Mindy, I was pretty busy up through the early days of December with fall cleanup and dormant pruning. And then I just sort of got wrapped up with the holidays and visiting relatives. I was really missing GW though. I will send your information on to her - Janet and Steven are really great about adding folks to their newsletter. I think sometime in the future they will be introducing a website as well. For your area, I think she makes twice a year pilgrimages to Massachusetts for very low cost work shops and does demonstration pruning on site at a client she visits twice a year up there. I do like Susan Harris - she is the only one of the quartet though. The other three I'm not keen on though. Susan kindly posted a picture of my front garden one year on her blog and on GR.

skypathway, I burst out laughing at "cul-de-sac location" -- hey, we're on a cul-de-sac--do you think the kids on that cul-de-sac get together and play kick the can and have snowball fights? :) No, seriously, it is stunning. That tub...I wonder if there would be a way to close part of it off so one person can bathe alone, rather than having to fill it *all* up. I have such humble requirements compared to you and amy...the lap pool and stables are all I need... And yes, I agree with you on the door treatments...I was really surprised to see them in such a house. And I can also now envision how much the cats would love them, or at least love them for 10 minutes until they clawed them down... mareda, you're in the Chicago area? I'm so jealous of the fabulous modernist architecture and furniture and modernist-design-community that's to be found there. I didn't know about it that much the last time I was in Chicago (1991), but if I were ever to go back, I can imagine some tour stops I'd be making.

What drive me nuts is when reading real estate listings (I am an agent) someone will invariably write "parkay" floors. I always think of how awfully slippery they must be! They also misspell other commonly used words in our field and I am afraid that the new versions will somehow take hold. Think of good old duct tape. It is now duck tape and commonly labeled that way. I typo all the time and even had to go back to the word "typo" to correct it, lol. However, I do try to catch mine. I see people on FB all the time who seem to make no attempt at spelling or grammar. Frequently they are in college or recently graduated, so you would think they'd have learned by now (my peers' children). I think by the time I was 10 or so, I had a pretty decent grip on the English language. I hate to sound crotchety, but kids these days...... I do my best with our sons (7.5 & 9), but it is an uphill battle with all the errors I catch while watching tv, surfing the web, reading professionally made signs, etc... The younger generation is bombarded with poor examples everywhere they look!

You have already received a lot of advice on sites to post pics to. My fav would be Shutterfly but that's just because I've used it a lot. When looking for pics online if I want to avoid 'kitschy' examples I just add the word 'modern' to the description. Have a look at "google images" for ideas. When I think about modern rustic such items as this "tree stump table" with modern legs comes to mind. There are lots of blogs and sites with rustic style and one can pick and choose ideas from them. "This is a blog I like that shows rustic projects that might inspire." In this techno age your sis can go shopping and send pics by phone to you for your opinion. There must be lots of architectural salvage, antique shops, and thrift stores in the area your sister lives that have lots of rustic decor. I know you both will have a lot of fun with this. You know we'd love to see pics if your sister doesn't mind, or even of rustic decorative items you and she find.