My interior used to be 'casual farmhouse' style, but since the 2 yo grandson came to stay, it might best be described as 'baby clutter'. It's slowly evolving to 'toddler clutter' which I'm sure will eventually descend into 'little boy camp style' followed by 'teenager'. Just as when my own children were still at home, my life revolves around the child in the house and that childs needs, this little guy is the cream in my coffee. The garden style used to be 'tidy farmhouse cottage' but in the past 9 months it has become 'benign neglect.' It still has many beautiful flowers and good structure as a result of 10 years of hard work and careful tending to beds and walkways. But the walkways are still full of last years leaves, the spring bulbs are pushing up through last years dead foliage and ground covers are leaping over edgings and scampering across pathways with joyful abandon. DH and I do very well sharing responsibilities in caring for the little darling-and he is definitely a high-maintenance little dude. I think he could disassemble the lawn mower or climb up onto the roof if we didn't watch him every minute. But that extra duty has cut all of our outdoor time in half. The one sanctuary that I have is my little greenhouse. It's 10'x12' of quiet solitude for me and I actually get to go out there about 4-5 times a week. I can only go out there after DH gets home cause if I take the little darling he wants to swim in the galvanized tub that's currently full of slime and goldfish. The fish will be going back out to their pond this weekend and I will be able to use the slimey water to nourish my plants. then I'll just have to find a tall and strong enough barrier to keep the LD out of the pond. When my three daughters were small I could tell them one time to not do something and they wouldn't do it. Not this guy, telling him not to do something is all the inspiration he needs to set his mind to do it. But hey, he's two, he's a handful, he's delightful and wonderful. I wouldn't want him any other way. Cheryl

My previous house was a 1994 tract-type GenericCape. Borrrring. Reasonably cute on the outside, although whoever designed it was drunk when he chose the window and dormer placements because the proportions were off. But I thought it was plain ugly inside, since the rooms were all open to each other without so much as an empty doorframe or soffit between, and even though it was built in 1994 I swear it was built with all the 1980s crap no one else wanted (guess the builder got it all cheap)! I think the only thing that would have really "gone" with the architecture (such as it was) was Pottery Barn! We had no option at the time of moving to a house that matched our style better, we had a limited budget and the selection in the towns where we needed to live for DH's commute was dreadful - since the only one that was in a great location would have required at least $200k in renovations (on a house that was $265k to begin with), we simply took the best-condition one in our price range. I will admit that I just pretty much rammed my stylistic preferences into it, damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead, and for the most part it did work okay. Probably because the house was SO much of a dull, soulless, boring blank canvas all by itself. I did tame back some of my more over-the-top urges, like the carved-to-death Savonarola chair that I came THIS close to buying :-) because they would have been too much for the house to carry. When we remodeled the master suite I was able to change out all the moldings which made a HUGE difference in getting the atmosphere a little bit more toward the Arts & Crafts-y look I prefer without trying to make it into a bungalow, although we never got a chance to do the rest of the house as we wanted to. Changing lighting to get rid of the "brasstone" and pressed-glass fixtures helped quite a bit. Replacing the ghastly wall-to-wall with hardwood helped a LOT, as did my color choices. We put enough of ourselves into it that it did suck to have to sell it last year, but now it's in the hands of a family who really like it and have promised to take care of it. To keep your birdies from crashing into the windows, why not hang the sheerest of sheers over the window itself, something like an ultrafine linen (fabrics-store.com has an excellent price on it BTW) or a lovely lace (I love Country Curtains' Point d'Esprit Lace) so you still get plenty of sunlight, as a starter? Those hanging stained glass pieces would also go beautifully with your decor style, and they certainly don't need to fill the whole window to prevent your feathered friends from crashing. Then, put furniture pieces like benches, console tables, low bookcases, sideboards, under/in front of those horizontal windows to draw the eye down and give the whole assemblage more vertical massing. If you can do flanking draperies that just barely kiss the floor and that also bracket that piece of furniture nicely, it will look even nicer. Don't do sill- or apron-length WTs because those will just emphasize the horizontal nature of the windows and you want the eyes to be going up and down; I think blinds with horizontal lines (wood, Roman shades, etc.) do the same thing but some others don't agree with me. Walls of draperies do NOT have to look modern if you use the right fabrics in generous amounts and loads of trimmings! Do you think a jewel-toned velvet or a heavy damask trimmed with bullion fringe and wide silk braid would look modern? No way! Now, to get back to your original question about window grids/grilles. I've never used these, but I did have a site called NewPanes in my sixteen gazillion bookmarks. Because of the connectors I'd still want to hang some sheers over them but I think they might look pretty good without completely gutting your poor pocketbook. Fancier but also pricier is Big Blue Window, which makes custom grilles. BTW, I'll be honest. This last time around, the house I REALLY wanted was a 1972 ranch! It was on a good big lot, had excellent exterior proportions so I could have tarted it up into a cute little cottage with some bungalow flavor, and the interior, although a hideously dated 1970s idea of modern, had a LOT of potential to, again, be tarted up quite prettily. The "Victorian Lite" we ended up in was actually our third choice! Now I do think it's a bit bizarre to take an over-the-top detail-loaded Queen Anne and decorate it in an ultra-contemporary fashion (I cringe whenever I see it, and it's getting all too common) or to cram an Eichler type house with Louis Whatshisface gilded frills-and-furbelows, but something really bland can indeed be amenable to some additions.

I like your pragmatism Patricia43, and think you hit it right on the head. Like Lynne said too, there are criteria for choosing a home that are more important than the style of the house you love, and usually the house purchased is a compromise. Still, a person who loves Victorian probably wouldn't choose an ultra-modern flat top house filled with stainless steel and clean lines unless it was the only house for sale in the area they had chosen. I don't think a lot of people would even notice that a style of house is Queen Anne and the furniture is French Country. It would take a big contrast for most people. With so many newer houses being a combination of many styles, anything works. That said, I have a neighbor with a house built in the 1980's, hip roof, center front door flanked by two leaded glass bay windows. The house was bought for the size, acreage, and location. She is from El Paso, and remodeled the house to reflect that style. She raised the ceiling without raising the roof to have an open loft, added a wrought iron staircase with Mexican tile on the treds, put Mexican tile throughout the house, had the walls retextured to look like heavy adobe, and painted the walls in shades of ochre. Her furniture is traditional for the most part, leaning toward southwest, but she does have a grand piano in front of one of the bay windows. I found it a bit shocking the first time I saw it finished, simply because style of the inside is so different from the outside, and yet her decor would go with either. I have another friend who also lives in a modern house, raised panel inside, but she is from Florida, and painted every room a bright color, from lime green in the bathroom, yellow and blue in the kitchen, to orange in the living room. She tiled the living room and kitchen using bright colors. Her furniture and accessories are traditional with some antiques. It is a surprise when first seen by newcomers, but it makes it more like home to her and makes her happy. The only reservation I have with both of these houses is that a lot of the changes they have made are permanent, or at least will cost a lot to change, and will affect resale. But neither plan to move any time soon and aren't concerned about resale, and they are happy with their homes. The bottom line is, do what makes you happy since you are the one who has to live with it.

OK, so I took it again and chose the alternative answers I almost chose previously. Yellow! 'YouâÂÂre contemplative and peaceful. You like to make statements, but in a guided, subtle way rather than being in-your-face. YouâÂÂre intelligent, but you never brag. And no matter what happens, youâÂÂre always able to see the bright side of things.' I'm still sticking with my wood door, but I did paint some adirondack chairs and a swing yellow once upon a time.