I thought that Christiane had resigned herself to not having the baby in the new house already? If so, the “basketball under her shirt” issue is moot, yes?
On the “Don’t Move It” side, we had a downdraft exhaust oven when I was growing up, and they’re pretty cool. I don’t know about 3x cool, but pretty cool. It was a Jenn-Air oven, and it also had an electric grill thing next to it that was also on downdraft exhaust. That was pretty cool. But it came with the house…
Not sure I buy the “toilet should be next to the tub” argument — I’ve lived in spaces where the toilet wasn’t even in the same room as the tub, and it was fine. Perhaps a modified illustration of your theoretical bathroom would help.
If I may ask a question that does not help you solve your problem, but may help me avoid the same situation in the future, how did you end up with this problem? Draftsman error again?
When I met him at your open house, Ace told me that the true measure of a contractor was not whether problems occurred (because they always will) but how they were handled. How’s he holding up on that score?

What popped out for me was one of the cons under ‘Move It’: AC fan may work harder. Hmmm… this doesn’t sound like a very good thing energy wise. And with the pros and cons under both, I would be leaning more towards the ‘Don’t Move It’. Plus this way maybe you can just sit on the toilet to spit after brushing your teeth…?

True, I’m thinking that it is most imminent that we will birth in the rental. *SIGH* But, we had hoped that soon after the house might be done and visiting family could help us move and stay in the guest room. I have no idea where they might stay or if they might even come if we have no place to put them.
Ace is willing to pay for the extra cost of the oven… I just wonder what happens after the warranty runs out. We will pretty much always be stuck with buying/owning/fixing downdraft ovens.
The tub & toilet issue… I think David and I are a little neurotic about this one. I don’t know why. It prolly won’t affect life that much, it is totally an aesthetic issue
The error… who knows. Probably a draftsman issue, but Ace was telling us he has seen issues like this even where the highest priced architect was hired. Sounds like stuff just “comes up” when you’re building, you know? All in all, I think we hired a lazy draftsman (Ace knew three, but we chose the one that was immediately available and had the lowest fee… get what ya pay for).
As for Ace’s score… personally I’m still satisfied. I think the big thing for me is feeling like I can trust my contractor, that (s)he is not just some shyster trying to turn a buck. Ace has never promised us something he can’t deliver (and that includes the finish date), he takes responsibilities for his mistakes, he gives us as many options as possible, and he always tries his best to keep us happy customers.

Oh, and Paul, speaking of basketballs under shirts…? How are things in your neck of the neighborhood?

AC fan may work harder. Hmmm… this doesn’t sound like a very good thing energy wise.
Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking. At first we were worried that the plenum would block the pipes such that the hot water would take a long time to get upstairs (extra water costs, extra gas). Since then, the plumber has said that only the drain pipes will snake about and the hot water should still take a pretty straight shot.
Since Ace is willing to pitch in for the stove… and the only other thing we need to worry about is losing storage space in the kitchen… I’m starting to lean towards just taking care of it now…

It looks like moving it will cause more problems than leaving it will. Stick with what you’ve got.

I concur with Lauren. I think it will be easier to deal with aesthetic issues when you have more money in the pocket due to smaller energy bills. Besides, down draft oven is way cool (and functional, lived in three houses that had them).

We’re deep in basketball under the shirt territory — perhaps getting more towards beachball terrirtory. Everything is going well, which is nice.
In the house department, we’ve determined that we should wait until we get out of the ultra-expensive-two-kids-in-day-care years before deciding what to do. We did get a bid from one contractor before reaching that decision, which was interesting. I think I’ll feel more comfortable deciding whether or not our house is worth dropping an extra $150k on in 2-3 years. We may be the type of people who do better with just moving instead of living through a remodel.