"1) While the pantry is nicely convenient to the formal dining room, it is a heck of a long hike from the garage. I calculate that from the entry by the mud room to the pantry door, it is nearly 60 feet by the closest path. Unloading groceries every week will be a major chore. That by itself would be a deal breaker for me." The front door will be much closer to the drive so we planned on using the front parking to unload the groceries unless it's raining in which case we'll just have to walk. "2)At 6 ft wide, the master bedroom closet is too narrow to hang garments along both sides. If it could be widened by 8 to 12 inches, you would almost double your usable storage space." I didn't realize that and I'll make the changes. "3)The master bedroom is not going to get ANY natural light. Some people like a dark bedroom. I prefer having the growing daylight wake me in the mornings." My wife and I discussed this. We don't spend much awake time in our MBR and would prefer a dark bedroom and bright bathroom. For what it's worth, the windows in the MBR will be facing southeast so morning light will filter into the room. We'll probably end up shrinking the MBR a bit also since we don't ever watch TV in the MBR and only need space for the bed and dressers. "4) It seems like there is a lot of wasted space in the masterbath. And, when I "gotta go" in the middle of the night, I wouldn't want to have to hike clear around the shower to reach the WC." I agree with the wasted space. I'm hoping I can take away approx 1' between the shower and bath. I may also change the arrangement of the sinks and the vanity because the space above the bath looks empty. I may have sinks flanking the tub and then my wife can have a large vanity against the wall. "5) The kitchen window faces a garage wall. Granted, you can look out an an angle but, I'd want to push the entire garage toward the back (left in your image) so that it is out of the way of the kitchen view." Another good point. I'll probably push the garage back until only approx 2'-3' are sticking out. "6) Given the overall size of the house, the family room seems a tad small ... especially if you really plan to have a grand piano in there. Make sure you can fit all your furniture in with plenty of space to walk around it." I asked the designer to draw in a piano just to give an idea of the scale. We probably will place a small baby grand or an upright in the place of the grand as the grand is just too big. I'll also move the mail sort area so that it's just a wall and turn the piano around so the sound fills the room instead of bouncing off the walls. I want our home to have a cottage/family friendly warm feel so a formal grand piano will definitely be out of place. "7) The breakfast nook is too far from the business portion of the kitchen. Since there is more convenient seating at the kitchen island, the nook, pretty as it may be, probably won't get much use." I struggled with this one for awhile. I want the view but I also wanted the eating area to connect with the kitchen. I finally decided to go with the view. The area is named breakfast but a better name would be informal eating area because our family will eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner in that spot and I thought if would be better to have a nice view rather than proximity. If we end up not using it a lot I'll just turn it into a seating/reading area. Originally I didn't want a formal dining but my wife insisted and I'm sure she will use it more than twice a year. "8) If the screened porch will be used by the entire family and by guests then I wouldn't want my bedroom windows or my masterbath windows to open onto the screened porch." My wife had the same concern but I told her we wouldn't be sleeping during these gatherings and we could have blinds on the windows to prevent people from looking into the master bedroom and bathroom. "9) No powderroom to for guests to use??????? Another deal breaker for me." Not a big deal to me but it's just a difference of opinion. I wanted to design this home for a family of 5 so it's going to have a more casual feel. Not much formality so my guests will just have to find the bathroom. They will have privacy when the find it so that counts for something:) "10) Since the secondary bathroom lacks a window, I don't think you'll be able to make it look much like the breezy, light-filled bathroom in your inspiration picture." Yeah I understand and was a little disappointed. I'll probably end up placing a couple of solar tubes and pipe in some light. I know it's not as good but the bright colors will help. Thanks for all the advice! The MBR closet is something I would have regretted since a stinking foot would have made such a big difference.

Carol, In a different tut I too had problems with the drop shadow turning ugly (dark) after I animated it....it turned out that I had to reset my optimization settings... See if this will help with your dark edges... Open A/S....open a new canvas and draw a line on it...this will get the settings to stick... Then click File....Optomization Wizard.....Next...Customize button...Partial Transparancy Tab...now you want to change the blend color from black to white. Then keep hitting Next till you get to Finish and hit that too.... But you're right, its pretty as is... : )) FlutteringBy

Dar, The problem is, you have this path... C:\pspStuff\Texturizer\filter It needs to be this path... C:\pspStuff Mine is C:\PSPStuff\PlugIns because I have another sub folder there. And I don't have the 3rd box checked...Limit loaded plug-in files... But that's not the reason this isn't working. It's your path. When I said in my inst. "So the path to one of my folders and one of the files in it is this..."C:\PSP Stuff\PlugIns\Xenofex\Xenofex .exe" That was just to show you where one is. What I said in the next line in my above inst. was how you enable the path. That was this... Find the path to where you created your new plugin /filter FOLDER. Highlight it and then click OK at the box. Don't forget to close and re-open psp for the filters to take effect. About the .exe question. Most plug-in filters don't come with an executable file (.exe). If they do, then double click on it to install it, and make SURE that you direct it to install to the folder you want it in. Just read all the boxes carefully as they pop up before clicking next. But most don't have an exe file. You just extract the zip file to the folder it's in and that's it, as long as you have that folder enabled in psp. And about having one filter in your psp plug-in folder. That's okay. A few there won't hurt. But if you want to move it, just copy and paste them all to the new folder, then delete it out of the psp folder AFTER you paste it in the new one. Or you can drag and drop it in the new one. I hope all of this helps hon! :·)) -:¦:- ) ¸.·´ .·´¨¨)) ~Summer ((¸¸.·´ .·´ ( -:¦:- ((·:

mamapinky0 Can you give me a link to the SQ thread? I'll be more than happy to post there. I am still new to houzz, sorry. mrb6228 the max depth in my laundry closet is 31". With the dryer vent attached, I need at least 4" clearance in the back. Width isn't an issue. ci_lantro the dryerbox would be ideal but I am not able to tear down a wall to install this. My understanding is that's the only way it can be done. Am I correct? plllog I can't make modifications to my wall and it's not a new build. Right now I am just focusing on getting the SQ washer and will settle for a non SQ dryer. When I have more space, then I can get the SQ dryer.