Oh! Building nests! I hadn't thought of that. It makes perfect sense. There's a catbird building a nest in a nearby shrub. I guess I can wait, then. It's only happening in one area, directly below the nesting shrub, and only on the newest part of the moss. The bird must think it's a gift, lol... Thanks, lycopus! Much appreciated.

Great idea with the mothballs! They will need to be replenished occasionally. I have had luck with putting dog fur in the toes of nylon stockings and attaching the "fur balls" to plants. Since you have dogs, getting the fur might not be a problem. This also needs to be renewed, especially after a heavy rain. The digging problem can be solved with chicken wire placed about 2" under the surface. Make X cuts when you plant, and replace the wire. The stems and fronds will come up through the wire, and the squirrels will be deterred from digging. According to the Birder's Handbook, passerines (which are the majority of birds you see at feeders) and woodpeckers do not have a highly developed sense of smell so the scent of mothballs probably would not deter them from visiting feeders and watering stations. Vultures, on the other hand, probably do have a highly developed sense of smell, and also very strong stomachs!

Bathrooms: as others have pointed out, you should have a full bath on any floor where there might be sleeping rooms. If you intend to ever sell this house, there should be a full bath on the 2nd floor and in the walkout basement. (Currently, it looks as if the master bath is the only full bath in the plan.) The laundry location will be very annoying to anyone who has more than a single couple in the house--they go up/down stairs, **across the house**, up stairs and then into a laundry room. Stairs: How do you go downstairs? Do you really want the stairs between the great room and the kitchen? The stairs take up a lot of room in the middle of the house--especially considering you don't intend to use them often. Accessibility: By adding stairs to the master bedroom, the master bedroom will not be accessible to someone with limited mobility. As others have pointed out, that negates some of the advantages of a first floor master. Kitchen/Hearth area--there's a lot of space there but I'd be concerned about the actual cabinet layout before I started building. Since the back wall is primarily windows, that will influence how the cabinets are laid out. You'll also want to be sure there's sufficient room for a large table, since that is your only eating space--at least, I assume there will be eating space in there someewhere! Although the space is large, it is fulfilling 3 functions: kitchen, dining, "hearth". Entry way: The entryway looks as if it's over 160 square feet. At even *cheap* construction costs, do you really want to spend $16,000 for an entryway? It is large and will be a huge empty space when you enter the house. What is the purpose of having it so large? I guess you could put a large sculpture in the middle. Flows: The pathways from the garage to the kitchen or garage to the bedroom or garage to the great room are all filled with turns. I think the flow could be improved. Pantry/Officette: What exactly is an officette? How would furniture be arranged here? Pantry shelves don't need to be very deep--the room is too wide to just be a pantry, but isn't really big enough to be an office. Also, does it make sense for one of you to have an 'officette' in an INTERIOR room when the laundry room and mud room both get windows? Office: At that size, it should be big enough to share. If you don't want to share it, I'd consider making two separate offices. For that matter, I'd consider making them "bedrooms" with the intent of using them as offices. That would mean putting in a closet--and turning the powder room into a full bath (or adding another bath). Master bath: There is a lot of wasted space here--it looks as if it's about 11' from the vanities to the shower--that's an entire room--all empty space. The tub gets a back window, but there's a lot of unused space in front of it--on top of all the empty space in the middle of the master bath. Master closet: Some people don't like walking through a bathroom to get to a closet, but that doesn't bother me. What does bother me is what you're gong to do with an 11' wide closet. I *like* big closets, don't get me wrong. But closets are most valuable along the walls--what are you going to do with that space in the middle? Some people put dressers and benches in the middle, but if you're going to do that, what are you going to put in the 16x18 bedroom? Foyer to master bedroom: It is big enough to walk through, but not really big enough to put furniture in. You said your girlfriend was interested in making it a sitting room, but given that you have a HUGE bedroom, a great room, and a hearth room, why would you consider putting a sitting area in an interior, private space near the laundry? Owners Suite to bathroom: I can't tell if there's really supposed to be a door there--it looks too big for a pocket door--and most people do want a door to their master bath, since couples don't necessary get up at the same time. I admit that a 4.5 car garage would be fun to have :-). I'm afraid I don't like this plan--it doesn't use space well, I don't think it'd be easy to live in--even looking at it as a two person house, and you'd be walking through a lot of open space. This house is big and would take a lot of money to build--and I don't think it's a particularly livable plan. I think you ought to look at a lot more existing floor plans or find yourself an architect.

Well I am finely getting around to look for someone to fix my parging. I had someone at my house today. They said they would hammer the parging as this will remove the pieces that need to be removed. Then place wire mesh and apply new parging all over. He also suggested that I fix the cracks in my stucco. He would patch the areas. The house is white stucco above the parging. The new white stucco will not match. I know nothing about parging or stucco. Could someone please tell me if this sounds like the way to do the parging and stucco. He offered a 5 year warranty. Thank you.