Hello!
Need opinion(s) on Aquatic Serenity 35 Air Bath, comes standard with 1 light for chromotherapy. For another $300 or so I could add the extra "light package" which means you get 4 additional small LED lights, with a fancy control pad? Will the one light that comes standard on tub be good enough? Anyone have this air bath that could give advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks! :)

I am extremely excited about the whole tub though since it's an infinity tub!

Anyway to answer your questions, my tub is in my under-construction house, only lacking plumbing, floors, electricity and painted walls around it :) Our house is theoretically supposed to be finished in November but I can't see that happening. So, by the time I get the tub, yours will probably be long in already! If not, though, I'll update you.

Love the quick clean of the jet tub. Have only used the whirlpool in another bathroom for muscle strains.

If you are going to have to give up something else that you want more and that cannot easily be added later, then I would give up the added lights. You are already going to get the effect of having the chromatherapy and the incremental enjoyment you will get form more lights probably won't be that much or it would not be such a tough decision.

Then, next time you fall in love with something that you REALLY want that is just a little too expensive, you can use the $300 you "saved" on the top to justify the purchase :)

I don't think it was an option for the tub I chose. I do love the heated backrests!

BEAGLES: Yes, thank you so much! OMG! I have been looking at plumbing stuff for months already...still I do not know what I am doing! LOL! Everything that I love comes with a pretty price tag. Same thing with Appliances! A small fortune in itself!
Please, don't even tell me about lighting...I have heard!!!!!!! I don't think our allowance here was anything to write home about, I have seen some fixtures that would wipe out that allowance after buying just a handful of them. And we are supposed to "light" how many rooms?!? I know we will be going OVER on this area. I hear everyone does! I have been pre-warned! I am NOT looking forward to this! Did your builder give you a certain amt. of can lights as a base with some phone/cable lines, etc.??? Our builder put in 40 some cans in our price to start, w/ phone/cable lines (don't remember exact amt.) and then some other outlet stuff that I can't think of right now, and then an additional allowance. I don't know if that is a good amt. or not? I will find out though soon enough. Any tips on lighting?!?

Our lighting budget, however, as laughably small. Our builder budgeted us for $3600 for lighting in a 5000 square foot house! Ummm... we needed a 4 ft chandelier for our great room and for most chandies that big, that alone would have wiped out our entire allowance! And once we got rid of can lights, I ended up having to buy 22 chandeliers/ceiling fixtures (I even put chandies in our closets!)

I bought ALL of my lights online. I used fatwallet.com cash back combined w/ coupons for stores like Bellacor and Lamps Plus and I did not buy any light unless I had first comparison shopped everywhere. I also bought some really cool art deco fixtures and a murano glass light from eBay that were antiques that ended up costing way less than I would have thought and way less than some more "boring" lights from lighting stores. And then I spent everything I saved on 3 very expensive James R. Moder crystal lights for my kitchen :)
I don't know if any of this will help, but my best deals were on some Progress outdoor lights that normally sell for like $286 (and every other light in this line sells for that price) oddly on sale for $62. They are gorgeous in person and we needed 10 of them so we were VERY happy to save that much on something we loved:
http://www.1stoplighting.com/shopping/4-9-162-48143/product.aspx?sourc e=googlebase&kw=free-Progress Lighting&CAWELAID=191789910

And on a discontinued Progress Versaille collection light: http://www.amazon.com/Progress-Lighting-P4233-43-Fifteen-Light-Chandel ier/dp/B0014HAPGM

I also loved Shades of Light which had some really unique fixtures (http://www.shadesoflight.com) You can sort by price to weed out the $8000 ones and the under $500 ones are very pretty.

Sorry for not making the links active links, but maybe that will help!

We got a great deal on appliances by asking our appliance guy to just let us know when stuff went on sale and not being brand loyal. We got an $1800 miele 6 burner cooktop for $1200 and a very expensive bosch integrated fridge for $4000. I don't cook so I didn't care at all and just went w/ whatever the guy had.

