We're still playing with the layout kit. It is super handy. We've already seen how we can improve the laundry room, and move the pantry to make it bigger. Now we can put the wall oven in the pantry, and have it close to the kitchen. The kitchen seems too small to have the oven in there. I want a separate oven because our stove is an old O'Keefe and Merritt, and it has a tiny oven with uneven heat.

Now my only other real concern about the house layout is the lack of a foyer. The house we live in now doesn't have one - the front door opens right into the small living room, so I make the family use the back door which opens into a kind of mud room. That's were we leave our shoes and coats, and stuff that needs to go the shed or into a car. We need to create a space like that in the new house, by the front door. It doesn't seem right to have a nice front porch and entry, but always use the back door... After I figure it out and finish the layout, I'll take a picture of it and put it up here on the blog.

The other thing that is going on right now is fixing Rob's credit report. His credit has improved hugely in the past years, but there are some things that were supposed to have been removed years ago that the mortgage company wants gone. That could take until July, so we're kind of on hold for the land loan until then. In the meantime, I will buy the study plans, start pulling together our team of sub-contractors, and we'll start checking the Habitat Home Store for windows and doors. What we buy there will determine the final design of the outside.

Oh, and we went through a brief time of second-guessing the plans completely. We really should be building a square or rectangular house for monetary reasons, so we had to go all back through our reasoning for picking these plans with so many corners. It comes down to it being the only design under 2000 sq ft that really works for us. Yeah, I remember now...