We live in MN, too, and are planning a build on a lot with a steep backyard--however, we are empty nesters, so are looking for something different. Your plan looks very nice, but a couple of things stand out to me. First, do you entertain much? If so, you might not want to send guests to that out of the way powder room. It is a nice location for children coming in from outside, though. Also, if my aged eyes are seeing correctly, your dining area is 10 1/2 feet wide? That would be pretty skimpy. I find that if you pull the chairs out from your table to the distance they would have to be to get out of them, then measure across the table from the back of chair, to back of chair, it will give you a good idea of exactly how much space you will need to be comfortable. Remember that those little people you have now will someday be big people who take up much more room! Good luck to you!

Thanks Katie,

We do NOT entertain, the idea with the powder room there is that the kids, me, wife can come in from the garage and use the bathroom without having to take off shoes.

I agree the dining room might be a little small in the width department. We won't have chairs on the backside of the Center Island, so that may help. We had to lose 3' in width of the home from the model with 1' coming from t he great room and 2' coming from the dining room. I didn't want the kitchen to change since that is what made us fall in love with the home was the kitchen.

Good idea on pulling out the chairs to give u an idea of the distance you take up with your table, chairs, I will try this tomorrow.

Thanks for your input Katie

I would put double doors from the study into the dining room. It will make a world of difference in the quality of light in both rooms, and make it possible to use the study as a dining room or living room by someone else when it comes time to sell. Or at the least, put in a single door. We used two 28" wide doors instead of 30", since we also were limited in space for one set as you might be.

Anne

We live in MN, too, and are planning a build on a lot with a steep backyard--however, we are empty nesters, so are looking for something different. Your plan looks very nice, but a couple of things stand out to me. First, do you entertain much? If so, you might not want to send guests to that out of the way powder room. It is a nice location for children coming in from outside, though. Also, if my aged eyes are seeing correctly, your dining area is 10 1/2 feet wide? That would be pretty skimpy. I find that if you pull the chairs out from your table to the distance they would have to be to get out of them, then measure across the table from the back of chair, to back of chair, it will give you a good idea of exactly how much space you will need to be comfortable. Remember that those little people you have now will someday be big people who take up much more room! Good luck to you!

IMO you've got the powder room right where you will use it many times every day. Can you give it at least a small window? I also like the *space* in that 'back hall' area -- room enough to get three kids off to school without too much elbow-bashing. .

I'm less thrilled about the fridge location, with doors opening into a 'walk-through' traffic lane. I like the fridge near the dining area and the sink. It's the most-visited' appliance in the kitchen. It looks like you'll have lots of upper cabinets. Must you have a designated "Pantry" or could a big closet in the back hall space hold back-up supplies. (You could have more windows in the kitchen or move that fridge.)

A nice dining area for six is 12 X 12. Don't count walk-through' space.

There's a lot of 'nothing' between the Study and the Dining Area. It probably won't stay empty with three kids and their toys! I like the idea of glass french doors for the Study.

How about a taller window to light the staircase? The front elevation looks a bit unbalanced there. You could also have a window on the side of the house over the landing. The front window in the Study is quite low -- think furniture placement.

I'd reverse your MBR bath set-up to have windows near the vanity area and the tub and shower on inside walls for warmth. Can you have *some* partition between the toilet and the sinks?

Builders cut costs by using only a few windows and small ones. There are nice outside walls both upstairs and down that would benefit from allowing natural light from more than one direction -- and summer breezes. With a 100-foot frontage, you're not going to be on top of any neighbors to the sides. (Sorry you can't 'spread out' more to take advantage of the wide lot.)

Is there some point to the 10/12 pitch roof? The living area is quite narrow; a tall roof accentuates this, next to the large garage. I'm sure you know the front porch is too shallow for use -- purely decorative.

Do you WANT a 2nd floor laundry? It's quite small for a family of five. I've appreciated having washer and dryer where *I* am most of the day -- not upstairs. Remember laundry chutes?

Exciting times! New house AND new baby!

I think this is a nice beginning point. In addition to the comments already made, I'll throw in my 2 cents....

I would make the double garage door an 18'x8' door. That extra room makes such a difference. I would also put a sidelight on the right side of your front entry door. Having only the left sidelight makes the entire door look unbalanced. Since your front door is such a natural focal point of your home, I wouldn't scrimp on that.

