Thanks, guys! Glad you two didn't catch the brunt of this one...boy was it fast and furious! We had ultra-high rotation winds all along the front of this storm; sustained 60 mph, with frequent gusts to 90 mph. The grace of God kept them from dropping actual tornadoes. Lightning strikes were 100 per minute, if you can imagine that. I was also pretty lucky when I unburied my Oklahoma; the damage was much less than I thought, and when I took back the broken canes the bush still looked pretty good. The only other bush that was truly affected by the storm was my Lilac Rose, and just the bloms were affected. NO BROKEN CANES!! If you could see pics of my front yard you would know how truly amazing that is. I'll get some pics up sometime this evening. Had hubby not had to go in to work that night his car would have been toast because of two massive limbs that fell right on his parking space. A very, very large limb broke and blew toward the house...stopping short of our front door by a foot and falling exactly BETWEEN my original, 70 year old iron railings!!!

I would be attracted by the privacy of your lot, but put off that the house was not sited in the middle of the parcel so that I was buffered on all sides, now and in the future. In other words, what's the property behind your house (that you butt up against)? How close is your house to the property line? Who owns that property and how is it used? Any future plans for it? If I were looking at your house, I would be asking these questions, so you and your agent should have answers prepared. Are you in an area where forested tracts are rapidly becoming developed homesites? I live in the Northeast, and the next town over is basically forest and conservation land with multi-acre zoning... a few years ago, a very nice home that was barely (and charmingly) visible from the road, seemingly nestled in the woods, was suddenly exposed when a long driveway was cut through and another house built very close by --- the first house had been built backed up against its own property line. Those are the kinds of things I would be asking myself if I was considering your property. I know that you can't move the house :o), but maybe you need a "story" to explain why you sited the house where you did ("to take advantage of the lovely hillside view", etc.), rather than just to be as far away as possible from your neighbors. I feel for you - it's a beautiful house in its own unique way and I know it will really come alive again for the next owner --- I'm thinking wonderful "Martha Stewart"-style holiday parties and cozy quiet nights by the fire. That said, I am not a big fan of staged houses. I like to see a clean slate so I can let my imagination run wild. When I first looked at your pictures, I thought, "hardship house", as in divorce or bankruptcy, because it seemed so forlorn and emptied out. I would clear out the house out completely (but always keep it fresh and clean for showings), leaving one comfortable seating area with good lighting where people can sit to discuss, review your albums, etc. Maybe that area could have some mini-staging --- couch and comfy chairs, pillows, big coffee table, nice rug a la the Ralph Lauren/upscale ski McMansion look! I'm also impressed with your can-do and flexible attitude... you've been hit with some harsh (if well-meant and accurate) criticism here without getting defensive or hurt. I wish you the best of luck. You are getting some great advice here.

