I get my ideas from reading these forums, listening to radio gardening shows, and attending seminars. Ever since I learned (here) to water deeply and infrequently, and to mow at the mower's highest setting, I've never had crabgrass. I learned that from reading what other people have written to the forums. You've been with GardenWeb plenty long enough to have seen the same messages. Do you recall the people writing in to say their lawns have never been in better shape with fewer weeds since they started watering less frequently and mowing higher? Do you recall the people writing in to say their next door neighbor's crabgrass lawns stops suddenly at the border of the writer's lawn? If a lawn is dense with lots of grass plants, the soil is allowed to dry out between waterings, and it is mowed high, the chances of getting crabgrass are pretty small...according to the informal stats from writers here. If you live in an area where you get rain more than once a week, you might not be able to let the soil dry out. I don't have that problem here but I understand Long Island got a little more rain than legally allowed this year. And by the way I'm not trying to be disagreeable. I've never learned anything from someone who agreed with me on everything.

Gamebird, You've had lots of helpful comments today, and I am sure more are yet to come. My answer on beds being oriented north-south or east-west is going to make me sound wishy-washy, but I think either one could work equally well. Most of my neighbors that have veggie gardens run their beds from north to south, but a fellow gardener who lives a couple of miles from me runs his east-west. I have some beds, about 65% of them, that run north-south, and the remaining 35% run east-west. Our veggie garden is on a serious slope, so the contouring of the garden beds was a very deliberate decision to slow down the runoff of water and also to minimize erosion. The classic recommendation in most parts of the country is that you should run your beds from north to south. I think the intent is that your rows get a more equal distribution of light that way. What is more important than the orientation of the beds, though, is the selection of where to plant your veggies. The general rule is to put taller crops in the northernmost rows of the garden so they won't shade your other crops. Here in Oklahoma, where the summers are very long and insanely hot, I deliberately use okra, corn, amaranth and other tall plantings (like pole beans and other trellised crops) to shade crops that benefit from a little shade, like sweet and hot peppers. I like your idea of improving the soil first, then building the beds, and lining the pathways....I was gently trying to lead you in that direction, without sounding like your bossy sister! LOL Torrential rainfall IS a huge problem here when it occurs. Just today we had 3" of rain in less than 4 hours, and you should see the erosion that has gone on today as the water rushes downhill to the creeks that will carry it to the Red River. (It is not at all one of our heaviest rainfalls....two years ago we had 9.25" in one day, and almost 8" of that fell in 4 hours.) So, check out how the water drains before you start doing too much, and the info will be very helpful in your planning. Even though you may not be putting in that water feature for a couple of years, plan it out now so you can take advantage of a naturally low-lying area or can plan to site your water feature so it helps absorb excess rainfall and runoff. We have several water features, some manmade and some natural, and they attract wildlife. Since you have a young child, though, it probably is wise to wait until she's a little older. One thing to remember as you plan your landscape is that the soil on even a small plot of land (and yours is not small by any means) can vary greatly. Even though we have mostly clay, we do have one band of very deep, sandy soil (which I love, love, love), so check your soil in various places to be sure you know what you have. When you do a soil test, the advice is the same. You dig up soil from several locations and mix it together prior to the soil test, so the results will give you an overall average for the whole area. Regarding Randy's comment about shrubs, I'll just say that his comments are right on. Most people plant shrubs too close to their homes and the shrubs eventually get too large, become a problem and have to be removed. You can avoid this through a very careful selection of dwarf shrubs AND by being sure to plant them further away from the house....say 4' to 5' at the closest, not 1' to 2' or 3'. Be sure you understand the shrub's MATURE height and plan accordingly. As Randy stated, I am a big advocate of firescaping....which is landscaping in a way that will help prevent your home from burning during a wildfire. Keeping plants that burn easily further away from the house is an important part of firescaping. We have always had wildfires in this part of the country, and we always will. Some years they are dreadfully bad, and other years they are not. It is wise to design your landscape in a way that will help preserve your home if the worst possible thing....a raging wildfire....occurs. I never worried about wildfire that much until the 2005-2006 wildfire season, which I think was the worst one in recent Oklahoma history. During that year, our very young and very small volunteer fire dept. had over 240 calls (most years prior to that we had 40 to 50 calls per year), many of which were large, raging wildfires. It changed the way I do a lot of things, and I am now very careful about planting anything close to the house if that plant could help a fire climb up onto the house. It's just one more thing to think about, but an important one. Finally, I know you are eager to do your landscaping, but go slow and make sure you understand just how hard it is for plants to get through our long, hot summers. When we say that, it is because we know from experience that summer's heat here can be VERY cruel and very hard on plants. In your part of the state, you also have to plan for the recurring sleet and ice storms that can cruelly destroy gorgeous trees in a matter of hours. (So, stay away from weeping trees, weak-wooded trees and delicate trees that can't hold a huge load of ice.) Understand, too, that Oklahoma's climate is one of wild swings and unpredictable changes. It can, literally, be 60 or 70 or 80 degrees, sunny and clear in the morning and then an Artic cold front can come out of Canada in a matter of hours, dropping the temperatures 30 degrees or more, and bringing cold rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow or a mix of them. In the summer, rain can be scarce and temperatures brutal. Plants have to be TOUGH to survive here, so decide in advance how much (or how little) pampering you're prepared to give your plants, and plan accordingly. It is so much fun reading your plans and imagining how it all will work out. I hope you'll keep us all posted on your progress. Dawn

