Thanks for the great information ...patches I'll take a look at your plans...mightyanvil..thanks for taking the time to provide such great advice. This will be our "vacation" home..but it will really be a weekend get away place, that is if we can pull it off. The home will oriented so that the front of the home is north, the back south. We want views to the south and west. I was avoiding a second level because of cost, although considering a loft, but it sounds as though the rule of "cheaper to build up rather than out" applies. It's just DH, myself, and our chocolate lab. Originally we thought everything on one level but are now considering living room, kitchen, mudroom/bath on main level and bed and bath on above. We also considered a basement, as my DH wants the extra storage, but costs vs. it and just a slab foundation..not sure of the differences although there are those that say "might as well put in a basement while you're at it" We're not worried about excavation as we have a friend who'll do the job for us. We love open floor plan because we anticipate small footprint, we want back deck (but plan to build it on later) so outdoor spaces are important. We definitely want a mudroom...area to keep coats, boots, and area to rinse off dog after a run in the mud! We don't really need a garage..again, something we can add later... We live in Western Pa and do want a weather tight home, as we get more cold rainy weather than hot sunny...but want overhangs to keep direct sun out in summer, but still allow sun in winter (passive solar?)... Views to south (back) include woods and stream..views to west include woods and field. Weather hits us from north west...lots of wind from time to time. Why not a screened in porch? I love to sit out but hate the bugs! Ideally, we'd like to contract to get a "shell" built and finish the home ourselves as time/$ allow. Not sure what our options are there... I had to laugh about the home you'd described above with the various levels ..we currently have that set up...and have 5 levels and 4 sets of stairs and it drives me crazy! I can handle one set, but am a bit tired of 4. ;-)

This is our shower in progress. The tiles actually have the bamboo texture but it isn't too obvious. I agree with enduring that if you want simple and uncluttered look you might want to rethink accent tiles. Or use them very sparingly. I've seen large 12x24 tile showers with small amount of solid color glass accent tiles and they look nice. Not sure if granite mixed in will work because granite tends to have very busy patterns.

Some say black tie means black. Some say black tie means formal. I don't think a skirt and top would be formal enough, but you know the event better than I. I had a black tie thing to go to so I made this Princess length dress. It's actually navy with black in the bodice fabric. the stole was the same fabric as the body of the dress, only reversed. Very simple design, jazzed up by the coordinating fabric.

Loralee asked, "What size of needles would you suggest to use?" I wrote, above, "... worsted weight yarn with a gauge of 5 stitches per inch / 7.5 rows per inch ..." It is impossible for me to recommend one needle size. The yarn requirement given by the knitting calculator is the yardage needed if the knitting has a gauge of 5 stitches per inch (horizontal) and 7.5 rows per inch (vertical). That's why knitting a gauge swatch is important. The most commonly used needle sizes with worsted weight yarn are (U.S.) sizes 7, 8, and 9. If a swatch is knitted and the gauge turns out to be more or fewer stitches per inch / rows per inch, then a new swatch should be knitted using a larger or smaller needle. Some folks knit rather tightly and would end up with more stitches per inch so they would need to use a larger needle. Other folks knit very loosely, and end up with fewer stitches per inch, so they'd need to use a smaller needle. Matching the gauge is very important if you want the finished item to be the size called for in the pattern. An example would be if you are knitting a sweater. Many baby blanket patterns will say that gauge doesn't matter because "it's just a blanket." While that is fairly true, if you are a tight knitter you will end up with a blanket that is a smaller than you intended.