I read the entire case & shook my head the entire time. Of course the mother's side was not represented, but the flavor I got from it is the kids felt so entitled... I mean, I couldn't believe it was brought up that mom told the kid she would take him to the police station because he refused to put on his seat belt. That speaks volumes about how much control she had over her own kids (which is none) & what a brat he might have been to refuse to wear his seat belt. The conflicting "stories" about the broken arm made me laugh. Um, there's not a lot of difference between "daycare" and "babysitter" and he may have been playing with "friends" at daycare. Does not sound TOO conflicting... such as saying he was at school to one person & at a friend's house to another... or fell down on the playground to one person & he fell down the stairs to another. THOSE are conflicting accounts. JEEZ!!! I envisioned a mom that took daughter shopping & took son to car shows... maybe she felt they were gender appropriate activities, not in an effort to slight the other. My gut tells me dad fueled the sibling rivalry & encouraged the kids to feel slighted by whatever mom did. BTW, I find it interesting that they allege mom had no contact with the son but that "at times" she favored Steven over Kathryn.... and paid for his college...and bought him an ATV. REALLY? WOW!!! I was taken aback by the statement that mom did not trust kids to report their medical bills... well, it was DAD'S job to send mom the receipts & request payment from her. It should have nothing to do with the kids. I mean REALLY? How dare mom ask for a receipt before she pays whatever they demand!? and that poor child... humiliated because mom changed her surname after getting remarried.... LMAO ~ SD's BM uses her maiden name, her older sister has HER father's last name, SD has my husband's last name & the new baby has the BF's last name.... how much is that damaging to SD??? or all her kids??? lol Of course, I don't know the whole story but I assume the mother tried. She sent gifts, she sent cards (laughed at their expectation that she should have included "gifts" in the cards), and we don't know what her financial situation was so based on the lame arguments the children made in their complaint, I have to give the mom the benefit of the doubt that she did the best she could. I get a gut feeling that the father was ferocious to deal with (and don't blame her one bit for refusing to go to his house to pick up the weekend bag). If the children came up with this ridiculous lawsuit on their own (doubtful), the father (if he were innocent)would have stayed out of it. He could have been silently supportive if they truly felt they had a case but for him to actively get involved with the lawsuit, it says more to me about what the mother has had to contend with over the years. How terrible. You know, recently there was an incident (Amber Alert) here in CA near where I live. The father and mother split while she was pregnant. She was an attorney (for the State Attorney General) and I'm not sure what he did, I think it was in computers. He felt she had an upper hand in court because she was an attorney, she had just been awarded sole custody & he took the child. They were missing for four days when the bodies of the father and his 2 year old daughter were found in his truck not far from here. His brother (a local attorney as well) went on TV the next day and stated that he was proud of his father and the daughter was better off dead than with the mother. There are just some things beyond reason. In my opinion, it was one more slap in the mother's face from the father's family. How can people HATE so much?

I think the distinction between semi-custom home and truly custom construction is significant. I've done both plus lots of renovations. In our custom build, we had a fabulous GC. The way he liked to do business was to spend countless hours up front getting into excruciating detail about building products. Once we had cost out our desires, it became apparent that this house was going to cost a whole lot more than we had anticipated. We owned the land. The unknown costs lay in porches and basements. We all agreed that we needed another plan. (We were using William E. Poole plans) I went home and quickly found another plan that would work with a few modifications. It had smaller porches and we ditched the basement in favor of a FROG. It was a smarter build thanks to my GC. We owned the land and had more than 60% of the construction cost in cash. The bank loved us. Low risk. They only got involved when we were close to finishing up. I think we had one construction draw and a final inspection. Our GC suggested that we mutually determine his fee up front. It was a flat amount. This way, he was assured that he would be paid and make his profit. We paid him in monthly installments. The last payment would be withheld until we had release of liens from all of the subcontractors and the GC. Any costs would merely be passed through his accounts. There were no mark up on materials and services. They were entirely at his cost. I was given a copy of all of the receipts. He would present a months worth of bills and receipts at a time. There was one or two items that he needed the money a little faster. I think the framing material was an example. It was a pretty big bill as I recollect. In the areas where a guestimate was required in the budget, he would tend to overestimate. This way the surprises were pleasant. The hard work was done up front. We used those surprises to finish out the FROG. I ended up sourcing the appliances, the plumbing fixtures and the decorative electrical fixtures. He was a little leery about that, but I had everything ordered and stored in my garage ahead of time. I would take them over the day before they were needed and have them on site. The appliance dealer kept my appliances in storage until I was ready. The only plumbing fixture that I had the plumber order was two real cast iron tubs. I didn't want to be responsible for transport or installation of those. The GC had such a great time working with us, he and his brother, decided to do all of the interior finish carpentry themselves. They were used to working on projects that were 50% bigger than our home. We fit right into their schedule. It had been a long time since they had gotten to work together, they wanted to do it. They did a beautiful job. They built my mantle and an arched pocket door from a picture I provided them. They did a beautiful job. Semi-custom building, now that is an exercise in frustration. I'll never do that again. The answers in semi-custom building always seem to be no.