Rocky is HOME!!! thanks everyone. Melinda sent him home with goodies, so, this afternoon when the ice cleared I went into town Rocky was waiting and as usual he claimed to be starving. Melinda sent him home with goodies We opened the Hershey's gold bar and shared that right away. Rocky declared that a fine snack but he's looking for MORE so I'll use the pecans in his chocolate chip cookies and try to sneak the pistacios away for myself. Prizes are already enroute to Ruth , Debbie and Susan. Should arrive soon and I'm throwing one in for Melinda too. A special thanks for being a good sport through the delay and detour. Now I'm off to feed this hungry squirrel Thanks again ladies. As usual , with the flying squirrel, there are always surprises along the way

I, like you, currently like the look of grey cabinets but like white as well and I think that long-term I'll be glad that I chose white since grey will probably go out of style (or apparently from what I've learned reading this thread it already has). On the other hand, since you're using IKEA cabinets you could just change the doors out in 5 or 10 years if you get the gray & get tired of it. The floors on the other hand are a lot more work to change. I love the color that you picked but with a large family you will probably have a lot of dirt & a dark floor will show it all. In my last house we refinished the hardwood floors and used a beautiful dark stain. With 4 kids & a dog I regretted that dark stain within a few weeks. The natural oak never showed dirt like the dark stain did.

At least now we can read the plan with measurements . We need to know where you are , what is North on the plan and for me natural light in bedrooms is the last issue I deal with since most of my time in there is at night so need to know which direction .THis is aone storey house so where do the stairs lead ? The 2 small bedrooms are very small so some clue as to how many people live here . I do agree bathrooms are expensive so shared plumbing wall when possible are good they also give you some privacy between bedrooms . I do not really have an issue with a hall leading to the living space past bedrooms since the doorways to the bedrooms are not obvious the laudry spaces are puzzle . I think the master bedroom is okay as it is not sure what you want to improve there other than it is quite large but need mor einfo about that size .Natural light comes with windows so where are they ?We definately need to see the exterior plan too and understand the placement of windows .

Knightsgambit -- I'm a "millennial" as well (technically an "old millennial") and that seems spot-on to me. I can attest to having no property for a garden. I haven't really been able to get excited about most types of houseplants, though I like some. Hence, my indoor roses. I feel like in the U.S. we have such a huge culture of landscaping, as you say, rather than gardening. When I went to England a long time ago, I was so struck by how gardening culture permeated every little backyard, postage-stamp-sized front yard, etc. Deborah, I love your story about growing roses in pots in grad school and then getting permission to plant them. It sounds like exactly something I'd want to do. And Susan, what you describe as boomers' interest in gardening aligns well with my former-hippie parents (minus the 1980s money, unfortunately!). I think my parents got into raising goats, gardening, etc., as a sort of reaction to the canned food and cookie-cutter yards of their 1950s-60s upbringings. Deborah/Susan -- It's interesting to hear when you got bitten by the gardening bug. For me, despite growing up with gardening in my life, I didn't really become obsessed with gardening until I had my own balcony for a few years c. 2010. What kills me is that I only grew Queen Elizabeth! I'd be packing that balcony with roses now...