Hello svDousman. Great to see you have an eastern bluebird pair. The second hole is not a big deal. To prevent predation of the nest the best thing you can do is put the box on a slick metal emt pole with a stovepipe baffle. There are actually two hole boxes you can buy because they help better protect against house sparrow attacks giving a bluebird inside under attack an escape hole. There are other ways to protect against them too like a sparrow spooker. Does the box open? The nest should be checked a few times a week to make sure all is ok. Yes the birds will return each year to the same box if they were successful previously. I would like to invite you to share your story and join the blue bird nut cafe forum. It is similar to this website but much more active and if you post your question there, you will get more help and answers. Hope to see you there. http://bluebirdnutcafe.yuku.com/ -Tyler

I'm with the others: Lots of wasted space here, and this house would come out with an over-sized, too large for comfort. As an example, let's talk about the kitchen. You say that you tend to congregate in the kitchen, so you want it to be BIG. That's a typical first-thought, but it probably won't get you the kitchen you want. Imagine you're cooking, and your guests are seated at the island. You're going to put out some snackies and drinks -- almost certainly on the island. So you end up doing your prep on the cabinets next to the kitchen . . . your guests are not only seated too far from you across a giant island (too far for comfortable conversation, that is), but you have your back to them. Give up the idea of BIG and focus on how you want the kitchen to function. Once you know what you want to accomplish, then you can lay out a much better plan. But never confuse BIG with better. To illustrate the problem: My current kitchen is HUGE, but it's not functional, and I hate it. FYI: I didn't choose it; I kind of ended up here - not a story worth repeating. Although I have miles of countertop, my storage is all in the wrong places. I have workspace a-plenty . . . but I always use the same little 3' section because only one portion has really good lighting and is oriented towards the family room, where everyone else is. Unfortunately, that 3' spot is also the most convenient spot for dropping mail, keys, etc. so it's always cluttered. For no particular reason, I have a desk inserted in the middle of my cabinets. My refrigerator is against a wall, so the door won't open all the way, and I can't open the doors all the way to remove the shelves for cleaning -- yours will be the same, if you do that corner thing that's in your plan. My kitchen is a modified galley design, and my cabinets are about 5 1/2 foot apart, and it's too far for comfort --- yet I don't have enough space to set up a different configuration of cabinets. Another negative of an over-sized kitchen or bath is that you may find yourself "priced out of" the nicer finishes. When I re-did my countertops about eight years ago, laminate was my only real option. Anything else was simply too expensive. Likewise, with approximately 80 square feet of backsplash, I was stuck with choosing something simple and cheap. As we build this new house, I'm looking at smaller baths and a smaller kitchen . . . but that means I can afford the nice glass tiles and granite that I want instead of the cheapest thing offered at Home Depot. It's true of other rooms too: Replacing the carpet in my 27' family room was over 3K; hardwood was prohibitively expensive. I see the same mistake throughout your house plan: BIG spaces, but lack of function: - Your shower is extra-long, which means it'll never feel warm in there. - Your master bath is huge (and expensive), yet most of that space is going to walkway. - Your laundry room is wide, yet it doesn't really give you good function. Imagine yourself pulling clothes from the dryer: You pull out a couple items, walk over to the countertop to fold them . . . get a few more items, walk to the countertop to fold them. Instead, plan an aisle of 3-4 feet and place the countertop across from the washer/dryer. This requires less space, and you stand in one spot: Pull out clothes, pivot and place them on the countertop. Fewer steps. - Consider the location of your laundry room: From the master, you'll carry your baskets through the entryway, around the giant island, through the dining room and mudroom . . . and then you'll carry them back again. AND by placing your laundry room so far out of the center of things, you're running expensive plumbing lines an extra distance. You'd do well to cut down the size of the master bath and place the laundry room in some of that space . . . AND stack your upstairs bath near the staircase, somewhere close above your master bath. I also agree that the garage will dominate the look of the house. 2400 square feet for the first level. I have 2400 square feet total, and we have two rooms that're NEVER used. We do have one less daughter, but the concept is still valid.

