Just a little trivia about 'Practical Magic'.......the house and garden is located on San Juan Island here in WA state but it is not on the water as the movie alluded to. It is actually inland a bit and a second 'dummy' house set was built for the waterfront scenes and then demolished after filming. And many of the town shots were filmed in Coupeville on Whidbey Island. My niece, who was a struggling actress at the time, was actually an extra in one of the scenes inside the shop. She has sinced moved on to other things :-) Since I am a garden designer by profession, most of my inspiration comes from the site -- each is unique and calls out what needs to be done and what should be planted. This of course with lots of input from the homeowners! And I visit gardens constantly, public and private, and notice specifically what plants they use and what works with what. I will say that cottage style gardens tend to be intensely personal and I don't get too many requests for that 'look' -- most of my clients want low maintenance, which cottage gardens are not!

Thanks for all the feedback and for sharing photos of such lovely homes! I've been looking at photos online (branching out from Houzz helped a lot, thanks for the push to do that!) and I think that given we are building in the woods in Minnesota, and that we casual people building a casual home, the Foursquare/Prairie style is a better fit for us than Georgian. I can be a little rigid in my thinking, but the people living in Minnesota during the Georgian era were Native Americans, and they weren't building Georgian homes, and so I'd feel silly trying to build an authentic Georgian home here. I know our house isn't square, but any of the styles would need some adjustment because we are limited to using vinyl siding (if we have an extra $10-15k, it's going towards a screened porch, not hardiplank or brick). My husband has been modeling his vision for how our house should look. I'm sharing it here with some trepidation-- its not traditional, and we're aware of that. I am the less visionary of the two of us, so it's taken me a while to come around to his ideas. The colors of the siding aren't right here-- a downside of the software he's using is that we can't adjust the hue. The green will be greyer than it appears. We haven't gotten an elevation yet from our architect. Renovator8-- why do you say the roof should be steeper? Our builder's standard roof is 5/12, so I know that pitch does ok with our local snow load, but I'm not sure what else factors in with roof design. I don't want to go a lot steeper because there's a development near us with lots of very steep hipped roofs and the houses are all roof (in that case it doesn't help that the development is in a narrow gully, so I always approach the homes from above). Houseofsticks- I posted our floorplan here: http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/build/msg101210455016.html The blueprints are toward the end of the discussion. I've been trying to keep our elevation relatively simple because I feel like the more details we add, the more there is to mess up. If I had an extra million dollars, I'd love to build an authentic shingle style house with a tower, etc... but since I don't I'm trying to focus on keeping things simple and making sure that what we do build is done in a way that works.

I have to say I've never ever been inspired by wandering through a retail store. Too pedestrian for me. Instead I prefer to find inspiration at home (what do you collect? what things gather around your home in groups? Plants, glass, pictures of the kids etc.) I use those items as my inspiration as well as fabrics and textural pieces (ie tile, stone, glass). I can easily become inspired in an antique store :) and don't get near me in a fabulous fabric store (I get all giddy and run hither and what goes with hither? gasping...oh look at this....look at this.....LOOK at this!!!) I often come home with a yard or ten of inspiration (which shows when you see my fabric collection LOL). A great deal of the "where" question will first come from "who" you are. Are you a modern gal? Do you love clean lines and bold details? If so, you probably won't find inspiration in the same place I will. You'd probably have a great time in a wonderful furniture store featuring Italian Modern pieces, where as to me they leave me cold. Or do you like traditional or even fussy victorian? You could have a great time in an antique store. Are you a country girl? Find an antique store or even a farmers market and wander with your eyes open. Something as basic as an ear of colored corn should inspire you to develop a decorating scheme. To figure out who you are...pick five things in your home you absolutely LOVE. WHat were they? Which rooms were they in, and how can you share them with others through your decor? In my dining room you'd instantly know that I have a deep love affair with venetian glass. My entire scheme is chosen to highlight that collection, from the art to the wall color. I chose muted antique oils (and while that sounds like I spent a fortune on art...I really spent very little...they were hidden in the back corner of an antique store, painted by someone's grandfather most likely, and no one wanted them...I LOVE THEM). Their muted colors don't distract from my glass, but the gold frames do bring out the gold in my glass. In my living room it's my husband's animal prints. I decorated with them in mind, not going too fussy with furniture so that they're the obvious attraction verses the red sofa's. If you wandered down a hallway in our home you'd see that we adore our little miracle child. We also love our family and all of our halls are decorated to highlight that love with pictures everywere, all in similar frame colors, and in either sepia or black and white tone. The highlight of that collection would be the umm well ooddles of very large black and white portraits of our son done by a local photographer. We always get at least a 12x20 or more in size and I needed a place to display those without overwhelming. So pick five things...if you want, take a picture of them and post it. I bet you will find many of us can be inspired to lead you into the next step to work with those five things :)

They are ridiculously expensive! Their cheapest is a 24" two door vanity for $900 and something! I think not, for just a box with doors! I think you pay for the furniture style feet but I do want that to lighten the look of the vanity and show our hardwood floors. For your bath, I'd really want two drawers for toiletries and a third deep drawer. You can store towels or toilet paper in there.