A few comments to the comments on my post... Maro, our Mexican trip was taken after we retired. I no longer have any desire to landscape as a business. But I still love the creative part, often stopping at interesting houses under construction and making quick sketches of landscape ideas for my own amusement. The tingle of deep design involvement, the working of ying and yang, feeling the pulse of a design as I play with light, shadows, texture and other feelings not easily translated into words, will forever excite me. I agree, bahia, on your remarks about high walls surrounding dwellings. However, our archeologist son points out that in the early days man surrounded himself with walls to protect his family, food crops and to prevent sewage from spilling into the family compound. There were, of course, many reasons for walls, much dependent on climate and location. In some respects I would rather live with your abundant, overplanted, ever changing palette of color. It allows me to be casual, not afraid to change the position of a chair or garden ornament. The minimalist approach generally allows no additional room for change. The design is right there in your face, always perfect, always complete saying, "admire me". Accordian, you have brought up a point to be stressed. It is very important to design interior, exterior and landscaping as one package. We talk about this every once in awhile on the Forum. Most home buyers locate a house too late in the building process to have this happen. Sadly they are faced with many of the landscape problems we see posted daily here. Yes, there will always be "something missing" in these developer aberrations.

First off they don't all have K46 transmissions, the D160 and D170 do. I just bought a D140 from a dealer and asked that question. It has the K40. Again do your homework and you'll find the answers. I bagged leaves today for the first test of the D140. Worked great but I can't say I'm totally pleased with the bagger design but it does function. It's the way the bags are mounted and the top cover. Anyway, It is a real JD but built as a homeowner version, not commercial duty. The problems arise when you try to pull heavy loads or do a lot of uphill mowing. The tranny can't handle that. But If your cutting grass on a "normal" lawn they should last a long time. I bought from the dealer because I would rather give him the business than a large chain and he will gladly do any warranty work I may require. He also matched the price of Lowes with the 5% discount for using a CC. I like my JD dealer and have purchased from him in the past. Yeah I'd rather have the 300, 500 or 700 series but I'm only cutting grass and bagging leaves. I have ATV's and a JD 2320 for heavier work.

Laura12, I have looked heavily at many of the floorplans, our builder we will likely go with already has it and lucky us my really cool sister in law is an architect. We plan on trying for a solid LEED certification as well "sola tubes, green foam, new roof sealing technology, stained concrete etc" I am stoked about adding the folding rear doors to the pool, think it will make the house. A floor drain is a pretty cool idea for the mudroom. You could almost have a "Italian style" shower drain if you have the room to wash off boots etc, people with reef saltwater aquariums use these a lot and plumb skimmers directly to them. I want to have a large cabinet under the center island for all of the appliances, the only caveat I will have to add is a way to run the cables up the top and close the door still for things like a crockpot or breadmaker. This is a basic DJ control panel, would create stickers for the switches to label them, and probably wire a manual switch underneath to turn the unit on, so two switches and go. http://www.amazon.com/American-Pc-100A-Mount-Power-Switcher/dp/B0002GL50Q Cheap vampire timer http://cableorganizer.com/belkin/conserve-socket/ http://www.igo.com/other-power/power-smart-tower-with-igo-greenr-technology/invt/pm000110004/?source=165_75 Things like this should in theory allow me to plug in nearly all my appliances and just about cut vampire wattage. Thank you for the option on the sinks, I am checking them out vs dark copper. I am thinking of the eletrostatic non replaceable air filters that are washable, any thoughts? If so I could wash it monthly and that would cut down on dust etc. I am also thinking green foam insulation and ceiling up the attic totally, as we have more of a heat issue and leaving the attic floor wo insulation resulting in heat rising "all our cost are in cooling here in Texas". Have talked to an owner that did that and his attic is amazingly cool/home.

It's sitting on my kitchen table! I played a bit yesterday & hurt my stupid left arm trying to do a bellow shake. Now, I can't lift it to put it back on it's stand. It's very frustrating in a good way. The music is still in my head & under my fingers. I've been unable to beg and/or bargain with the lupus to leave me alone for just a couple hours so I can play. Just about the time my fingers start to communicate with my brain (I'm playing from muscle memory)...something starts to hurt too bad to continue. Restoring Dad's accordion was absolutely worth every penny. My muscle memory has allowed me to get through a rather rousing 'Sharpshooters' but that's about all, at least so far. 'Sharpshooters' is an accordion classic dating to the early 20th century. It was 'Baby Face' that did in my left arm..."Baby face, baby face, you've got that cutest little baby face....." Thanks so much for asking! /tricia