I love this website. I like the Cottage House floor plan but the Family Tradition exterior. I spent a lot of time on this site when we were looking. Sadly, we did not buy our plans from them so I cannot comment on how they worked out. We used the local drafter, just as you describe above. Our extended family has had four houses built by the same builder and here's what our experience has taught us: If you purchase ready-made plans or get some from the builder (many builders have plans they have built already) you will pretty much get what you see (inside and out). If you create a custom home using a "drafter" (as we did), it's a little harder to know what you're in for when it comes to the exterior. We told the "drafter" guy what we wanted. He drew up the plans but despite providing lots of examples for the exterior, he couldn't get it just right. Then, the builder wanted to change the roof lines, etc. Bottom line: I am not in love with exterior of our house. The drafter simply did not have the skills needed to make it what I wanted. On the other hand, our interior floor plan is pretty near perfect. It's customized to exactly what we want. My friend walked through it the other day and commented that she finally understands why people build their own house because she could see that it was made for us and how we live. I would sit down with your potential builders and ask them to look at the plans you like. When we showed our builder this website he said "expensive, expensive, expensive." But maybe he just didn't want to build from their plans??? I have some regrets about using the local drafter but on the other hand, our house was less than $100 per sq. foot. I'm happy about that.

For over 20 years we have been having a nice little party. Started the first year we were married, and none of our friends were. All of us right out of school and no money to go out to the big scene. We used our silver wedding dishes and leftover napkins from the reception. Had a really fun time. Then in our first house we would have the babies asleep, and people could bring their kids and playpens. Low key fun with friends. Onto the house we raised our kids in. Everyone could bring their kids to the party, so no one had to pay for a babysitter. Somehow the kids all played together famously, and managed to stay up past midnight and be a delight. Everyone brought an appetizer to share, so it was a casual party and not much work since the house was already deep cleaned from the holidays. This is the first year in our new (empty nest) house. Our kids are in college, and they are still coming to the party, except now they are all old enough to take part fully. When we told our friends we were moving, usually the first thing they wanted to know was if we still planned to have our new years eve party. It has become a really nice tradition. I think that us and all of our friends like to get together, not spend any money, and not shout over a loud bar scene. It is really a nice time. Just wanted to put this out there in case anyone else might want to start a nice little tradition like this too.

since we've had kids we always stay home for christmas day. my mom and mil were big on this. mil- always had to travel across Ma. to her grandparents for the day. they got to be there for about 2-3 hrs and then return home. no presents from her grand parents and no chance to open them at home before they left. no turkey dinner either. pretty sad tale of woe, she didn't wish that sort of xmas on any one. my mom said it was important for us to have our own traditions. so we stay home. usually our family gets together sometime over the holidays, but no matter whose house we're at everyone has a 300-400 mile drive-- so we usually have to commit to a weekend of guests. my wife and i have always giving everyone in both our families an ornament for christmas. we try to stay under $5. for these, but are on the look-out whenever we travel during the year or pay attention to what people are interested in, or some significant event in their life that year. for the kids, it gives them a collection so when they leave home they have something for their own tree. for the adults it avoids having to buy a fan-tab-u-lous present. since we live the farthest away from all our relatives, ornaments are easy to ship. when kids were little we usually send their moms & dads a check so they could do the shopping for us, now we send the ornament and a gift card. we've tried a gift exchange where we draw names, but my youngest brother whose kids are 10-15 years younger than the rest of our kids thinks that his kids get gypted (everyone still gets his all kids presents, because they still get a big thrill out of opening them, and no one else has kids under 10 anymore)with this method--so we all get everyone a present-- an ornament works nicely there too. at home because my kids are autistic and don't deal with their routines being changed, we eat xmas dinner at dinnertime. so we have plenty of time in the morning to get up and open, play, watch tv, before we have to cook. we usually let the boys open their stocking(usually all the goodies are consumed for breakfast) as soon as they get up, but they wait until we get up to open presents under the tree. We we join the land of the living-- about 8am, we get out the cranberry bread, stollen and panetone the coffee and hot chocolate and start unwrapping: kids first, then mom and dad. about 11, we'll make 'brunch'-- eggs and sausage, toast and juice. then we get started at dinner. about 4pm we put out a relish tray and cheese and crackers so we can make it until dinner time. since my wife and i arew both in food service, and the week before christmas is the busiest time of the year. we usually have a tradition of doing laundry all day long every holiday while watching football games. on christmas eve we usually have seafood for dinner about 10:30 PM after finishing wrapping and then go to service at the church, so that when we get home we can go to bed!!!! sometimes we'll exchange a special present when we get home from church. diggerb

It is interesting to see how many have made this decision. I wasn't looking for approval; we had decided to do this and I was curious if others had, or maybe by reading this would consider it. I mentioned this to my family shortly after MY birthday, so I got some teasing about that. ;>) About choosing a gift, we always asked for suggestions, so there were no "dust catchers" and the gift suited the person. We made it a fun thing. Chemocurl. . .you got me there! Thanks again for helping me get those blocks. She was totally shocked. That is an example of the kind of fun we have with gift-giving. I will miss that! Naughtykitty, you are so right. I may have forgotten what some gifts were, or from whom, but I save all the cards! Next birthdays coming up will be the two boys, both in September. (I call that poor planning!) Thanks for the input. Sue