Maybe these links will help: Your Conservation Easement Easement Brochure Land Conservancy NJ Green Acres Program

I have to admit that while I'm great at reading floor plans, site plans confuse me a bit. I know that they matter, so I defer to others on this topic. I do understand the concept of having 12 acres, yet having only one good spot on which to build. I have 40 acres, yet I have one "obvious" spot where the house will be located. Oh, I COULD build in other locations, but it would be more costly (not adjacent to the existing gravel driveway, need to run utilities farther, etc.), but one general area is superior to the others in numerous ways. I don't want to disturb the roughly 50% that's heavily wooded, I don't want to move too close to the little pond in the woods that floods its banks, and I do want to maintain the open field that I rent out to a farmer (this gets me a drastically reduced tax build, and I'm fine with having a corn field behind my house). As for natural light, YES, it matters! Natural light is one of those basics I keep harping upon. Look at some photographs of rooms you like; natural light is most likely the key factor in why these rooms are appealing. To give an example from my current house (though the more examples I give from my sorry old house, the more I wonder why I live here at all), my kitchen /breakfast room /family room faces East. Although I have a covered porch off the back, I get the morning sun in those rooms, and during those morning hours these rooms are at their best. They are MUCH more inviting. The colors are warmer, the room even looks more spacious. By the time we get home from school/work, those prime hours are gone, and although the rooms aren't "dark", they also don't have much life. Colors, window choices, and other things can play into making the most of your natural light, but don't ignore this all-important topic.

Cheri, I am just reading your post for the first time tonight.... I am glad you are considering wood flooring for your kitchen! After looking at your pictures - I can see that you are going for a very "high end, authentic" look. I think checkerboard tile would be a mistake and not in keeping with the great details that you already have, so carefully selected. I would do the wood floor stained medium to darker brown and use a rug to achieve the look you are going for. Your style seems very classic, simple and elegant and authentic. I have a great picture of a rug that could give you the look, but I don't know how to post pictures in this forum. I have just started posting tonight for the first time. Keep focusing and best of luck to you.... Your choices so far are very nice.

A stable should be relatively easy thing to find, but you might be wise to take a couple of the figurines with you to be sure of the proportion. Hobby Lobby always seems to have them. I think the excelsior is way too deep and too much for the figurines that will be standing on the cabinet. A bit of it, scattered to look like straw, would be very effective, with more tucked in the stable. You might also consider stacking a book or two, coffeetable type books perhaps, covered with a drape of medium beige or tan burlap for texture, so that you can raise the stable up a bit in the background. Put some scattered excelsior on top of it to give the feel of hay, and also hide some of the edges of the fabric in the front. I would move the wall hanging to the other side - you want the eye to be directed into the cabinet area, and right now it draws your eye away because of the direction the figure is facing. I think the lamp is cute, but a pair of dark iron or other metal lanterns or candlesticks would go well. I would move the lamp to the other side if you move the wall hanging, and consider wrapping the shade with a temporary slipcover of burlap or even brown kraft paper, for a more natural feel.