So, I'm curious, why did you have to lose 3' off of the house. It seems like your lot would be wide enough to accomodate the extra 3'. I agree that your dining room needs to be bigger. Also, does your center island have an overhang? I'm also curious why you wouldn't have chairs on your center island possibly one day. I only say this bc with little kids, I think it's a natural thing to have. Since I usually prep on my island, the kids often pull up a stool to help or to watch. Since we have more than 1 kid, it often means multiple stools. If we didn't have stools/chairs around the island, I don't know what they'd stand/sit on. It would be a major pain to pull up dining chairs all the time. Also, I would just plan out your furniture in your great room and make sure it all fits. Again, keep in mind your kids will get bigger. So, make sure you have enough good seating for 5 grown people.

So, are 4 bedrooms upstairs out of the question? If it is, could you make one of the bedrooms bigger? Those bedrooms are pretty small as it is, and to share, that would be tight. Where do you keep all your toys? Not all square footage costs the same. Adding extra bedroom square footage wouldn't add signficantly to your costs. One thing you could do is take the jog out of the back left corner of your house by extending the mudroom closet to be in line with the back pantry wall. It would eliminate a corner and add to your mudroom. it would also simplify your roofline in the back. You could have a bigger closet, add a 2d refrigerator, add an exterior door, etc. So many possibilities. Then, upstairs you could extend Bedroom 2 to fit perfectly over that space, and make that a much nicer room to share. You could also extend the shared bathroom, and put the toilet and tub at the end with a door separating it from the sink area. That way, when your kids get older, it will be easier for them to share that bathroom. You could have a kid taking a shower with the door closed, and another getting ready and brushing their teeth. By doing this, you could also add a window in that bathroom high up over the tub. It's so nice to have natural light in a bathroom. I'd even want a skylight over the sink area.

In the laundry, I'd get a full size stackable unit, and then put a counter and cabinets under the window. It will give you storage and folding space.

I like a lot of chisue's suggestions. I agree you should add a window on the side of the house over the stairs as well. That would allow such nice light into your house and help light that long hallway.

I noticed that you had no way of getting to your backyard. You mentioned that you wouldn't have much of a backyard, but is it completey unusable? Would you want some kind of rear deck or porch one day?

Anyway, good luck. This is a nice plan and a good start. A lot of these are personal things, but as our kids get older, I have really started to appreciate having space.

Thanks Chisue for all the input!

I don't think a window will fit in the powder room, only a small space on the outside wall above the toilet. I have however inquired about cost of adding a Transom window above the bench in the back area, in the model it seemed pretty dark and no natural light.

The wife insists on having a window above the tub so she can look out I guess while taking her bubble bath i guess.
We love our pantry in our current house, it doubles as a extra storage area with extra paper towels, etc.

More windows has been our push while looking at floor plans. We liked the sizes of the windows and like I stated above have inquired about transoms also in the great room and possible a 2 more seperated windows in the master bedroom. There is a large picture window in the staircase leading from the 1st floor to the 2nd floor.

I also thought the front elevation looked a little off and maybe getting "longer" windows in the stairwell would help solve that, great idea!

I also commented on the space between the study and dining room, the builder stated that most people add a china cabinet there. I asked about extending the study out a bit to line up with cabinets and he said that the mechanical chase would have to be reworked then. I have also thought about maybe extending some of the cabinets into this space and make our own "china Cabinet" with glass doors etc.

No idea on the roof pitch. We will have 9' ceilings in the main floor and 8'6" ceilings in the basement.

The lot we have has quite a bit of a slope to the rear and side so our house is stuck being as far to one side of the lot as possible. Even with the 30 loads of fill I have brought in already.

I did notice the small laundry room, we have budgeted in for Front loaders and pedestals since I am 5'11" and wife is 5'9". I have seen others make the carpenter build a stand instead of paying for the pedestals but our builder stated the costs would be similar. We were open to having a laundry on the main, but the builder stated the foot print of the home would be a little to large for our budget. My wife likes the idea of not having to carry laundry up the stairs. Since we plan on this being the "end house" for us.

Thanks again for the ideas Chisue

A few more Questions and Information I have:

The builder stated he was able to get all the kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, and mudroom bench for just under $7,000. He is giving us an allowance of $7,000 and it just seems like it would have costs much more then that. He is using Poplar as the wood. Cheaper yes.....but within our budget. We decided to upgrade the counters to a Granite, which is also an allowance of $5,000 and includes the upstairs vanity tops as well.