Goerge: Yes, Canadian hemlock is native there, and present in good numbers. It will always be part of the scene, insomuch as I control what happens. I've planted a few Picea glauca. I like them very much, although I prefer the Norway spruce. So I've got both! As far as 'Green Giant', I was an early and enthusiastic admirer, and much less so now. Last winter-that one that was so crazy cold-really did a number on the handful I've got there. It quickly made me re-learn what I've already known, that the native version (Thuja occidentalis) is superior in all respects...for that part of the world. And since I've got literally thousands of those there, I won't be re-visiting GG. Pretty much the same story with dawn redwood. I was all geeked out about those things, but truth is, Z4 near Suring, Wisconsin (put your finger on a map on Green Bay, and just go due north a little bit), is much too cold for that tree. Out of the whopping three that I installed, two are dead and the one that isn't needs to die...soon. Just not happy up there. Maybe a more sheltered spot but I had mine right out in the open. In any case, I don't need them. Dax: I agree fully with your suggestion of Abies balsamea var. phanerolepis. I like them very much and would sooner put in some of those than the abundant straight-species balsam fir, which I like too, and which are considered "weed trees" by locals and loggers and so on. Itasca's got some nice strains of Canaan fir. It's only a matter of time until I pull the handle and get some of those going. Also, family members want us to have a place to go cut our own Xmas trees, and I concur with that idea. Also, that's a great suggestion-to correlate seed strain, should I go with Pseudotsuga, with summer precip patterns. Makes great sense. Beng: thanks for that update. To be honest, I thought my ponderosas had predominantly 3-needle clusters. Now I'm going to have to recheck. In any case, the inclusion of those was just a kick I was on back in 08 when we started this project. I'm glad I have them, like I said, but that's it. There won't be more. Besides, if it's a "hard pine" you're after, our own native red pine, of which we planted 3000 last year, are the way to go. There's a reason they get planted everywhere you look......they grow! Thanks for the commentary, folks. This is just fun stuff for me. In reality, if I never lift a finger again up there, the die is already cast. It's going to be great. Already is, in fact. And with that 6000 (total) we planted recently, big chunks of that former farm field are going to be changing rapidly in the next few years. Not to mention, all the allowances we've made for natural invasion by the paper birches, balsam poplars, white cedar, white pine, and what have you, from the adjacent woods. +oM

My thoughts are all about the master suite: - Do you think you'll want a TV in the bedroom? If so, note that you won't be able to place it at the foot of the bed, which would be the natural spot. - I'd move the bedroom door down the hallway. This allows you to eliminate the door from the bedroom itself ... and it allows you to move the bathroom door into that entrance hallway (illustration below). This keeps bathroom light from spilling out onto a sleeper, and it would allow you a shallow linen closet across from the sink. More storage is always welcome. - Note that by using double sinks, you've crammed one person up against the wall. I'd much rather have one nice sink with a good drawer stack for each person. - I'd flip-flop the shower door's direction; it'd be more natural to enter the shower without having the walk around the door. - I hate that you have no natural light in this bathroom. The same is true of the mudroom and the master bedroom entrance hallway. Dark hallways are not pleasant. - For a house this size, the closet isn't particularly spacious. Consider, too, that this layout requires you to walk the whole length of the bathroom to reach the closet. I'm not against bathrooms-in-closets, but they're often poorly arranged -- and this is an example. If you were to flip-flop the bathroom and the closet (make the closet a walk-through), the closet would become more convenient, and the bathroom could have natural light. - On the other hand, the bedroom seems oversized to me -- it's a lot of empty square footage for a room where you'll be asleep -- but I'm in the camp of "bedrooms aren't a space to splurge on space". - Where is the laundry room? Most people want it to be convenient to the master bedroom and/or the kitchen. - Are you going to be happy with a master suite off the mudroom? It may hurt resale. And the garage entrance: - Instead of making people walk catty-cornered across the mudroom, I'd place the door across from the kitchen entrance, which allows you a straight-line into the house. You don't lose any mudroom storage; it's just divided into two runs, which could work out well.