thanks for the info Ken and bunkers. The top of my Vanderwolf is all green, in fact most of it is. Thanks very much "ken_adrian for the link! I've never seen so much as a brown needle on the Vanderwolf so it's shocking to see bright yellow all-of-a-sudden. The yellow needles do match my gingko leaves though ;-)

Thanks for sharing your experience. It's so great to hear from others who have gone through the process. We are building a house out in the country, as well. We are planning on doing the back up generator (we are in wyoming) so it's nice to hear that it is worth the extra cost. We are not putting in a basement (the water table is too high on our property) but I do have some concerns about my laundry/mudroom. I don't know the dimensions but we ended up stealing space from that area to make our master bath even larger. In the end we are doing a stackable washer and dryer but that will leave me room for a big closet for coats, as well as, a smaller closet with a doggie door for the cat boxes. We will also have room for a bench/cubbie unit. I've worried that I will hate the stackable washer and dryer (I'm short and with 3 small kids they will be used alot) but I thought I'd appreciate the extra storage. The mud is ridiculous here but we've been living in a mobile home on our property for a year while we built so I'm hoping that just the extra space (3 kids, 3 cats, 3 dogs in less than 1100 square feet now) will help me look past the mud that will be inevitable for a long time. We are afraid to pave our road because my hubby worries he will just tear it up snowplowing with his tractor in the winter. And it's true that gravel is cheap (relatively) and can make a big difference. We are doing a playroom in the bonus space above the garage but otherwise our house is just one level - thank you so much for sharing.

For the beanies, if they are ribbed at the edge, I would go with the rib cable cast on. There is a video showing how to do it. The lady in the video is a thrower, but you could do it in continental or combination just as easily. It makes a very nice edge. http://www.keep-on-knitting.com/rib-cable-cast-on.html Here is great bind-off for a shawl or scarf. It is stretchy and pretty. It also blocks beautifully and pairs well with the knitted cast-on. http://www.knittingdaily.com/blogs/daily/archive/2008/07/30/a-stretchier-bind-off.aspx If you want a slightly more decorative edge on a scarf or hat, you could use a frilled cast on and a picot bind-off. Frilled cast on: http://www.knittingdaily.com/blogs/daily/archive/2008/07/30/a-stretchier-bind-off.aspx Picot bind-off: http://knitting.about.com/od/learntoknit/ss/picot-bindoff.htm These take a little practice and may seem awkward at first, but the effort is worth it. Enjoy! This post was edited by aliceinwonderland_id on Wed, Jan 16, 13 at 14:21

Wow! I was gone yesterday, when last I saw this there were only 27 posts! I tried to read through all of them, but I'm not sure I caught everything. I tried photoshopping Cilantro's green idea and Holligator's dull gold and a black frame around the stained glass like trailrunner's. I picked the green & gold out of the stained glass; I'm not sure how'll they'll look on everyone's monitors, especially the gold. Sorry, but I only "painted" around the window on the gold. No matter which you decide to do, IMHO the stained glass needs to retain some sort of frame, either the current wood or black. I'm still partial to tzmaryg's idea of the bottom part of the window white and leaving the top part they way it is; that is also a bit of a compromise with your DH. But others have suggested a gel to tone down the redness of the mahogany. Any scraps of the mahogany around to experiment with? Or for the green, maybe the color of your dishes. Sorry, I'm not much help other than trying to give you a mock up and even that may be showing up a little too bright! I hope it helps some, though!