Actually, unfortunately for me, on the RI coast, we do get a lot of humidity and all the associated fun (severe CAR, FB, Scab, SB, FS, etc) that goes along with it. In fact, our zone of 6b is actually the same 6b as northern Georgia. (Randy - you should include your zone to save us some research). In my conversations with others here on the forum, if I lived out west, I'm confident I could get away with less spraying. In VT's schedule, they're actually spraying 10 different sprays (Copper, oil, Immunox, permethrin, esfenvalerate, M-Pede, streptomycin, Captan, Thionex, Confirm), but for me, the significant issue is how often they spray them. I do agree that it's a good reference, in that it's nice to know you're spraying the right chemicals at the right times, but I'd argue that even in high pressure areas, you don't need such a variety of sprays in such high intervals as described by their schedule, to get complete control. Am I wrong? If so, are you southerners really spraying all 10 of those sprays, that often, to achieve control? Or have you identified and targeted your diseases and pests, and then minimized your spraying to handle all accordingly? There are similar schedules for orchards around here, yet I've found that not all of it was necessary to achieve great apples. I do agree that growing knowledge is subject to location (and that can't be enphasized enough), but I still stand with megamav, that for the home orchardist, that schedule is overkill. -Glenn

Thank you for your patience as I try to carve out time to work on the house in bits and pieces. I reworked the design and incorporated many suggestions. Here’s how it turned out: Now to address your questions: - Our timeline to build is ASAP. We are trying to crank out the floor plans as quickly as possible without sacrificing good design. It would be wonderful to have the house built by the end of next summer, but at this point that sounds overly optimistic to me, even for a modular. - We won’t be finishing any of the attic space. - I created a floor plan for the ground level. Due to flood regulations, we are only allowed to have breakaway walls on the ground floor, and it can’t be a fully finished living space like upstairs (i.e. no drywall). Any items stored on the ground level are not covered by flood insurance, so we don’t want anything pricey down there. I am struggling with how to handle the main entrance. The front door is under the deck, and once you enter it’s about a 23 ft walk to the stairs going up to the main house. How can I make it feel like an actual entryway and not like you’re walking through someone’s garage? - We are waiting to hear back from the builder about our elevator size/shape options. - I’m showing king beds in all the rooms to help with window placement and give a sense of scale to the drawings. It’s likely that most, if not all, of the rooms will have two twin beds pushed together (with something in the middle to make a smooth surface?) to make a king, at least during the first few years before we’d consider bunk beds for future grandkids. That way we’ll have flexibility when non-couples are sharing a room. I am trying to figure out the rest of the furniture placement as well and would appreciate any input. - Love the idea of a kids’ bunk room! Since there’s only one infant grandchild so far, we’ll hold off on bunks for now. But it’s good to keep in mind that they would fit well and could be added at a later date. - We laid out the proposed master bedroom in my parents’ current bedroom, and they are happy with its size. - I combined the utility rooms into a single space with both furnaces and the tankless water heater, although it looks a little snug to me. We’re waiting to hear back from the builder about the feasibility of having the ductwork for both furnaces in the same room. My dad says the tankless water heater needs to be on an outside wall. - My parents say they don’t want a second washer/dryer set. They want to get side by side front loaders. - The ADA bathroom is also the public bathroom on the top floor. No one currently needs ADA facilities, but we are designing it that way to future-proof since my parents are retiring there. The bathroom has a transfer shower. It is small, but it is ADA. It’s possible that grandma might move in, but far from definite. If she did move in, there are no privacy issues with her sharing a bathroom. She currently does not have any personal belongings stored in the bathroom at her house because there isn’t any storage space. She’s very set in her ways and likely wouldn’t change that even if her bathroom were suddenly three times as big. She could probably fit all of her personal belongings in bedroom #2 with plenty of room to spare (not exaggerating!), so while I’d like some more closet space in there, it’s not essential. If grandma doesn’t move in, bedroom #2 would function as another guest room. - The office and lounge are now both off the deck, so the communal areas of that floor are clustered together. I also added another bathroom so each downstairs bedroom now has its own, and there’s a public half bath with a closet that could be replaced by a shower in the future if desired. - We are avoiding putting closets in the office and lounge so they aren’t taxed as additional bedrooms. As far as I know, there is no code restriction on the number of bedrooms the house can have. - Great point about the disadvantages of having lots of windows in the theater. We changed the location to gain more space and are also using it as a lounge when the tv isn’t on. We plan on having heavy curtains drawn across the windows for movies, though I’d imagine those would mostly be at night anyway. I love Jillius’s suggestion to have bar seating along the couch! - It would be great to have some sort of game area for ping pong or foosball, but there just isn’t room for it in the lounge. It might work for the outdoor living area under the house (though anything stored at ground level isn’t covered by homeowners insurance). - My parents don’t want a dishwasher in the lounge. I agree that it probably wouldn’t be used. People will mostly be eating snack food straight from the packaging (classy, I know :). - I forgot to add a 3’x3’ audiovisual equipment rack to the lounge and need to find a home for it. Hubby is an audiovisual professional and will go to town setting this room up. - The western light coming into the living room shouldn’t be an issue because there is a house next door mostly blocking it, but also because we aren’t planning on having a tv in there. - I really like the idea of a 48” wide dining room table, but is there really enough room for 2 people on each end? Don’t their knees hit the person next to them on the side of the table? Where would you find an 8 ft long table that wide? - So far the only places I have found 8 ft long extending dining room tables are Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware, and they are mostly 42” wide. Does anyone have any other sources? angela12345, where did you get your table? - My mom is short, so the microwave in the kitchen can’t be above counter height for her to use it comfortably. My parents don’t want a microwave drawer, and I think a below counter regular microwave sounds awfully inconvenient (though I’ve never had one). I imagine lots of bending to check on the item being heated and to view the display and buttons as you’re pressing them. So I’m thinking a microwave at counter height would be best, preferably hidden by some sort of cabinetry. - I am not concerned about having the fridge and wall ovens next to each other. I have double wall ovens in my kitchen, and while they put lots of heat out front, the sides of the ovens are just barely warm to the touch when they are on full blast. Has anyone experienced otherwise? - I am concerned about the wall ovens putting out enough heat to make it uncomfortable to work in the prep sink area in front of the windows while they are on. But I’d rather avoid under counter ovens because of all the bending and heavy lifting that would be particularly troublesome for my parents as they age. - I am not a fan of sinks in islands that are not centered. Aesthetically they just look out of place to me. I’m really hoping to make the kitchen design work with the main sink centered in the island. - I really like Jillius’s suggestion of an arch over the rangetop to echo the curved island, though I’m not really sure how to incorporate it into the design or represent it on the plans. I’m totally new to kitchen design (and house design, for that matter!). I'm currently using AutoCAD. Is there different software I should be using for kitchen elevations? - How does the kitchen design look to you? I’m having a hard time picturing the prep area under the windows and if it will look out of place with the rangetop and cabinet run on that wall. I’m not very familiar with appliance garages and don’t know how well they will work here. I’m also concerned about having enough cabinet space since there are hardly any uppers. How does the work flow look? Many thanks! beach_house

