JudyG – Happy Birthday!! Tras – I had that exact issue with where to transition colors, because my house is open concept. The kitchen & dinette are a pale teal .. but they’re open to the great room & foyer, which are peach. I paid the color expert at the paint store for a consultation, and we talked about how far towards the blue I really wanted, I could go in the kitchen/dinette .. leaving a medium green ceramic backsplash, and where to transition colors. We also talked about light & warm colors to replace the dark colors in the main bathroom & finished basement. It was worth the $125, and I didn’t have to wade thru 100 conflicting comments on Houzz! Darzy – I so agree with you, about the scope of fixes some posters recommend. If I asked how well a fabric I was considering for the couch went with other furniture already in that room, I wouldn’t appreciate people telling me to paint the walls, change the windows, replace the flooring, and change the stone on the fireplace! Another subject for us OLLDs to chat about – Consumer Reports magazine/website – are they really unbiased & even handed? Do they have a bias against high-end manufacturers or products?

That looks like a load-bearing wall. Architecturally, how did they make sure the wall could continue to support the weight above while carving out sections of the middle of it?

I have solved this problem by creating more than one seating area in the space which Depends on the size of your living area. I set up a couch - with a good looking back facing the window with the view. I included two adjacent chairs and a small coffee table. The other set of couches and a feature chair are also facing the view but more focused on viewing tv. It is important that you choose furniture on legs otherwise the solidity of the furniture can break up the room too much. Looking at your plan could you hang a tv on a wall on the side of your stairs. One thing I have found with an awesome view - TV becomes less important - 40 inch is big enough - TV size has got a bit out of control! Some other comments - think about placing your wardrobes next to each other to create a sound barrier between the bedrooms. If you do this make sure you put sound proofing between the bathrooms. I note your plumbing location is fragmented which adds to your expense. Will your garage obstruct your view? Think about having a sliding door access from the bedroom to the back deck hope this helps

Hi everyone, thanks for all your contributions. Siriuskey, really love that floorplan. To be honest, we came up with a similar floorplan where the kitchen, dining and living were all lined up. However, with 10m in length, my partner and I couldn't see it all comfortably fitting without us feeling too cramped. What measurements did you leave between kitchen bench and island, dining and living area? Our current living area is only 4m x 4m and we already feel that it's a bit cramped, let alone our plans to have kids in the near future where we are hoping to use parts of the living area as the play area (either in front or beside). Using your floorplan idea, I've come up with a slight alternative. The kitchen/dining area is approx. 7m long and living is 9m long - saving us approx. 2m x 10m of internal space when compared to our original final. I've moved the bank of pantry cupboards so they extend along the west boundary where the dining is. Gives us a living area of about 5x 6.5m with the proposed smaller study. I like that the kitchen is now closer to the deck with the north sun coming in. I don't like that we lose a WIP as we love the idea of hiding all our appliances in one. Not sure how much this floorplan will save us in build cost. If it is significant enough, we would be willing to compromise. I've sent the floorplans to a couple of builders to try and get a ballpark figure. In the mean time, what do you guys think of the alternative floorplan? Will it make a big difference to our building cost?