My best advice when you are looking for stuff is don't be afraid to go custom. Our custom 3ft concrete farmhouse sink w/ integrated drainboard was only $800 compared to the $1500 kohler cast iron sink and I got it in my colors. Our custom cabinets cost about $20,000 less (not a typo) for our kitchen than Candlelight cabinets. Custom glass knobs for the kitchen were $15/knob as compared to like $22 or more in some places.

Hope some of that helps and doesn't overwhelm you more!

Our electrical walk through took about 3 hours. Our electrician was impressed and said for most people it takes all day. I knew exactly what I wanted and what was going where so it was much faster and easier.

The hidden outlets are in the kitchen because I would not allow for any outlets at all to be visible in my backsplash. This was a huge hassle with the electrician and inspector. On the one wall it was easy (albiet kind of expensive) because we just used plug mold. However, on the other wall, we had no upper cabinets so we had no place to put the plug mold. I wanted to put the outlets under counter, the inspector said no, I thought up like 10 other ideas that everyone vetoed and finally we ended up w/ the electrician using the shallowest possible boxes to put outlets in the panels on the cabinets on either side and my cabinet maker is going to make me a little piece of wood that matches that fits over the outlet and that velcros in place that I am going to put on after the inspector leaves.

We didn't put any floor outlets in because I don't want the look of my hardwood floors messed up. We will mostly be using the chandeliers for lighting and we also have lighted cabinets in every room that will be on a timer. Those will go on automatically and I am hoping between those and the chandeliers, we will have enough light w/o lamps. If we need lamps, I'll put them on the furniture along the walls and just put them on remote controls.

Bathrooms, we each have outlets in the top drawers of our vanities.

Cel phones will charge in the laundry room charging station (photoshop mockup):

As to the other questions:
We used some kohler in our house. Kohler purist faucets, I think maybe kohler tubs in our other bathrooms. I wasn't brand loyal when it came to plumbing, as long as it was something I had heard of. We used whitehaus for our kitchen faucets (w/ a tapmaster!) and I got the delta touch for the dog room.

Bathroom is moen (IODigital for tub and shower so we can turn water on w/ remote control and digitally get it to appropriate temp and fill level, etc.) We used polished chrome in all the bathrooms and nickel in the kitchen. We had both of our kitchen farmhouse sinks custom made (one out of concrete, the other out of marble).

I did not get a toto toilet. I spent so much on the tub and shower I was not going to spent a lot more on toilets so I got the cheapest kohler that looked good and that did NOT have those buttons on the top to flush. I wanted a regular lever! I like to put a decorative something or another on the top of the toilet tank and I didn't want buttons getting in my way.

HVAC- are you using fiberboard ducts or all metal? Our builder originally had us for fiberboard and we upgraded to all metal. My fiances dad is in the HVAC business and he strongly encouraged us to do research before letting them put fiberboard ductboard in the house and I am very glad we did. If you are using fiberboard, do your own research on this before you make up your mind. The metal costs more, but just do your research first!

We have 3 zone heat and cooling (basement, first floor, upstairs). We have geothermal heating and cooling, backup propane, and a boiler to provide radiant heat for the kitchen, sunroom and master bath floors.

When you do your HVAC, see if they give you any control over where registers are placed or what size. We have one that had to be made shorter because it interfered with trim and two returns that have to be modified to vent out of the cabinets that are going in front of them because our HVAC guy did not listen well to us. Be insistent if you have such concerns that you know where HVAC returns and vents are going before they do it. There's not much flexibility, but at least you can work w/in whatever flexibility you have.

Just FYI - with the type of house you are describing, 5k is not adequate. I am not a fan of can lights, but also really not a fan of ceiling lights in general. I certainly wouldn't want them in every room. We took can lights out of most places (only kitchen and baths (small 4" cans above sink to help with illumination in addition to sconces beside vanity). I think can lights are important in kitchens and great in hallways. Other than that, I can do without :). Our house is designed so many rooms have light on two sides and light at night is the only issue. Instead of cans, we did switched floor outlets so we could turn off lamps at once and still get enough light.