Toolman11k

Thanks for the feedback, I am in North Carolina on the water, I have worked hard to raise the elevation of the property 8' so now the foundation (pier and beam) will be 11.5' above SL. From there the stem wall will be 24" more so the garage floor and main house floor will be 13.5' above SL, if the water get's that high there will be serious devastation all up and down the coast, not just my house. I did however struggle if I should lower the garage, but this eliminates stairs up and down and simplifies the foundation / elevated slab. I will also be using closed cell spray foam insulation on the whole house and garage to help eliminate critters and odors from the garage. Lastly, I will install commercial vapor barrier insulated garage doors for the best possible fit. I learned a lot about garage doors living in MN in sub zero winters, I can write a whole paper on just proper garage door and proper garage door installations. Thank you for your comments, I really like the stub wall idea for the stairs.

Thank you so much for this and taking the time, I realize this software has many functions I have not yet discovered, however it is the best money I have spent so far in this process. Your video help is amazing, I watched a lot of videos on this software prior to purchase, and have spent a lot of time getting it to where it was, but this helps tremendously. Thank you again.

Thank you everyone for the help and feedback, I sorted out the issue with the room sq' displays, it takes off the sheet rock and then rounds the sq' that is why it was not shown correctly(so basically internal sq' rounded). I also had forgotten to set the utility area in the garage to unheated sq' (even though in reality I will heat and a/c all of it, but for building quotes this will work. Lastly the difference between internal sq' and framing sq' makes up the rest of the difference. It would be nice if there was a way to list the rooms with actual sq' for some of the subs, but this should be good enough. Also as to the architect part, there lies the issue in the part of the country I am in. I have been messing around with a so called builder / designer and engineer on my original plan for over 8 months and spent an absurd amount of money with them. I started over from scratch. I used the trial version of this software and learned a little about it. Then bought the full version and I did my best to learn the software and design this. I realize there are some things that need to be cleaned up from a dimensional aspect to whole / 1/2' where ever possible but certainly whole inches.

Note, I posted this in Chief Talk (the incorrect location) I have Home Designer Pro 2021 The issue I have is the living area is not adding up correctly, I have checked the settings of each space and also have tried switching between "Main Layer" and "Surface" based on feedback from technical support, however it still seems to be wrong. I think the issue may be in how I created the staircase to the attic. I would also assume i have done some other things the "hard" way to get them to display correctly. Any feedback would be appreciated. I will work to add up all the spaces manually this morning and post that file a little later. Koen_5-10-20.plan