Goga--I, too, can relate...I moved 2 years after my dh passed away (2005). We had lived in the same house for 45 years, started with a large square surrounded by beams, which I quickly told him we needed to make it more aesthetic, so took beams away, made the large plot kidney shape and put bricks around it, then on to side yard where I planted lots of roses and lavender, dianthus' and many other perennials, grew a few climbing plants on fence and azalea bushes, hosta, etc. in back where it was shady, had a long narrow plot against deck in back with herbs and clematis which grew up a few of the posts for deck roof...my retirement gift from Pitt was a fairly large gift certificate for Wayside Gardens which I ended up with a white arbor to be used in our white picket fence also with a gate (grew blue morning glories and a climbing rose called Altissimo) plus more plants. Had several areas in front with flowers, a small child's wheelbarrow which I usually placed the wave petunias in (they spread out so nicely). When I sold that house the new owner said that was one of the "selling points" and she asked if I would come back and help her take care of it...well, it certainly has changed...I moved too far away to go back very often and she really wasn't interested in maintaining what was there, let alone do anything new. A friend told me it's kind of "gone to seed"...Now I've finally come up with some new ideas to add to old favorites here...as others have mentioned. ENJOY memories of your old garden and start ENJOYING the "new"...

Julie, the hostas in the urns stay there year around (at least for the last two years including the two winters). But I can do things that people in most places, including most of MI and WI, can't do. I live on the Keweenaw peninsula and we have lake effect snow... big time! Last winter was mild. Only 163 inches of snow. The winter before we had 288 inches. In both cases, we maintained an average 30+ inches on the ground at all times. So the tops of those urns were under an additional 15 or more inches of snow. Heaving and winter kill is definitely NOT a problem here! That's the only thing I love about all that snow :-) Julie and Linda, the aegopodium (Snow on the Mountain) was here when we bought the house. It doesn't seem to have spread at all in the past two years, so maybe it just doesn't like conditions here all that well. The vinca and generic stella like daylilies are much more problematic as they seem to pop up everywhere. The vinca is pretty, but there's just too much of it. The daylilies are in the shade and never bloom so they are not something I want there. i-like-to-grow, we started a hen and chicks (sempervivum) collection last summer. There was a great place that we ordered from online. They had a huge variety and really good prices. I've been searching this morning but couldn't find the url to pass on. I can't imagine I didn't bookmark it somewhere, so if I find it, I will share :-) On the other hand, collecting hen and chicks will NEVER be like collecting hosta! At least not for us :-) They are just a great extra dimension for the garden and are easy to grow!

Thank you all — more food for thought. sherri1058, Building for the CATS, cpartist — Honestly, I’ve not bothered to look at induction, it has never interested me. I may give it a test-cook and see how I like it. I love all of your enthusiasm for your cooktops. Building for the CATS — Your screen name makes me giggle. :-) It’s heartening to see you didn’t give up on the idea of a warming drawer, but concluded that the location was the problem - not the drawer itself. On the Miele, I know it’s just a refrigerator, but . . . SO elegant. cpartist — I think I’ve been in the fun years all my life — every decade gets better. :-) I will definitely post my kitchen plan for input. linus2003 — Thank you. I will compare those models. My mother just ordered one of the proline models (I don’t yet know which) to replace her 20 year old Miele. I think the price of one of those is about equal to the price of two of the 6165s, so it it may come down to space for me. plllog — I laughed out loud, literally, at your cartoon character comment. I am going to walk into the showroom and pretend I’m baking some of my everyday items and see which I prefer. I’ll take my dishes as well. :-) Great advice. Thank you! Chanop — Thank you so much of taking the time to post all those pictures and the detailed steps. I can certainly see why some people may see that as complicated for combi cooking. Oddly, however, it actually looks like fun to me. I know, I’m an odd duck. I can see myself setting up user programs for baguettes, boules, roasted [insert veggie here], etc. I gather custom programs are also available on the Gaggenau, however. This weekend I am going to an appliance store that has both the Gaggenau and the Miele. I will put both through their paces and decide from there. friedajune — All good points. Clearly, I need to do more research on hoods. Costco — good idea! GardenWeb forums, here I come! To misquote Blanche DuBois, I am deeply thankful for the kindness of strangers. Julie aka Lefty Lou

Do consider that you are going to be waiting a long time for a 6' tree planted even as close as the center of one of your lawns to provide any significant amount of screening or shading of the house. But which particular window are you thinking about? A tree lined up just right with one of them and planted close enough could provide an adequate level of screening pretty quickly - maybe even immediately if of the right size and shape. With it also casting a moving shadow over part of the house some day. Otherwise you could block the street with solid fencing and/or hedging/screening plantings consisting of or including dense shrubby kinds. Usually river birch is not affected by bronze birch borer, with up here anyway it being the European, Himalayan and paper birches that are being hit now that the pest has come this far west. For instance the next door neighbors to a friend that lived near Seattle had two cut leaf weeping European birches and one river birch in their back yard. When the borer came to their neighborhood the European birches were being drilling out and dropping branches on his side of the fence in no time. Luckily the neighbors were quick to have these cut down. Providing in addition a much better view of the river birch, which as of the last time I was on the friend's property was still standing there looking intact.