fragaria,I was very impress with the beautiful photos of your woodlands,especially the photos of the paths leading out into the forest.The sense they gave of having wilderness access right in the backyard,was very evocative.What beautiful place to live.And those shots fragaria posted of the north carolina woods with the mountains in the distance made me catch my breath.I enjoyed comparing the two ecosystems and though it would be a great idea for everyone to post images of thier locale so that we might all compare and contrast the difference enviroments.TO answer your question,that was a picture of my front yard,the small pile of split posts in the center is a future tomatoe patch(I'm running out of sunny spots in the back).

No matter how picky your are now, you're going to find more stuff after you close. It is also possible that your builder will try to rush you when you do your walk thru with him. I would advise taking a couple of very persnickity (sp??) friends with you this weekend and spend several hours going over each room and making lists of the stuff you find so that, when you're doing the final walk thru it is actually just a time to point out issues to the builder - not be looking for them. People seeing the place with fresh eyes will see problems that you noticed months ago, that your builder promised to fix, but then somehow never got around to doing. Consider making it a game to see who can find the most things that need fixing. Doing the real looking prior to the "final walk-thru" will also allow you to present your builder with a nice typed up list of issues. Keep a copy for yourself and then check issues off as they are corrected. Otherwise, chances are, half the stuff you point out will never get corrected. Some things to look at: Whole House _ Turn every light switch on and off. _ If you have ceiling fans with multiple speeds, check that they work on every speed. _ Test every electrical outlet (both top and bottom as we've actually found that on a number of outlets in our current house - which was purchased from a previous owner - only one half of the outlet has power and the other half is dead!) _ Open and close every window. If your windows tilt out to clean, check that function on every window as well. _ Open and close every door, interior and exterior. _ Check that doors are plumb and square. The crack around a door should be even on all sides when the door is closed and you should not be able to see light coming from the other side except at the bottoms of interior doors. _ Lock and unlock every lock _ Check that walls are plumb, that there are no nail pops and that the paint is even. BTW - nail pops are where the nails holding sheetrock to the studs back up slightly. You see them as little round bumps in the paint. You should not be able to tell where the edges of sheetrock panels are. Nor should you be able to notice any dips or high places in the walls where they taped and floated the sheetrock. _ Check floors. Tiles should have even and straight grout lines; hardwoods should not have gaps between boards; seams on vinyl flooring should not be noticable; carpet should be tight and should not show seams; etc. _ Check ceilings. You should not be able to tell where the edges of the sheetrock panels are. - Take a sprinkler with you and set it so that water falls down against your windows (simulating rain) and check for leaks on the inside. You should not see ANY water on the inside. (Caution - don't spray water UPWARD against your windows as you may drive water through the drainholes, set the spinkler so that water falls downward against the windows.) _ Check that smoke detectors are working. Kitchen/Laundry Room/Pantry- _ Check that every appliance is working properly * Refrigerator * Freezer * Dishwasher (run thru a cycle to ensure no leaks and that it actually cleans dishes. We bought a house once where the dishwasher seemed to work when we tested it but when we actually tried to wash dishes, they never got clean. It turned out that the water had never been attached and the little bit of moisture we were seeing was just moisture from the air!) * stove top - check every burner * oven * microwave * garbage disposal * washer (again, run a cycle to make sure its not leaking and that it doesn't dance around) * dryer (run a cycle with some clothes to make sure it doesn't dance. Also, make sure the dry vent is hooked up!) _ Open and close every cabinet and every drawer to make sure they function properly. _ Look inside each cabinet and drawer to make sure it is finished properly. _ Turn both hot and cold water on at the sink. Fill the sink with water and then, after a while, check under the sink for evidence of leaking. Check around the sink to make sure that it is properly sealed to your countertop. _ Check the countertop for flaws. Check the edges of countertops especially carefully as these can easily get chipped or scratched (depending on the type surface) during the building process. Bathrooms _ Actually step into shower stalls and bathtubs to make sure they feel solid underfoot. Acrylic tubs and shower bases that "give" underfoot will crack over time. _ Run water in every sink and bathtub and make sure they hold water without leaking. (Look under the sinks for leaks). _ Run the showers. _ Make sure you get hot water when you turn on a hot water spigot. Try it at every sink, tub, shower, and in your washing machine. _ Run water at several locations at the same time to make sure you have adequate water pressure. _ Check that both heating and air conditioning work. _ Test that bathroom fans work. _ Flush all toilets several times to make sure they stop running when the tanks refill. (Having a bunch of friends out for several hours also means your toilets may actually get "field tested" to make sure they really flush adequately... which not something you are likely to test while doing a walk thru with your builder!) _ Make sure toilets sit solidly and evenly on the floor and are properly bolted down. There should not be any "rocking" motion when you sit down. MISCELLANEOUS _ If your builder installed blinds or operable shutters (inside or out) make sure they work properly. _ If you have a real fireplace, build a fire in it and make sure the chimney draws properly. If you have a gas fireplace, make sure it works as advertised. _ Check that you OUTDOOR water spigots work. _ Check all outdoor electrical outlets as well. These often get over-looked. _ Check your garage door openers. Also make sure that, it something is in the way of the door as it comes down, that the door stops and goes back up. _ If you have an attic access ladder, pull it down and make sure it works smoothly. _ Climb into the attic and make sure you have the amount of insulation you are supposed to have. - If you're really lucky and it rains while you are checking out your house this weekend, go up into the attic with a flashlight and look for roof leaks. - Take a sprinkler with you and set it so that water falls down against your windows (simulating rain) and check for leaks on the inside. You should not see any. _ Make sure gutters are fully attached to walls and designed to drain water away from your house. _ Check that ground around the house has been graded so that it slopes away from the house. This is all just "off the top of my head." I'm sure if you think about it you can add dozens of other things to check for. And, no doubt other posters will chime in with other things to add to your check list. Ultimately, you don't have to insist that the builder fix every little tiny thing. If something won't bother you - or if you can fix it easily yourself and don't mind doing so, point it out to your builder anyway and, once you've gone over everything you can cross those items off your list as a way to show you're being reasonable but that the rest of the list IS important to you. PS - check your contract and see if you allowed to hold back any portion of your final payment until the check list items are done. (This is called "retainage") If your contract doesn't allow for retainage, then DON'T accept that the house is finished until ALL the major stuff on your list is completed. Don't move in and don't close until there is nothing left on your list that you don't mind doing yourself. Without retainage, once you close you will have zero power to actually get your builder back to finish up the rest of the items on the check list. If he is a good guy, he'll probably get around to it eventually but you'll be low on his priority list. Others though, once they're paid, that is the last you'll see of them. So if you find anything major, tell your builder that the house is simply NOT ready for the final walk-through yet and he need to do X, Y, and Z and then you'll reschedule the final walk through.

