policies too high. I have seen maybe 1%-2% of insurance policies being overvalued. I have easily seen a third of insurance policies valued too low for many different reasons. It's the property owners responsibility to know and understand these policies and sadly 95% of policy owners don't know what their buying. When limits are reached, you're done. Unless an E&O policy can be utilized if the broker made a mistake, when limits are reached, the well is dry. Its buyer beware folks and what you can sell your home for has nothing to do with the value of an insurance policy!!!! betaiota has some good points and many other variables need to be considered. The replacement policy value tends to set the basis for other coverage's such as contents, detached buildings and additional living expenses. So if your replacement value is low, you'll likely be low all the way down the line. Most insurance adjustors will allow you to move expenses from one bucket of policy money to another but once limits are reached, it's over. Keep in mind policy limits are affected by emergency services to the building, demolition, debris removal, cleaning and professional fees such as architects and engineers. Code upgrades which can be a big issue in older properties also can affect policy limits. To demo a house and haul the debris to a landfill can run into tens of thousands. There are limits for contents, usually 50% of the building and some policies up to 75%. Most people don't insure valuable contents properly. If you have specific high value items in the home such as art work, jewelry, coins, silverware, collections, etc. etc. you should probably schedule these with a rider. To have all your contents, furniture, clothing, etc, etc, cleaned and put into storage while your home is being rebuilt is expensive and falls under your contents coverage. Additional Living Expenses are usually 20% of the replacement value or it's capped at 12 months. Some higher end policies have no limits on A.L.E. but those are not typical. On a major claim for a total rebuild A.L.E. can easily run out if there are some problems or the value is too low. Unless you have money to spare, spending your own money to live in a rental property and the expenses that go with it, while your home is being rebuilt get ugly real fast. Detached structures such as garages, sheds and pools are usually valued at 10% of the homes replacement value. If you have a detached garage with an apartment above it or an in ground pool with some nice hardscaping around it, 10% can easily be low if the main policy value is low. In short, there are many variable to your insurance policy and you should know what they are, what you need and how much you are buying. I won't say you can never have enough insurance but if you're under insured with a major claim, you and your families lives will be adversely affected for many years to follow.

Historic, thanks for posting these examples. It's always enjoyable to see historic houses, and these are lovely. Each of these is proportioned to be narrow in front and deep to the rear, which is typical of city lots. Have you looked and compared the street front proportions and scale of these houses with your drafted elevations? If you do you will quickly see that these houses have proportions and fenestration that is largest on the lower level, somewhat smaller on the second level and smallest on the attic (third) level. This is very typical of classic houses. Your elevations do not have the same progression and scale--something that your lumberyard drafter probably doesn't have a clue about. Also look carefully at the roof line. There are simple and single gables, and none of the mulitple gable, multiple materials elevations. While Victorians are often highly detailed, and frequently colorful, there is a unity and harmony that characterizes the best of them--as evidenced in your photos. These photos offer good references for your build. If you can get your plans and elevations to this level of refinement you will be very successful and enjoy your new house for many years. Good luck on your project!

Agree with maryinthefalls, but....... My two cents is... get the color of your future "dream" roof for your shed now so in the future they'll match, for the longer duration of time overall. And just tolerate the temporary mis-match. I have a sage green garage and a robins egg blue (ugh!) house... the house will someday be sage green! (with mustard gold and burgundy-brown trim.. in my dreams!)

Cpartist beat me to it. As drawn, the person sitting in the chair in the living room will be staring right at the toilet of the powder room and everyone who enters and exits. Yes, I know that chair is only a place holder, but just putting it there you should have noticed that. Everybody in the living room will still see people entering and leaving the powder room. It doesn't matter that you only plan to be there a few years. You have to sell that place one day and any problems you create will effect the price. A 'flex room' in a house that size is a sign that you can't figure out what to do with that space and gave up. Waaay too much wasted space that has to be kept clear for walking through and can't be used for anything else. Top floor: The door to the MBR is wrong. Why have an opening that large and then have the door swing block part of it? And I'd love to see the movers try to get furniture into that left dogleg into the MBR. The door in the MBR ensuite toilet cubbyhole is impossible. Question--Once someone walks in there, where will they stand when they try to close the door?? Do you really think that even kids can deal with vanities that tiny and closed in? Bifold doors cannot operate the way you have drawn them on the closets. They must pull out; otherwise there's no way to close them. Now: the deck. There's no access directly from the MBR to the deck. Why not? If anyone should have direct access, it's the grownups! And, oddly, the widest window in the house is awkwardly placed half over the tub looking out to that deck. This list above is all covered in Design 101 in Architecture school. Been there; learned it. Just as I would never spell 'everybody' as 'everybuddy', an architect would never make the above mistakes. Just like a writer knows the words 'casual' and 'causal' and knows the danger of using either incorrectly, likewise, an architect looks for clearance around every door before drawing a line and hangs doors with the correct swing automatically. Those just come naturally, like muscle memory. Hire an architect. And when the architect tells you that you don't have enough room for a powder room on the main floor, listen to him when he suggests that one of the kids' bathrooms should also have public access for that use. And especially listen when he says that both kids should share one larger bathroom. It won't kill them. Hire an architect.