Westvillager, we seem to agree on a few things :) (OT - I ordered a Miele S7 Marin (Swing in US) this week. Should get it next week - very excited - it was on a clearance price of $499.99 so I went for it instead of the canister - may still get a canister too "eventually"). I have the E-Cloth in white. Click on link and click on general purpose cloth - you'll see a white option. Andersons, I do own a FL and wash both my kitchen towels and my micro fibre ones in there. No problems here. What make is your machine (it must spin at a very high RPM)? As for scratchy towels - search the laundry forum - there has been plenty of discussion on that and some of the advice there may help you. I usually pre-soak my kitchen towels in oxygen bleach before I wash them. I find this removes almost all stains and odors. My Mom always comments that my towels don't look used. I wash on hot with Persil Universal - only kitchen towels in one load - no fabric softener but a little vinegar in the rinse. Dry in the dryer on medium heat. My mirco fibre towels get washed alone as well. Hot water with a little bit of gentle detergent (no enzymes or stuff) - usually Vaska right now. NEVER fabric softener or bleach and a little vinegar in the rinse. Hang them to dry on my drying rack. Here is a link that might be useful: white e-cloth

Thank you all for your comments! The weather is getting cold and I hope everyone stay warm and safe. Littlebug- For UPS person or guests, I expect them park on the N St and walk up to the front door. The bottom right corner of the house is close to the community gate. There are about 30 houses on N street and only 10 on W street. So people entering the subdivision will see the front first. In case we do not have enough parking spaces there, they would find a spot close to the front door on the W St. Since the sidewalk is adjacent to the curb (without any grass between the curb and the sidewalk), the walk does not seem too bad. I understand the current layout with garage in the back is not ideal for guest parking. The lot is too narrow (70ft x 130ft) for front-or side-loading garage. Annkh- Yes. Very good suggestions on the window sizes. On the east side, the wall to wall distance is less than 20ft. The current neighbor does not have a single window. We currently have three windows in the bedrooms and one in the 2nd floor kids bath. They are for lighting and ventilation. On the wall facing the west street, we had small windows to limit heat exposure in the summer as we are building in the hot climate of deep south. I went ahead and did some changes. On the east side, the bedroom window sizes are increased from 2050 to the standard 3050. On the west side, I added two 3050 windows (one in dining and one in garage). I feel good about the window addition in garage. Just not so sure about the one in dining. Other than heat, it may cause problem for furniture placement. In addition, the small game room windows on front and west have been increased from 2010 to 2020. The two windows in the kitchen have been enlarged too. I made some small changes to the window header height. Some of the windows on the elevations look too close to the eaves so I moved them down about 6”. Not sure if that is that is right. I will verify with the designer and talk to builders. The current design has two small kitchen windows below high cabinets. I proposed to move them up to allow better lighting. Kirkhall-That is an important point and very good question. I always think that the front is on the N street as that is the front setback at on the plat. It is an empty lot in an established subdivision so we have our address already. I need to check with the city to find out where the house address would exactly be located. Or shall I also check with the post office? Lavender Lass- Thank you for your continued support and wish you a very happy new year! We are moving slowly. Just started to get cost estimate on the build. The W street is not busy. There are only about 10 homes up on that street. Our house is close to the sole entrance gate. No through traffic. Windows on the west side wall are limited and relatively small as we are concerned about the very hot summer climate here. Yes. Guests are going to park on the street in front our house. The house has a front setback of 20ft along that side so I think that is supposed to be the front unless we apply for a variance. AnnieDeighnaugh- I appreciate your comments. We have struggled a lot regarding the kitchen layout and tried different designs with help from people in the kitchen forum. I understand that the up-down island orientation would make a lot of sense in normal situations. In our case, the area is about 15ft by 16ft which is limited by the walls supporting the second floor game room. We need another 1-2ft to rotate the island 90 degree. The sink is placed on the corner so that we have more prep area to the left of the sink and in front of the fridge. Based on the prep sink size, we would probably about 2’6” landing to the other side of the sink behind the cook area. I was first worried about the island as a barrier between the cooktop and the fridge too. Just hope the problem won’t be that severe as it does not cut into the traffic much and we do have about 4ft island clearance both ways. Yes. There is a potential problem with the oven door and the pantry door being open at the same time. We may change the swing door to a pocket door to the pantry. The game room has windows along three walls. The ones on the back provide some views to the back yard and the rest are just for lighting/ventilation/exteriors. I did increase the small windows of 2010 to 2020. The front elevation needs a lot of work to make it look right. I have no idea about the front door-pediment-roof pitch proportions. I would bring the issue to the designer and certainly appreciate any comments here. Many Thanks! JF Attached are elevations with some changes to the windows. I did it on the CAD file from the designer just to illustrate some of the ideas (more windows, larger windows, lower window header, front door with vertical panels). Front Back Left Right

We have met with this one contractor who carries both types of windows. The Ideal window comes in an interior wood color that would work to replace the original windows that are stained wood. Apparently, Affinity doesn't offer an interior wood color. The upstairs windows are painted, and white replacement windows will be perfect in those rooms. I believe Marvin Infinity would also meet our needs for a wood look interior window, but seems cost prohibitive for the number of windows we ultimately need to replace. Do any other of the well reviewed windows such as Soft Lite, Sunrise, Starmark or Okna come in wood look interiors? Our hope is to use one quality window manufacturer who makes standard white interior, as well as wood look interior windows for our dual needs, so that the exterior of the house has windows that look similar in appearance and color.

I didnt know too much about the Majestic window until i saw it at a home show. it looks like a good window. very low air infiltration rating (.02 ) which is very good and seems well made, its a pretty window. You are correct, it is definitely different/ better than the standard windows by Ideal. Ideal has been around forever and seems to have a good rep with regards to warranty and so forth. Your pricing seems fair to me if its a basic installation. I have no problem recommending it since it has very good performance numbers and seems well made.