There's a lot of conflicting and confusing about companion planting out there; when I was first putting together a plan I drove myself nuts trying to accommodate and incorporate everything, and then found out there's not a lot of scientific information supporting most of these practices anyway. It IS true that you should plant basil between/around your tomatoes--they yield about 20% more that way, though no one knows exactly why. The only thing I definitely would avoid doing is interplanting legumes (peas, beans) with fruit and root veggies. Legumes 'fix' (leach) nitrogen into the soil, and too much nitrogen can have negative effects on those plants. Instead, plant them with greens and lettuces, which feed on nitrogen. Some other plants, like fennel, are considered alleopathic and should be a little distance away from everything else because they can inhibit other plants' growth. Assuming you're in the northern hemisphere, put your tallest plants on the north edge and as you move south get shorter. This will ensure that your plants get the most sunlight possible. Traditional planting instructions (what you will see on the seed package) will advise you to grow vining crops in hills, with lots of distance between hills (winter squash, cucumbers, etc). This is not a very efficient use of space, especially if you only have a 16'x20' area. Instead, find some cattle paneling or create a trellis with stakes and netting. This will allow you to guide the plants to grow vertically, saving space and making harvesting much easier. They should be relatively tall (at least 4') so they would do well on the back row with the tomatoes. You could grow your tomatoes the same way, if they are indeterminate - they are vines and will grow fine up netting instead of in cages. Finally, you could use a space-saving method like square-foot gardening. You don't need to spend the money to build raised beds; simply mark off a 4'x whatever area and fill it with compost/topsoil so that it is a few inches off the ground. You may also wish to add coir or peat for roughage and water retention. Natural erosion will occur - you will have to shore up the sides sometimes, and add extra compost periodically (you would have to do this anyway, eventually). You may want to save up for beds in the future. Plan for 2-3 feet between beds in each direction. Make sure that the dimensions of the area are no more than 4' one way, so that you NEVER step on the bed and compress the soil. You will be able to reach in from the sides and harvest easily at this distance. The dimensions the other way can be any size - 4', 8', 10', etc. If your bed is longer than it is wide (say 4'x8') make sure the 8' goes east-west for the most sunlight. This method of gardening (as long as you never step on the soil in the beds--super important!) will allow you to plant many crops much more closely together. I've included a link that describes how to space plants under the SFG method. Here is a link that might be useful: My Square Foot Garden: Plant Spacing

I'm so grateful for the advice and comment... It's really helpful! I'm trying to find a master bedroom/suite color which fits the whole house 'palette,' (I've got an 'autumn' color-set, neutral or a small step toward mid-range), and coordinates with lt yellow bath tile (and its black stripe). My other bedrms/2nd floor, are soft fern, and moonglow, so I wanted a color that balanced/worked with them, for slow/complementarity. Houses in my neighborhood have sold in today's popular decorating colors (eg, 'pumpkin' kitchens, or Pottery Barn colors) , a swell as neutrals, which from what I know from buyers, they look forward to changing (as I did when I moved here.. the ugliest antique white I've ever seen). I'm trying to come up with paint color for the master/suite. I've tried a taupe - great color - but coor w/the bathrm yellow doesn't seem to work well. So, I see my choices as being a tan or blue w/some grey in it. I have looked at Quiet Moments :), love it, as I do Harveser (SW), an will look up Monroe Bisque. The In the end, from what you say.. something good and clean and well-decorated (basically, color-wise, whatever that may be, as an individual case) - is the best I can do. So many of those tan/beige colors just aren't a color I'd want to sleep in.. and there's the question, etc, of which tans/beiges look/feel good to the majority. Thank you, thank you... your comments have been very helpful, as would any additional advice. D.

Gardner - I adore the four bed wall! I'll have to print that one and keep it for reference. Sandy - My father grew up in Greenville, FL. We lived 6 hours south of there but went up about once each year or every other year when I was a child. My grandfather designed and built the farmhouse himself. I sat down with my dad a few years ago and we sketched out the floorplan. There were no frills, mostly just a series of bedrooms connected to a kitchen. No dedicated living space and no indoor plumbing. Most of the socializing was done on the front porch. There was an outhouse out back and a well with a bucket that we had to draw water from. One year we went up and the had installed an old iron handpump beside the kitchen sink so they could draw water directly into the kitchen. A year or two later and they had upgraded to real running water and indoor bathroom. We would visit during the summer and they had no air conditioning. At the time, we didn't have A/C at our home either but it always seemed much hotter there. I still have cousins that live there but I wouldn't know them if I ran into them. I would have to visit now, as an adult, to form an opinion. One last bit of trivia about the old days, I remember there was a spot just down the road from their farmhouse where there was large lettering painted at an angle on the asphalt that said "QUINCY" and a big arrow underneath. They said this was painted on the road in the days before modern navigational beacons and was meant to guide airplanes. Later today I will be driving past a newer, very small home I spotted a few months back. It's in a rural area aobut an hour from my house and I don't pass that way often. I have prepared a short letter inviting contact and will be pinning that to their front gate. Let's hope we can meet them and draw them into our circle. Scott

With all your constraints, I think it's time you re-thought your insistence on the refrigerator location. You are imposing a constraint that isn't a structural constraint and is causing major functional issues. If you cannot fix the issues with the door locations (deck & LR), then you need to accept that you cannot have a functional layout and the refrigerator on the top wall. If you "build in" the refrigerator and have other items b/w it and the LR doorway, it will not be a hulking presence. For the utility cabinet (Layout #4) and the upper/base cabs (Layout #3), put a decorative door on the exposed sides so they look more like furniture. Here are a couple of other ideas. Unfortunately, they both do create a pinch point b/w the refrigerator and the counter: In Layout #3, the pinch point is b/w the refrigerator and the counter on the left - but at least it's not in front of the range, sink, or DW In Layout #4, the pinch point is b/w the refrigerator and sink - a less desirable location b/c when someone is working at the sink, it will be difficult for someone else to pass by, especially with a toddler running around! To add 2 to 3 inches to those pinch point aisles, consider recessing the refrigerator (both layouts) and the utility cabinet (Layout #4) into the wall behind them. You will not be taking space from the MBR to do this b/c that wall is most likely 4.5" thick and you should be able to get at least 2 inches, and maybe 3, by recessing them into the space b/w the drywall on both sides. See Layout #4 to see how it would help and look. In general, you have a profound lack of cabinet storage. To mitigate this, I put in two pantries: The 34" wide pantry is floor-to-ceiling shelving for small appliances, pots & pans, prep & cooking tools & dishes, etc. The 48" (Layout #3) or 42" (Layout #4) wide pantry is, again, floor-to-ceiling shelving for food storage. Finally, the utility cabinets are pullouts for your broom, etc. Is this ideal? No. In particular, the 36" pinch point may be an issue. However, I tried to place it where I thought there would be the least impact on prep & cooking - in particular, cooking. I was successful with Layout #3, but not as much in Layout #4. Since the range should be the appliance most protected from traffic, I did my best to provide a wider aisle in front of it in both layouts. Note that both remove the window on the left wall (or block it, but I think removing it would be better aesthetically.) In Layout #4, it could be kept, but you lose MW landing space, which is an issue. Layout #3: . Layout #4: .