Maifleor, I've seen people throw away things I would still consider safe, but some of these people were out of power for 36 hours to four days. I would think most of us have coolers, but some people probably didn't consider using them. Some folks lost water early on too. They may have decided to go straight to convenience foods. I'm not sure. I was pretty surprised to learn that people had thrown out uncooked eggs. I'll cut out bad parts of an apple, potato or tomato. A lot of people don't. I'm not sure if they don't know they can or just think it is a waste of their time. Usually, food is pretty easy to find. People were posting that the stores had milk, eggs and bananas today so we ended up at Kroger. It was kind of sad, the freezers were blocked off. It was apparent that they had to throw away a lot of food... I'm assuming for lack of electricity. They must not have back up generators. I had gone to HEB yesterday. They didn't have milk, eggs and bread because everyone had bought it. Their trucks are running and they have a great supply chain for emergencies. I've been really impressed by how they have handled the hurricanes, pandemic and now this horrible ice storm.

Water is back on and that is a huge improvement in my life and many others. I don't drink the water anyway....we have community water inside and the barn, but we drilled our own well since moving here and when we build a house will use our well. Right now it is just piped to the pastures and my waterlilies and roses. We drink and cook with bottled water. But it will be good to wash clothes again! I don't have a lot of winter clothes and everything is wet and dirty. It has been very stressful. I feel like I am losing what little mind I have left. I went to the barn this morning to see if the water was on out there, and I opened Rita's stall to see if she still had water....went off and left the stall open. Since it also opens on the other side to the paddock, both she and Shadow were out when I went back out later to check on them. They were helping themselves to feed but fortunately the feed barrels were almost empty since I hadn't unloaded the feed I bought yesterday, and the donkeys hadn't gotten out too. Then when I was scrambling eggs for Jody's breakfast, I got the package of cheese out of the fridge and laid it on the stove for a second...right on top of a lit burner. I hope my mind improves as the stress level goes down. I play about 30 games of 7 Little Words on my phone ap every day. I tell myself that is helping me.