Other allowances are:

$1500 lighting + 6 Recessed Can lights

4 Phone and 4 Cable

$3000 for appliances, but we upped it to $4,000 to include front load washer and dryer. We know that our kitchen appliances will be rather basic, we currently have stainless steel and I am not all that impressed with it for the extra costs, so basic black is fine with us.

Poured Wall Foundation

$22 yd/ Carpet allowance

$3 sqft/ tile allowance

$6.50 Laminate allowance

$5,000 Landscaping allowance

Thanks Gobruno! Lots of great ideas also.
I will ask the builder about getting a 18x8 door and the costs associated.

alot of the choices are due to budget reasons. We are losing $55K on our current home, but with the cost to build so low right now and mortgage rates and a growing family, we thought there is no better time then now to make the move.

The model had 2 sidelights, but since we had to shrink the main floor (budget reasons) the front foyer shrunk and only sidelight would fit. I have inquired about getting a fiberglass "wood look" door with small windows at the top of the door as well.

I guess I will mention that the home will cost us $230,000 and the model we looked at (4 BDrm, 2500 sq ft) was around $265,000. Our top of the budget was at the #230,000 mark.

A lot of the other builders were in the 1900 to 2000 sq ft range with the upgrades we wanted. This builder blew away the rest really as far as upgrades, quality, and cost per sq ft.

Center island will have an over hang. Maybe you are right as the kids get older this can be a good space for additional seats, we currently have an overhang over our current breakfast bar that never gets used, we actually removed the chairs a while back. But I guess I have to remember that our family is ever changing.

My idea was that the kitchen is where I wanted the space and that most people complain of too small of a kitchen rather then too small of a great room/dining room.

I do like your idea on adding room and changing the roof lines, which makes sense in less roof lines = less costs.

I also agree that the bathroom needs some type of window, natural light.

backyard as a good slope to it down to the marsh area, so my thinking is to keep it a wood's look and have more of a side yard since it is our inlaws next door. The side yard from our house to their garage would be at least 40' wide and not much of a slope.

Yes a deck would be something we want to add in the future with the lower part outside of the basement patio being screened in since our neighbor is really the mosquito in the summer time.

Thanks again for the input gobruno, I will send an email to the builder later tonight with some of these ideas and find out the "costs"

You are a gracious recipient of our comments. I know that sometimes they must seem like an *attack* on your house.

Just a note about recessed can lights: The ONLY ones I use regularly are in the hallways. I wish I had not let our contractor sell me on these things *everywhere*. I don't use them and our ceilings look like Swiss Cheese. LOL

That's a very low figure for lights. However, you can buy cheap ones now -- easy to change out with nicer ones later. Same goes for faucets, etc. -- EXCEPT valves behind the tile!

I use our back hall closet to store paper goods and backup kitchen goods and small appliances. There's some hanging space and it is 'home' to the central vac hose, mops, brooms, the dog's kibble, you-name-it. My closet is 2 X 9 with a pair of 30" doors. My back hall is a rectangle with a window at the 'laundry' end and a half-glass door at the closet/powder room end. In the middle are doors to garage and kitchen.

I'd live with laminate in the kitchen at first if I could have more wood flooring in the house. Easy to replace countertops later. Carpeting is going to be ruined fast.

Is there no way to build some second floor space over the garage? That's a LOT of garage and roof!

How's the water table under your build? When you talk about 'marsh' I worry about your lower level plans.

I'm guessing the lot is free? Because this is a great time to buy EXISTING homes, but building costs are higher per square foot than existing real estate. (My homeowers replacement costs are a third more than I could buy the space for in an existing home.) This is also a great time to 'borrow the house' (rent) instead of borrowing the money to buy or build (mortgage). Maybe that's not an option where you live.

My mother, the realtor, would cringe to hear me say this!

So, if this really is your forever home, I would compromise on some of the easily upgradable finishes (like Chisue suggested) rather than compromise on some of those things that would be much more difficult to change in the future--like the footprint of the house. Countertops, for example are very easy to upgrade in a few years. I would much rather put that money on adding the sidelight to the front door so that it doesn't look off balance, and also add the money to expanding the 2d bedroom, bath, and mudroom.

