Sochi, of course, you are right: everyone is different and their family situations and housing needs differ. That said, I am constantly amazed at the number of postings here asking for comment on floor plans which are often so similar to one another and often so very large. The similarity among many plans posted here tends to indicate that builders go to home shows and conventions where this year's "house of the year" is featured and bring some or all of those features to incorporate into their line-up. Doesn't matter too much if the builder is in North Carolina or California; climate, site conditions, local and regional conditions don't matter too much. Many of the houses look closely related, both in floor plan layout and in exterior appearance. When it comes to size, it takes builders about the same amount of time to build a 3,500-4,000 SF as it does a 2,500 SF house. The larger houses give such a greater return to the builder, so it's easy to see why there are so many large houses on the market and being built. When a prospective homeowner, particularly someone who may be building their first custom house, looks at plan after plan of this over inflated type and size it doesn't take long for a prospective homeowner to think they really need all those feature and all that size! If the family is only two people, perhaps with a small child, the large house is often justified as "my forever house", or "needed for resale in this neighborhood". No one seems to accept that real estate statistics suggest the average home owner sells their home every 5-8 years, and that it's not mandatory to move into a neighborhood of 5,000 SF, 6-bedroom houses! One has to be pretty creative (and persistant) to find and design a "smaller" house that really fits their needs and some of their critical wants! But, everyone is different, and as long as the budget permits, why not? Only some thoughts...

A few years back my wife and I were traveling on business in Brazil over Thanksgiving. A professor my wife was working with took us and several of the students to a churrascaria for dinner on Thanksgiving. (A churrascaria is a restaurant where servers roam around the restaurant with skewers of various cooked meats, continually stopping at each table to carve off some to everyone at the table) While there I mentioned that it was the US holiday of Thanksgiving and described it to the professor and the Brazilian students in general terms: get together with family and/or friends and have a large meal together, and described the "traditional" Thanksgiving meal. I was merely trying to make conversation, and make the point that what we were doing was pretty similar to the Thanksgiving tradition. However the professor responded "I'll see what I can do" and flagged the head waiter over, and spoke to him in rapid Portuguese. The waiter responded to us "We don't have any turkey but I'll see what we can do." and disappeared into the kitchen. About 10 minutes later he emerged from the kitchen followed by a server carrying a large skewer of meat, he presented it to us with a big beaming smile saying "This is as close as we could get to turkey. It's Ostrich." It didn't taste even a little like turkey, but it was delicious.

A card is fine. Do you do any cooking or baking? I have seen some really great food ideas for gifts. Here is one anyone can make! Ingredients: 1/2 cup roughly chopped dried cranberries 1/2 cup roughly chopped pistachios 12 oz white chocolate chips Instructions: Line a baking sheet with wax or parchment paper. Microwave chips for 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between until smooth. Once melted stir in all but 1 tbsp each of the dried cranberries and pistachios. Spread it out in an even layer on your prepared baking sheet, and then sprinkle the remaining cranberries and pistachios. Refrigerate until firm then cut to desired size. There are many more on pinterest, quick and easy! Here is another one I just found. I love pretzels with Chocolate. Easy Toffee Pretzel bark

Thanks! I put conduit (both flexible and rigid) inside the walls. Horizontal runs are through knock outs inside the blocks but I tried to keep this to a minimum. Plumbing is also inside (PEX and PVC for waste water) the walls. The main reason for the interior block walls was that I wanted a solid feel. The doors are fairly large (8ft tall, 3.5ft wide) and solid core so I was concerned that metal studs may not be massive enough. I used metal studs for a wall concealing a tank for a wall hung toilet but everything else is concrete blocks.