Hi I'm new on the Peony plants. I think they are beautiful so I got one from QVC. They say it is okay in our zone. I don't think I have every seen one ecept in pictures. I p;anted my bareroot about 3 weeks ago. It is about 12 inches tall. It was in very good shape when I got it but now it isn't doing anything. We have had 100 degree temp here in N Ca and lots of fires so very smoky. It had 3 or 4 white I guess leaves starting to form on the stalks I kept watching them but they didn't move or anything but kept getting greener. but now the ends are drying out and looking brittle. I don't know what to do I have been trying to shade it in the hottest part of the day but I don tknow if it is helping. I don't know if I should keep watering it or let it dry out like tye say. Can someone give me some info I sure do need it. thanks Mar

Thanks for your thoughts Hollysprings. We did look into renovating/adding on to our current house. The house is 85 years old and it would be nearly as much to renovate it (including the price we paid for the house and lot) as it would be to build a new house. We have been doing a lot of work on this house and anticipate we can sell it for nearly the price we paid for the lot and house together (minus the cost of the renovations we did). We really want a full, finished basement, high ceilings and we don't want to deal with the quirks of an older house, even a renovated one. If we tried to tear this house down, the ARB would come after us with pitchforks. It really is a lovely house, but it just isn't the house for us. Even with all the restrictions, we feel incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to build from scratch in such a great location. Back to your suggestions, I am almost certain we can get a variance if we need one to put the driveway right on the property line, but I think ground level improvements are permitted anyway. We could also put an easement on the driveway of this house and have a shared driveway or put ours right next to that one if we really wanted to, but the location of that garage means we would lose a good amount of courtyard space so we could back out (I have actually tried this with my car by driving in my yard). I am reluctant to try to share and I loathe backing out onto the street. I can live with it if necessary, but I really don't want to do that for the rest of my life. Right now, my husband parks in the parking lot anyway because our cars won't fit in the 20x20 garage. I could reverse the L, but we can't put a privacy fence between our house and our neighbors. We could have a 4', 50% open wood fence, but even that might be a fight with the city. I am not much for maintaining a lot of plants, though I am hoping to put garden beds along the 8' setback on the south side of the house. We currently have a 4' hedge acting like a fence on the parking lot side and it is a pain to maintain. I am nearly certain the ARB would not approve any building over the driveway, but we could have a car port there if we really wanted one. I am pretty sure we can fit three bedrooms over the front if it is 26x36. That is as much space as we have for all our bedrooms now and it is more than enough for our two girls, a small guest room and one bath. I have also thought about putting a gate in the back of the fence. The challenge will be that the church has some kind of agreement with the city that makes the parking lot public during non-church hours, so it won't just be up to the church. We have kicked around the idea of putting an motorized gate and asking the church just to move one parking block so we can go in and out if there isn't a car parked there. We will probably have a gate back there in any case because it will make unloading furniture much easier than dragging it through the front entry of the house. I doodled a few more plans today and I keep coming back to the 1st floor master as the cause of our layout problem. I guess we are going to have to decide if we are really committed to being on the first floor. It is funny, we have almost everything we need now in an 1800 sq ft house but when we add an extra 700 sq ft, I can't get everything to fit!

Congratulations on taking life by the horns and getting on with it! We've had our property for 3 years now, and it's time for us to move forward as well. Good luck on your build, and I look forward to tracking your progress!

There are no sewing machines made in the USA any longer unless you buy an expensive industrial custom made one. They are all made overseas. I believe Bernina still makes their machines in Switzerland, Viking in Sweden, but not the ones that cost less than $1000. My new Viking Emerald was made in Taiwan and even a Viking shop staff member was shocked about that. I asked my sewing machine repair guy for my old Kenmore which brand he would buy and he likes Juki (Japanese) but I don't know if they make embroidery machines like you want. Kenmore used to be a good machine, I have a 39-year old Kenmore that still runs like a dream but it only has straight and zig-zag stitch. If I were you I would take the time to ask around, go to different specialty shops and talk to a lot of people who actually use the machines that you are interested in and find out how they like their machines and especially how they are treated as far as repair service, warranty, etc. I had a problem with my brand new Viking after 2 hours of sewing and it was like pulling teeth to get customer service for it. Then I had to leave it at the dealer, which is an hour drive away, they had to have someone from the outside come in and take it out to fix it and then bring it back. I asked my old repair guy what the deal was on Vikings after the warranty runs out and he says that Viking won't even let him get parts to repair newer machines anymore. Sounds like they want to put pressure on older machine owners to upgrade to newer models rather than repair the machines. The dealer staff is very friendly and helpful to get you to buy a new machine but have no time for you when something goes wrong.