Thanks everyone for the wonderful comments. I attest that the great scenery and a wonderful camera are what make the picture what it truly is! I definitely do not like to be rushed while taking them. Todd my hubby has a great way of taking care of the kids while I'm doing that. Nathan (my youngest) was an absolute nuisance about my camera. He always wants to touch it and take photos with it himself. He was telling me to take photos of him in certain places and all....I told him that he needs to save his money to get his own camera (to mess up himself). :-) (I don't let anyone else use my camera)(Todd had ruined my last dinosaur camera) so I'm very protective of it. Glad I was able to take you there! Oh, on the way to the Sequoia's we saw corn fields, orchards and many fields. (Don't know what all the crops were)WE have a state that is rich in produce. Thanks again. Love, Jules

Jo Ann, I'm so glad I could have been of some help to somebody. I've gotten so much help from this forum. I was laughing when you mentioned your DH showing the contractors pictures of our mitered corners. I have shown our builder so many pictures from this forum and cited to him things people have said and done on this forum as if it was the definitive authority on building. He was always a good sport about it, although I could sense him rolling his eyes everytime I went in on GW. I'm glad you like how our house has turned out. It's fun seeing the different takes on the Shingle style house. I can't wait to see yours and Kate's and Shelly's. Although, sometimes I have to admit, it's not a good thing bc I start getting buyer's remorse and second guessing myself. I'll see your beautiful granite and wonder, may be I should have picked something like that.... :) I love our house though and have launched into decorating it with a similar intensity as building it. So, yes, we did end up going with SW Concord Buff for the entire house. We like how it turned out. I think it's a good base color for the house. It is warm and cozy, and we tend to gravitate toward those warm tones; so, it works for us. We painted a bunch of rooms other colors anyway and plan on painting some more; so, it really was meant to just be a launching off point. Having 4 boys, I have been forced to explore the blue spectrum more than I'd like. :) The area above the paneling in the Great Room (which btw is fake. It's just a bunch of trim molding over drywall, but you wouldn't be able to tell) is SW Safari as is the chimney flue in the GR. The color in the barrel vault in the foyer is and RL Metallic gold paint, which we love. The color in the dining room is BM Waterbury Green. if you lived nearby, I'd give you 3 gallons. We way overbought that paint! It's a really nice warm blue. The height of the moulding in the powder room is about 8.5 feet (we have 10 ft. ceilings). It was kind of arbitrarily placed, and if I were to do it again, I would line it up with the top of the 8 ft. door frame instead of 6 inches above it. The moulding was a last minute add that our trim guy did as a favor to me. I had a paint line there at first, which I didn't like bc it wasn't razor straight, and I asked him to put the moulding on, and he said he'd do it for free bc it was so easy. Our trim guy was awesome. The vanity sinks are the Kohler Ladena. We have the smaller size in the guest bath and 2 of the larger ones in our Master bath. We really like them. I'm honestly not too crazy about the coordination of the trim and cabinet color. I posted a bit on the drama of my white cabinets and trim. Our windows came pre-painted in Andersen White, and so, our trim was painted to match. We tried to match the cabinets as well, but they ended up being a bit more grey than the trim. If I knew that they weren't going to match, I would have gone with a creamier cabinet color, since I'm not at all a grey person. Oh well. I've gotten over that bc all the other colors and elements in the room have taken away from that grey undertone and brought the warmth back in. I will definitely post more pictures as we get things more settled. Our garage came out unexpectedly wonderful and our upstairs rooms are really fun as well. I just need to get them more put together. Everyday, we feel lucky to be in this house, and it is a far nicer house than anything I ever imagined that I'd live in. Sometimes it feels surreal. Anyway, it's been a fun journey and I'm glad to have been able to share it with this forum. I'm so glad I can look forward to seeing your progress as well as others so that I can get my building fix. Good luck!

I wish I'd seen this thread before posting mine! Yes, you can use a pressure cooker on the propane stove. I had a pressure cooker in my RV (and plan to put it in the camping equipment for this summer's trip). I have also used it on the white-gas stove (older Coleman model), when we were renovating the kitchen at home. We looked at those 12-volt refrigerators. My husband was annoyed that he got rid of his after leaving the trucking industry. Well, how could we know! Thanks for the tips on the newer ones. As far as camping reservations go: from experience, the national park campgrounds fill fast. Many of them are on the reservation system, and others (like in Arches) will require you to start trolling through the CG at daybreak, looking for departing campers. Our trip is about the same length as yours, though we are staying in motels and with friends and family instead of tent-camping. From experience with long trip tent camping, though, you'll want to get a motel room or find a truck stop with reasonably priced showers (bring shower shoes) every 3-4 days. Your trip sounds like a lot of fun -- we're heading from CA to ME via Orlando, FL, and back through MO (daughter, son-IL and new granddaughter live there). So we're going opposite of you, grin. I've placed a link to a great resource for road-trip planners. It's one of my favorite Internet sites. Donna Here is a link that might be useful: Road Trip America

Looks like a great place to camp. I like camping in the rustic places, but we make sure we aren't too far from the bathrooms! I hope the evenings are cool. Those tents can get very hot inside!!! Jammer and I always took cards and dominoes and would play games by candle light at night. The boys took those lighted Nerf footballs and would have lots of fun with them at night. Hope you have lots of fun!!!