I have to chuckle at Wellspring's aversion to my word choice of "display". Her lament is a mirror image of my aversion to the word choices used in the "Its about the journey more than the destination" thread. As long as I can stimulate the thought process, I consider my word choices a success even if an individual chooses to discard them for more favored prose. I will acknowledge that I also am a bit challenged how to best display the house featured in the currently running thread from Tennessee, "Landscaping Ideas". Admittedly, the word "display" certainly is not the first word that comes to mind. If more thoughtful consideration had been devoted before the purchase, the poster probably would have looked elsewhere. This situation certainly lends credence to Colebugs statement, "I get the feeling from reading many of the posts that many of us want to hide our homes, or at least hide portions of them with plants." On the other hand, I understand that personal circumstances often necessitate purchase of these ill-conceived house planning and siting blunders. I am sure that the owner enjoys their home it is just too bad that enjoyment does not include the landscape as well. As Laag so astutely noted, much of this morass could have been avoided by simply putting the garage on the other side of the house. My concern is not that persons aspiring to gain competency with their own landscapes use my term, "displaying". I would rather they use their own minds and develop their own terms. Too often we see folks wanting ideas to copy rather than effective concepts. I especially encourage people to take note of the sage advice from David (Bahia), an accomplished designer with a substantial body of work behind him. "If there was but one bit of advice that I would impart to anyone contemplating the design of a new garden/landscape, it would be to celebrate the local character of the region, to work with it, perhaps enhance it, but not to try and deny it altogether." I could not agree with him more. However, I wish he had told me that years ago! Instead, I had to blunder my way along and learn that lesson the hard way. I, too, started out parroting things I had seen. I was always left less than satisfied mainly because the advice I was hearing came from the east coast; but more accurately, originated in Great Britain. Horticulturally (and literally) the British growing environment is miles removed from my regional conditions. As I have been telling Midwesterners for years now: Gardening is like picante sauce Neither one should come from New York City. In a parallel way, Tony reinforces Davids advice in another thread where he said, "You must excuse British authors for not considering how a garden looks when covered in snow as this is rare in the UK. But if you live in a part of the world that has regular snow cover for a significant period in a year then it seems important to design around this rather than deny it." Clearly, this is essentially the same central thought; just expressed using different words. We always talk about thinking "outside of the box". Perhaps we need to also start thinking outside of the cardboard container or wooden crate maybe even start thinking outside of the packaging vessel. IronBelly

And once you find the pull of your dreams, you have to decide whether you want them vertical or horizontal (on the doors). I saw some beautiful examples of horizontal door pulls here, and thought for sure that was what I wanted. When I taped my pull samples on the doors of our old cabinets, they looked great that way. But when the new cabinets were in place, and I held the pulls on the doors horizontally, it didn't do anything for me at all. I tried hard to love it - I'd been thinking about it for months - but it just wasn't right. And THEN you have to decide where to position the pulls - top of drawer, or middle? One pull or two on wide drawers? All the same length, or proportional to the drawer width? SDgirl, I understand your frustration, but I assure you, the right hardware is out there, and when you find it, you will love it. As someone else said - I rarely look at kitchen pics and think "Whoa, those pulls are awful!" There are a lot of ways to do it right.

