Just sitting here nodding in agreement with a lot of posts. I think the most important thing at this point is to look at your property and decide the functions you will use it for down the road so you don't ruin the space when you get around to addressing it. Yes, leave access for getting trucks and machinery to various parts of the property, even on three acres. Especially on three acres you plan to fill generously with trees. Yes on considering some groves and avoiding onesie-twosies and when the tree bug bites you, and it will, it's very enticing to want 'one of everything' and three of nothing and the visuals on that can be busy and disjointed. You have a big house, and need to consider proportions so that the trees planted near it don't come off looking dwarfed and the house monstrous. We have an epidemic here of mini-mansions festooned with dwarf weeping cherry trees, the branches pruned abruptly like a bowl haircut. We also found it more logical to start close and move out with our plantings. Although we are not close to any other dwellings, I use plantings as visual blockades to scenes I don't care to see and for privacy, so do look out your windows in the general direction of any tree you consider planting to make sure it DOESN'T block what you want to see, and does what you don't want to see. Yes I do plant trees to block sun for the shading effect. If they are deciduous, blocking sunlight isn't an issue in winter and it has a tremendous impact in summer to keep our stucco over brick house cool. It sort of amazed me to see someone mention leasing solar panels. You lease from them for your power, or they lease from you for the exposure and buy the power you generate? In our neck of the woods, it would be a company wanting to sink an oil well, instead. LOL. I have a perfect south facing roof area, but any solar panels ever getting there would be self-financed and simply supplemental in their efficiency. I don't have central air, and having a boiler heat am not interested in retrofitting ducts to accomodate it. Trees size so much more quickly than you think. I have some aerial shots of our property taken fifteen years apart and it's astounding at the amount of canopy we have now, compared to then. Our annual rainfall is adequate for most of our plantings and we have installed some freeze proof spigots away from the house, but I got a chuckle over the remark of 100 gallon tanks for watering. Tried that one year and .........well....despite how large a tractor you have, you'd better have more than a trailer behind it to pull your water tank. The center of gravity shifts in liquid loads. It ain't purty. Yes on buying small for most trees. They establish more readily and catch up with the bigger, more expensive ones quite quickly. I've had just as good success with B and B, but really the only reason I got the ones I did was I couldn't find them container. This is going to take years and it never really gets done. That's as it should be and part of the adventure. I can honestly say I've never had to rip a tree out because of poor placement. Nobody shares the exact gardening philosophy and what's right for me might not be right for you as far as pleasing to the senses. Over the years I have found I've been much more pleased with a tree whose needs have been met than one unsuitable for the growing conditions. A healthy and robust, easy care tree is often more beautiful than one which you much struggle to keep happy. Remember it's a lot easier to attend to correcting things like improper branch angles than addressing the problems they cause down the road. Have fun with it and enjoy the journey, too.

Have you chosen your tub yet? I know that the tub in the original was too small, but a 72 x 42 freestanding tub may be just a tad too big. Even if you are selecting a tub for two people, you can get by with a smaller freestanding tub. That would give a few more inches for your passage ways. Maybe 72 x 36 or 66 x 36. But it is good that the designer is planning for the largest sized tub. I like all of the designs. I would suggest that for the angled version, swing the tub out just a little more to where it's curve becomes more of opposite parenthesis with the shower's curve, You may have to wait until you actually install the tub to do so. Also, you may have to position an oval a little more differently than a racetrack shaped tub. shower ) ( tub This post was edited by Anna_in_TX on Wed, Jan 15, 14 at 10:36