Since you only have one main living space and eating area, I would make sure that they can accomodate a growing family over the long run. As our kids get older, it surprises me how much space they take up. Even for us to all sit down to watch t.v., we need 2 full size couches. When kids are little, you can pile all of them plus you on 1 couch, but as they get bigger, they want to stretch and lounge around.

Also, I am not a big fan of allowances. I think it just leaves room for miscommunication/misinterpretation/uncertainty/surprises, etc. You said that this builder beat the pants off of the other builders. I would just make sure though that at the end of the day, you end up getting what you had envisioned for the price you envisioned. We have built more than one house, and the best way to avoid uncertainty is to be as specific as possible in your bid before you commit to paying hundreds of thousands of dollars. It is a lot more work on the front end, but then you are less likely to have surprises throughout the process. So, when you have the builder give his final bid, the one that will be the basis of your contract, go out and actually pick out the appliances you want, the garage door, the faucets, sinks, carpeting, tile, cabinets, and anything else that is important to you, and have those numbers be the basis of your bid. It doesn't mean that you have to stick with those choices, but at least you have a true sense of what things will cost, and you can track costs better if you want to swap things out. You are going to have to pick all this stuff out eventually; so, why not invest the time up front so that you get a realistic sense of pricing.

Anyway, good luck. It's a fun, stressful, but rewarding process!

The Recessed lighting will go in the kitchen and 1 in the master bath shower. I love our florescent light we have in the kitchen currently, but my wife works in a school all day so she said she doesn't want that at home also.

We are going with laminate, because it looked great in the model and with kids and a dog I didn't even want to think about real wood floor. Tile in the mudroom/closet/.5 Bath, like the model had, would have cost us $1600 so we opted out of that.

I am thinking the back closet will also function like yours Chisue, it is very large and will fit our mops/brooms/vacuum along with all the coats, ETC.

I sent the builder an email asking if we can extend a bit into the garage area on the 2nd floor. My idea would be to drop the walkin closet down in line with the exterior wall and add a small closet accessible from the hallway for storage of blankets/bath items/ETC. This would add 32 sqft and hopefully provide us with a lot more storage upstairs.

I think extending too much over the garage will put us very quickly over our price range and will mean dropping a lot of the upgrades we have put in.

I would guess we are at least 25 to 30 feet above the marsh, the lot has a very good slope all the way down to the back of our lot and the start of the marsh.

Lot was free, besides the costs we have had to pay for survey, subdivision (What a process that was), and bringing water and sewer from the street to the lot/house. Me and my wife are very curious as to what the value of the lot will be. In looking at other lots in the area, a very small lot, surrounded by houses is going for $70k, while a lot only a few lots down, although 2x larger is going for $190k.

I guess we are fine with a little smaller footprint and having some of the nicer upgrades instead. I don't want to get too big of a home, where once the kids move out and we are empty nester's it is too big to take care of. I have seen a lot of those posts in these forums of empty nester's downsizing.

We still have another 1000+ unfinished sq. ft in the basement, for a bedroom, bathroom, utility room, and a large Family room. It will however function as the kids play area for a few years. We currently have been using our garage as the play area over the winter. (covered 3 sides by house, insulated garage door, play mats on the floor)

Allowances I am sure are more of a normal in certain areas and I would guess in certain price ranges. I don't care for them either gobruno. I worry about surprises as well.

I have checked the builder out with the BBB and sent reference letters to his recent builds, all coming back positive. We are getting our financing through a bank so I am sure they do their checks as well.

Thanks again for the input!

Overall, a nice plan. Our first floor plans are very similar and I will tell you I love the layout!!! It's very functional.

A few comments:

-regarding the front door-is that a 32" door? That's pretty small. I would switch to the 42" inch and forgo the sidelite. You can center it on the foyer and overall I think it will look alot nicer. We have a 42" front door and love it!

-Is there access to the garage or mudroom from the back yard? You may want to put a door to the side or rear of the garage. I would alos increase the door size from garage to mudroom to 36".

-Since we can't see the rear elevation, it's hard for me to tell, but can you square out the space where the mudroom/powder room and pantry are? You may be able to get more space without adding much cost as you are simplifying the foundation and roof line. You can shift the kitchen over to widen the dining room. And make the mudroom a little bit bigger.
-Study: I don't like the bump our for the closet and then another bump our. Maybe built in bookcases on that wall would camoflauge it a bit. Or built in a column between the dining room and great room.