I too am a first time floor refinisher. Pay more attention to the pros than me, but here is what I have learned so far. I am currently in the staining phase. I could not find a u sand, but I found a hiretech htf2 orbital sander at home depot which was easy to use. It has a weight that you can fill with about 50 pounds of play sand. You have to take the weight off to change sandpaper. I neglected to change sandpaper often enough (got tired of lifting the weight), so now after staining I have to redo a lot of my floor. I am using various palm sanders to re-sand. I think if I changed the sandpaper every 25sf of poly, I would have had better results. At least I can see what I am doing now after staining over the poly'd area. It's taking a lot of time but I feel I have a lot of control. I'm basically sitting on the floor and erasing finish with the palm sanders. I can't say for sure that the htf2 was effective. The floors that were worn the most look great - the parts where the poly finish was untouched (under rugs and furniture) need to be resanded. I got enough sandpaper in every grit to accomodate 1 sheet of each grit for 25sf of floor. I returned most of it. I should have used all the 40 grit. I got all grits available up to 120: 40, 60, 80, 100, 120. They recommended 80 and 120 only - I really needed the 40 over the poly and I ended up doing a pass for each grit. I am resanding (touchup) with 50, 80 and 120. Do some research online: There is a refinishing blog entry on the home depot blog that was really helpful. (http://blog.homedepot.com/refinishing-floors-floor-sander/) I also found a couple of awesome water popping articles and videos: I used a popup sponge from Williams Sonoma which was really good about releasing an even amount of water, and I used distilled water. When I stained after waterpopping I did not notice any sanding marks, which is an awesome benefit of waterpopping. I applied dark stain and all I am seeing are a couple of deep dog scratches. (This is a much-loved floor - you have to have the right attitude when doing this or you'll be disappointed.) Also research the bona product reviews - I decided against bona traffic when I learned some amateurs had issues with curing. I chose varathane water based floor finish (which I haven't applied yet) because reviews from amateurs seemed more consistently successful. Basically I was scared off bona traffic and went with something I perceived to be more forgiving. We'll see. Look at reviews. Also figure out what to use for applicators. That was an issue for me because some people were having problems using certain applicators with certain products. Figure out all your applicators and wipes (no tackcloth!) ahead of time, and make sure they work with your products. Don't hesitate to call the manufacturers and ask questions. I have called bona, minwax, varathane and taken a lot of their time. Wear a lot of protection. I use the monster respirator, shower cap for major sanding, ear protection, goggles. You'll spend a lot of time in the respirator so find something comfortable. Have a good shop vac and extra filters. For edging I used a palm sander with 50 grit, 80 grit and 120 grit. I also had to get an oscillating tool to fit under the kitchen cabinets. I am not picky about my floors - they will have a lot of texture to them as they are old, but I do want a pretty overall stain color. I decided not to use the edge sander they rented at home depot - it was too big and seemed like it would be harder to control. I used a mix of minwax wood finish (red mahogany and sedona red) which is dark. It went on well after water popping except for the areas that still had poly. I loaded it on with a 1"x3" stain brush, let it sit for probably 15 minutes (probably too long) then wiped with a really wet (from excess stain) wiping cloth followed by a dry wiping cloth. Once I get all my touchup done (I have no idea how well the stain touchup will work!) I plan to put a light coat of sedona red minwax stain over it per my test sample. The minwax rep told me to wipe the dry stain with pure (not odorless) mineral spirits 30 minutes before poly. Then I will try the varathane. I plan to fill after I coat with 2 coats varathane so that I can sand the fill if necessary. I read that no wood filler stains well and filler should match the stained floor. Then lightly sand-screen to remove the grain-rise from water popping, and apply the last 2 coats of varathane, or maybe I will screen before the last coat. I am using satin varathane. Sorry to be so long winded, but this is a complex process for a first-timer. Do enough research until you are fed up and ready to go. Then default to the manufacturer's instructions. Every chemical is different. You will learn a few things as you go. Keep your phone or ipad handy so that you can ask google all your questions mid-process. You will need infinite patience. Good luck! If any pros are still reading this and laughing, here is why I am doing this myself: I want full control over the stain color. I want to be able to maintain the floors myself. I plan to screen and top off the water based poly every couple of years. In the past I waited several years and let the floors wear down to bare wood. I will run out of floor if I continue to do this. If I invest the time and effort now, I think I will take better care of the floor in the future. Also most of the work is clearing the area and cleaning up the sanding mess. I have to do that even when professionals sand my floor. And I am always up for a new experience. However I would never recommend to others to do this yourself, unless you really want to. But if you are staining and do not do this yourself, find a really good professional.

