Sunny3, It's been a long time, so perhaps the issue isn't current any more. But I think that, if I were you, I'd check out some other credit card offers, then call your company to negotiate that business of the penalty if you try to pay part of the principal off regularly. Tell them that you're unhappy with that policy, and are considering transferring your account to another carrier. Be conversant with the rules and policies, so that they know that you mean business. You'll very likely find that the rules are bendable. Be courteous. Be knowledgeable. Know what you want, and spell it out for them. Don't take their first, or even second or third "No" as final. Don't challenge their denial directly, however - it may get their back up, in which case they'll likely get stubborn. It may be a good idea at that point to start dealing with another subject - for example, if they say that you can't pay off part of principal on occasion, ask if they offer that 0% interet rate on transferred balances, etc. When they turn you down - change the subject. But get back to the original issue before long. Doing that several times drives them crazy. Be persistent. Wear 'em down, if necessary. If not - you can find a carrier that makes a better offer. Ya don't ask - ya don't get. Good wishes for finding a deal that meets your needs. joyful guy

What will you use it for?? Are you big on BBQ from the grill?? A quiet place to settle down & read a book, do you want it mostly open or mostly closed (enclosed) I would think you need to figure out what you want to use it for. Some folks entertain a lot & people would take plate of food out & sit on porch, afternoon coffee & cake, pie or cookies would be enjoyed on nice days outside. A nice glass of lemonade or iced tea & watching hummingbirds or birds at feeder. Do you want to haul food through the LR? Do you have kids or GK's that would be dragging food back & forth through the house. Even if you are going to play board games & sleep or read you usually would want at least a drink handy. So most practical is off the kitchen. If you had a porch on front of house it might allow you to see what's going on in neighborhood or down the road or be more likely to welcome neighbors or friends over to talk awhile. So it depends on what your needs are,whether the porch will be enclosed, have roof over it, as you kept saying"deck" you are only ones who can decide what will work for your family!!So talk it over!! And then plan!! Good Luck!

Man, I have also recently ordered flag pole light on Amazon for my landscape and I am very satisfied with it! This thing has automatic daylight sensor, it fits most flagpoles from 15-25 feet with 1 minute installation. Moreover, solar flag pole light is best in brightness and batteries last long enough. I put it in front of my house so that everybody who passes over see my new purchase! And what about your flag, I would recommend you to put it on house-top, in front of a door or in front of a house because the main reason is to put it in such way that most of the people see it, otherwise why should you buy it?

@Beverly @WestCoast Hopeful Oh my goodness, I love this porch idea SO much. It takes the porch and yard from two separate spaces to one big, friendly space. Our builder will 100% NOT do this for us, so we'd have to do it afterwards on our dime, but I love this transformative idea! We probably wouldn't lay concrete across the whole back, but maybe a smaller area with a gazebo or something. I stopped by the house this afternoon and walked around at ground level behind the house. (I haven't done this too much because we've had a lot of rain the last few months and it's super muddy.) When I was down there, I learned a few interesting things: First, the area that I thought was most usable -- directly below the porch -- is actually not the most usable. It has more of a slope than I thought. You can see it better here: It's still going to be useful, but the largest level part of the yard is in the corner where I was standing when I took this photo. Conveniently, this is also the area where the level part goes deepest towards the back of the lot, so it gives us the biggest usable level space. This slope right below the porch means that the big wide centered steps that @Beverly suggested would have to go out significantly further to actually reach the ground. It would probably consume most of the usable space below the porch. But that's more acceptable now that I know that the corner is the prime real estate in the yard. Here's another photo that might show the slope better: The other thing I learned is that the left side of the porch is actually not as high as it looked from above. Standing on the ground, the porch is slightly above my eye level, or about 5.5' up. And since the land keeps rising to the left, stairs going along the house would only have to cover about 5' vertically. We looked at the other stairs from our same builder and estimated that they're about 40 degrees from the horizontal. So one trig calculator later, and it looks like the stairs probably won't even come to the guest room window! So I think we'll go with the left stairs for now and then look into a set of fancy wide porch steps down the line. Thanks, everybody, for all your thoughts and suggestions! I'm really happy with the left stairs for now and the awesome stairs later.