Mel, I would've loved to have met you! Was it your son's graduation from UNC? Can't remember where he went to school! Happy Mother's Day! Trish, I wish we could've seen y'all too! With my back and Dad's travel schedule we were lucky to pull off what we did. I enjoyed seeing you again, Jody and meeting your DH. Dad wants to know if he's interested in consulting assignments, BTW, lol. I'll drop you an e-mail through GW if yours works. Pagan, ever elusive and mysterious ;] We'll meet in the flesh sometime!

Lynn, WOZ is one of my favorite movies. I can remember when I was young being so excited every time it would come on tv. When Hallmark started making the ornaments, the tree just started slowly growing. OA, it makes me smile too every time I walk by it! Some of the ornaments play different lines from the movie, and I can't resist pushing the buttons to make them play every time I go by the tree. Sandi, did you catch it when it was on tv a few weeks ago? My youngest daughter and I piled up in the bed and watched it together. I tried to get my middle daughter to watch it with us, but she wouldn't. She's 13 and has never watched the entire WOZ movie. I think she's seen bits and pieces of it, but when she was a little girl, she said it scared her. So she's never again tried to watch it. Bourbonlady, it's a sad situation isn't it? I declare, it's always something that I'm nagging my husband to do or finish. Sometimes I think I'd be better off just learning to do these things for myself. Luvs, thank you! There are actually several more ornaments that Hallmark made that I didn't buy at the time they came out. I think I skipped about 3 years buying them...now I need to try to get them off ebay. I'm planning to wait until after Christmas though so maybe the prices will go down. There's one that I really want called "I'm Melting". It's a motion ornament and has the witch melting into puddle and it plays the lines that the witch said. The price on this one right now on ebay is ridiculous - anywhere from about $45 up to $99. I'm not that crazy yet I don't think! Lynne, I like your suggestion of having the yellow brick road going up the tree! I'm keeping that in mind for next year. One other thing I'd like to do after Christmas is to paint "bricks" on the yellow tablecloth that I have covering the table. Thanks Mo! You know, this is my youngest daughter and my grandsons' favorite of all my trees. I think it's all the ones that "talk" and have motion...they all just love it. dd50, someone else had mentioned WOZ nutcrackers...I have never seen any of those. I wish I could find some of them to put under the tree. That would be cool! Dorothy, you sooo need a WOZ tree! How cool would that be!!

Good Luck Julie. I too asked my realtor about "living" in my house instead of waiting poised for a buyer in this strangely decluttered house. He said live, keep it clean, make the beds, plug in the scent diffusers when I leave for the day. If a house is more or less clean I don't think a serious buyer would mind signs of people living in a house. I myself decided not to open all the curtains all day long in the middle of summer. That would heat up my house unbearably. There haven't been too many showings anyway... What I wanted to mention, a while ago I saw your listing with the "issues" about your yard. Like someone else said, perhaps your husband could rent a jackhammer and take out the shuffleboard court. It may not be as difficult as you think. Break it apart and haul the concrete to the dump. A few months ago I removed 2 concrete-based messes that I had suffered with for years. I dug out 50 year old chain link fence posts with massive balls of concrete at the ends. I sledged and then paid my handyman to sledge a 4 foot circular, 8 inch deep pile of excess concrete left by workmen who didn't know how to measure concrete and brought too many wheelbarrows of it into my back yard. Wish I had done these things sooner. I would leave the pool as is and enjoy it. I'm sure when/if you decide to sell, the right buyer will appreciate your serviceable pool. Good luck and enjoy the rest of your summer.