We're building our forever home in Michigan so I can offer personal information on some of your questions. There are pros or repeats here that will be able to chime in on a lot of your concerns. Do we need anyone to represent us in the loan/closing process? i.e. do we need to hire someone? Unless you have a complicated financial situation (all assets in trust) you don't really need anyone to represent you on the loan and closing process. Just read up on what's involved and be familiar with all the loan terms. Don't be afraid to ask questions. You may want to find a real estate lawyer to look over the building contract. Pay special attention to milestone dates, draw dates and numbers, penalties for missing milestones and certificate of occupancy, budget overages, and change request procedures. Our bank suggested to close on the land and loan at the same time to avoid extra closing costs, is this valid? We purchased our property outright with cash and used it for equity for the construction loan. If it's all being handled by the same bank and title company, I can't think of any reason to split up the process. I think there are fees associated with title transfers, but if you're buying the land in full, I'm not sure why there would be closing costs. Do we need to hire anyone during the build other than the builder? i.e. an inspector/agent? The builder will bring all their own subcontractors. Certain stages of the build will likely need to be inspected and approved before moving on, but it's not a bad idea to have a home inspector in your pocket if you don't know what you're looking at. Visit the site as much as you can and take as many pictures as you can of everything. This will help you in the future to know what's behind the walls, and also capture any quality issues with the build, even if you don't see them at first. If you know workers will be on site, take coffee/donuts when you visit. It makes you more than a faceless name their building a house for. What things are negotiable in the price of a home? i.e. what can we ask the builder to lower a price on? There's probably not much you can negotiate on price unless you change the quality /quantity of the product. It's a spec house with a large scale builder in a large neighborhood project. It's in his best interest to build quickly and move on, so any deviation from the standard will cost more money. They purchase materials in bulk to realize more savings so if you want to have that super special back splash tile, You might be able to ask for a credit, and purchase it yourself for installation. It all depends on the builder. Is there any concerns we should have about building during winter? I think the only concern would be for any concrete pouring. Winter mixes need hot water and insulating/heated blankets for curing, so there's a little extra cost incurred for a winter pour. It's not as much a concern until deep winter in Jan/Feb since you have to be careful of multiple sub freezing temps without day time thaws. Once the house is sealed up (windows, doors, and roof) temporary heat will be needed on the inside for work to progress. They won't use the final heating and ducts during the construction process because the dust would destroy the furnace. Might be some more cost because of this. What concerns or problems should we be ready for as buyers? My only experience is with a smaller builder and non-spec house so your mileage may vary (hopefully). We needed to keep a good "war chest" of cash around to advance payments on the bank draw. Accounts are kept on a monthly basis so if the lumber is purchased at the beginning of the month and a bank draw milestone isn't reached, the lumber yard might be breathing down the builders neck to settle the account. Ideally, building will progress quick enough that draws will be made in a timely manner but you might want to be prepared to cut a check for some stuff and get paid back on the bank draw. Also, figure an additional 10%-15% for cost overages and small upgrades. Don't be afraid to ask for a cash penalty for not meeting the move in date. $50-$150/week is a good starting point. See if the builder uses project planning software and ask to privy to the information. If you're getting a basement, use best practices for waterproofing. It's a huge pain in the butt to fix later. What are some asks we should bring to the builder for the home? i.e. what are things that you love in your home, or wish were included originally? If the builder is flexible, you might be able to request upgrades or additional features. Depending on if this is your final house or just a home for the next 10 years will determine if it's worth your money. Think about improved insulation/windows, structure wiring for data/av/security. Hard surfaces can be upgraded in the future, but are more difficult than cabinets and carpets. Unless you're building with a luxury home builder, every aspect of the house will be as close to bare minimum code as possible. For example, interior doors will be present a look nice new, but will be hollow core. Carpet looks nice when new, but it's builders grade and will mat down within 5 years. Insulation will be minimum code. Sockets will be spaced for minimum code, but might not be convenient or plentiful enough. Be aware of these things and see if you're allowed to request upgrades on the "bones" of the house. Structure, electrical, plumbing/gas, lighting, HVAC. Everything else can be changed with more relative ease later. Good luck!