Judith! LOVE seeing you post (someone let me know you had a post here!) I KNOW that area, having lived on the Peninsula for 11 yrs. Virginia Beach (on the other side of the Bridges) IS a very different place! I also remember that the 'decorators' they use there are mostly 'builder's wives' and daughters and it is ALL about price-points! Builders have a different mind-set. The builder that DH worked for on the Peninsula always would get upset and say 'that destroys the price points'! He had to spend the least amount to build so he could profit, BUT his wife 'the decorator' would love to SPEND. Weird combination, but the houses always LOOK LIKE they are pieced together with different what they deem will 'SELL' features. Very different thinking than Custom home building with Architect drawn plans. They have a certain amount of house styles they can purchase such as the 'Southern Living' homes collection, etc. And because the street they are built on is a collection of all different builders, they have to be cohesive in some way or the houses will just not ever look like they belong that 'close' to one another. I was surprised with all the reactions of your photos of some that do not even know the area, nor the people who live in this area. My DH worked on the Port Warwick (Virginia) project and that was built on former C*ra*ck town (bad connotation for it but reality) and DH had to chase dr*ug peddlers on bikes out of the development as they tried to talk to the workers while they were building! His experience with being a Drill Instructor in the Marines really came in handy! He built a lot of homes there in a set back small town layout with housing above the shops and professional offices in the center. But the AREA in that lower part of town (South NN on the Peninsula) perked up with all new positive projects and people and a new shopping small town environment set back off the road was built across the street even. We spent a couple of years going in and out of that development and went to all the events there, what a transformation! The world and LIFE is about constant change and adapting. New replaces old, new becomes old and gets run down... the economy for builders devastated that area a few years ago and that is why we left the area and decided it was time to find our 'retirement, forever house'. I am glad to see that the builders are doing a 'come back' in the area! I love Chesapeake with its country setting and trees. We lived there when we first moved to the state, then we ventured up to the Peninsula when DH started working for a large builder in that area. I am so HAPPY to see you posting and out and about! I really MISS seeing your posts and photos! I also miss hooking up with you for events such as POH and Homaramas there in your area. :( Go to your blog... check out...you have almost 100,000 hits! One word about the 'advertising' in the show houses, kind of a PITN to view but I know they are necessary. I also noticed the plastic covering the rug, but the house was sold. I remember DH having a bad time (with all the rain and cloudy days they had to work in and the MUD on construction sites with that RED clay!!!) He would have to stand guard to make sure no one came in! One time he was called to another house, a worker stepped into the house, and left a spot on a few places on the carpet in TWO rooms! The carpet was cleaned, BUT, the builder cannot sell the house with a 'NEW' carpet once it has been cleaned! Some new buyers will accept and sign off on a 'spot' clean, but most will say 'I WANT NEW' as on the contract. Of course Model homes are always walked through but that is understood at time of sale. We had purchased a model home in one of the first developments DH built with 38 homes. The white (upgrade) Berber carpet was clean... but we were told it was cleaned and not new. No big deal for me since it was flawless. We knew we would replace it with hardwood flooring anyway (which we did do). We are all spoiled by Pinterest, the photos are wonderful, but you and I know that a photo is set up and IRL the furniture might not be in those exact places that the set up for the photo was taken with. Styling and staging is different than decorating and walking through the spaces. Thank you so much for posting these photos, I saved the ones from the last time you posted photos and review them now and then. In this collection, I love the shallow Coffered ceiling molding in one of the rooms. I appreciate the angle you took the photos at so I could see the detail! I remember when I moved up to that area about 14 yrs ago, and NO ONE was building with lots of trim so as not to show that the house came that way! I mean you could order it as special and paid dearly for trim work. And Parade of Homes houses were just an example of what the builder could do or was capable of, they do not represent the whole of the builder houses in the area. And the price of a POH reflects all the 'trim packages and upgrades' in place and the amount of detail to also reflect the level the other houses built on that little neighborhood street they get built on. Thank you again for taking the time to POST these PHOTOS for us to see and experience what is going on in another part of the country from where we live and how markets are so different depending on where we live. :) GREAT to see you posting!!!

We were also wanting windows with black interiors and exteriors. For us the local availability brought it down to a choice between Pella or Milgard fiberglass windows. The Pella offerings were somewhat pricier, and we could never quite understand the why of it. We wound up selecting Milgard Ultra, and we're happy with the end results. And Milgard's warranty was fantastic, as our landscaper accidentally hit one window with a stone and chipped it, but Milgard replaced the insert without so much as a blink. One factor is whether a particular manufacturer's black is acceptable to you. Milgard's is called Black Bean, which is a bit lighter than true black, and I fussed over this for quite a while. Pella's may have been very slightly blacker, but also not true black. Now that we can see the final product in place, it looks fine. Good luck on your project. Brian