Don . Always glad to enable. :p I had no intentions of looking at or even buying GwtW. Chris has it listed in his catalog but there is no picture, so I hadn’t paid it any mind when I was scouting my first order earlier this year. Then BAM I saw it. I mistook it for Bridal Falls at first, but looking at my Bridal Falls now, the only similarity is the white margin. The leaf shape, overall size, and mound shape are completely different with GwtW. The picture that Olga has on her website does it justice. It’s going to be a biggun’ so mind where you plant it once you do decide to purchase it. :) Ademink . I actually ordered from Chris this spring as well via mail order. There were 43 hostas total in that order. After this second order arrives I’m going to need a sign in my front yard that says “Garden brought to you by Hallson”. Here is the link to my original post when my first order came . . . it was a great day. :) My First Hallson Order Jan . Shopping for new plants is something I do best !!! I do have a big task ahead of me getting these all in the ground, but it will so be worth it in 5 years when everything starts filling in and my hours of toying back and forth endlessly over which plant should go where will pay off. Thanks again everyone ! Ludi

Ya'll are making me blush! lol!! Seriously, I really do appreciate all your kind words. It makes me smile. Cotehele, my sunroom is not heated either. I did isulate it well though, so I can keep it comfortable with baseboard heaters in the winter and ceiling fans in the summer. The window is a standard exterior window with insulated glass. It is 4' wide and 3' high, a slider. It can be used as a pass-thru to the sunroom. The window has built-in J-channel trim on the outside (like you'd use for vinyl siding and we installed the drywall into that channel. The whole sunroom is drywalled. I can take a picture of how the window looks from the sunroom side this evening, if you'd like more details. If I had it to do again, I'd get a taller window that went all the way down to the granite countertops. I LOVE the way that looks and it would have been easier to pass things through there at a lower height. Cindy

I think you're prices are too low. You'd be lucky to make a profit on somethings. I just bought 2 peaches for $3 the other day. If you're making fruit pies and cobblers, I would definitely charge more for those. And,if your cookies have chips and/or nuts and butter, you'll be lucky to break even. Plus, you may have to plan on some stuff not selling. I would take preorders for the pies and cobblers (even cakes) and sell them whole for twice of what you paid to make them. People like being able to take bigger stuff home to other family members. If it's a fundraiser and a good cause, I would pay a lot more for homemade goods. I would price any individual item at at least a dollar or more. And, if you put enough fluffy icing on a cupcake you can charge big bucks for it! Just make sure to price stuff so that you're actually making a big enough profit to make it worth the effort. I'd hate to see you slaving and baking for 3 days to come out $7 ahead. How about doing some big iced cinnamon rolls one morning (or some other breakfast - bakery good)? I would bet you could charge a lot for those. People love eating with their morning coffee and will probably pay a little more for a treat then since it seems more like a meal instead of just a snack. Good luck; let us know how it goes.

We "built" the house we live in now, tract home in new neighborhood, with some customization. House conversations with friends and neighbors always have regrets in there. Bump-outs, boneheaded designs we should have caught, upgrades that should have been made, upgrades that aren't worth it... the list goes on. Based on our experiences here, I already know there will be design / decor issues that will have D'oh! moments. It's impossible to think about EVERYthing. I think we've hit all the major points, and have enough flexibility to change in the future. Our lives changed quite a bit in the 6 years since building (the once large pantry is now crammed because I now do the majority of grocery shopping at Costco and that not change for at least 15 years for example). I can't see into the future, but we learned from this build, and kept the evolution of our family in mind with our design. 1) The architect/draftsman is only as good as the information provided. They don't know us, or live our lives, ( I wonder if there'd be a benefit to having separate design consultations with the clients, much like relationship counseling, to get a really clear picture, lol), which is why we rely on their education and expertise. 2) The reason copy editors exist: to catch the technical mistakes writers make, and can no longer "see" due to closeness to the project. Same reason med errors occur. I think when we originally like a design, then look at it, dream about it, obsess over it, we can't "see" the flaws or potential problems that others might. Hence all the floor plan critique posts here. I think too, that online and builder plans lull us into a false sense of security- "they design and build houses all the time, they're experts, hundreds of people have bought the design, what could go wrong?!" We found that customizing our builders plan threw them for a loop, and didn't realize it would do so, until after the house was built, and weird things weren't right; towel bar location, depth o linen closet, outlets, etc. 3) We are often playing on tilt. We're all living SOMEwhere, right now, and designing a new place to live, with many features that we love (or would love to have) or without the ones we loathe, those HTOD, that we obsess over in our current or past homes. Finally, the same way any artist of any medium does, we aren't always satisfied with the end result of a project. Sometimes you just have to be DONE, even if to your artists eye, you could have kept going. Having said all that, I know there's going to be some regrets, but hopefully -I believe- the joy will outweigh them!