-Dining room: what's that bump out in the dining room. Is that a bay window? Whatever that is-do you really need it?
Our dining room is 13' wide. I think 12' would be fine.

-Kitchen layout is almost identical but our island is a bit bigger. We have a prep sink in our island. The fridge has not been in the way and it's in a good spot. Our aisles are wide at a little over 4'.

-Our dining room:we also have a wall where your hutch is to go. We opted for built ins, mainly b/c it's hard to find a 13' hutch and we wanted a wine fridge in there. The storage is wonderful! Although, from an aesthetics stand point, I would have preferred a hutch.

Pics of dining/kitchen:
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Do you live in the Twin Cities area, Minnesotaguy? My son teaches in a suburb of Mpls.--interested when you said that your wife works at a school. I think that it is great that you are so interested in your build, my DH had practically no interest when we built a home when we were at your stage of life (little kids, baby on the way). I agree with others that you would do well to put your money into things not easily, or cheaply changed, such as the footprint of the house, the windows, etc. Flooring and countertops are much easier to upgrade later. Much cheaper to add a foot or two now, than to add on after the house is finished. Good luck!

Thanks for alleviating my 'flooded basement' fears.

I really doubt that this will be your home in retirement, so don't worry about that. Few Seniors want multiple level homes. If you were building to that end, you'd be going *out* instead of up and down.

I'm worried about the 'allowances'. They seem much too low. If you can't manage any overage on the cost of the house, I wouldn't start.

Some of the most-used lighting in our house is the under-cabinet lighting in the kitchen. I almost never use the cans in the kitchen and wish I'd had pendants over the island istead of cans. I have a pendant over the main sink. (We have 9-foot ceilings.) The thing with cans is that the light doesn't reach down far enough -- it's 'ambient lightling', not 'task lighting'.

We never use the recessed shower fixture. The shower's glass sidewall and door let in plenty of light from the vanity mirror sconces and central pendant in the bathroom.

Why wouldn't you buy your own appliances and carpeting? Please re-read gobruno's post about pricing out everything the builder is 'allowing' to find out exactly what you are getting. I'm a little leary of this bid -- can you really build a good house for $100/sq ft? (I know you are there and I am here, but that sounds awfully low. I usually guess costs by checking a development house and subracting a minimal amount for the 'former farmland lot' that the builder bought for pennies.)

You are putting so much good thought into this. We want you to get your money's worth and have a house you will enjoy as a family! As I said, one-story could be 'forever', but I don't see this as that. I'm entitled to that opinion, as the holder of a Medicare card who has had two hip replacements.

Will your municipality be sending building inspectors? Don't count on the bank to do anything more than collect lein-free work statements and dole out the money. They won't be 'looking' at the house except on paper.

pps7...Thanks for the comments!

I never thought about the doors, something I will ask about for sure.

A service door would only work near the front of the garage since the back of the garage will be off the finished ground. I think the builder quoted us $300 for this, which we opted out of.

We have included 2 more windows (3'x5' single hung) in the master bedroom and added a 18"x48" transom window in the mudroom off the garage. I love the windows you have over your sink. Gives me an idea of seeing the costs to add windows there and maybe move some of the cabinets in a build-in's like you have along with wall. I really like the look of that!

My wife would fall in love with that white kitchen, she was really stuck on that for a while, but I figured it would show a lot of marks/dirt....is that the case?

I asked about moving the walk in closet on the 2nd floor down to be inline with the front exterior and the space left from the closet making that a closet accessible from the hallway for storage/blankets/etc.

The center island shrunk 3" on each side since the plan had to be shrunk by 6". We have the option of adding the 6" total back, but that takes away from the walking aisles and it also would not match up with the counter behind it (with the stove) so we are thinking of just going with the slightly smaller island like the plan shows.

Katie....My wife teaches at White Bear Lake. We did opt and go with a few more windows like I stated above.

Chisue.....We did think about a rambler for that reason, but could only get a 1500 sq ft house for the same price as the 2200 sq ft 2 story.....was a easy choice to make in the end.

Of the 3 builders we went in depth with, this builder had the most generous allowances. We priced out the appliances, but like I said, I am worried about the cabinet allowance, the builder has said as the model shows it was all within the allowance. Maybe I can bring the plan to a Home Depot/Lowes and see if I can get a quick quote off of that.

