Can prolly chalk that up to daily rains. SE Ohio is beginning to have a pretty reliable Monsoon season. I just got in from the veggie garden. The weeds are so high, they no longer can be hoed, but must be pulled. The pile I left in an isle last week looks just exactly as they did when I pulled them. Green, and they had rooted again on the surface of the soil. It's like living in a giant germination chamber. MWheel, the decumaria is a false hydrangea vine. The pretty purple flowers are a rose of sharon. That's the only pic from last year......this year all the tangerine flowers are purple and lavender ones.

Wow! cherry wood is so pretty, and that paddle is great! Cream wafers? making my mouth water, and my hips expand just thinking of the cooky book. and how great is pumpkin spice for the season! What a great package. Goldgirl, you did a great job! Dolores, tell us how pumpkin coffe is!

*Something* needs to take over for CL. The site seems not to have changed since 1997. Why is everything so unorganized? Why, in 2011, must the photos be so tiny? Why don't they do something about keyword-spammers that make it impossible to search for certain items without bringing up 35 items for sale by the same guy, who doesn't even have the item you searched for, but puts a list of 25 name brands at the end so his items will show up on any related search? Why isn't there a multiple city search option? I know they want to keep it local, and that's part of the appeal of the site, but certain items are small, light, easy to ship, and too obscure to be likely to find buyers locally. My other option is eBay whose fees have gotten out of hand ("buy it now" items seem to now be more common than actual auctions on eBay. Yes I know about allofcraigs.com and the like, but by necessity there's alot of lag time before things show up there, so about 30% of what you find has already been sold or has expired, and newly-listed items aren't there yet. Why don't they crack down on people listing items for $1 that are really being sold for much more than that? And what's with the weird barterers? I had one guy who had a piece of A/V gear he wouldn't sell outright, would only trade for motorcycle parts.... But craigslist is where the buyers and seller are, so I continue to use it anyway, just like everyone else. Backpage and the rest are a very distant second or third place in popularity, kind of like auctioning stuff anywhere but on eBay. I need to figure out how to do partnership sales on Amazon.com, those third-party dealers that always seem to have the lowest prices. Amazon.com has become today's true department store, the one place you can go to buy anything. Brick-and-mortar "department stores" don't really exist anymore - they're just big clothing stores now. Sears comes closest to being a real department store, but even they've eliminated most of their departments over the years. It's basically another big clothing and housewares store that also sells tools, paint, appliances, and electronics.

Tikilyn, This is a bit bigger than the 3000 sq ft you said you wanted but, if you like it, you might be able to pare it down some IF you're willing to cut room sizes down a bit. For the most part tho, I think the room sizes you mentioned in your post are pretty good. Not dinky but not overly huge either. So, I tried to include all the rooms you showed on your sketch tho I wasn't quite sure what that room between the living room and the kids' bedrooms was supposed to be. I guessed that it was a computer room or playroom or something like that. I also stuck in a powderroom because that seemed to be missing. I wanted to simplify the footprint as much as possible because all the "corners" you had make for a very expensive build. And, to do that, I wound up moving the secondary bedrooms behind the 3 car garage. With the width of the 3 car garage, the secondary bedroom just fit behind it better than the master did. This arrangement allows all of the bedrooms except the guest room to have windows facing in two directions if you want. (Having windows that face two directions is GREAT for natural light and you won't believe what it does for the ambiance of a room!) In case you're wondering, the secondary bathrooms are all 5'x7' which allows you to have a standard-sized alcove tub/shower combo, a toilet and a 24 to 28 inch wide vanity. All interior doors except a couple of closet doors are 32" wide or wider so it is possible to get a wheelchair thru if you need to. Exterior doors and doors leading to the laundry are 36" wide or wider. Master bedroom is buffered from the noise of the living room by the fireplace, built-in bookcases, and its own recessed door. Tub in the master bath is 36"x72" and could be wider. Shower is 48"x60" and could be up 48"x72". One bay of the garage is made slightly deeper than the other two in case you have a big car or truck but even the two shallow bays are deeper than many garages. You could also put a nice deep front porch on this house if you wanted to. And/or you could add a screened porch on the back. Good luck with whatever route you decide to take.