Yet another floorplan...

I have been fiddling around with floor plans (AGAIN!) and my most recent idea is to sacrifice the 3rd bedroom and create a larger kitchen/family room, please see the attached drawing. The primary virtue of this plan is that it preserves the entire bedroom section as-is - at least for now ;-)

Some problems:
- I had first thought of making room for a powder room in the entry area (to allow later combining the two south-facing bathrooms into a master bath), but it seems important to try to keep the Study/atrium open and airy
- I thought of adding the powder room in the protrusion into the garage (currently a coat closet), but it would definitely have to be enlarged and may turn out to be an expensive idea.
- I tried a lot of different positions for the wall between the Study/atrium and the entry. I ended up with one that is a bit wasteful, but it "obeys" the main beam structure.

Don't look into the details of the kitchen setup; it has not been thought through.

Back to square one on the landscape issue

The first rain came and went and we are getting into perfect planting season. Except I am no closer to getting a planting plan, much less a full design for the landscape. The lead to Ron did not work out; I gather he might have been too busy on other projects. It took very very long to first get to meet with him and then to get a proposal; and just the fact it took more than 2 weeks to produce the contract proposal seems severely at odds with my explicit request for short turn-around time.

Another thing to factor in is the pool: I just got word from the Alpine club that I am now on the top of the waiting list; but I am really leery about signing up for a $20000 one-time membership fee of which only 20% will be returned on resignation. In addition to the one-time fee there are monthly fees totaling $250 (incl. a food minimum).

In contrast, I would need to pay in the order of $50000-70000 for a pool at home.

Windows - Eichler'izing the living room

These are numbers from Palo Alto Glass

1. Replace the four (4) large fixed windows across the back with 1" overall thickness tempered insulated low-e insulated glass in openings prepared by your contractor. $7,668.00

2. Replace the two fixed windows around the fireplace with same. $1,668.00
Replace them with doors instead: Fleetwood brand Series 3400 swinging aluminum doors, same spec's. $8,254.00

3. Replace the two sliding doors at the front and back with Fleetwood brand Series 1000 (narrow stiles and rails) sliding glass doors. Clear anodized aluminum finish, low-e insulated glass, locks, handles, screens. $7,643.00

My own extrapolation of replacements for the "old" box, i.e.,
4. 3 sliding doors (shorter than those in LR) ~ $11,000
5. 3 fixed/casement windows in kitchen, bathroom, bedroom towards driveway ~ $4000
i.e., a total of $32K

These numbers are shocking! The only problem is that Milgard may notmake picture windows any wider than 60" - and they don't do tall sliders.
See also a much newer post (1/3/09) on Milgard windows.