Thanks for the input so far! Here's a little insight into how we live and a couple answers: I am planning on a 90 degree turn in the staircase. I didn't know there would need to be special considerations for this. We are doing SIPs walls and are meeting with them tonight. They'll also be doing our stairway so I'm sure they'll tell me all I need to know about it. I'll be sure to mention it. Stairs sure are a pain! If you've been reading here you know what I am going to say! LOL There's no powder room near a family entry to the house and no closets for all the 'stuff' that accumulates in what I call a 'back hall'. Picture your children trekking through the house with muddy feet to get to the toilet. The extra space you see in the laundry room will be where we hang coats and take our shoes off/throw bookbags, etc. We just won't be doing lockers (at least right away). I am planning on doing a drain in the garage with hot and cold spout near for muddy feet/dog/etc. The closet in the hall was my "stuff" closet along with storage in the basement. The one bedroom that has its only small window on the screened in porch is going to be sad. This made me laugh. :) How I picture this room being used: nursery for 2nd baby, then kids can share a room and this will become the play/toy room upstairs. At some point another kid can move back in if they want or move downstairs, etc. Could you build a house with more space on one level and a smaller (or no) basement? With two acres, I'd prefer to 'spread out'. What appeals to you about having a lower level? I like one level living for the majority of my time. Basements are the norm around here - we live in tornado alley. 1. Is there really a need for back to back entry doors? Could you eliminate the interior entry door and just make that a wide cased opening? How about moving your coat closet up to left side of that entry area and changing the door swing on the outermost door to a RH swing? The entry is this way because my DH's two desires when planning this house: That people don't see the kitchen from the front door and that randoms that do come to our front door can't see into the house. I do plan to have coat hooks there inside the entry for when guests come. Our guests are very casual. Your porch is too shallow for a table and chairs; need 12 foot depth. Good to know. Thank you. 2. Your first floor baths both have windows by the shower/baths. I'd keep windows away from baths if possible for privacy purposes and to keep water away from the interior side of windows (and therefore, the inside of the walls). Can things be adjusted so vanities are closer to the windows? I've nixed the one in the secondary bath. I think I might like a glass block one in the master shower though. This may be backwards and sound dumb but we currently have one in our shower and we just hang a clear shower curtain along the back wall. Light in and no water on the window :) I'm open to suggestions on that room though. The closet in the basement for the bedroom....maybe I can jut a closet into my craft room/office. I think that is what I'll do :) I didn't figure I'd get as much room under there as what is drawn. The kitchen is actually decent sized in my mind. There are cupboards along the south wall in there if you didn't see those. They can hold all the sometimes used stuff. There are more in there than at most of my family/friends houses and my current house. Our current dining table is a 4 seater and when we need to get a bigger one I'm actually thinking I'll be a bench along that dining wall so the table can sit closer to it. The living room could be a little bigger but hey, such is life when you are sticking to a budget I guess. My current living room is 12x11. There isn't a pathway through it though so that will make a difference. If we need to spread out we'll go to the basement. I live in 1000 sq ft now. I'm good at organization and stacking things to the ceiling of closets, etc. 3000 is a mansion to me. :) Thanks again! Oh and I'm attaching the plan that I tweaked to make mine if you feel like taking a peek. Here is a link that might be useful: Original house plan

Thanks, Autumn 4! We have a large covered porch right now, and although I love it, I can't say it gets much use. I think if it didn't open onto such a ho-hum yard, we'd use it more. I'm a bit up in the air about a covered porch for our new house. On the one hand, it would require a change in our roofline, and that ups the cost. And the downside of our current covered porch is that we get less light in our kitchen /dining area than I'd like -- so that makes me think that the answer'll be no. However, we are planning a pool and nice patio out back. We're in the South, so such a spot would get plenty of use. I'm leaning right now towards a covered area NOT connected to the house, but located 10-15 feet back -- to be closer to the pool. This would have a nice, substantial roof, a built-in cooking area, a fire place and an eating area. Then, when we have large groups, we could add more tables outside the covered area. If I had to pick right this minute, the desire for a light-flooded kitchen/dining area would trump the convenience of attached. In the end? I'm not sure. Which direction will our house face? That's a good question -- one to which I've turned my attention numerous times, and I haven't decided yet. We have a little over 40 acres, so our options are not limited: If I do the easiest thing and place the house near the main road /facing the main road, the front will face East. So that'd give us sun in the bedroom /living room /study in the morning . . . and hot western afternoon sun on the patio. IF we do this easiest thing, I'd probably flip the whole plan so that the garage would be to the North and the side of the bedroom side of the house would face South. This easiest thing would also cost less because we'd need less driveway. Finally, the large trees are laid out in such a way that this would mean less clearing. Honestly, I think this is the way we'll go -- too many things seem to conspire to make this the easiest, best choice. The only thing holding me back from saying, "Yes, this for certain" is that hot, harsh afternoon western sun. Or, I could do a little in-road onto the property and could face the front of the house either South or North. I see value in facing it North. That'd mean that the kitchen/dining area and the patio/pool area would have the Southern exposure. If I do that, when you turn off the main road, you'd approach the garage, which would give a little privacy from the main road -- but with this relatively large piece of land, that isn't something we need badly. Also, this would cost more because we'd have to bring the driveway and the utilities farther onto the land. And I don't think this option is as attractive as having the house simply face the main road -- regardless of how far off the road we may choose to build. The whole piece of land is fairly well flat, and any number of sites would do for the house. We're set to pick "the house spot" the first weekend in November, so I guess we'll be making up our minds about the house's orientation then. I'm excited for that day to arrive and to walk the land with an expert and hear his opinion.