Im posting on this to bring this thread back to life. Lots of good information here. I just saw this post from Uniondawg and feel kind of relieved. Artisian is one of the pool builders I wanted to get a quote from. He didnt seem to want the business. We live out of state, and are building in the Charlotte area. I told him we were coming in for a few days for the sole purpose of meeting with a few pool builders and he couldnt find an hour to give me, even a month out. I felt like I was begging him to take my business. After asking about three different times on two different days and being met with, "thats family time, or Im pretty sure im booked" it was obvious to me he wasnt interested in my business. He was very nice, but strange behavior for a business man. Too many other pool builders in the area to be dealing with that. Plenty of other reputable pool builders out there that want the business.

Probably too late to ring in here, but we just moved from Corona, California and that was a great area with VERY good schools. Crime is low, the area is growing and beautiful and it's just about 40 miles north of Temecula on interstate 5, so Corona is not quite as far to Calabasas. You could get a beautiful 3,000 sq. ft. home in Corona for about $600K. Maybe a little less since the market is slow right now. As for the two-hour estimate on Mapquest, throw that away. NOTHING in the L.A. area takes the amount of time that Mapquest estimates. Mapquest doesn't account for the crazy traffic. You're probably looking at 3-4 hours, on average, to get from Temecula to Calabasas during the oh-so-busy 7 a.m.-10 a.m. window or the 2:30 p.m. - 7 p.m. window. (those are rush hours in the L.A. area.) If you left smack in the middle of the day, between 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m., you could probably make it in 2-1/2 hours if there were no accidents on the freeways. Another area I wanted to suggest, in addition to Corona, is Pasadena and the surrounding cities. I also lived in Covina, which is about 20 miles east of Pasadena, and I always adored Pasadena. A slighly less expensive city would be Monrovia, which has beautiful Craftsman style homes and sits at the base of the mountains so it's just gorgeous. Schools in Monrovia are excellent and you can find great schools in Pasadena, too. One more option, if you want to go a little east, is Glendora. Another beautiful community at the base of the same mountain range, just about 20 miles east of Pasadena. Alta Loma is the next city over and they have fabulous schools there as well. I'd say that, in traffic, Pasadena is about 90 minutes from Calabasas and Monrovia, which is just a few miles to the east of Pasadena, is about the same. Glendora would be about 45 minutes further, in traffic. (and it's always good to assess distance in traffic times because that's when you're going to find yourself doing the bulk of your driving. I've gotten out of the airport at LAX at 11 p.m. on a Sunday night before and found myself stuck in traffic in a taxi on the 405 freeway.) Good luck on your move!!!

mtnrdredux your house is absolutely absolutely amazing! It makes me want to sell my new-built one and go and buy yours! That window seat with the arched stained glass window is a work of art! And your fireplaces and floors!! I also love your style and ALL of your furniture. You aren't too far from us, so if you have a moving sale, please really let me know and I'll come and buy some of your furniture. That's so cool you got married at the house too and what a beautiful setting to do it. My fiance and I are planning on getting married at our new house as well. I'm sure your new home must be magical for you to leave such a lovely home! Thanks for the book ideas- there are a bunch of really cool ones! I definitely have more books than shelves. We've got a quasi-two story library with a library ladder and books to the ceiling :) We've been buying those readers digest books at estate sales, the leather bound condensed books. And old law books. I kept a few of my old law books from law school but they are nowhere near as nice as your husband's collection! beckysharp it is the sun blinding effect that I'm afraid of with the windows that is making me think I'll want to do at least shutters on some of the windows. macybaby, the swag of the chandelier is definitely a good idea. Then I could do the ceiling medallion I want to do as well. fori, I agree 48" seems a bit big for a table. That's why I'm hoping I'll be OK w/ space. That was the size I saw on the first three tables I looked at to get an idea of dimensions when I was talking to my cabinet maker, so I'm not sure why they were all so large!

So glad to hear brick was not painted! The issue with using ordinary house paint is not so much paint chipping off, but that over time the brick itself becomes damaged by moisture trapped behind the paint film. Either a breathable masonry stain or mineral (aka potassium silicate) paint is about all that should be used, But better yet is jjust leaving it and being able to enjoy its original beauty.