Thanks - this is fun! I would like to envision that the third floor was at least a bonus room utilizing attic trusses. I've scoured Pinterest for images of attics with built in beds and love the idea of a bunkhouse-esque spare room. I've been playing around with this too but nothing 100% satisfactory yet. I attempted to move the upstairs bath back by the sleeping porch and wound up with a very strange H-shaped hallway, which seems like wasted space to me. I don't think a master suite is really necessary, though having a slightly larger bedroom than the kids' rooms would be nice. A cozy, yet comfortable, 3 bed, 1.5 bath house would be perfect - a large kitchen is a must! So when I was playing around I extended the kitchen up, adding some square footage, to accommodate an island with stools. Maybe in the next day or two I'll post a pic of my tweakings :) But first I need to get my holiday baking done! LL- your place sounds lovely! I would definitely landscape in large shrubs, peonies, periwinkle, hostas; like you said, a little overgrown and casual but charming.

Hi powerful in Zion, You like to spend money a lot? Where did you learn that? At home - and were your parents rich? Or from TV? Those advertisers want to convince us to buy stuff ... that'll make it worthwhile for them to run those ads. If the folks who watch the ads don't spend enough to make the increased profit more than enough to pay for the ads ... they quit advertising. So who pays for the ads? You do! Do you like being poor? Many don't. But ... if you want to spend, spend, spend ... ... get used to being poor ... cause you'll likely be that way all through your life. I'd recommend a suggestion that has been made several times, here. Keep track of every cent that you spend, for a while. Separate the spending out according to category. Don't tell us about it ... just look at it yourself ... and see whether that's the way you want to trade your time (i.e. the hours that you worked to earn the dollars that you traded for all of that stuff). By the way, everyone ... ... every one of us has a home-based business. And - we have employees. Most of us, as the usual kind of employee, expect to get paid for the time that we invest where we work. If we don't - we don't stay at that place long! Or, if we're an employer and don't pay our employees, they won't be around for very long! But, in your second business, you have employees, but you don't have to pay them! As a matter of fact, most of the time ... ... they _ pay _ you!! I tell this story to kids, to help them understand how money works, and I tell them that if they send a couple of their employees out to buy ice cream, the ice cream tastes great. But ... the employees that they sent out to buy it - stay at the ice cream shop. They're gone. They won't work for you any more. But if you hang on to some of those Dollar-employees, they'll work for you as long as you hang on to them. With one exception ... if you put them into the mattress ... they go to sleep! Same with the ones in your wallet ... they're not working. And, if you put them into the bank, they only work an hour or so per day! Your job, as usual employers, is to make your employees work smart! You want those invested Dollar-employees to bring in nickels and dimes ... that eventually grow into more dollars like themselves. If you don't have Dollars invested ... you don't have that home-based business that supplements your regular income! On the day that you started work ... you had brains and hands at work ... and no money. On the day that you retire ... you have brains and money at work ... and no hands. If you don't have money at work ... you can't retire! Good wishes for learning how money works ... and putting some of it to work for you. Working smart, too. ole joyful

One thing you can do with old photos is to scan them at the highest resolution that you can. Then begin blowing up the scan, and looking into the detail of the photo. You will be very surprised what you begin to see. I did this with some of the old old family photos taken back in the early 1900s. Blowing them up and peeking at things like the scuff marks on the shoes of the children, the detailing on the home made dresses, a barb wire fence between the yard and a corn field, which had corn ears fully grown on it, so it had to be late in the year. And most of all, I could see the expression in the eyes of my grandmother. But you might see the detailing of the boards on the porch, the way the steps were built and from what, and were they painted or not. Any flower beds and what was in them. Many of the homes in my old pictures were not painted, but were of rough lumber sometimes board and batten. But the young couple were invariably standing proudly in front of their home, probably newly built or expanded. Hard working people in homemade dresses and overalls and brogan shoes. It was as close to Southern American Gothic as you can get. Another one I loved was of my great grandmother Sophia taken in the hog pen with this huge hog which she was feeding. Going on the assumption that they had pictures taken of important things or events, I decided this was important because she was proud to be able to feed such a fine hog which would be slaughtered and feel her family well during the winter. Plus, she loved animals and took good care of them. I guess I inherited that love from her.

@pricklypearcactus We kept the original floor plan, but previous owners did make some modifications. They removed a set of back stairs to accommodate a powder room and combined the solarium and living room for one open space.