Oh boy ... that's definitely a loaded question, but thank heavens my husband doesn't read these forums! I'd had it all planned out (the shed, that is), but it was not cost effective. Oh all right - $2000.00 IS a bit ridiculous, I suppose. We modified the design and took a few shortcuts to significantly drop the cost, got a few things from friends ("free" works for me!), and ended up w/ a really cool shed, inside & out. It's large enough to hold all of my garden tools/accessories/books/etc. Plenty of space to move around, lots of counter space for various tasks ... I actually spend quite a bit of time out there on the weekends, even in cold temps (propane heater). BUT ... the number one thing that I would do different is the roof. While corrugated tin LOOKS absolutely fantastic, rustic, etc., it doesn't hold heat worth a darn! Of course, I can't possibly say anything about it at this point - the shed is built, and I'M the idiot that fell in love w/ the overall look of a tin roof! *heavy sigh* Guess I shot myself in the foot, so to speak!

After seeing your latest pics, ans re-reading your OP - I would say the following: 1. You PURCHASED the piece of stone for the Island - it was your property 2. THEY suggested that you wait on the island 2 1/2 years ago, and on THEIR insistance - took responsibility for the piece (still YOUR property) 3. What they are trying to give you as the island made from "your piece" (if the small sample in the pics is what the stone SHOULD look like...) does NOT match with the sample. Based on these three criteria - I would say you have a case, and that your Fabricator now has the responsibility to "deliver" - if he can't to your satisfaction, you'll need to work out fair compensation for loss and de-fault of contract. Hopefully it won't go there - I'm hoping that your guy will make things right and give you what you feel is acceptable... TO YOU !!!! I would hope that your Fabricator can find a stone with waaay more of a match to the sample, and then everyone wins. My guess is - they lost track of your "piece" AND either broke it or fabbed it (the original) for something else, or they just lost track of it and it's still there - burried in their scrap pile.... I work with shops all over the world in my business, and I cant tell you how many other fabricators are in this general group....... EVERYBODY makes mistakes now and then !!! LOL - But..... you gotta hols your guy's feet to the fire and have him fab up an island that YOU will be happy with. Seriously - I'd wait and see what he can do, then lets evaluate your options Not trying to be "self promoting" here, but you can e-mail or call if you need to discuss... www.azschoolofrock.com - I'm hoping that everything will turn out OK for you at the end of the day...... hth kevin

