use 450 size or its pretty small to be seen

I think that sounds great (especially all of the peppers, not much yield there so great to see a number of plants. But not knowing how many people you plan to feed I wonder if you will have too many tomatoes? If you think you might, I personally would give up a tomato plant or two in order to let the sugar baby spread. I did them one year (albeit on the ground), and they spread like crazy, but the fruits were really excellent, even though we had to wait until late Sept/early Oct to harvest some of them here is coastal Connecticut. I'm sorry if you posted this and I missed it, but where in NY are you? Those watermelons take some time, and the most important time is at the end of the season, apparently (though I am no expert) since that is when most of the sugar is developed. Kinda like grapes I guess. Anyway, this is just a nit, good luck, sounds great! Paul

i'm sorry. no, we have the brick picked out. i'm just wondering about the siding that goes on our dormers, etc. that house that i found in the above pic is about 20 minutes from where we are building, but it's the only house that i can find that has both white siding, white front porch, almond windows, and almond trim. i'm thinking now that i may stick with the almond trim that will go along with the windows, but then add an off white (possibly BM lancaster whitewash or something) as the front porch and siding color. that wouldn't be so STARK and stick out so much. i do love the black. i think it just looks so classic and of course, it looks wonderful with our roof color. our contractor said today that they are going to start bricking tomorrow. so, i'll be able to have a pic of the house with the actual brick on it, instead of some that i've applied from another home. thank you all so SO much for your opinions and comments. i need them! since i'm now a stay at home mom. . . .all my buddies still teach school, so i sit here and think about all these crazy decisions and drive myself insane! my sweet hubby says he doesn't care. as long as we stay in budget. . . .so he's not the greatest help!

From what I've read so far, both plans strike me as...starters. I also definitely like the U better, but that's not saying much yet. I'm making some assumptions here that may not be at all valid in your case. But, you're having trouble designing a kitchen you really like into that space. You have a lovely room for dining that you almost never use. Is the front living room what you think of when you look forward to getting home or also gathering dust? Yes, center-hall colonials are tricky, but is the way your first floor serving you all you could want? If you could somehow sell seldom-used square footage for $50,000 and the promise of at least hundreds saved each year in expenses, would you? And be happy to live in the downstairs space still left? With this sort of scenario in mind, to me the first plan makes expensive changes with absolutely no promise of genuinely expanding living into the space available. Enlargement of the kitchen should shift at least one daily meal into the space currently occupied by the dining table, but would it? Or would it just perch you guys on stools and damage the DRM's elegant ambiance? I know the bay is new, but it also looks like a former kitchen and breakfast room that underwent an unfinished transformation--that outside wall an obvious remnant of its previous life. (If you did this, how about doors to a nice brick or stone patio outside instead?) The second plan is a simple spiffing up of the parts of your house that get heavy living, so I agree it's a good choice if you like the way you live in the rest your house just fine as is. Small kitchens are greatly underrated and can be truly excellent, so once you work out the details to get what you want--excellent. I'm also guessing the coziness of your kitchen dining area is one of its big assets, so that part doesn't need to be larger. If this were my remodel, though, and if the front rooms were mostly unused, I'd be not be happy with the allocation of my space. People do find ways to make good use of center-halls without ruining their character. Those that do tend to sell very well in most markets. After all, a lot of people who like their look won't buy them because of their space-use issues. For my own list of wants, I like halls for themselves and would definitely want the center hall as a major feature--with nice views in both directions. I would not want a large kitchen, but I'd want a bit larger one laid out just the way I like it. I'd like two places to dine with different moods, but only if they were both used a lot. One would be decorated nicely enough for seating guests to dinner, but so formally that it repelled us most of the time. (We have this, BTW.) I'd want a living area that multifunctioned for daily living and allowed guests to separate--in actual chairs!--into different conversation groups. If it had to be in 2 different rooms, I'd want good circulation and communication between them. I'd want an inviting, comfy area I could go read while my retired DH watches drag races, and vice versa--he splits while I watch Design Star, (one of those embarrassing things I wouldn't normally admit to). I'd like one living space to be sunny, with doors to the garden, and I'd like another to be just right for snuggling up inside when it was horrible out. All this in a center-hall with those great corner rooms and a kitchen remodel opening up possibilities, and I'd start by erasing their labels.