TJ. Resiliency stories the best, I have a Tsukushigata that was nibbled down to just above the graft somewhere around 7 years ago. I was ready to give up on it, but now it is flourishing. Thanks for sharing Keith

No, I have no play money to buy a mature Dorothy Benedict. I got some streaked seeds donated by people at the Hosta Seed Growers Forum, and then bought several packets from Mr. Hosta at http://www.mandmhostaseedsales.com/ at $6 per packet. I grew seeds this winter in my basement to have gardening fun. Dorothy Benedict is very good as a pod parent (mom) to grow variegated seedlings. Those streaked seedlings are very slowly growing only, but in many years might stabilize into an interesting variegated plant. But growing hostas is fun, we all know that. You should look at the pictures of beautiful hosta seedling at the Hosta Seed Growers Forum, see link below. Click on "Hosta Seed Growers". Bernd Here is a link that might be useful: Hosta Seed Growers Forum

Breathtaking lot and lake. No wonder you bought it. We recently went through the purchase of an ugly duckling too. A younger duckling than yours, from 1987. My kitchen is linked below. We (my DD actually) painted the cabinets, and we added tile counters. Makes a great difference. We also painted all of the bathroom cabinets very similar in style to yours the same color. I have the shell sinks too! We used the new SW alkyd cabinet and door paint, after priming with SW primer first. 1 coat primer 2 coats paint. Laid on with a a brush and rolled off with a small foam roller. (of course need to sand and TSP wash before priming). Turned out great. SW Kestral white is a great wall color to merge beiges, whites, off whites, gray, and almonds together. So that is on the walls in our bathrooms to blend the tub (almond), counters (beige cultured marble) toilet is white, and sheet vinyl in a gray (where it was carpeted too. EWW!) You mentioned your home only has electric baseboard and a single window unit. How is your home constructed? Is there a basement or crawlspace for a forced air gas furnace? Is natural gas available, or propane? An attic for an electric heat air handler? I assume your house has no hvac ductwork and that would need to be added if you modified the heat to forced air. (I work in HVAC). This would mean that you would have some tearup into walls to do this, so definitely do the HVAC before painting any walls, This may give you a good opportunity to add insulation and a vapor barrier to some walls at the same time. And you may need to add some electrical capacity to add AC. I would evaluate this before flooring or walls as the HVAC work may get into the walls or flooring and you would want to do that messy work first. Anything you can do to get off electric heat would most likely be money well spent, as electric heat can be quite expensive to run (of course this depends much on your utility rates.) Adding a nice mid-tier heat pump, with either furnace or air handler and electric heat would be a very good solution for your climate. And improving insulation above ceiling and in walls will make your home more comfortable and lower utility bills too. Onto the decor questions. I would only keep the green tub if you absolutely adore it. If not, I would consider getting it re-glazed if it appears to be a good quality tub. They don't make them as good as they used to IMHO. For the kitchen, I would work on the best layout possible with the constraints of re-using what makes sense. I would paint the cabinets in the kitchen and consider some modifications to get the layout you want. If you paint the cabinets, you would have the option to maybe rip out some if necessary and infill with some shelving or other unfitted pieces. We for example took out a cooktop on the island and put in butcher block. And if you paint your cabinets and need to infill with some from habitat restore or other standard new ones, the paint can make them work together better. #1 advice is to buy a nice new gas grill and get a nice patio set for your deck. When you are happy and can cook dinner and have a cold drink and relax it seems less overwhelming to think about all the other projects. Here is a link that might be useful: kitchen with painted cabinets and tile counters

This was fun! "The problem is you want too little. That's the hardest thing in the world to get" When you list your wants/dreams now, it should really include function, and not style for now. The style headache can wait for after the floorplan get's nailed down :) I've reconfigured it 3 ways. The bold lines show what you already have, the lighter lines are adds. I personally don't like to move things I don't HAVE to (like the pantry or the doors/windows/sink) b/c I'd rather spend my money elsewhere or keep it if I can. That said, you can assume all of those things are exactly as they are in your kitchen today (I didn't feel like drawing them all in, but you can assume they're in exactly the same place you have them now). I've put up a wall between the back door and the kitchen so you could create something like this if you wanted to: [Farmhouse Entry[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/farmhouse-entryway-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_741~s_2114) by Guilford Architects & Designers CK Architects It'll be easy with any of these configurations to have a designated area for garbage/compost. I haven't constricted the eating area. You'll note that I have extended the countertop all the way to the double doors of the sun room. I will say, you need to dream bigger. Stop restricting your kitchen to these walls b/c you're limiting yourself alot (which is probably what makes your want list so small). There are so many things you can do!! It's an exciting space. I was even thinking that it would be fun to get the kitchen table in the middle of the kitchen and then have a breakfast bar or a ton of storage along the 138.5 inch wall.......maybe even find an awesome buffet on craigslist and save yourself the cabinet cost. From what I can see, you already have a great table for it. It could look something like this: [Farmhouse Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/farmhouse-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2114) by Newport Beach Interior Designers & Decorators Wendi Young Design (If you click into the floorplan image you can see them a little clearer)