Living Room, Dining room & Family Room

I enjoy blogging more than I thought initially.  It feels good after posting my thoughts and I can stop thinking about them like releasing a steamed pot of hot air.  Maybe I'm getting old and my memory capacity has deteriorated.  I need to free up some memory by posting/saving it in my blogs.  Does that make sense?

Lets continue with the blog by talking about the other rooms on the main floor.

My last blog (yesterday) I talked about our kitchen selections, today I want to talk about the Living Room, Dining Room and Family Room/great room.  These rooms don't have nearly as many options available as the Kitchen and the ones you want are mostly structural upgrades.

Living Room:  The Living Room is usually the first room people see when they walk into your home.  It's really just an empty room so it's up to you to make it nice (or leave it empty).  I don't see much use for this room but only to stage it to make the rest of the house flow and look nice.  Our Shakespeare is Elevation C so we have a bump-out to the front but can't get the full porch which is fine since we prefer more interior space.
Our options/upgrades: Really not many options are available for this room. Good place to save money and spend elsewhere.
-Side windows (+990)
-Hardwood floor ( +1695)

Dining Room:  We don't see much use for this room either since we normally eat dinner in the kitchen or dinette area.  The only time we will use our Dining Room is to host dinners with family and friends, otherwise, we'll just stage it with a nice china, cabinet, dining table and chairs. 
Our options/upgrades: Again, not too many options are available here.  Skip the upgrades if on tight budget.  I would recommend getting any extensions or bump-outs where possible to add extra sq. ft. to your home.
-2' Extension (+1895)
-Tray ceiling (included) 
-110v outlet in Tray ceiling (+75)
-Hardwood floor (+1995)
-Crown molding, chair rails and trims (+2895) - This can be done later but we prefer to have it done now.  Definitely a skip if on tight budget.

Family Room:  One of the reasons we picked the Shakespeare is because of the double story Family Room.  The 2 options I really wanted are the double story Stone Fireplace and Coffer-ed ceiling.  We see ourselves spending a lot of time in this room.  It's usually next to the kitchen so it's great for entertaining guests or just hanging out and relaxing.  The room feels very open so it's great for that purpose.

Our options/upgrades: Options are expensive but few.  I wanted it to look just like the model home with the 2-story stone Fireplace and Coffer-ed ceiling.  There is an option to turn it into a 5th bedroom (bonus bedroom is $15,095) upstairs but why close up such a beautiful room unless you need a 5th bedroom.

-2 story stone fireplace (+5595) (Cost even more if you do this later so not too bad)
-Coffer-ed ceiling (+2195)
-Hardwood floor (+2695) 
-2 eyeball recessed fireplace lights (250)
-2 regular recessed lights (250)

That's all for now, see you next time.