I have enjoyed most of my garden guests, but did have one group last year that I found annoying. I gave precise driving instructions, including saying that there is a large wooden planter box mounted behind our mailbox, with an egg for sale sign hung below, and this is the only such place on at least a ten mile stretch of highway. When the group came, they were 30 to 40 minutes late (which I didn't really mind, I still had garden things to do), hurried their visit through in perhaps 15 minutes as they had thought of another place they would like to check out as well, and complained that they had a hard time finding the place. However, my largest peeve, is we have occasionally had people come in to buy eggs, driven past the house out to the barn, and walked in the barn looking for eggs. I mean, we sell free range eggs, that simply means the hens are not caged, and can scratch in the dirt and manure, eat grass/weeds and insects. It does NOT mean that you go freely into our barn and outbuildings, looking to help yourself! In particular, this past winter we had someone drive past the house, across the yard where the snow had not been cleared for days, went to the barn looking for eggs, then tried to turn his car around, got off the harder packed area, and got stuck in the lawn,, leaving ruts. That one was choice. Personally, I don't care if it is a barn, it is a breach of my privacy if you drive past the house and go walking in the barn without my permission. Most of our egg customers are great, and appreciate that we have it set up with packaged eggs on a shelf in the 'back room', with a container for the money, and can get their eggs anytime, whether or not we are home. And the garden guests that do appreciate your time and effort make it all worthwhile.

This post is amusing and reminds me of what happened several months ago to us. Our electric company is "supposedly" replacing all of the electrical boxes in yards in our neighborhood and they had requested that we trim the hedge that we used to "screen" ours which sits right out on the corner of our corner property. Of course we complied as they said work would start beginning of the year. (nope not yet either....) So there sits our hedges cut down completely to almost the ground save a for one in the front that DH just ran out of daylight on and saved for later. That evening I am cooking dinner and look out our bay windows in our kitchen to see some man kneeling down with SCISSORS cutting on that last remaining hedge!!!!!! The sun had gone down and it was almost dark! I first picked my jaw up off of the floor, then calmly walked out the door and asked him just what exactly he was doing? He states to me that he lives down the street(several streets) and had driven by and was appalled at that state of said bush and just had to come do something about it!!!!!!! I hope you find common ground Cynthia and hopefully things don't get ugly. Keep us updated on your dilemma, hoping it has a great ending.

I too, have a "jane" in the family. Several aactually. Just know that whatever you decide, she will probably feel negatively about it. She sounds kinda jealous. If you bring all the gifts at once, she will talk about how you spend too much and are just trying to show off. If you only bring one small one, she will probably say that you should have gotten her something bigger since apparently she thinks your rolling in dough. (whether you are or not is really irrelevant) In my case, i am the youngest of six adult children(ill be 30 in a few months). I am the only one who is unmarried, and have no children(unless you count the four legged furry kind) :) No matter WHAT i do, my older siblings always feel it necessary to comment on how i waste my money, im not good with money, i have no budget, im irresponsible with money, etc. None of which is true. I make a good enough living to support myself and have a little extra for fun and savings. I live very much below my means, although comfortable. I drive the same car i bought (all by myself thank you very much) at age 18. However, some people are just naturally negative nancys. I learned a long time ago to do whatwever the heck i want, especially when it comes to my hard earned cash. You should do the same. P.S. I am sure that the soon to be mommy will very much appreciate everything you got for her. Baby showers are not thrown to celebrate a pregnancy, not really anyway.If they were, they would not require gifts would they? They are to help new parents with some of the things they need for baby.I would put everything in one giant box and wrap it, therefore making it "one" gift. Your "michelle" is the only one you should think about now. Jane's opinions should be kept to herself or ignored.

In the US, the author of design drawings automatically receives a copyright for them without registering them. If the author is an employee, the employer receives the copyright. Normally, when you pay for design drawings, you receive the right to use the drawings to build one building. All of this should have been made clear in a written agreement. Designers and builders work together in many different ways. A designer might be an employee or a consultant of the contractor or work directly for you. If you pay the designer directly, you might not have any further obligation to the builder, however, since the builder worked with you and passed the design on to a draftsman, the relationships are not clear. To whom will you write the check? Before going forward read all previous correspondence and information about the builder in their brochures and website. If their role is still not clear you will have to ask them to explain it (in writing). Before responding, post their response here. I often ask a builder to work with me and the owner to design a house but the builder is paid a consulting fee and bids the work along with other builders. Usually the consulting fee would be subtracted from the first invoice if the builder won the bid. If the builder was willing to bid the project competitively, I don't see why you couldn't use another designer to revise the design drawings and still let the builder bid the project.