I thought about this thread again a few minutes ago. Google has an interesting feature. It'll show you what it's like to be standing on the street and looking around. For instance: Go to Google maps Enter 153 1st Avenue North, Nashville, TN Pick the street view Click on the yellow person (on the map itself) Click the "right" arrow three times (on the photo, upper left hand corner) What are you looking at? (hint, hint, it's Fort Nashboro) Two more times and youÂre looking at our Riverfront Park and the river. Or, if youÂd entered 660 Charlotte Pike, youÂd be looking at our state capitol building. It would be cool if we could use it for our place guessing game, in a sort of geochaching way of doing it. However, it only does it for cities in the US. :(

Well - that is the topography you get when your house is built on what used to be a corn field LOL! Yes, there is a creek nearby. In the first photo, you can see the edge of the woods past where the grass is mowed. About 50 yards through those woods is a sizable creek. The woods are all water shed area and will never be developed, so it is quite the natural habitat (complete with deer, rabbits, woodchucks, snakes, etc) behind my house. Personally, I would rather have a little more natural character to the lot (read hills, rocks, etc) but everything is a tradeof, and this isn't bad, all things considered. Alexa

OK,first of all,I am not up a tree. I am just leaning on my fence above the garden. I walk up here on my paved driveway,and walk over to where I can see down between the Dogwoods,and take the pics. What I mean by the last pic is,this part of the garden is not going to change any time before the end of the season. I don't go in and dig up rearrange my garden every year like some of you younger folks. These plants are going to stay the way they are,because it's a garden,not just another collection of plants,that just happen to be hostas! The main thing is,you all have seen all of my garden for years now,and though you may think so it's not a huge garden! Phil

Again, thanks to everyone for the complements. I think it is going to my head. GGG! The great room paint that you see through the barrel arch near the banquette is a custom mix based on a camel colored flannel sheet set (easier to take a pillowcase to the paint lady than one of my favorite blazers). I know it looks greenish in some pix, but is definitely camel IRL. The hallways & small rooms are 1/4 strength of the same camel. The dinning room (I don't know if it shows in these pix) & powder room are SW Peacock Blue (yummy). Master suite is SW Softened Green (very, pretty but not as "sophisticated" as the other colors) & the guest suite is BM Jicama (gorgeous, soft, cheerful yellow which DH thinks looks like the hallways). The now blind doggie is Venus (Bearticelli's the Bearth of Venus since all of our breeder's dogs have "bear" in their name). When we went to chose our puppy from the litter, an as yet unnamed pup came bounding up to 9YO DD and said, "You're my girl & I'm your doggie forever & ever." DD thought she was getting a boy & had picked out Neptune for his name, but when she got her girl home she said, "You're too beautiful to call Neptune; your name is Venus." Venus has such an incredible joie de vivre that, a year latter, we agreed to have her littermate sister, Sadie (Bearcedes) come live with us for a while to see if Sadie could get a "personality transfusion" and show better since she is so physically gorgeous. Well, after a few months, she was less shy but wasn't likely to finish in a reasonable time and she had bonded to me like glue. Almost apologetically, our breeder asked if I wanted Sadie to be my "forever dog" & I said "Yes" in a heartbeat. The girls will be 15YO in February and were always meant to be together. There is a doorbell next to the door with the dog knob, so I will have to get a paw doorbell installed after we move in. What a great idea! This is a 2 b&tt kitchen in the sense that DH doesn't cook, but it keeps his b&tt out of my way when I'm cooking & he is doing his cleanup or making coffee. But, yes, it will be easy to have friends or my DD work in there with me which will be so nice. I'm capable of delegating. The secrets to a long distance build? Spreadsheets! I'm only half kidding because it really was important to be organized & the spreadsheets were invaluable, especially since this was the 1st (& last) time we ever built a house. I think the other thing that helped is that I'm a project manager for manned spaceflight hardware. I'm use to having the domain experts (in this case, the subs & suppliers) do their thing & bring me the results for integration (although this was really the builder's role, we did a great deal of the interfacing via e-mail & phone). I dunno, it mostly worked. I thought I was going to be sewing custom cushions for the seating on the banquette, so the height was designed lower to accommodate the cushion. DH loves the stained wood so much, and the bead board on the backs that I think there are only going to be a few throw pillows for color. Any thoughts on what I should do for window treatments? The octagonal ceiling was an add-on after we saw the half octagonal (larger) in our builder's house. The keeping room ceiling is a double vault. I'm so happy with the fan we got (MinkaAire Delano) because it has an uplight that just puts a wash of light on the ceiling. Pretty much all of this part of the house is at 45 degrees to the rest of the house. There were days when I was drawing it out in the software that I never wanted to see another angled wall in my life. But, it does create all these nooks & crannies & interesting views. Our current house is a 1992 spec house, but it is very well designed. This builder had a little blurb in one of his brochures about the importance of sightlines in a house and how the views should be interesting looking different ways in different locations. We tried to take that to heart. I don't want to go too far off-topic, but since y'all seem to "get" this house, I'd like to share one view of the master bath. Those clerestory windows over the vanities (lights upside down) were a moment of sheer brilliance on the part of DH. Also, to give perspective to the keeping room arrangement, here is a view from the side (again, unfinished screened porch). The room at the lower level is my sewing/crafts room and those windows are just amazing for the light they bring in. I am so lucky to have that space. Thanks, so much & I will post more pictures when there is further progress. Jo Ann