To help myself keep track of the house layout in my head when I'm writing, and as a service to those who might want to visualize the team's residence, I decided to design the house. The following is a description of the house's three floors along with "blueprints". Click on the image to the right of each description to see a larger view. Pop-Ups must be enabled on your computer for these new windows to open. BASEMENT: We start our tour in the lowest level of the house - the basement. As you've come through the kitchen and walked down the stairs, you find yourself in the exercise area. Equipped with a mix of cardiovascular equipment and a selection of free weights, the area is served by a restroom but no showers. Through the exercise area to your right (as you walked, the left as you look at this picture) is the playroom which is comfortably furnished with an entertainment center, two sofas, a piano, and two game tables. The playroom has its own full bathroom and a walk-in closet for game storage. Through the exercise room to your left you'd enter a hallway which leads to the laundry area, utility space, storage area and Weapons Maintenance room. Attached to the weapons maintenance room is the armory which is fully steel lined and accessible only through the cipher-lock door. FIRST FLOOR: Entering through the front door you'd find yourself in the large entrance foyer. To your right would be a coat closet and then a powder room. Ahead of you would be the back door and the stairway going up. A few steps into the house would bring you to archways on your left and right. To your left you'd go into the formal living room and then, on your left again, would be the sliding stained-glass doors that lead into the non-denominational chapel where Fr. Bastone holds his services twice weekly. If you passed the chapel you'd enter a hallway with two doors on the right, two doors on the left and one door at the end. The doors to your left both lead into the children's bedrooms. Both rooms are spacious with large closets. The first door on your right would be the study furnished with desks, two computers and enough shelves to hold the family book collection. The second door on the right takes you into the children's bathroom. The door at the end of the hallway leads to the master suite that is serviced by a sitting room, large master bath and big walk-in closet. If, after entering the home, you'd turned right instead of left, you'd find yourself in the "country" kitchen. Quite large, the kitchen is equipped with modern appliances and is served by a fair sized pantry. From the kitchen you can step through to the dining room, go downstairs, go out the kitchen door toward the detached garage, or enter the hallway which leads to the rest of the wing. Down the hallway to your left, or through the archway from the kitchen, is the dining room. With a table large enough to seat ten, this is where formal dinners are held for the team. Farther down the hallway you'd find the comfortable family room on your left. With an entertainment center, stereo system, sofa, loveseat, recliner and fireplace, this is where the residents come to "kick back and relax". At the end of the hallway is a door to the communications/data center. Equipped with desks and computer terminals, this room is the hub of data collection and information analysis. From the data center, or through a door from the family room, you can enter the conference room. The conference room is sparsely furnished with only the table and eight chairs. Behind the house is a detached four-car garage that has Mike's apartment above. SECOND FLOOR: In "Cloning The Ancients" and "Vampires In The Old West", the second floor is designed to support the team members: Chuck, Karl, Don and Fr. Bastone. Further, it provides them an "adult" recreation area. As you come up the stairs from the main entrance foyer, you find yourself in a wide hallway that runs the full length of the center portion of the house along the back wall. Split by the stairway, one end of the hallways is decorated with collectible artwork while the other end is filled with portraits and pictures of the family. In this portion of the upstairs hallway there are two large archways that lead into the rec room. The rec room is furnished with two professional style billiard tables, a dartboard and score-keeping slates, a wet bar and a kitchenette area. The kitchenette is actually a fully equipped kitchen where the team members often help themselves to late night snacks or weekend lunches. The left wing of the second floor has a storage area for team member use as well as bedrooms for Chuck and Fr. Bastone. Both bedrooms are spacious with private baths and walk-in closets. Fr. Bastone's room also has a small dressing area. The right wing is a mirror image with the exception of the storage area. Don and Karl have bedrooms which mimic Chuck and Fr. Bastone's with Don enjoying the dressing area. On the second floor of the garage there is an apartment for Mike Rakki. Mike's apartment is comfortable without being too large. It is a one-bedroom affair with a large living room/office space and an eat-in kitchen. The living room is furnished with a foldout queen size sofabed and therefore the apartment has a second full bathroom for guest use if necessary. By the end of "Witches Are Born", Lara has moved in with Karl and other changes occur that you'll have to read the book to find out about. As a result, the right wing of the house is redecorated as an apartment instead of two suites. What was one bedroom becomes a living room; the bathroom, dressing room and walk-in closet that served that bedroom room are combined and redone to form the kitchen and dining room for the apartment. Karl's bedroom becomes Karl and Lara's bedroom and they share the bath and walk-in closet.