Goodness gracious, mention a name here and it starts a whole new conversation. Our local library has the complete series of Bewitched on DVD so I like to get it out during non-ratings periods when there is nothing else to watch. I though Samantha was absolutely gorgeous, shame she died young. I remember seeing Agnes Moorehead in a few movies but it was so hard to see her without the Endora makeup, I kept waiting for her to zap something. You know Hitchcock wasn't a very nice person, I always loved Marnie and The Birds with Tippi Hedren she was such a brilliant actress but Hitchcock ruined her career - she claimed because she wouldn't sleep with him. He did lock a lot of actors and actresses into contracts and really controlled their careers. Mousemaker - a Gladys Kravitz here is called "Mrs. Sydney Morning Herald" one of our leading newspapers.

Just trying to study your floor plans which unfortunately I can't read so can only guess at the room use. I have no idea of the room sizes either, but I'm just wondering if you have actually done furniture layouts for each room to scale. This is really important. It seems to me like you have some great ideas you have picked up but then tried to make the rest of the house fit around them. How many people do you intend having live in the house? You have a lovely generous ensuite with a private toilet area for two people, but then have a main bathroom for how many people, jammed into a space almost half the size of the ensuite. Even the toilet is in there with no privacy whatsoever meaning that entire space can only be used by one person at a time. If you are planning this for kids, that will translate into lots of fights and arguments. If you want to create a really luxe and practical space, create a separate enclosed toilet, the shower and bath in an enclosed space and the vanity open for use at any time. This would be more in keeping with the standard you have set in the ensuite and balance the house so much better. These sort of details have a major impact on the overall value and attractiveness of your home. I don't know what you plan for the open space upstairs, but with a window along one wall a passageway the other side and only minimal wall space your use of this room will be severely restricted. Similarly the room under it will be very limited in its use. All the more reason to plan furniture to scale. I have seen master bedrooms done with the double doors which look very grand in the right sized room but in the wrong sized room, it just looks ridiculously pretentious to fling the doors open with a flourish, take two steps into the room and fall over the end of the bed. I'm sorry if I'm sounding harsh here, just trying to use my years of experience to help you create an amazing house. I've seen many pitfalls and I know how easy they are to make. You obviously intend spending a lot of money and you have some great ideas judging by your Ideas Books. Create more Ideas Books to cover every room of your house, then go talk to an architect, show him/her what you want, your Ideas Books will be invaluable to understand your likes and tastes and let him/her create something unique and special for you.

what will the basements space be used for if you can't use it for a garage? where will you keep a car?...i can't read the measurements on the plan...please show only your side and write in all the measurements big enough to read and i will attempt to redraw as requested but if you are building a duplex can you have a different plan to next door and what happened to the south facing windows in the original plan?

Another option instead of a light well is to have a glass floor section in the ground floor just above were the stairs lands. and open the wall in the sitting room/use steps hanging in a wire. so there is plenty of light coming in one side of stairs plus light above the landing area. this brings some cool features to the house, which i am already thinking to have a glass floor section somewhere and a mesh floor section somewhere probably in the first floor above entry. Light is not an issue anymore again the big question is when you enter do you want to see the stairs going up or down. Hmm.. tough decision to make