arichard...which company does your mom work for? For my day job, I am an executive for one of the largest banks in the country, and THE largest home lender in the country. My people do loans in all 50 states and U.S. Territories. In the thousands and thousands of loans I've seen my folks do, not ONCE have we ever ordered a home inspection. Not one single time. We do require appraisals...which are not home inspections. The only time a home inspection is brought into the transaction is when it becomes part of the contract. i.e. there is an addendum written that addresses problems from the home inspection. Every agent in the world knows to keep those types of comments out of the contract. I have seen sales fall through because of home inspections. They USUALLY are from sensationalized problems...and even just flat wrong...such as the inspector who said the whole house needed rewiring because there was a ground problem in the house. Sure was...the house was old and only had two prong receptacles. What an idiot. But it caused a lot of heartburn to get past it. If someone's lender is requiring a home inspection, it's time to find another lender. Home inspections should be an option...not a requirement. If there is a state that requires a lender to order a home inspection, I haven't seen it. This sounds like lender policy. Oh yea...then there is the inspector who told his clients (buyers) that he felt the price was too high for the house. That boy won't be doing inspections any longer. The agents on both sides sued his butt...and won.

Glad you got er done. Now it has all winter to "become one with the earth"(more or less). That is why I like fall planting. I make sure they have enough water until it "gets cold enough so evaporation isnt an issue/the rains of the late fall/early winter season start". Columbus lies right on the border of "winter jet stream/crap weather". In other words, on any given day of precipitation during the winter(the last two winters being exceptions), precipitation will have greater than 50% chance of being liquid and not solid. This was just my third season planting. Every year Ive done less and less (other than watering). At this point in the season, you prob only need to water perhaps 3 times (maybe none, like if you plant the day before it rains, then it rains 3 days later and 4 days after that,etc, or maybe 6 like if it doesn't rain at all in the next 3 weeks or so. 1st season of planting I did the whole nine yards- amend soil 50/50 with topsoil, then I would usually use Biotone that is made specifically for planting trees/shrubs (has mycorrizal fungi, other goodies for new plantings), then light hollytone a month or two later, then mulch. 2nd season of planting, I occasionally amended soil, only hollytoned (never biotoned, too $$) my favorites, but mulched all. This season I havent fertilized at all when I planted or any of the trees I planted the previous two years...yet. Nor did I amend soil. Nor did I mulch. In fact all my trees are planted in mounds (my property is very wet) and the mounds are made of pure clay (dug from future basements). I still plan to hollytone/ chickety doo doo, but just my most favorite favorite trees and still less than the recommended amount. For me it comes down to money. If hollytone cost 75% less, id fert much more. I read on here on not ferting and so far so good. All that foo foo does not appear to be necessary for ME. Ive got (real) good soil, the clay doesnt start until about a foot down. Ive lost trees, but my overall success rate is over 95% so far. My worst loss was an Iseli Sherwood bristlecone pine. 99% sure I overwatered it. One other thing. I dont stake trees other than weeping varieties. Keep an eye on the verticalness of the tree and adjust as necessary. Sometimes during the first few months as it rains/it gets watered and settles, trees will become slightly off vertical. I just rock them back to vertical with my hand.

Sammy, I split my time between living in Sand Springs and in Wichita, and I'm amazed at how differently the plants grow in the two places. Hydrangea will need shade from noon on, no way can it survive out in the sun. My roses are all mixed with perennials, and I try not to leave any ground uncovered! A good place for you to shop for cool shrubs is Bustani Plant Farm just outside Stillwater. He carries a variegated Beautyberry that works well in mixed beds. Tiger Eye sumac is really an eye catcher in with yellow or purple roses. I use black elderberries and ninebark quite a bit to set off pastel colored roses. The newer hardy hibiscus have a much longer bloom period, stay shorter, have interesting foliage, and bloom all along the stem, not just at the top. You might check out some of the smaller varieties of viburnum also. I have some that handle the sun very well. The tall snapdragons are easy to grow from seed, and mine come back every year. You should be able to grow nice clumps of cannas without having to lift them in winter. Nepeta (catmint)...newer cultivars such as Kit Kat and Purrsian Blue, are a great replacement for May Night salvia, as they require almost no deadheading to stay in bloom all summer. The red greggii salvia do well here and bloom from May until October. The new Russian Sage is much neater in form. Coreopsis do well in lean rocky soil, as do veronicas, baptisia, penstemon and achillea. Check out some of the newer baptisias! They are wonderful! I include iris, daylilies, lilium and phlox in my beds, and most summers do not irrigate and somehow they all survive. I think planting intensively helps because the roots are shaded. Small trees/or skinny shrubs that also work well are amalanchier (serviceberry) and aronia. Vitex blooms for a long time, starting well before the crape myrtles. Weigela handle the heat and sun, except for variegated varieties. They do require a bit more water than the other plants I've named. I keep the abelias and beauty bushes in the shade, and even so, they grow very large. Rose of sharon also gets too big for flower beds. I use a lot of ornamental grasses, but I'm careful to find ones that won't seed about. Rudbeckia, heliopsis, gaillardia, echinacea all work for the first year or two, but if you have enriched soil, you may end up with seedlings everywhere and big floppy plants. I allow larkspur and zinnias to drop seed and welcome them back every year. Asclepias, butterfly weed, is a terrific native perennial in our area. Torch lily, kniphofia, is also a heat lover. Right now, the beds are bursting with naked lily (lycoris) blooms. There's lots more that can take our heat and sun...that's all I can think of without walking outside to jog my memory!

How about this? Fit the two bathrooms, each adjacent to its respective bedroom, along the wall with the staircase. Replace the bathroom that's currently between the two bedrooms with back-to-back closets*, one for each bedroom. Place the washer/dryer at the end of the closets, (i.e., facing the staircase). Remove the bathtub. *"The standard minimum depth for a reach-in closet is 24 inches, but a closet intended to store coats or other bulky hanging items may need to be as deep as 28 inches."