Thank you all so much for your input and suggestions! I have now spent many happy hours researching the best small trees to provide the best combination of ease of growth, ornamental value, late summer/fall interest, and attractiveness to insect pollinators. I think I have settled on a selection of Koelreuteria paniculata called 'Rose Lantern' as my final selection. It flowers in August/September and is then followed by attractive rose-pink seed pods that provide striking contrast to the yellow fall foliage. I have never heard any reports of this tree being invasive in my area, and have read that the late blooming selections of Koelreuteria often do not have enough time to completely ripen their seeds in northern zones. Although not listed in their current catalogue, I was able to purchase this tree for spring delivery from ForestFarm. They also have the selection 'September' for sale, which is equally late blooming but has brown pods instead of pink (though still ornamental and attractive). Heptacodium also looks like a wonderful choice, but because my neighbor already grows one successfully I would feel strange about planting another so close by. Thank you all again. I look forward to spring planting! :-)

Thanks, Calamondin was high on my list of selections, with a Meyer as a close second (mostly because they've already seen the Meyer, and so already know it's gorgeous). I know the florescents lose their effectiveness the farther away it is, but these are the compact, 1500 footcandle sort, and they'll probably be within 18 inches of the tree. One will be directly over head, and it'll be about a foot or so above it (it'll be on a table, and the sconce will beam the light down on it), and the other two will be on a floor lamp that is purchased specifically for the tree, therefor will be placed right next to it. It'll 'spotlight' the tree within 10 inches or so. I'm guessing it'll likely get enough light to do decently well for itself, with the 3 bulbs on it like that, at that range. I informed my family when the threw their "we want a lemon tree, too," tantrum, that changes will have to be made, and I plan on making those changes before I make the purchase. I'm trying hard to do good by the tree. And oy, is it cave like. I think even your little dark image of my livingroom falls short. It's a long, narrow livingroom with exactly two, small windows on opppisite sides of the "hallway", which face a fence. Nothing in that livingroom would survive without lots of electric lights, including the people who live here. *laugh*

I would plant two mangoes....This is called a backup plan. Make contact with your local mango nursery. Best to get it from them rather than via mail Ask what the selection is via email. Most nurseries cannot give an accurate account so best to visit in person or get the right guy/gal on the phone and take notes. There are small breed condo mangoes but any mango tree can be pruned to the size you desire. With one or two trees. that is hardly a burden. Most condo trees are slow growers which accounts for their dwarf tendencies. I might be semi-wrong on this I would get one polyembryonic mango and one monoembryonic. Most Thai/Viet/Indonesian are poly while the breeds of Indian origin (most you have heard of) are mono. Nam Doc Mam is the easy Thai poly choice and is fairly common and available. You can also get one 7 gallon mango to get fruit sooner and one 3 gallon. On the 7 beware of root bound and bark bound trees. Bark bound means imprisoned in its shape due to being potted for too long. Too woody and old and not enough green fresh growth. Fairchild says plant only three gallon. They like fresh young and green The feet of the mango is very important. The best is nice wide and thick at the bottom by the graft. Juices/water/fluids have an eight lane highway to cruise up and down your tree to be. But nice green and fresh overall can conquer this given time. Tall and stringy not good but can be conquered by topping off some inches which also promotes branching off, a good thing. Do not be jealous of those Florida people with their mango nurseries every half mile with so many diff breeds available. Your dry weather means less fungus. Spring rains in Fl promote fungus and mango fruiting failures. You will have to irrigate more but the upside is less or no diseases. I don't know if ever freezes where you are. Mature mango trees are more resistant to such threats. Perhaps your local mango nursery can give good advice.

SE - I will definitely enjoy the garage and now I can enjoy the basement too, since we will store all our crap in the garage. coldnose - our home is 2025 sqft + about another 800 in walk-out basement. My experience with the panelized package is both good and only OK. Good - lumber was awesome awesome quality. Got the package from farwesthomes, who own their own mill. I have some large beams and posts. Walls went up fast and were square. We had a gable wall (31' peek) with picture windows that went up in a day, my carpenters said it would have taken them over a week to stick build. Lots of left over lumber from packaging (and miscommunication about walkout basement). Price was with-in 10K of other lumber yard quotes (Meeks, 84, Moss Lumber). Able to make custom plans, change their stock plans, use stock plans. The only OK - Still have to stick build floors. not huge deal. Had two miss cuts in posts where beams were to slide in. We fixed it fairly simple, but it took a few hours of head scratching. Had to get engineering separately and then have farwest build plans. Some miss communication between engineer and farwest. It would have been nice if they had an in-house engineer. I was/am not happy with my engineer. Roof rafters suck. Took a month to stick frame the roof. Mislead on difficulty of the whole thing. We were told it would be about 6 weeks to get the whole thing shelled-in. Perhaps with a crew of 10, it took us over double that with a crew of 3-4. No room for play. The walls come square, if your foundation is a little off, you cannot "fudge" the walls. Lay-out (16" on center) gets screwed up do to how the panels fit together. Not a huge deal, but slows you down during siding. All in all, i am happy with it. If I ever do this again, I may or may not use it again. Definitely not pissed or stoked about the whole thing. I am about due for more pictures. We just had a framing pre-inspection today (we were not ready with elect or fire sprinklers). She could not find one thing wrong and was really impressed. We are wrapping up elect on friday and sprinklers go in over the weekend. We will get framing, plumbing, elect inspection on monday. Insulation next week and then sheetrock end of next week and weekend. 12 hour days are getting old. I start summer school on monday. that should be fun.