The winter storm that has been pounding the West Coast and dumping mega-snow in the Southwest is moving into our area now. We are having thunderstorms and lots of rain. Hopefully the cold stuff and snow stays north of here. It is expected to hit Illinois and Ohio and the rest of the Midwest big time. I saw that Ohio is getting flooding. Hope everyone up that way is high and dry from this mess. Cracking-the-concrete, Yes, we have a rock band. Play oldies and new stuff too. Over 80 cover-tunes and 15+ originals. Very eclectic assortment of music. Something for everyone. We have a Gig tonight up in Ponca City. It's a lot of fun and we have a good following all over the state. No one else does the old stuff and we pack the house wherever we play. We enjoy the crowds and we don't trash the place like most of the other bands do and we are polite. Everyone remarks about that too. :) I just hope the roads don't ice up. Ponca City is in the northern part of the state and subject to get more of the cold nasty weather than we do here in Central Oklahoma. We won't finish up, tear down and pack up the trailer until around 3 in the morning. Then the long road home in those wee hours of the morning. I hope the roads aren't slippery. Gads. Happy to have gotten a little more done in the garden two days ago. It was good timing to move plants before the rains came. Things will continue to be changed, but the rest of the project work will have to wait until next Spring. I can't seem to make it look as formal as I had envisioned. It's still "rustic" looking. What does that say about me, I wonder? (ha ha ha) Well, it goes better with my humble little country cottage anyway, and I like the semi-formal look it is taking on. Still, it will have better form and more interesting year around appeal, I hope. Time to go jump in the shower and get ready to go. We have to leave here by 3 to get up to Ponca by 5, set up the equipment, the lights and etc., tune up and then grab a bite to eat before the show begins at 9. Hurry, hurry, hurry. Hope this finds everyone safe and content. Love & Peace. ~Annie Here is a link that might be useful: New pics added on Dec. 2nd

LOL @fori! So glad my angst is providing inspiration for someone. Seriously! At the least, "Don'ts" provide cautionary tales for people to learn from. Sometimes even in fairytale form. :) Yes, my aunt's place is in Florida, so palms are a bit more suited there. It is interesting to note, though, that her palms are actually potted out on her patio, not in the ground. I wish I had current pics of the backyard, but oh well. It gives the idea, just think cedar wood tones instead of redwood and orange. Add an arbor and a big yellow structure. You are almost there. lol I did some checking earlier on code for outlet heights and spacing, but I think I might have just looked at national code. I suppose I should add that to my list of things to confirm pre-header. Gads, this is so backwards! *swoon* My original designs were going for that tall wall of storage with fridge, pantry and perhaps a microwave in the mix, but the dimensions ended up being really tight AND it made working with that corner of the L even more tricky. I really do love that look and envy those of you who are lucky enough to have it. I'm just not sure it's made for people with small kitchens like mine! It means having all of those other appliances crammed on one wall - or going back to a sink or stove on the small island. And now that we are looking more and more at having the fridge or the pantry on the far left of the exterior run and I'm open to putting in pantry in the DR area, I'm just not sure it's the way to go. I do like the stove having its own wall and how the latest options do open up the L with counter space. There's so many ways to go here. Hopefully that means I'll be happy with the option we eventually choose. It is just so incredibly difficult to lock in on the BS window location and height with all of these unknowns. I keep telling myself that pushing it into that corner will not lock me in and I'll have lots of options left if I want to tweak. Right now, it's the BS window height that is giving me fits. How the heck I can lock in on that when we don't even have any material decisions made, I don't know. This is dicier than I think is prudent, but I can't seem to stop this train. That window is going in. Soon. And I'm going to need luck + clarity or magic blue pills. I have these images of me being back 3 months from now, posting to GW about how the heck to make (fill in the blank) work given the window. :D

I agree with all the advice given so far by my colleagues. In order to help work out a walk to the entrance, you'd need to provide, as Kentc mentioned, a PLAN view of some sort that shows the footprint of your house and drive on the property. (The aerial view is not a suitable substitute.) It could be from some of your construction documents, or you could draw it. It must be to a measured scale. I'm including an example at the bottom of the picture so you can see roughly what we're talking about. Since you've offered a picture that includes just the house and what's in front of it, I'm presuming it is the FOUNDATION PLANTING that your are concerned with in this thread ...? Even if that's the case, you need to also show space at the ends of the house. A landscape wraps around the house in order to create its setting. Even if we're dealing with just the front of the house, the front landscaping will extend beyond the house ends. In addition, your picture was taken from quite far away ... so far in fact that we can't see enough detail of the space to be planted. Below is an illustration that explains roughly where you should stand to take pictures of the front of the house ... about on the red spot that I've placed in the picture where you are lined up with the center of the scene you are photographing. When you move closer in like that, obviously, you cannot capture all the house and space at the ends in a single picture. Simply pivot the camera, shooting from right to left capturing slightly overlapping pictures. Do not move the camera location between pictures or it will totally mess up re-assembly of the pictures. Do not make a panorama out of them because it will shrink all the detail. If you provide good pictures, it will make your property more easily understood by us, and act as a vehicle for providing feedback to you.

It looks like it’s going to be over $10,000 to change the gables and extend the porch. Unfortunately at this point- that’s not an option our budget can handle. Looking for other options to make it not appear so plain. I agree the windows with transom out weigh the entry/door area. I like the look of the “trim” around windows- not sure what material that is though. Could I possibly mix it up with some bold columns and “trim” around some windows as an accent per say? We have ruled out doing stone and likely going with Barnsley Tudor brick by General Shale. Also - what are my options for the place above the entry gable?