What a post! Would it bother you if I copied it and sent it to my greenhouse teacher? From working at a garden center: "What are these?" -"Fluffy seed pods from a Clematis" "No way, they never had them before!" -"Yep, that's what they are." "I want a SECOND opinion" -"Sure, hey ... do you happen to know what these are?" *Quizzical look at me* "Clematis seeds..." *Some more argument from customer on the subject* "Well, they're hideous." Yeah, that was an interesting one. It's not uncommon to have customers ask for a second opinion on an insect problem or something like that when they don't like the answer. I was really taken back by this one though. Many conversations begin with: "You know that tree in that yard by the church on ivelivedhereallmylifebutneverheardofit street? What is it?" You can never own too many pairs of Crocs. Keep pennies on hand for the kiddies to throw in the fountain. Harry Lauder's Walking Stick makes a wonderful conversation piece next to the cash register. When ordering petunias, if it doesn't say "wave" don't bother. People have no idea what they're exposure is like. -Use words like South and West, then ask them questions like, what time they eat dinner in the summer and where. If the answer is 5:30 on the back deck, ask them if they have to wear sunglasses or a sweater and go from there. If customers start a pile of plants next to the register, organize them by price. There is one customer every day that wants you to landscape their entire yard 10 minutes to closing. Know and accept this fact. Know plants in this order: -Vague description -Culture requirements and common name(s) -Deer resistance -Scientific names

An emphasis on students finding information for themselves, and focusing on topics that they are interested in, is important throughout school, and I would argue, grows more important as students grow older and are able to make better choices. Here is an article that studied how children retrieve information from a library online catalogue. Without intending to, the author found that students being taught with a more student-centered curriculum (he doesn't use that term) were far better at finding information creatively - the way we all do in life, with no multiple-choice options. It is kind of a long article, but here is an excerpt: "Important contributors to children's information retrieval behavior are their motivation, purpose, and interest in their topics. During the course of this study, it became clear that some students were more involved in the information retrieval process than others. For some, it was an adventure and challenge that carried them to new understanding of the material they were studying. Their products went beyond copying facts from their readings to point out discrepancies and unanswered questions and, thus, to display their critical thinking skills. These children's experiences also led them to develop more advanced information skills, which they needed in order to pursue their interests in depth. For instance, the group of first graders studying planets soon began to share information about their planets and to propose theories that related the characteristics of the planets to their size and distance from the sun. Their written reports contained ideas and questions about such matters as what it would take to allow people to live on presently uninhabited planets. "For others, that spark of interest was missing. These children found the minimal information they needed to satisfy the assignment but contributed little of their own thinking and did not advance their information skills. Their products were simple lists of facts without interpretation or comparison. For instance, when fifth graders were asked to write reports about the states, their assignment sheet contained a list of pieces of information to be included in each report (e.g., population, area, major cities). Not surprisingly, their actual reports provided 'just the facts.'" Here is a link that might be useful: Children and an OPAC

Well in fact, we do have an "orangerie", which is generally another name for a conservatory, as I learned from the British firm that built ours. However, it is open on one side to our indoor pool. The indoor pool air is kept dry through the use of an enormous piece of eqp called a Dectron. It is the reason no one ever feels any humidity when they come into our house, despite the indoor pool. But, it makes it very hard to grow plants in orangerie/conservatory/greenhouse. We have a disco ball in there and hula hoops instead, LOL. It's a great place for the kids to play loud music that we can't hear!

I was explaining that the master closet is underneath the roof and cannot have windows so there is no missed opportunity there. No but the opportunity is to have a better floor plan. This is a decent jumping off point, but the idea is to work to fix what doesn't work. We found a floor plan online that we liked so we went to build off of that. If you found a floor plan online, then if your "architect" modified it, then he's in copyright infringement. My in laws can hopefully come stay for one month a year and would need their own space but if it's used as a children's bedroom in the future, or guest room, that's fine too. If your in laws come to visit but one needs a walker how will they maneuver in such a small bathroom? If you're building for them to visit for a month, i'd think you'd want to get it right now so they too will feel comfortable. The bedroom bathrooms upstairs have small closets for storage . So what you're saying is that anytime the child needs to get stuff for their braces, or later their hair stuff or even makeup when older, they have to go between the vanity and the closet which is not next to the vanity. I don't have space for a fourth bedroom upstairs No one said you need a fourth bedroom upstairs. I'm asking for help and everyone is telling me it sucks without actual solutions so I'm at a loss here We're telling you it needs work. It's not there yet. I can tell you I had posted at least a dozen iterations on my plan here before we got it right. We kept going back and forth with the draftsman (if we had it to do over, we would have started with a LICENSED architect) and it was because I listened to the architects and those who knew better than me at the time on this forum, that my house basically follows all those best practices and then some. (It also helps that I do have a design background and at one point even was going to become an interior designer.) BTW: Did you check your architect's license with your state board? What direction does the house face? And what do the elevations look like? What does the roof look like?