hello & thank you for the reply - i believe after taking a better look at things that this may be the case - i have repaired these spots already even though it is really not the proper time to do this - i had to do something because it was driving me crazy looking at the spots - thank you again

I just Google this plant and on the first 2 pages MOBOT had it listed as a height of 5-7 ft - most of the rest were in the 36 inch range. I've had one for a number of years and have move it once which slowed down it's growth. Looked a lot like Dave's at first, but once the roots got re-established, it took off and is now similar to what Ken's plant looks like. Dave's plant looks to me like it may have had some early on shearing to get that shape and I would think it would be easy enough to keep that shape with some annual attention. I find the plant very adaptable, but needs some moisture to tolerate drought conditions. My color is the same year round. Marshall

You will never be satisfied unless you move the dining room doorway and the sunroom door. Sorry, but it's true - I have similar AWFUL doors / doorways in corners - they SUCK! Really, the solution is simple: close up the dining room and sunroom doors to create a solid wall for cabinets in that corner. Put in a 4 ft wide doorway next to your fireplace (where those tall cabs are now) - this is an EASY build! I did it all by myself to fix an old doorway - anything shorter than 6 ft is an easy DIY header - either use 2x6's with blocking above or 2x10's or 2x12's without blocking - 4 ft. is a short run. Then, put the door to the sunroom next to your laundry closet - enter from the DEN, NOT the kitchen! You can put a pass-thru over the sink if you want to, but WHY should you have to go through the kitchen to get to the sunroom? SO ANNOYING! Seriously, HAVING to walk ALL THE WAY through either the living room or dining room to get from the front door to the kitchen just DOES NOT WORK! If the doorway is next to the fireplace it is a straight run from the front door, it is still accessible to bring food into the dining room from the kitchen, AND you can even make the current mini-peninsula you have 2 feet longer so that your husband can comfortably sit there with his laptop. You can keep the sink and dishwasher in the same location (less cost for new plumbing). The new 4 ft. doorway will end approximately where your range currently meets the cabinets that will be gone, so shift the range 2 feet in towards the corner and put a 2 ft. cabinet next to the new doorway. Then you can use the existing hole in your roof for the vent by simply getting a new flexible duct and angling it from the new hood position through the attic to the roof at an angle. Framing costs - approx. $200 to frame out the new 4 ft. doorway, and a new 3 ft. door next to the laundry into the sunroom, add a few new studs to fill in the old dining room and sunroom doors in the kitchen for drywall. Use the old sunroom door in the new frame and you save more money. Cost of trim and other finishes is totally up to you. Seriously, as far as construction costs go, you can VASTLY improve the flow of your ENTIRE HOUSE by moving these two doorways for less than $500 (and that would be with really nice wood trim). I'd put a new window on the back wall of the now U-shaped kitchen, simply because you will get great light from all the south-facing windows in the sunroom. Again, a cheap and easy frame job. You can use stock off-the-shelf Anderson windows from Home Depot to save money. Your back wall is 128" wide so I'd run a blind corner cab (42" gives good play) opening along the range wall, then put the fridge on the back wall next to it with with a 3" filler space between them and a 27" corner upper cab and 27" corner appliance garage beneath it. This allows you to open the blind cabinet door and the fridge door without interference, and you can use that counter space when you pull things from the fridge. You can run a matching panel from floor to ceiling along the fridge with a deep cabinet above the fridge if you want. This means that your fridge will end about 63" (24"+3"+36") off the range wall. Your window can start about 6" from the fridge - this allows space for trim. You can fit a 30" wide window with trim starting 30" off the sink wall and install a 24" or 27" corner upper there as well (no appliance garage here - leave counterspace clear for prep). You can even install a small prep sink under this window as well (but that will add cost due to new plumbing). Get an over-the-range microwave / hood combo to save counter space. The sink wall will stay basically the same, and the range wall would go something like this: 4 ft. doorway to living room, 24" cabinet, 30" range, 18" or 21" cabinet (depending on size of trim around doorway), 45" space for 42" blind cabinet. Now you have plenty of counter space on each side of your range and next to your fridge. The new peninsula jetting out from the sink wall can be 5-6 ft. long and still allow 5 ft. walking space between it and the doorway (you save space by putting the doorway across from the peninsula instead of 24" deep cabs as exist now). At that length it might actually see more use than the small one you have now. Also, I'd actually change the height / counter material of the peninsula by extending the cabinets along the sink wall 12" into where the peninsula now is, then use 39" or 42" high wall cabs (12" deep) facing into your office area as the peninsula base and top it with 24" deep butcher block. That gives the cook 12" extra prep space on the D/W side of the sink (and avoids another corner cab), and allows people to dump their crap on the peninsula without it interfering with the cook. If you use two 24" wide wall cabinets as the base you can have 3 4" wide support pillars with brackets (one each end, one in center) to support the 10" counter overhang (butcher block should have a 2" lip on kitchen side of cabinets) and then curve the end that jets into the kitchen = 5 ft. base, 5-1/2 - 6 ft. counter. This is the cheapest and easiest way to go - you get a LOT more prep space in the kitchen and you don't lose any of your office space. It looks like you just have a table sitting in the space next to the laundry closet now, so it only makes sense to turn that into the sunroom entrance.

I went with a casement bay window and I love it. It's an Anderson 400 series and its their smallest bay window. I went with the bay because I wanted a larger span of windows than a single and I didn't want the center divide that would be created with 2 windows. Three windows seemed to be just too large since I still wanted upper cabinets. I also bumped it out to have a large place to put plants (but my basil plant already died, so I need to work on my green thumb skills). Here it is: The center window doesn't open. The two sides open. Mine is not to the counter for reasons too boring to get into as well, but I love that it is low. Note that this type of window above my bumped out sink base could make it difficult for a short person to reach the cranks to open the window, but I am tall and its not an issue for me.