Lots of really good light is necessary. Trying to differentiate between the navy blue pants and the black pants and then trying to find socks that match is hard without good lighting. I'm always having to bring my stuff out of the closet into the bedroom where the light is better to figure it out. I have a mix of hangers - padded ones for blouses, clipped ones for skirts, my Dh likes wooden ones for suit jackets and I like really strong ones for my jeans - and those are really hard to find these days. Costco often sells nice packages of hangers. Think about what you are storing other than clothes - shoes, purses (I have a deeper shelf at the top for purses so as to keep those pesky straps under control and they are in cubbies that hold about 4 purses each), accessories such as scarves, belts.

Thank you everyone. We went back and forth all day today, and settled with them paying half closing costs and leaving us all of their outdoor furniture (wicker porch chairs, nice conversation set, and a glass table with chairs). They are also leaving their bamboo Roman shades. Final amendment has been signed!!! I finally feel like the deal is fair, but I definitely didn’t feel that way with us paying for all closing costs and getting nothing else out of the deal. Honestly, I didn’t think the siding and roof were as big of a problem, but my realtor freaked out over it. The inspector told me that he has seen people walk away from a home with those particular features. It can just be so hard when you aren’t the expert and have to make such a big decision. And yes, this is my dream home! I have posted some pics in another thread but here are some pictures from the listing. But it did work out! I feel like we