I did a quick read through, but have to come back and digest this better later. I will answer a few questions, but my brain isn't awake yet and will suely miss some. I probably should get some more printer paper today and print this out so I can answer questions better. I'm not really very concerned about security. Although I know fences can be cut, we installed nasty barbed wire all the way around our 10 acres, with a farm fence strong enough to keep horses in. Seems to be the norm here. It keeps the cows in, and sends a message to outsiders. We will eventually put a sensor alarm on the gate and on the house, etc. That said, we don't have problems in this area, since everyone living in this area is of a self sufficient mind set, and have no problems whatsoever using the means necessary for self defense. If someone wants to get you bad enough, they'll get you, so I don't worry about glass doors. There are a few cracker styles in existance. The dogtrot was one of them, but there were also single pen, double pen, saddlebag, shotgun, I-houses (were two story), and in the early 1900's the Georgian, Southern Plantation, and Victorian styles began to appear. The most important theme that ran through all of them was the protective porches. If fireplaces were used, they went on the gable ends, and because of this, had no porch in that area. The kitchens were almost always an outbuilding, but generally attatched to the porch. Haven't made a final decision on the loft yet. I guess I am leaning away from it after looking at my husband's engineering drawings. It makes for a VERY complex construction. We also ran into logistics with floor planning and subsequent lining the sight lines of the upper windows with the open lower area (great room). It all ripples, and I've about given the loft up. I don't have the energy anymore to deal with making a complex situation work out. Ten months ago, maybe, but I'm getting burned out now and just want my house. Over the weekend we visited a building that had a large gazebo connected to the house at the porch deck. I could envision that as a sewing studio. What surprised me was there wasn't a feeling of going outside the house to another building. The 8 foot porch span to the other structure didn't seem any different than a hall, and had a "safe" feeling. I will have a kitchen island, but have decided on not having a fixed one. I.m afraid of it eventually annoying me by having something in the middle of my room that couldn't be moved without demolition. We would never sit and eat at it, as some people do. We like the kitchen table. I actually have no problem with the table in the kitchen, as long as it doesn't block a working path. What I am planning is to purchase a 60 inch by 30 inch Boos brand kitchen island, with the bOos Block maple top, and put their heavy duty casters on it. I will need to provide a spot to put it when not in use, but I have an idea of the east side having two storage closets flanked by a window in the middle. That makes a storage spot for it. They are expensive, but not nearly as costly as a built in unit. A foyer, as this idiot has redrawn it, should never be a narrow corrider. I don't even really care if there is a foyer or not, but unless the kitchen or great room were in a position to make a logical entrance, we may need one. Foyers can also make a logical transition space in which to branch utilitarian rooms off of, but they have to be done just right. i would most likely opt to keep it large and open, and making sure it could double both as entry and a sort of "library" area. We decide that one really nice master bath is what we will do, with the second bathroom close by. An optimal design would place close enough to be convenient to the master, but still convenient to the rest of the house. Most of the time my husband and I don't really have issues with sharing the bathroom, but there are certain times when I'd like more privacy. I saw pictures of glass french doors connecting the master bedroom and bathroom. It was situated where a beautiful bathtub and vanity were in view, along with the windows there, and the toilet and shower, linen closet out of direct view. How the indirect area was arranged, I don't know, but that shouldn't be too difficult to figure out. It evoked a feeling of being on vacation in a serene and luxurious setting. If you were to look at a blank rectangle in front of you, the long side near you is the "front" of the house (east). The other long rectangle that is the "back" is west looking at our woods. This is where we want all the good stuff. The right hand side is north, which is where the driveway will lead to, and my kitchen quadrant. The left side is south, and where the master quadrant is. No point of our property has view of any other homes, and no aspect of it is unattractive. It's just that the backside has the mature oaks, so is a little prettier. At least until I get some other trees going. I have no problem rotating directions of rooms. In other words, the master area can run sideways rather than up and down, IF it worked better with the whole layout that way. I'm thinking where the original "study" was, give or take some rearranging, could be the entry, with laundry area or bathroom or whatever could flank off of. However, the entry could also be into the kitchen area somewhere. We are not formal people. I would like to come up with a neat idea on how to have my large freezer and an extra refrigerator convenient to the kitchen, or even a part of it somehow. I don't want these items stored far from the kitchen ever again. Maybe I need a kitchen entrance where they sit, which then opens right into the kitchen. I don't believe in garbage disposals either. I compost all my scraps. I have two Can 'O Worms vermicomposting bins in the barn. They keep my husband company in his office. I am not going to short change myself on space within the needed areas. With this amount of square footage and no other bedrooms needed, it would be silly to make our bedroom and bathroom, kitchen etc. cramped from the get go. I would actually prefer a 16 by 15 bedroom, so that I could put an old fashioned makeup dressing table in there, and a nice blanket chest. Things that make a room. After living in this small mobile, with a 12 by 12 bedroom, and a king size bed in the middle, I never want to go back to that. If this wasn't temporary, I would be moving out. There is no reason for me to "settle" since we have a clean slate. Though a 32 foot depth on the gable ends is an economical foundation to build, if we need to go a little wider we will do it. Most likely, we can make a satisfactory layout based on the 32 ft depth. I need lots of storage, but not because I got into the habit of hoarding, like many people do. I use everything I own. Some more often than others. My fabric collection is quite extensive, but that's my hobby. I could fill a large 8 by 8 closet with sewing supplies. I have lots of books, all used at various times. There are also various embroidery hoops to my machine, cutting mats, which all need careful storage. many things, like threads, interfacings, stabilizers, can be bought bulk to save money, so that's what I do when I see a good deal. So...I could easily fill space and gave up on trying to cram it in the house and not being satisfied. I decided I was not going to communicate with this most recent designer again. I'm done. There is something wrong with this man. Maybe it is medical. Maybe it is self induced. I don't know and don't care at this point. I've written this off as a $500 loss. I told my husband if I am doing all the work I am certainly not giving this guy a floor plan that he will sell to someone else and profit from. Thank goodness my husband has the Chief Architect software. It appears very tedious and "I" would never be able to figure it out, (also known as no desire to figure it out) but am sure happy he has the knowledge and enjoys computers the way he does. So anyway, I think it best for me not to look at the screwed up plan at all any more. It makes planning a good design impossible. Well, have to run. Have my doctor appointment.