I discovered what turned out to be a single potted Greek Columnar basil plant in a big tray of Genovese basil at a nursery 3 or 4 years ago. I never had heard of that cultivar at the time, and anyway, it was labeled as Genovese. I bought it just because the leaves did not look like Genovese - a bit more kinky, sort-of - so I assumed it was a sport and I like to give underdogs a chance and see what happens. LOL As it grew and had a markedly different growth habit than Genovese, I did some research on basil cultivars. As fall came on and this plant had become almost a shrub about 3’ tall and yet never had produced even a flower stalk even though I had not been pinching it back, I realized GCBasil was what I had. Since that basil is a perennial that rarely flowers (though I have had some flower for me as the last couple of summers have been long & hot), when it does, those are sterile so it never sets seed. (I am in central OH.) I took a half-dozen or so cuttings from that first plant, and they rooted in a glass of water even easier than holy basil. As an experiment, a couple of winters ago I left one young potted plant (that I'd started from a cutting in late summer) in my SE facing bay window. I wouldn’t say it was the happiest of plants, but it lived and did grow enough for me to use a few leaves now & then. Come warm weather, I put it back outdoors & it adjusted just fine. I have lost count of how many plants since then I have started and shared (and also sold to help fund our Senior Center garden!). Right now, under lights in my basement I have 6 bushy potted plants started from cuttings taken last fall, and recently I struck another 8 from cuttings made from those that were getting so big & bushy! The larger 6 have kept me in fresh basil all winter. :-) CK

FWIW central and northern Alabama have been drier longer and hotter longer than we have . We reached exceptional extreme drought in June; parts of AL have had it since early spring. Back in June some parts of TN were normal. Now we're all extreme drought or worse. But we are still hurting. Tulip poplars were badly damaged by our very late Easter hard freeze; now they are dropping leaves almost everywhere. Box Elders may be leafless in several more days. Kudzu is wilted as are other common weeds. We are out in the country and for the past three months, our forest trees have been dropping large limbs. Not limbs that show rot or insect damage after falling, but just limbs with leaves intact. We've got about 100 acres of woods and will probably take so much of the downed wood this fall as to heat our house for several years. And that's without getting into the deep part on the cliff. We have rocks emerging from the hay fields where there were less than two square feet of rock showing, there's now about six square feet as the clays shrink. South facing mountains sides look more damaged than north facing sides. On some mountains I watch I'd guess at least three percent of the trees are already dead (foliage and all). Every day I see more dead trees from my kitchen window, and these are trees that are massive and old. And sad.

Thank you so much for the responses. Sorry, I didn't reply sooner. antss - I'll check out the Kohler. Thanks for the heads up. mongoct - thanks for the detailed reply. I really appreciate the time you took. I agree that it doesn't look like we have much storage in the bathroom. However, the closet near the shower is 8 1/2 feet long and the other one is a little over 13 feet. Rather than add another door for a linen closet in the bathroom, we decided we would just have shelving in one of the closets for the excess linens. I think it will work for us given all that space & the fact that we have additional storage for off-season clothing. Yup, already got "beaten up" about the 2' doors on the new home forum (reposted there since I wasn't getting nibbles here & that is more my "home".) Anyway, I thought it was OK since we have a 2' door in our current powder room. Upon reflection, I think we will increase those to 2'4" to avoid banging knuckles when carrying a laundry basket. The WC compartment in our current master bath is 2'8"x5'2" with an in-swinging door which is on the side. I don't know if code is different in TX or the spec builder just got away with it. These plans were drawn up by an SC designer to build in SC. I'll ping the builder about code so we don't have any surprises. I was more than beaten up about this on the other forum with claims that 3 feet wide was absolutely insufficient to exist in. We must just be weird because our current room is fine & this is a touch bigger. We have used our WC room as a "mockup" & measured where the door would swing on the new one. Well, you have me there about the open door. ;^) Like I said, we're weird. I know that I won't be seeing much when its steaming, I was more interested in the sense of light I would get when sitting there. I want to maximize that. The steam shower is mostly for me (& our future septic tank). I take very long showers because I just stand there daydreaming & thinking. We had the idea that if I could sit in the shower surrounded by steam, I wouldn't go through so much water. I do think the seat is a problem. I couldn't get the designer to put in a bench deeper the 12", so I finally gave up & asked for a corner seat. Its seems like a bench should be between 15"-18" deep & long enough so I could lean against a wall & stretch my legs out along it. (I'm only 5'2" so that's not much length.) Do you have suggestions about height, length, depth & which wall to put it along? I've never had a rainshower experience so I don't really know what I want. In our current shower, we replaced the fixed showerhead with a Waterpik, so that is the extent of my direct experience with shower fixture technology. Pretty sad, right? I know we have to have a handshower, but that can also be what we use for general washing, right? I'd like body jets to be able to direct to parts that get sore (my shoulder & DH's elbow). I think if we are going to have a rainshower is should be the real deal as you described it. I was looking at Moen because that is what the plumbing supply house quoted as the basis for our builder's bid, but we're not limited to Moen. Also, our builder has no issue with us providing fixtures & our allowance will be credited. Since I have the quote sheet, I know that the builder's discount brings us in line with what we could get off the internet, so I have no problem going with the supplier for most things. I agree that the Moen system looks like a mess, but DH is leery about the digital alternative which is much sleeker. (And, we're both EE's; go figger.) Thank you so much for the advice about the Hansgrohe. I think that is exactly what I need. I did a quick look online & the (cheapest) trim kit + rough-in is ~$350. I read through the installation manual so I can start thinking about what fixture I want to go to which port. I assume that I can get whatever fixtures I want to work with the Hansgrohe, right? Again, I really welcome the advice & I understand what you were saying about the doors. I will quiz the builder on the WC room swing & code. Thanks - Jo Ann

We are framed for transoms, but the only ones up so far are the back exterior doors. We chose not to put them on the front of the house, but will have them over all the doors inside. I don't know if these photo's will help. We also have 10' ceilings. If you have specific questions I can get my DH to answer you because I don't know all the measurements, etc. He's building our house. You can e-mail us directly. My e-mail address is listed on the forum my page. BACK OF HOUSE INTERIOR BACK OF HOUSE FRONT PORCH Also, tell your GC that the transoms don't have to be operational. It's your call. We will have ours operational on the interior doors only because we live where the summers are so hot and if we can get the air circulating, it's better for us. NOTE: on the front door. It will be a double beveled glass door and the height is as you see the temporary door. We went back and forth on whether to put transons in the front and side lights vs double door. My DH made the final decision on what it is now and it looks fine to me.