Since you mentioned this is your forever home, it's really worth taking the time to think this through and come up with the best possible plan. There are some real shortcomings right now. On that note - I think if you're going to have the current dining room become the everyday eating area, a doorway from the kitchen isn't enough. I think you need to open that space up so that it's all one room. That way, you are still getting an eat-in kitchen, but it will be an L shape, larger space. Kids can be doing homework at the table and still be in the same space. I am really having a hard time imagining any scenario where it would be okay to have the step down to the family room totally open without a railing. It certainly doesn't work with a table anywhere near by. I think you could instead use this space for a kitchen island/peninsula which would straddle the drop down. Picture having maybe a sink or cooktop on this space - it would be facing into the open family room. There could be stools on the family room side facing into the kitchen. This would leave a much shorter step down area, basically like what you have now. Which looks natural and not weird.

@tbb123: Hey there! I only have a painting career if someone will buy stick figures, LOL! Nice to see you here. I’ve missed seeing your creative layouts at the old, much missed IF site. It never dawned on me to put the peninsula in the plan with the fridge in the broom closet. That would give me more counter space than I’ve ever had in my life. I’m not sure I’d know what to do with it all but it would be fun trying. I’ll play with that idea. @Jillius: Yes to your suggestion for how to use the horizontals if I go that route. Will need to play more with hood options but that can wait until final layout, right? I gotta say that I do like your new plan merging kitchen/laundry. However, we’ve become married to the idea of preserving the pantry wall and using the revealed linoleum. I love that floor almost as much as I like the glass blocks. Sorry you put so much effort into an idea I will have to nix. I really appreciate your efforts and kind donation of time. DH and I spent quite a bit of time this morning poking around in the garage tracing existing plumbing lines to see how we can tie things in. We have a false ceiling in the garage that needs to come out so we can better see the clearances. We have steel beams running the direction the plumbing needs to go; the wooden joists run the other direction. If these were reversed, the plumbing issue would be easier. The garage ceiling is relatively high so plumbing could be run under the steal beams but above the garage door system. We need to do better measures of what height clearance we have and the distance lines would need to run to ensure there’s enough height for the lines to drop for proper drainage. The plumbing lines then go into the cement floor of the garage and run under the concrete driveway down to the city lines. This all makes the plumbing issue a tad more complicated to deal with. And thanks for the cardboard idea for playing with window sizes. @practigal: Interesting idea on the windows. I never thought of expanding them. The would be cool. I am uncomfortable with the cost of doing that as, in our area, our view is NOT worth a fortune as it’s known as “the Appalachia of Washington”. Our logging and commercial/sport-fishing industries tanked in the 80’s and we have never recovered. Even though the location and homes on our hill are considered some of the nicer ones in the area, most sell for only about $125-200k. And that’s if you can find a buyer because of the severe wage stagnation here. Buyers for homes over $100k become scarce. And housing prices have barely increased since the mid-80’s. We didn’t even really feel the effects of the 2008 crash because we were already in a long-term crash. However, we’re also not seeing the recovery other areas are seeing so it’s hard to justify that extra expense. Even though we plan on being here for a long time, probably our forever, we need to keep our own spending down as we are nearing our own retirement years and need to stretch our bucks. I’m not sharing all that for a pity-party but, rather, so you understand why I’m trying to be very careful and frugal with the remodeling budget. Anyway, it’s a wonderful idea so I am not ruling it out and will play with the idea. @rina: Good point on the bottoms of the windows being at different heights. Another one of those things I’m so used to that I haven’t thought much about it. Hmmmmm….I’ve always wanted the window over the sink to be counter height. Love that look. Convincing DH might take some schmoozing. I think if we did we move the current sink or make it a small prep sink, it would be easy to center the range. Another visual issue that I didn’t notice until you pointed it out. Thanks for pointing that out, too. A smaller sink there would mean there is still enough prep space between prep sink and range. So...clean-up sink to peninsula then? @Everyone: While DH is cutting out sections of the garage ceiling, I guess I’ll be playing with these new ideas. Thanks to all of you. You’re all awesome!

I live in Cincinnati center city. It is down right hard but there appears to be no way of describing the problems. the biggest problem is sunlight. I moved the garden to my rooftop at 43 feet above the road. This was not worth the trouble if I hadn't needed a new roof and new siding. by putting 1.5 feet of dirt on the new rubber roof I quadrupled its life expectancy.I will be dead before the roof gives out. Without the dirt I would need to put on 2 more roofs. To hold the weight I had to double frame my exterior walls, insulate and side it. My utilities dropped 3 fold and I can air condition my 2000 square foot house with a window unit and saved $2500 on a replacement central air unit. Window units last 3 times longer than central and I would be looking for my 3 one in th next 5 years so I save another 5000 dollars. My window unit is 25 years old and has an EER 11 rating. The rooftop growing medium adds an additional R-50 insulation. along with the vegetables dropping the roof surface temps from 170 F to about 70 F. I would not recommend adding a rooftop garden too any existing house. The house should be built with the rooftop garden in the structural plans. Rooftop garden

From what I understand, all M.albas are grafted as they do not set (fertile) seed. They are air layered or grafted and that is why they bloom much earlier than a M.champaca would, which is always raised from seed. I second blutayle's note, in that any transplant shock would be evident in 7-10 days. However, Michelias are very sensitive to root rot. I am in zone 7b/8a and have it bring my plants indoors in a big pot. I have lost three M.albas, once which have been flowering and doing great..they just shed leaves and die slowly over 4-6 months :( It could just be an issue when grown in pot, you may not have that with it being in the ground. Good luck with the new tree, and post pictures of the blooms!