You can use a cooling rack and some bricks to make small adustments in oven rack position.

My bread recipes always are based on weight of total flour and liquid is always a percentage of the weight of the flour. Most often about 64 per cent liquid.  Under 60 per cent makes a rather dry dough and over 68 per cent makes a rather wet dough. I sometimes use a pre-ferment for a rustic bread. my baking temperatures are rather high generally above 400 degrees and for the very wet doughs as high as 475. I sometimes use loaf pans but more often bake on a sheet or on a stone handling the loaf with a peel.

I started making bread in 1958 and have continued to this day.  The early days it was plain white bread from a Betty Crocker cookbook. I have since acquired a few more bread making books. I have found that temerature affects the rise times for bread but not the actual extent of the rise. House temps as low as 68 degrees will still allow a good rise but it may take all day. I have never used a bread machine so I can't comment on them.

sometimes I will mix equal weights of ww flour and water with a quarter teaspoon of yeast and allow it to ferment for 24 hours and use that plus a tablespoon of yeast for my ww and yeast for a batch of bread finished with white flour and salt. That method brings out the flavor of the wheat. My summertime breads rise much more quickly than my winter breads because my kitchen is cooler.

Thanks Bonita, Believe it or not I understand that perfectly.  Fermentation will not be denied.

About 4:30 today I was done with trying to make a living and since we were out of bread started a batch. I keep my flour in the freezer because I use poultry fat for pastry and biscuits an it will melt quickly in your hand. never the less that was my open bag, so I used that. Measured the flour and calculated the water and used very warm water and whisked it in just a little and added the yeast and salt. The kitchen is about 74 degrees and the dough was on the table. About 7 pm I shaped the loaves and let them have their final rise and put them in the oven at 8. They came out fine. You could think that i babied them all day.

Ross, you're telling your age now. lol 

Other than rolls, I make my bread in my bread machine.  It does just right for me and my hubby. 

watching the ball game . I will get back to this in a couple of hours.

Pete, you may not be building enough tension in your loaves. Try flattening the ball of dough and rolling it and then turning it 90 degrees and flattening it and rolling it in that direction and forming the loaf. It makes a stonger gluten viel around the dough.