Thank you Tom, for responding! I'll skip the beans then and just go with the sugar snaps. Your bean pods look gorgeous, almost too pretty to eat ;) I ordered sugar snaps, sugar lace II and super sugar snaps from park seed as I couldn't find them locally at the big box stores and had a 10 dollar gift certificate, also got some Swiss chard, bright lights and a packet of Hestia beans and some chocolate cherry seeds, I did grow the cheery tomatoes last year and fell in love with them. This year I'm growing 10 plants of all different kinds, I don't care if I have big yields or not, just playing while I'm learning and I get to try different varieties to keep growing again if I like something a lot. I do grow micro salad greens and love them. I've learned to stagger them by 1 or 2 week intervals to always have enough every day. For spring I am clearing a 25 by 16 area that gets full sun and hope to grow tomatoes, snaps, beans and a few other things. My tomatoes I've learned to grow in containers only but hope the peas and beans and other veggies can go in the ground. I should be ready to turn in compost, potting soil from repotted plants in that area, cover with black plastic until I'm ready to actually plant. Nice weather for 6 months to do a lot!

Yeah, framed (had art.com frame it before shipping it out) it was like $100ish. I took it to a framing shop yesterday to get an estimate - $425. I will definitely checkout the link above! When I selected this, I spent HOURS looking through art.com. I did compile a list of about 15 prints I liked. If I can find that list, it will at least be a starting point -- I can narrow it down by size. I have a bathroom this print should work well in. (I'm hesitant to add monster matting around it, just because the large mat/small print looks "contemporary" to me -- but I can't say why!!) :) Funny thing is, I blocked these dimensions out on posterboard and hung it in the space, and it looked OK. Must have been an illusion thing since the posterboard was white and the print is dark. Redsox, the artist is Norman Wyatt Jr. This print is either "Row of Trees I" or "Row of Trees II".

Thanks for all the help. Sounds like some folks think it looks good, others don't, so I'll leave it up for the time being and see if it grows on me. Might as well: If I take it down I'll have to fill the holes and touch-up the paint. Have a feeling I will end up taking it down though... Someone mentioned textiles (curtains, maybe rugs?). I'm not very interested in curtains at the moment, maybe down the road. I went to the trouble and expense of putting in the wood blinds and they look great. Curtains covering those wood blinds just doesn't make sense to me. Maybe it's a guy thing. I will be getting a rug eventually, for the far side of the bed. I will put a small leather chair on it, it will be a nice place for reading/relaxing (the light in the room in the morning and afternoon is fantastic). Thanks again for your help.

I like the exterior. The house isn't overly large, and the only room that is really generous in terms of space is the master bedroom. However, it'll work for a family of five, if it matches your expectations of "cozy". Downstairs: I agree that I don't like the dining room being so far from the kitchen. Could you flip the great room and the kitchen? This would mean you'd come in from the garage and enter the family room. Not typical, but also not horrible. I'd definitely skip a breakfast table. You don't need a dining room AND a breakfast room AND island seating -- and in this space, you can't afford all those seating options. Skipping the breakfast table will allow you to enlarge the family room. I'd consider moving the fireplace to the back wall -- it'll then be on the "wider wall" of the family room and will allow you to orient the sofa towards it. It'll also mean you enter the house from the "back" of the family room instead of the "side". I agree that I hate the downstairs bathroom -- awful location, awful layout -- but I don't see anything to do about it within this space. Upstairs: Your plan of putting the two girls into the bonus-room-turned-bedroom is good. It'll work really well if you have the two gables someone else mentioned; you'd have windows on three walls, and each girl could have her bed in an "alcove". And, yes, you'll need to be sure you have egress windows and closets -- don't skimp on the closets for two girls; I'd think you could have two closets flanking the doorway. That leaves one bedroom as an "away room" -- which is good. An upstairs office isn't a great idea -- the paperwork won't really make it upstairs. No, the kids won't use it as a playroom; kids never really do use playrooms. But it could be a quiet den type room where kids or adults could go for quiet time. And it'd be a good video game room when the kids are teens. You have plenty of space in the master for a seating area, or that could be an adult office space. Overall, I don't love the house -- I don't see that it has anything special enough to make it worth the effort and cost of building -- but it does look functional on a cozy scale.