It has been A little over 6 months since I was here asking about what you guys would do if you were given this property. I wanted to come back to update on what all has happened in the past 6 months!! A lot of information has been revealed / found out, when I first posted this on this site it was just a I didn't know what to do moment, and I have to thank every single person I'm here for all of their advice and opinions because I heard them all in my voices over the past 6 months as I have been spending cleaning out the home. I don't think I mentioned in my original post that my grandmother is home was also completely full of items from over 100 years of time if not more than that. Anyhow, so in order to get to see where the issues lie, I have had to clean the house out so I could have people come in! It has been fun, but hard, awarding but exhausting extremely emotional with a lot of anger and  tears... But I am very proud of how much has been accomplished in this time. I think I mentioned before that I don't have much family, so I didn't have a whole lot of help but grateful for the hands of the few that I had. Basically, it has become my full-time job to be at this lake house cleaning it out having things checked out making a budget and figuring out what to do and how I'm going to do it. Good news, the foundation is great, the plumbing had some very small minor things that I was able to fix on my own, that there was no issues, the well has been serviced, septic was inspected, electrical is good, some things don't make a sense with the electrical but it's up to code which is unbelievable considering how old the house is but evidently my grandmother kept up with these things that I just didn't know. But it's nothing that can't be easily fixed. The unit for the AC was made in 87, it cut on without any problems, I had thought that it was going to have to be replaced, and up until this week I've been working in this southern 90° hot weather with no AC for a good bit of time now coming to find out that there was one switch that I did not see that needed a flip, and Poof, I have air!! They service the unit, and said that everything looks great. I can't believe how often I have heard this phrase, and I'm asking myself can this be true? LoL,  There's no way everything is great!! Now they did have a oil burning furnace that they used for heat that she had cut off shut down drained out filled up whatever it is that you do to those things when you don't use them any longer. So there isn't any heat in the home as of now, but if that's an issue to deal with later on down the road. Honestly I don't feel that I need it especially with it being just myself, It doesn't get very cold here and a space heater usually will do just fine. The downstairs of this home is double layered brick so it stays cool in the summer and it stays warm in the winter, not to mention that there is a fireplace. Now if I was to sell the home I would definitely need to do something in the future. But I'm still not quite sure that's what I want to do. Because this timing that I've taken to just clean it out and have the basic things looked at and checked out it's not looking as if it's going to be a money pit after all it's going to be more of a what to do with it type of situation because the floor plan doesn't make a lot of sense. Yes, the outside of the home needs to be updated, painted / Hardie board plank whatever something of that nature but it's 3/4 of it is brick. The main issue here is what to do with the space and how to make it function for me. I don't see myself needing more than what I have available to me, and the fact that this property/land has such great value, it's never going to depreciate... it's an acre and a half of Lakefront property on Lake you can barely buy land on anymore much less find a house on for under a million dollars. I've had real estate agents coming out of the woodwork wanting me to sell as is sell for 500k buy something else, which would be easy to do am I crazy for not doing that should I take the money and run? Or should I hang on to this and make it work for me to live in the rest of my life, and have something to leave to my son to what he can do with whatever he wants to do with it. It took a lot of energy and balls, lol, for me to come here and start the process when I made this post I've only had been up here two times since she passed away because it was so hard on me. I still have bad days but I am enjoying being here, and when the work is over and calm down, it's nice to just float around on the water or fish My son comes here and helps every weekend does things to help me and enjoys being here as well. Anyhow I guess I'm kind of blabbing now I have the tendency to do that. I'm trying to get to figure it out what to do with the upstairs and how to make it functionable. **So first off I have realized that their original plan was to have a kitchen upstairs as well as downstairs, I'm assuming they wanted to have some kind of entertainment area or whatnot there is all brand new cabinets in boxes for kitchen the upstairs the floor is still all subfloor but I have found 1200 ft² of the original hardwood plank board with the hardware still in the boxes they just never got to putting it down... I have a lot of the bases covered and I have a lot of the materials to finish what they were going to do. I just have more questions and need more advice and opinions, and honestly coming on here for the first time with this first post got me as far as I am right now. I'm not sure if this is where I am supposed to respond or update what is going on so please it forgive me if I'm commenting in the wrong spot and send me to the right place to post on a new thread or whatever it is however it works please help me understand So I can put up some pictures of the inside and outside get some ideas and get some help, or drop a line on here and tell me I'm making a huge mistake It doesn't matter either way because I like to know the good and the bad. Oh and for everybody that had mentioned something about the tax inheritance laws and things in South Carolina they're very forgiving on that don't even have it... And we're not in that bracket of worrying about federal estate tax, sorry, not that rich!! But for the ones that were worried about the tax issues/finances, I have hired a financial planner that also comes with a text advisor/CPA. Once again thank you all who commented on this original post, I heard everybody's voices even though I don't know what you sound like but you all have a different voice in my head but I heard it in these past months and I just want you to know how much I appreciate every single person that commented because it helped me so much and y'all don't even realize it. This is amazing group to be a part of!! Let me know if you want to see any pictures and where I should post them... @flomangan.... I listened to your advice and I have taken so many pictures, I had to get another camera involved because it was killing my phone's storage, and transfer real quick enough, hahaha!!

My Mom died first, with her mental facilities fully intact but she had a long slow horrid death due to smoking. She had even quit about the time she was 50, but the damage was done at that point and it got her in the end. That left my Dad home alone. He wanted to stay in his home until the bitter end. Fine. We made some home modifications to make things easier for him as he aged. Then the dementia started setting in, and things got very wild. He was adamant he wasn't leaving his home. He only grudgingly accepted home health care. I work full time and lived an hour or so from him and could not/would not provide him with everything that he needed to stay home. As was mentioned up-thread, home health care aides are as different as any other cross-section of humanity. You would also like to think they would always show up for their assigned shifts. Nope. We had people no-show, we had at least 2 aides steal from him and I became my dad's case manager. The calls were non-stop, the issues were relentless. He had a minor stroke and while he was in the hospital I took the opportunity to force him to try assisted living, under the guise of a "rehab" stay. He swore he hated it. Yet when I'd go to visit him he seemed pretty content in some ways - but his mantra was, "When am I going home?!" So we got home care lined up again and I took him home. He lasted less than 24 hours before he called me and asked to go back. It turns out everything you all have shared upthread is true - that people do better having other people around them. He missed the activities, he missed talking to multiple people, and he was just generally much better off in assisted living. He spent the rest of his life there, voluntarily. It was an eye opening experience for me in so many ways. My advice to anyone is to make your own plans while you can still make your own choices. If you wait too long, often times someone else will make them for you.