Shades of Idaho, your cabin sounded perfect. We have a silo and it is on the older side of style. I love the roof and have always dreamed of building a room by raising the roof and wrapping an exterior stairway to the top. We are fairly near a river valley and I am sure the top of that silo would bring it into view. I thought about having windows surrounding the top for 360 viewing. Just a dream though. Nancy, I like the idea of a wood stove. It would be something I'd do down the road, if the warm weather cabin use extended into fall and winter. DH and I were, once again, looking at site location and there is a spot really close to the house that could be used for this shed. Like the idea of having place for water pitcher. Moccasinlanding, love the idea of french doors. keeping the back without windows is a nice option, providing a spot for privacy. I was hoping on french doors so much. We would have to find them used and functional. I do need to do a Craigslist search. There is a lumber yard that sells windows that are returns or miss ordered. I will need to see if they have anything that could be useful for this project. I am thinking that narrow windows would work, the studs are 24" on center instead of the conventional 16". If I got something narrow, I wouldn't have to have structural headers, I don't think, because there would not be any cutting of the studs, only the cladding. I think a row of clerestory windows would be fantastic over the door, especially if I had to use a conventional door instead of french. Several of our sites would allow access to our wifi, and close to the bathroom/shower facilities. The one remote site, way north of the barn, is a good location for real retreat, and a composting toilet would be very handy. The sites close to the house, DH said we could run power to it. Like was done years ago to brooder house. I am not sure about that, as it might be bumping up against code. I want to keep this simple with regards to getting others involved in my business. Thanks you guys for the input it is very helpful in helping keeping me inspired. This isn't going to happen over night thats for sure. So I will be posting on this project now and again over the summer. This next week I will be going on my own week retreat up in Minnesota. I do it yearly. I think of it as my adult "camp" time. I loved camp as a kid. This is a Buddhist retreat, and for most of the 8 days it is in silence. Up at St Johns University in Collegeville, near St Cloud. Magnificent campus!

Hi again. The leaking toilet is from the late 50's by Richmond. The two closet bolts that are missing are located at the rear of the toilet. Are there replacement bolts for a toilet this old? The other two bolts look original. I cannot understand why that plumber I hired six months ago didn't replace the missing bolts and didn't fix the movement in the toilet. Shouldn't he have addressed these issues when he was here, since I told him about them? When a plumber comes to fix the currently leaking wax seal, what if he finds that the wood structure underneath is wet or rotted? There could have been a small leak that I didn't know about. Is it the plumber's job to replace rotted wood, or does that require hiring a builder/carpenter? If the wood is only damp, then can the plumber go ahead and replace the wax seal and set the toilet that same day without waiting for the wood to dry? If there is damage/rot to the wood, how long does a repair like this usually take to fix? I only have one toilet in this house. Thank you for any help.

you will be fine, 12 lb is perhaps a bit wasteful but not a lot. I have posted in the cornucop forum recently about this, because I am consistently able to grow large garlic. my routine is far simpler than yours, just raised beds, mulch with leaves (or wood chips if I can get them), and one shot of nitrogen in early spring. I have alkaline clay. I do not add P even though the original soil was nearly P-free (though some P may have gotten there when rotating potatoes into the bed). I do have wood in the beds to promote fungi and repeated mulching over the years has enriched the soil some. I grow about 300 plants per year, for 3 families plus some for friends and replanting.

What do you need? Storage, seating, office, entertaining space? Pick one and move in that direction. A reading nook would be great or a built in or a nice bar/beverage center... Lots of options