I'm very pleased that you all are enjoying all the happenings here on the 'farm'. One day I hope to put photo essays on my web site with a progression from before-to-after for various aspects of the place. This is yet another item on my horribly-long To Do list. For now, my husband (the computer guy) has put up links to some newspaper articles about our house and barn. The link to the site is on My Page. The credit for the Tiki Hut goes to my handyman/contractor. I gave him a picture with some scribbling on it, and he did the rest. The inspiration came from my visit to Heritage Rosarium this spring -- Nick's garden pavillion is absolutely incredible. We were struggling with our design for a structure in this space, and I used his as inspiration. (Thanks, Nick) The ironic part about this is that it's sited where it is because it gets absolutely no sun at all. It's nestled under the branches of a huge pecan tree, where it's always much cooler than the rest of the yard. This spot can barely grown anything besides shade-loving weeds, so roses are completely out of the question. The sunshine you see in my photo is the really low-angle evening sun coming in under the tree branches. We're practically having a plague of toads here right now. They're loving the cool dampness of my mulch pile, and I find one in about every second wheelbarrow load I haul. The little guy you see above was only about the size of the end of my thumb. We found a much larger one while we were working on Thursday morning. The barn has been finished structurally since spring. We had to wait until now for the weather to cool and the rough-cut poplar siding to dry before I could bring in the painters. It's really great to see the old girl standing tall again. She was in rough shape. I inventoried the driveway roses yesterday morning, and tallied up the extras -- there are a whole lot more than I thought there would be. *sigh* More later, Connie

Hi Joanne, I am so sorry about the loss of your mother. I could have written your post a little more than three years ago. My mom had the same symptoms as your mom. She kept complaining about shoulder pain for months and even went for ortho surgery on her shoulder. After that she still didn't get better and her appetite was non-existent. When she was hospitalized for shortness of breath, the ER doctor ran a CT and found a mass in her lung. She was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer and passed away 3 weeks after her diagnosis. I wrote all this to tell you to be careful about your grief. I went thru a very hard time after my mother's death. I think part of the reason was the suddeness of her loss and being caught totally off guard and the guilt that I didn't realize how sick she was. My complicated grief evolved into a severe depression. I too tried to go through daily activities such as work, shopping, etc., but 6 months later I only felt more devestated and sad. I sought the help of a grief couselor who recogized the symptoms were more than just grief.You don't have to wait until you find you can't deal with it to get help. I believe a grief couselor is always helpful to guide you through a severe life trama that can result from losing a loved one. It will always be hard but you do get stronger and the joy will come back to your life. That's hard for you to believe but it will. I will keep you and your boys in my prayers. Hugs, Barbara

I did send he GC a text about an hour ago. Part of what I don't understand is that my GC is a very high end GREAT builder and friend and all of his subs ( except this one) are awesome as well. Every one of them calls me and tells when they are coming and, then, they SHOW UP! I did a big kitchen reno with them last year and they were great ( but some of you may remember that this same painter had someone paint over all my kids heights in my pantry doorway). My GC asked me to give him another chance this go round. The quality of his work is very good, when he's here. But I'm now burned twice so I've learned my lesson.

aammg - thanks! I know how hard it is to decide on a paint color! We did not go with a crisp white trim, because our cabinets in the perimeter of the kitchen aran off white color. We felt that the off white cabinets would clash with true white trim. So we carried that same off white cabinet color to the trim. At first I was very apprehensive about not having crisp white trim. But our designer assured us it was gonna work. And it did!!!!! It is still white, but softer, if you know what I mean. Looks excellent with the wall color. The paint line is called Kwal Paint, a brand from Sherwin-Williams. Trim: AL-1 Legends White. And wall: CL 2832W Chopstick.