We went with stamped concrete in both the front (walkway) and back of our house (patio). The results were striking and, aesthetically, far superior to a basic gray concrete slab. It was one of the best choices we made when building our house. Since you can choose the color, it can really pull the presentation of the house together in a way that simple concrete cannot. In our case, we coordinated it with the color of both the house and the rockery. You can not only choose a base color, but an accent color as well. In addition, it provides visual interest not only through color and pattern, but in texture as well. It is critical that you find a subcontractor who is excellent at doing this work, however. If that is not available, it would be better for you to go with a concrete slab, since stamped concrete is pricy. It is really important to do your homework and to see as many actual samples of the personÂs work as possible. Be aware that different color combinations are priced differently. For example, red colors are much more expensive than those closer to grey. It snows here quite a bit, and I have not had any trouble shoveling our stamped concrete but there are a couple of things to consider. First, you cannot use an ice spade or a metal shovel on it (we have always used plastic anyway, so not an issue). Second, you cannot use salt on it to melt the ice. We use kitty litter instead, which works ok but not as well as salt. In terms of being in or out of vogue, you should do a bit of reading in the Kitchen forum, where avocado appliances are actually discussed and where the kitchen obsessed are seriously concerned about such things. Comments are made all the time about how granite countertops or stainless steel appliances or cherry cabinets will be the next avocado appliance. I have all three and laugh when I read such things. The consensus response to such worries really gets to the heart of the issue: go with what you like or enjoy. What matters is not how cool your neighbors or your friends or your family thinks your house is, because they do not live there. What matters is that you get to live in a house surrounded by things you love. If you make choices based on what "they" think, you will end up living in "their" house... not your own.

I take the rings off for storage, so I re-use my rings all through out the canning process. I have several decent sized boxes of rings that were never used. When one starts looking rusted, I toss it out and grab a new one, and usualy have about 3-4 dozen in rotation during the canning season, and that is for putting up 50 dozen jars. I store my empty jars upside down in cardboard boxes - in the cellar pantry where I also store the canned goods. I do this mostly to keep the dust out, but have not had any problems with rims so far (has not been that many years though). Though we keep a humidifier running down there, I'd be way too worried about rust showing up on rings, as I have issues with rust showing up on rings sitting on my counter. I've not had a problem with rust on never used rings, but once they have been through the canner they seem to rust more easily. My rings are kept in a much dryer closet, but there is not room there for all my empty jars, though I keep the never used ones (with rings and lids still on them) in that closet for the same reason.

Kristen- I see a Screened Porch on the deck above to provide a dry area below. Seems like a perfect fit for your nice home...and you did say that this could be a multi-phase project :) I would add lattice work around the posts underneath and gravel as a base for storage accessed by a lattice framed door. Electronics could go against house midway back. Can't tell from the photos how much headroom you will having after excavation down to the footers. You may indeed have enough height for a use an enclosed room. Doug

I have an online club (10/10) and it's working out great. I'm a member of a yahoo group for scrappers and I started there and that's where my group came from. I'm a CTMH consultant and I love it! I just closed a demo yesterday at $502! Email me if you have more questions- I'll help if I can! KIM