We had under cabinet lighting in our current home and I never used it...maybe since I was so in love with the florescent lighting we had. I think the builder quoted us $140 per light + 35 per switch. Not sure on length of light.

Our shower will just have to go with a curtain for now...the builder quoted us $700 for a glass sliding door, not a must in our minds.

We are around the $110 per sq/ft and that is just pure house and no lot factored into the price.

Yes we are in the city and there is a building department that has their sets of inspections/permits/ETC. I know permits will cost us $7,000 but I think that also includes the price of hooking into the Water/Sewer.

Thanks again for all the great comments!!!

This house and idea has been in the works for a long time, now that we have sold our house, I am feeling so unprepared.

Chisue, a pretty good house can be built in the Cleveland area, not including land, for about $100 sq ft. Just depends on alot...obviously, a two story home will be less per sq ft than a one story home.

When I was a child one of our neighbors, Mr. Leslie, was from White Bear Lake. A dear friend is from St. Paul, and I learned to swim in Lake Harriet in Minneapolis when my uncle worked for North Star Mills (long gone!).

We've been talking about the house layout, but do you have the nitty gritty sorted? The HVAC, insulation, iron pipe or PVC, brick, reinforced concrete, siding, roofing, etc.?

I wouldn't get too 'into' kitchen cabinets. They are pretty much just 'boxes with doors'. Heavily advertised 'brands' are over-priced. Real wood is better than pressed wood. I believe ours are Great Northern. The style of door and hinge and the number of drawers you have will make a difference.

Our starter (and almost 'finisher') house was a single story about 2000 sq ft. It was fine: 3 BR's 2 1/2 baths. Unfortunately we didn't have what you will have, Grandma and Grandpa (AKA Babysitting) right next door. We could have stayed there, but moved for a more private, quieter neighborhood farther out of the city.

HVAC, insulation, iron pipe or PVC, brick, reinforced concrete, siding, roofing, etc.?

I made sure the HVAC, Water Heater, Air Exchanger were not "Builder Grade" or "Contractor Grade" since he is a smaller custom home builder, he said he doesn't go with the lower grade stuff.

I used to be an electrician for a short time, so I am having him add a few items, such as 2 stub ups where the electrical panel is and having those runs brought out just past the house. The idea is later on to extend these, one to the front trees for christmas lights recepticle and to the back for future use.

The Cabinets in the model were nothing really fancy, a mission style made from Poplar. The builder stated Poplar is becoming Popular because it stains like a maple, but costs much less.

Despite the elementry school to the front of our house, the area/neighborhood is very quite, yet very close to getting on a hwy to get to work. There is a lot of wildlife in the back with my wifes parent's owning 10 acres and a wildlife area close by.

It will be 1/2 stone on the front and the rest Vinyl Shakes/Siding. The Roofing is a 25 year shingle, there are options for the 30 year Architectual style, but to me it isn't worth it since sometime in that 25 years I am sure we will get hail and hail damage.

For chisue:

The North Star Woolen Mills building is now filled with cool lofts:

Jay
St Paul, MN

Jay -- Oh, thanks so much. I looked it up. Really nice looking condos. What a view!

I think my uncle was brought in from the East to try to help North Star save the business -- or maybe sell it off? He was there in the mid-1940's. His next job was in England, trying to help modernize another woolen mill post-WWII. I still have a North Star blanket and my mother's box of a couple dozen North Star threads

(Sorry for hijacking your house thread, minnesotaguy28.)

The white cabinet wipe up pretty easily, but the paint does chip easily. Most of the chips occured during installation. Some I just touched-up. One of the door was pretty bad and my GC is replacing it. If I had known, I would have watched them like hawks during install. Live and learn.

Do you not realize that budgets set by a contractor really don't mean much? We are a GC and also own a cabinet shop so if your contractor told you he can get your kitchen and bathrooms for 7k, he is buying them on clearance at menards.....5k for granite would mean you have a very tiny kitchen. 22 per yard for carpet is getting you flat builders grade when you consider $8.00 per yard for pad and installation. I am familiar with your contractors work and you need to keep an eye on things, choosing a contractor because he has a house plan isn't a great idea and you may have gotten a pig in a poke as my grandma used to say.

Keep the faith, you will need it!