That bed will be completely full of plants before you know it lol ! I am doing the same thing with the heucheras. I expanded a shade bed with heuchera and now am waiting on my next (hopefully last) shipment of more heuchera and a few other plants for this season. Not all of these have a spot yet but I'm sure I can make room. You will love it when they increase in size next year! It should be really pretty!

Ronda, The plat map is usually provided by a survey company. If the old owner has a certified plat map rather than one he had drawn up, that would be better than relying on his memory or description. The plat map will give you the exact footage along the property lines, as well as any easements or right of ways on the property. What I meant in #6 was to triangulate between the three points, (the power source, the perk area, and the well, keeping in mind that you don't want to have your well any closer than 100 feet to your sepic and leech field). You want to place your building site in a location that will cost you the least in running power lines, septic lines, and water lines. Just as a side note, I don't know what kind of experience you've had with well pumps, but I highly reccomend a submersable pump rather than a "above ground" pump. They might cost a little more in the begining, but they are more trouble free and less likely to freeze than an above ground pump. I am aquainted with the Winchester area. Since your property is on the mountain, be sure to bury your water and septic lines at least 18" below the ground level, preferably 24", to stay out of the freeze zone. And any pipes you have in the crawl space under the house, wrap and insulate the heck out of them! There is nothing like having your septic and water freeze in the middle of January and having to get out there and try to unfreeze them. I learned my lesson the hard way. I know that this sounds like over kill, but we do have some freezing weather here, and it's better to be over cautious and trouble free, than to skimp and have trouble every year. Besides, a ditch witch usually runs about 50.00 a day, and you can do A LOT in a day. On your perk test, the county health inspector will make a diagram as to where he thinks the septic system should go. Check around in that area for the BEST septic installer, (they are usually the ones who dig the cemetary plots for funerals), and use them. They will be able to look at the lay of the land and correct the health inspector's map to give you the best flow for the septic. Also, it always helps to have an extra 100' of fill line put in for those times when you have extra people in your household. While we are on the subject of fill lines and septic systems, I bet you've already heard of "Ridx" septic system additive. It's good stuff, but a little pricey. I use a half gallon of butter, or soured milk added to the system about every other month,or whenever you have it. It has the same enzime action as the Ridx. I've been using the butter/sour milk thing for the last 6 years and have not had a bit of problem with backups except the one time that the line froze. In fact, I started my system with about a gallon of the buttermilk and, like I said, only one problem in 6 years. I hope this has helped. If you want to contact me directly, I'm at chiefgraybear@yahoo.com. Best of luck, Gray Bear

@Am.E, I'm clearly not with the pack on this one. My laundry used to be housed in a large closet in my kitchen (large enough for stacked machines, cabinet with laundry sink and tall storage unit to the right). When we first bought our house we did a gut and reno and everyone convinced me to keep the laundry there (it would be SO convenient they all said). Fast forward a few years and two children later ... I hated it. Weekends, the laundry would be piled up on the kitchen floor (I was working full time still then and weekends was when I could strip all the beds and do laundry). My husband wears suits and dress shirts to work M-T so there was often an ironing board up in the kitchen too. My neighbor has a laundry room as part of a mudroom off her side entrance and she too has an ironing board up all the time in her beautiful dining room (more dress shirts over there). I had a beautiful kitchen and it looked like laundry central. We finished our basement a few years ago and down it went (where I wanted to move it originally). It is a large space (just the way the layout of our basement worked) but I use it as a multi purpose room. I'm so much happier. Put in a wall mounted TV and have a large table on castors (ala Martha Stewart) for folding/crafts/wrapping. Put in two large IKEA PAX units to house out of season items (coats/swim gear/etc) and all the wrapping/craft supplies you could want. Also have my sewing machine set up on a nice desk and my elliptical machine (so I can exercise while I do laundry ... LOL). I have a nice chair to sit in and sometimes read a magazine in it while I'm waiting for a load to finish. It's a great space and I use it all the time. Let's be real ... laundry never ends ... I could almost live in that room :) The ironing board is up 24/7 and no one has to see it. There is also a nice hanging rod above it to hang dry my husband's shirts. It's not for everyone I suppose, but I'd much rather head down there and have everything so organized and easy to access. In a perfect world, I might install smaller Miele units on the bedroom level ... maybe (I have the Miele larger units in my basement). It might be nice to have the option to do more than one load at a time, especially as the kids get older and bigger but I wouldn't sacrifice my basement set up to do it. Good luck with your decisions!

not helps, illumination is essential. while the firemen might be able to see the flames coming out of your roof at night, the ambulance guys cant guess which house has the heart attack victim laying on the floor inside. worse yet, how will the pizza delivery person find your house? i'm ok with a 2 digit number on a post/column, anything more than that should go horizontally, i like your right side of the garage.