Nature in east N America is tougher in tooth & nail than the forested areas of the NA west (and west Europe). Some major reasons: 1. Continental climate -- extreme/rapid temp changes. Trunk-bark cracking on the south side killed three ~80' Norway maples at my house from the bitter-cold 76/77 and 77/78 winters. The fourth one that had shade on its trunk from a garage had no problem. 2. Spring/summer violent thunderstorm winds -- especially bad on lush, fully-leafed hardwoods. 3. Wet snow/ice-storms -- more common in E NA. Total snow amounts aren't directly important -- the stickiness is (then the amounts are important). 4. Hurricanes & tropical storms in late summer/autumn. Sandy-storm... 5. Summer high-humidity & associated fungi & bacteria. 6. Winds. Not that the west has slower winds, but larger & more extensive mountains provide more potential shelter. Coastal redwoods get tallest behind shelter of the coastal ranges. The tallest east-coast forests are in sheltered coves of the Smokies. 7. Lightning. Certainly in the US southeast and southern plains, but even in western MD, prb'ly my favorite tree growing up, a 90' Nordmann fir, was mostly (except for one branch) done in by a direct strike. The northwest-exposed sycamore on my lot at 115' is hardly gaining height any more. Not that it doesn't try, but invariably the strongest Tstorm of the summer shreds leaves/new sprouts off the top. But it's spreading out & thickening at a good rate. Where I grew up, a nearby open-grown 350 yr old white oak (8 ft dia) was a mere 90' tall, but over 100' wide. There was no branch damage at the top, just the growth slowing to a crawl there. The lesson for a tree seems to be, if you want to live centuries in eastern NA, keep a relatively low but wide profile, and have trunk-bark thick enough to insulate against freeze-thaw cracking... Prb'ly a dozen of the 100'+ white pines that grow above the canopy have been broken/uprooted & vanquished just downwind of me on the lower slopes in 9 yrs. They need physical shelter and/or a dense, self-protecting "grove", like the original PA stands, to get taller. This prb'ly goes for any tall canopy trees here. I noticed Spruceman's Norway spruce & hemlock stands looked quite dense & got hammered, but that just shows localized extreme events can damage or even destroy any stand no matter what. The 1994 ice-storm in VA caused a whole nearby east-facing slope (at least 30 acres) of mostly 100'+ tuliptrees to uproot. It must have been like dominoes -- the highest-slope trees sagging downslope against their neighbors, finally giving way, then w/the added weight, those trees uprooting, etc, etc, down to the bottom. A sight of carnage just a mile downslope of me. That ice-storm produced four inches of liquid-equivalent sticking to surfaces. 4" liquid is equivalent in weight to ~40" snow -- but all of it sticking.

Happy to hear that your Hummers returned! We too have Hummers, Orioles and Rose Breasted Grosbeaks, but have not seen the Scarlet Tanagers or the Indigo Buntings. Like you we are still waiting for them, confident they will surprise you and us any day now.

Thank you very much for your thought-provoking questions/ideas. My problem for any layout is that I don't have enough wall space (because of the open kitchen, and on top of that, I want tons of windows. So that really just leaves the way by the pantry. I also want a wall oven/Advantium stacked, instead of under the counter because I don't want to bend down for heavy hot stuff. So everything is stretched out long, so the result is a lot of walking. I also seem to have a lot of appliances. Another problem is that I have a diningroom table that extends out to 12feet long. If I put in an island, the full table will not fit in the current diningroom with the island. So I thought to swap it w/ the long livingroom, which we rarely use. But we do use the diningroom table daily. This layout derived from my inspiration: Allison's copper and pine kitchen (see picture). I thought to center my copper hood along the window wall, and have the island parallel it. RMKITCHEN: see my current 1-butt kitchen. It's cozy but there are times when I have to wait until DH is done w/ what he needs to do and move out of the way before I can do my stuff, like even reaching for the paper towel. W/ the range at the peninsula, we don't use the 2 stools for any meals/snacks. Even snacks are at the diningroom table, so I've gotten used to trekking from the pantry to the table, and back to the fridge (by pantry) to get the ketchup back to the table, etc. Separating the 2 island seating because I was trying to make the island as narrow as possible to be as far from the porch door and possible. I don't want people to come in a bang right into an island/stool. I do think the $7K cost in cabinets allows me for more personalization (like the 30" deep cabinets and sizing, staining, etc). BUEHL: the only wall that can change is the top wall (where the hood is on), anything to the left of the 3 French doors. I will check w/ insulating the crawlspace so I'm not limited to where I have pipes. Not sure if we can remove the small wall near pantry; there's a lot of electrical/oil switch stuff. But if I do remove it, I would gain 5". Would that be enough to allow me to open the fridge door (including handle)? Let me test it. PALIMPSEST: interesting thought about putting freezer by itself. I am having trouble w/ fitting 2 stools at the island. Back to the drawing board. RHOME410: All feedback is appreciated. Easier to make changes now than after everything is ordered, etc. I knew it's a tight squeeze to put all the fridge/freezer/DO in that little wall. But that allowed me to follow my inspiration kitchen (see above). But good point about repair, etc. Florantha called my TV room a "keeping room", which I think is a more appropriate term. W/ my current kitchen, we had moved temporarily the sofa out of the familyroom (where my future mudroom will be) so the kids can use the huge jumphouse. But my friends liked sitting there while I finish up cooking, etc, so much that we didn�t move it for over a year! So when I designed the kitchen, I swapped the diningroom so that people can hang out before dinner (our playdate/dinners usually goes from 3-8pm, where we eat for only 1hour of that). So why not give my guests an area to hang out in while I prep? Would the keeping room still be too tight if I remove the 2 large chairs and put in smaller ones like these, or no chairs at all? We plan to get a small L-shaped sectional in the future. RESEARCH_QUEEN: I did try to fit the fridge/freezer/DO over to the mudroom wall. Not only do they not fit (too deep/covers the windows), but there is no easy landing spot. We already own the fridge/freezers; I really like them. FLORANTHA: Good points about how it will function w/ parties, etc. We do hosts several parties, and one large (70 people) one a year. My current kitchen is so small and it can handle the parties (that's why DH doesn't understand why we need to renovate at all), so I'd be happy w/ even 1 more foot of countertop. It's New England (and this winter w/ all the snow/sleet, etc), and I desperately want a mudroom. I would trade a masterbath for a mudroom, yes, indeed. Not too late to rethink the kitchen. In fact, I've tweaked layout #17. Will post it soon. Thank you! Amanda

The magnifier sconces and the garden maze pictures are from Leslie Elliott Interiors in Tulsa, OK. They are very similar to the Anthropology sconces but larger. The iron plate that attaches to the wall measures 30 inches by 2.5 inches. The diameter of the magnifier is almost 13 inches. There is a picture below. Hope this helps. The background of the garden maze pictures is a lighter color of Lenox Tan. I will post a picture of it next to Lenox Tan.