Congratulations @eyemamom ! A topic dear to my heart this time of year is snow clearing, so I wanted to mention it as a consideration for planning driveway layout, garage siting and direction, etc.
^^^Following up on the comment on snow removal–we put in a heated driveway and front walkway. We live in MA and it was worth every every penny when we got 108 inches of snow (Winter 2014-15). Highly recommend it if you live in an area that gets snow/ice storms.
How does a heated driveway work? How long does it take to rid of 108" snow?
Heated driveways are radiant heating systems installed outside. Heated water and antifreeze are pumped into the pipes under pavers. The 108 inches wasn’t a one time storm, it was over the entire winter. That was a record high snow fall for the season.
You were all instrumental in getting me to think about things I hadn’t considered so once things move along a little bit I’ll start a new thread.
I’m too afraid to post the floor plan on houzz, those people are brutal!
You can do a Flickr link via PMs. 
For those of you interested in adding a laundry clothes hanging set up to your laundry, my DD brought me a “Sheila Maid’ from the UK and I love it. After my prior homes having wonderful laundry room set ups, this house has a wee room that has nowhere to add anything else, a W/D and a sink and that is it. Not much floor space either, so adding the hanger set up is crowded, but since it is suspended from the ceiling, no problem pulling it up out of the way when it is empty.
We have an island with a stove and a Best Caturra 8” downdraft, it works quite well, .we don’t really deep fry and would tend to cook anything really nasty outside on the BBQ burner.
Smart houses, ah yes, 15-20 years ago we were really ahead of the game, we pulled 4 phone lines for phone, fax, and, um dial up 
We live in a no streetlight area out in the county, we have neighbors with lights about 60-80’ away, the next one is probably 140’, and the next one is about 300’ away. All are second homes, when they are here, they tend to leave their outdoor lights on overnight and each shines in my bedroom window. I am a total crankpot about lights at night, I despise streetlights, and just hate the light shining in. To be even more of a snowflake, DH & I hate closing the blinds, too. When people are here and I have to close my blind or suffer light, I am grumpy. One neighbor has a new three bulb security light with one bulb facing us, next time he is here, I will ask him if we can redirect it a bit as his are on every night whether he is here or not.
That Sheila Maid looks great!
Here is the Americanized version:
Just do it, he’ll never know the difference.
What if he has security cameras and spot anyone fooling with his light?
Has anyone had a rain shower? How do you like it?
I had one at a home rental in Carmel. Meh.
Make sure you have a normal shower head in addition to your rain shower and there is a switch between the two for those moments when you don’t need to get your head wet.
Meh was my impression. It probably is fad. Having more than one shower head is too complicated to my taste.
What if he does? If he beefs about it then you can give him what-for about shining his light in your window.
Better to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission. 
Not fond of rain showers, personally. Our builder put one in a guest bath so I tried it out and didn’t like it. Essentially if you want to stay warm you have to put up with water pouring down on the top of your head. With a regular shower you have the water hitting your back keeping you warm. Plus I’ve discovered I like the pressure of driven water striking my back vs just falling down on my head.
@BunsenBurner said:
With a rain shower, I’d also install one of those hand-held shower heads to get to those “hard to reach” places if you have the audacity to not use wash cloths in the shower. 
Add me to the list of people who are not fans of the only shower head being a rain shower. I prefer to keep my face dry, which is impossible with a rain shower. Also good luck rinsing shampoo out effectively without water pressure.
I, too, like a shower spray with a little force to get soap and shampoo rinsed off. The light rain shower just doesn’t do it.
Hate the rain shower—I feel like I am drowning. I never use it. H uses it in the summer. We also have a regular shower head and a hand-held shower.