Ada, My favorite method of planting is most like that used by busy1. I don't furrow plant but just scatter sow on the surface and gently "pat" the seeds into the soil surface just the tiniest bit. I do water the bed before I plant, and then mist it very lightly afterward. Once they're up about an inch, I thin them. The advantage to using any sort of cover over the seed bed is that it keeps the seeds moist so they'll germinate more quickly and it keeps them from blowing away or washing away before they germinate. I haven't tried the burlap, but have done something similar using large sheets of cardboard. Once they start sprouting, you lift up the covering right away so they don't get black or brown mildewed leaves from having excess moisture. I've done the seed tapes and they work OK but you have to really wet down the paper to get it to soften up enough for them to germinate right through it. Some people use toilet tissue or paper towels because they dissolve more easily. The big advantage is the orderly spacing and the ease of planting. You "waste" less seeds because you don't have to thin them out as much as when you scatter sow. If you're wondering if there is any one method that's better than the other, then I'd say not really. As long as you have loose, friable soil they'll germinate just fine. If you have heavier clay that crusts over, the small carrot plants can have a hard time breaking through the soil surface. You can work around that by planting a radish seed in the row of carrot seed every inch or two. The radishes will sprout first and break the soil surface, thereby paving the way for the carrots. Most radishes are ready to harvest in 3 or 4 weeks, so you'll have a nice early crop of radishes too. Dawn

I would be interested in this swap. I have three acres and about 1/3 of it is shaded by trees or buildings. Anyone have any Columbines or Hostas...and hints on how to keep the deer away from them??

Thank you all SO much for your thoughts. Very helpful!! MrsPete your preferences are very similar to mine. I like the exterior and upstairs of #3 and the kitchen of #2 including the big pantry and a lot of space to work with for a nice mudroom area separate from the laundry. I don't like that you just walk through the laundry room in #1. I'm also not sure about the walk through guest room in #1 but you make a good point about a potential dining room for a future owner (not something we'd ever want). I do like the big master closet in #1 but the bathroom is overkill for us. We don't even have a master bath at home and the one at our current lake home is small and basic and we're okay with that. I definitely agree no need for two bathrooms upstairs. We did look at one house we really liked and I loved the dormers and nooks and crannies - so much more interesting than the basic rectangular spaces. I also didn't think about it until mentioned here that only #2 has a view of the lake from the upstairs bedrooms but the other views wouldn't be bad either. I didn't like the exterior of #1 but having a garage up front is typical and what we're used to so that's okay. I just like the looks of #2 or #3 exteriors better. We also want to keep the structure narrow due to setbacks from a river on the side of the lot and also because we want to keep as much woods as possible between us and the neighbors so garage up front is probably more conducive to that. I think the dining space is okay considering I could expand into adjacent living space if needed for a large crowd. I will check the size of my current dining space though as a reality check. The covered porch would be a screen porch so not sure if that's better or worse in terms of the darkness factor. I did have that concern though. The main living space would have southern exposure. Our current place has skylights in the great room. Do people do that any more? Or skylight in the porch to bring in more light (and more expense of course) I love the covered porch (one place we looked at had that) but with MN mosquitoes we really need screen. It's easy to get caught up in all the things you could have but I'd be fine with something similar to what we have now if I can't afford more bells and whistles. I just want a place that isn't four levels with 43 steps down to the lake and neighbors practically on top of me. I probably should think somewhat about resale but our plan is to die here but things don't always work out as planned. I'm all for "the not so big house" concept - less money spent on square footage and more on features and finishes that give the house more character. To answer the question about what's most important: #1 Kitchen - I love to cook so I have a fair amount of equipment I need a place for. I also love having a kitchen open to the living area. Don't like a sink or cooktop in the island/peninsula and want my sink looking out a window so I'd need to do some tweaking of all these plans to accommodate that along with double ovens. #2 Storage - don't like clutter so I like good space for stuff to be stored out of sight. Our current place has a walk in pantry and two good sized closets by back door and a good sized closet by front door. Not huge closet space in our bedroom now but we each have our own so I'd at least want us each to have our own "side". #3 Bathrooms - not a big priority. A basic master bath is fine (probably not good for resale) and one basic bathroom for upstairs guest rooms and one for downstairs guest room. #4 Master suite - have never really had one and don't need one. Just need a room big enough for the furniture, nice windows overlooking the lake, decent closet space and a basic bathroom. Somewhere we want a longer than average tub (as we have at home now) but it could be in the other main floor bath. If money were no object, I'd probably start with #2 and tweak it to my liking. However I think #3 would be less expensive and it's very close. I'm concerned about making the kitchen the way I'd want it since it's a bit smaller and has no pantry. Also the back closet is small and there's no front closet. The closet issue could probably be addressed by somehow increasing the garage space and encroaching on it. So now we ponder just how much we are willing to spend on this as it's more than we would have spent on an existing home. That's one reason I never really wanted to build - you get more for your money in an existing home if you can find what you want. Plus I get analysis paralysis making decisions and choices. One place we looked at we really liked but it was bigger than we needed and operating costs were quite high but purchase price would have been a lot less expensive than this new build we're now considering. Annkh - where is your lake property?

I don't think that price is outragous considering that there is also a banquette which is probably pretty pricy. It also depends on the configurations (drawers vs doors on the bottom, open shelves, apron sink, etc). I would also check what type of wood they use before it is painted (some do poplar, but maple is a little higher standard I believe). You are also right that Toronto is more than most places than in the US, but NYC I think often offers a good comparison from what my cousin says.