Moved back to IA from TX 15 years ago. Bought a house that said in the listing something about a lot of perennials and gardens. I was disappointed when we saw it. There was a row of green and white hostas in the front, a row of iris on one side, bushes on the other and two small beds in the back with daylilies, sedums and peonies and not much else. Bought a hosta grab bag by mail, it arrived as a bag of unmarked roots. Planted them in and around the line of green and whities. Years later tore off the deck, built a porch and decided it was time to do something about the patch under the maples without grass. Was told to plant hostas, lamium and perennial geraniums. (found out later it was because it was so dry because of the hard maples. Now I just water every second or third day.) So I split the ones i had and thought all was well until a friend gave me Guacamole. I thought I didn't have room, she said there is always room for another hosta. I didn't know there were so many varieties, started looking online. Ordered a bunch online with same friend, thought I would never care about names, threw out all the tags. (I can hear you all groaning!) Next year saw Blue Shadows online, searched and couldn't find it. Ordered a bunch more, cared about their names, painted all their names on rocks. Still don't know some of the first ones. :( Ended up with two of some of them. :) Saw Blue Shadows, searched high and low for it online. Ordered it, not Blue Shadows. :( Kept searching..... Met a great lady at the Des Moines farmers market, who has become a dear friend, and have learned so much more from her. Found the forum, learned more. Bought more, planted more, bought more, planted more....haven't counted lately, but close to 400 varieties, or maybe over. (I also have a duplicates of some of my favorites. Some examples... June is a lot of different places and is one whole tree ring in the back. I have a tree ring of Golden Meadows and a row of daylilies with a rainforest sunrise in between each one. ) And then I finally found Blue Shadows thanks to Paul putting me in touch with JIm. It is as gorgeous as the photo I saw. And now my yard is becoming what I had envisioned that day I read the listing. It isn't all hostas, there are a lot of clematis, daylilies, and other sun perennials around the edges. But it is funny as the sun lovers are all blooming out trying to find the sun since I have a lot of trees. I should have just planted all hostas. he he he

Chipsa, if one climbs stairs from one habitable level to another habitable level there are two (2)habitable floor levels. What we may have here is a real estate/consumer terminology vs. the building code/architectural terminology. In determining floors, it matters not if the second level is under the roof, has pony walls or full height walls. Horizontal or sloped ceilings have nothing to do with the number of floors. The historical Cape Cod simply was an economical approach to a 2-story house, with the second story in the attic, under the existing roof framing! Dormers may or may not have been added for light on the rake side of the roof. But it was clearly a 2-story house with habitable floors on two levels. History is full o examples of buildings with unusual floor definitions. The mansard roof, for example, was a device to add a floor in Parisian houses without having to pay taxes for another floor in the house (it was under the "roof", not a normal floor enclosed by walls as defined by the tax regulations). Today, no one questions that it was a habitable floor despite the fact that it was under the sloping "roof" and illuminated by dormer windows. To determine floors, just count the floors connected by stairs--it's that simple! If there are stairs connecting two habitable levels it's a 2-story building. Conncecting three habitable levels means a 3-story house. The definition of floors really has nothing to do with wall types, wall heights, types of ceilings or types of windows. The only way one would have 1.5 stories is if one floor is only a half level above the next. Sometimes these are called "split levels", but even these most generally have a portion with one habitable floor above another. All of that said, it's really not that important whether one prefers to call something 1.5 stories or 2 stories. It's just important to remember whether one is talking in marketing terms or in terms of the building code and design/construction. Whatever floats one's boat!

Thanks for all your hard work Karen! Can't wait to read it in its entirety. Jodi-

17 years ago in my sisters small town in Illinois...I was wrestling my kid into his car seat...he was fitful and kept unbuckling it...we had been in the grocery store to visit my sister in the deli she ran so I was just carrying my wallet...I sat it on top of the car...and of course...you know I got the kid in the car and drove off...and didn't remember it till a few minutes later when pulling into my sisters driveway...I rushed back...saw bits and pieces of my wallet strung across the highway...my sister said...go to the police station...my money...my credit cards...my passport...everything of value was in there and I was 400 miles from home...I walked into the police station and he's holding my passport up and chatting with my husband on the phone...I was so embarrassed that I had done a lamebrained thing...he just laughed...a women saw it fall off...stopped and picked it up and took it to the police station...but wouldn't leave her name...I wrote a letter to the editor of their small paper and he published my thank you note to the wonderful stranger who saved my vacation... 9 years ago our Duncan Doggie got out and took off...we looked and looked for over a week...he was tagged so we were thinking the worse that he'd been killed...sure enough a week to the day the phone rings and a women says "Are you Duncan's Mom? we flew outta the house and over to where he was some 10 miles away...that 80 pound dog jumped into my hubands arms...I pulled my husbands emergency cash from his glove compartment and gave it to them...they looked like they could use it and it will keep them honest...they didn't want to take it but I made them...Getting that doggie back was worth 100 times what we gave them...He said "Seeing that dog jump into your husbands arms was reward enough for me"... and my last honesty story...At Christmas I was waiting in the car while my son went into a store and had put my purse down at my feet...my son came out to the car to ask me a question and opened the door instead of waiting for me to roll down the window...We get 5 miles away and to the next store and I have no purse...I raced back to where we were and a nice couple were sitting in their car waiting for me to come back...I had bought gas gift cards for my kids that day...I hopped outta the car and gave them one...the thought of losing my purse was by far more then I gave them... Yes there really are lots of honest people still left in this big wide world and I thank my lucky stars to meet up with so many of them...If I had a nickel for every cell phone I've mailed to some passenger who's left it on the plane I could retire...I firmly believe that what go's around comes around...so I do my part in returning stuff I find (and believe me I find lots of stuff left on planes!)