My box from Melissa arrived today! Inside was a very nice basket full of great stuff! Lots of chocolate goodies, which the kids immediately tried to talk me out of ... don't think so, LOL! Lilac and lavender scented candle Sharpie marker (thank you, thank you, my old one was just about dried up, and I use them for labeling my wintersown containers) Cute little notepad that says "If you pray for rain, be prepared to deal with some mud." (Love it!) Green metal turtle windchimes (very cute) Pair of heavy duty leather palm gloves (Boy did I need some of these! My husband's work gloves are way too big, and regular canvas or cloth garden gloves just aren't tough enough for some jobs.) In addition to all of these goodies, there were tons of seeds in the basket too: Greencrop bush beans Henderson bush lima beans Early Sunglow corn Parade cucumber (can't believe you found one I didn't already have) Poona Kheera cucumber (grew it for the first time last year. They were very large, and crisp, almost melon-like, and a very good producer.) Sakata's Sweet melon (Can't wait to try this one!) Orangeglo watermelon (on my wishlist) Louisiana Green Velvet okra (our nights might be too cool, but I'm going to try it anyway - I miss fried okra!) Burgess Buttercup squash Cocozelle squash (I almost sent this one to you too, LOL) Mini Bell Yellow pepper (Would you believe I grew a Mini-Belle Mix last year, and only got red and chocolate, no yellow, so thank you!) Czech's Excellent tomato (new to me, yippee!) Nature's Riddle tomato (also new to me!) Emerald Evergreen tomato (yep, didn't have that one either) Wow!!! I am so pleased and thankful for the wonderful box of goodies you sent. Thank you very much, Melissa! Bonnie (who plans on keeping those chocolates for herself!)

thanks for the tips...I spent half a day at a local showroom looking at these units and asking questions. I've narrowed down my choices, and I'd love to go Wolf/SZ all the way, but the price delta is quite significant since the builder seems to have some sort of special deal with viking...and these end up being significantly cheaper than wolf even though msrp may be comparable. FRIDGE - We're going with the SZ built-in 48" :). The local store prices are better than what the builder offers. Has anyone been able to negotiate better pricing from their local dealers? RANGETOP - I went to the showroom yesterday and looked at these. The salesperson said the Viking Professional range tops have been re-engineered so they don't have the previous written about ignition problems. Has anyone installed these recently, and can you comment on this? I do a lot of Wok cooking, so I like how the Viking Pro 6 burner has one 18K BTU burner. Wolf stops at 15K (or 16K?) BTU. But I also bake a lot, so the low simmer on Wolf is appealing too. BUILT-IN GRIDDLE or SEPARATE - Has anyone compared and used the built-in griddle versus the separate add on? I know there's a separate griddle plate available for Viking, not sure about Wolf. How are the results using this compared to the built in version? I can get the Viking Pro (VGRT536-6B or VGRT536-4G) for $1500 less than the Wolf (SRT366 or SRT364G). That's a huge price delta. For the same price, I'd pick Wolf, but with a $1500 savings on Viking...I'm torn. Any thoughts from those who have these units? 30" DOUBLE WALL OVENS - I've narrowed my choices down to the Wolf E Series or L Series and the Viking Professional Premiere Electric with Knobs or Touch. Viking Knobs vs. Touch - Does anyone have experience with these two options/variations? Wolf E vs. L Series - I like the look of the E series better, but prefer the double convection in the L series. I've never had a double oven, so I'm wondering if I would mind one convection, and a second non-convection. For those that own an E series, do you even wish you had 2 convection ovens? Finally, the real reason I'm torn is because the Wolf units are $2000-2500 more than the Viking Professional Premiere double ovens. Is that worth it? Or for this price delta, would you consider going with Viking? (I really wish our builder had a deal with Wolf/SZ instead of Viking. It would make my life so much easier....).

I've been able to negotiate with them on a lot of the bigger ticket items as we remodel the house. Sometimes they only come down a little, and sometimes it's a quite a bit. Never hurts to ask if they will come down or stack coupons.

An arbor over the garage was my fist thought! I also agree that the Japanese maple (?) is in the wrong spot. Have it professionally move to the other side of the walkway farther out from the house. I had mine moved many years ago and it was money well spent.