What follows are the notes from my reviews of various washers and dryers...

Got an interesting email from Joe this weekend...

Just beginning to layout plans for possible log home in TN. Have you considered Geothermal. Everything I read sounds good and I'm thinking that I have to dig out the basement so why not look at this option placed in surrounding opening. Electricity may be cheap in TN but not here in FL. Also looking at prefabbed basement as in this OLD House. Meeting with TN log home and Honest Abe next week." -- Joe

This topic might be of interest to others, so here are my thoughts...

In our current home, the hot water heater is located in the garage.

As a result, hot water has to travel UP one-and-a-half floors and make a lot of turns & twists in the process of reaching both of our main bathrooms.

This is not the ideal scenario because:
#1 It takes a long time for the water to turn hot in both, our master bathroom and our guest bathroom -- which are located upstairs.

#2 The water pressure is quite weak in the upstairs bathrooms. This is especially noticeable in the master bathroom shower (which is farthest from the water heater).

When building a new home, you are investing a lot of hard work, time, and money.

But have you given any thought to just how long those things that you're installing are going to last? I have.

Recently the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) shed some light on the life expectancy of common components inside a home -- everything from appliances, cabinetry, and flooring... to roofing, plumbing, and HVAC.

Have a look...

What follows are some of the unique features that we plan to incorporate into our log home's master bathroom.

One way to use this is as an "idea list"... to help you weigh out the pro's and con's of various bathroom features in order to ultimately determine your own "wants" and "needs" list for your own master bathroom.