Viola - I do use the door every once in a while. The basement stairs are right there so if we bring in something large to store in the basement we will use that door to make life easier. However; the tip for the light is great. Looking at the house everyday; I actually forgot it was there. I will take that down. We also will be changing that door. No storm and it will be painted the same color as the siding. Karin - Your right. I'm actually starting the garden bed first because when we pull up those front hedges and expose the front of our house I would like to have something nice for my neighbors to see. I would like to extend the garden. Unfortunately I have to hold off till my loving husband excepts the face that he will need to bust up that old walkway/sidewalk thing. For now my new garden bed actually meets up to the walkway in a to be continued state.

Judy..when you go to the above link, right under where it says "A Father's Heart by Rick Burgess", you'll see Download Site 1, Download Site 2 and Download Site 3. Right click on each of those links and click on "Save Target As" and save each one to your Desktop. Go to your Desktop and right click on each one, then chose Send To and click on CD-RW Drive (D:). It also says something about if you have a problem downloading it..you can go to this site. If you still have a problem with it, let me know and I'll put it on a CD for you and send it right out! Here is a link that might be useful: A Father's Heart

This is the book I used: Wiring a House (For Pros by Pros) (Paperback) by Rex Cauldwell. You can get it on amazon for 17 dollars or so. I am a DIYer and did a lot (but not all) of the wiring in my new house. This book was a great help. Here are some other tips that the book did not cover (or did cover but I would do differently). I learned these tips from my electricians who supervised my work: Be cautious of box over fill. The book covers this but uses general rules of thumb - you should learn how to compute the number of cubic inches that your wires and device require especially if you are using heavier gauge wire (like #12) which I used a lot of per the book's recommendation. I bought the largest volume boxes available at home depot - 22.5 cubic inches for a single gang box. My electricans bought their boxes at an electrical supply - their single gang boxes were 23 cubic inches. You would not believe this - but I had 3 box overfill citations and failed inspection becuase of a stinking .5 cubic inch overfill (so I replaced these 3 boxes with the ones my electricn used). The book strongly recommends using #12 wire everywhere. After pulling over 3000 feet of this stuff in the winter, i would rethink that suggestion. I watched my electricians easily pull 14/2 and 14/3 wire while I struggled with the stiffer 12/2 and 12/3. My hands were a mess when I was done. Make sure you put in the staples as required by code - you need a staple within 8 inches of a plastic box or recessed can. This was another thing our inspectors loved to flunk us on. Learn about arc fault circuit breakers. Code now requires that bedroom outlets be arc fault protected. This was a new add to the code since the last time I did a large project. Learn about the number & location of smoke detectors now required by code. In my area - one in each bedroom plus in the hallway outside the bedrooms. In a long hall - you might need 2 smoke detectors to provide adequate coverage. At least one smoke detector in the basement - depending on how that is finished. In my 4 bedroom house with an unfinished basement I needed 10 smoke detectors. No complaining - but that was way more than I thought would be needed. This was also a code change since the last house I bought in 1993. Our inspectors were big on making sure we had all of the wires in attic spaces supported properly. Within 6 feet of an attic entryway - all wires (including low voltage) had to be supported and stapled so anyone entering the attic would not be able to step on a wire and possibly damage it. For recessed housings that are nailed into ceiling joists that are more than 16 inches apart - you might have to add some wood bracing to staple the wires within 8 inches of the housing - it all depends on how far the housing is installed from the joists. Another thing to watch is on the exterior of the house - our inspectors wanted siding blocks installed before they would pass the house. These are plastic boxes that are nailed into the exterior sheathing which protects the wires, provides a flush mount box to attach a light fixture, and provides a clean edge to side up to. With these siding blocks - make sure you think about the size light fixture you are planning to use since the standard siding block face plate sizes are designed for smaller light fixtures. If you plan on putting in large light fixtures (like I did) , you may need oversized siding blocks or may have to make custom face plates (which I had to do). This topic was not covered in the book - and was a royal pain in the rump with my house. Anothet topic briefly touched on by the book is surge protection. I would refer to the Building a Home forum and do a search on "whole house surge protection". There are some very good sugegstions in there. I would also recommend that if you are doing the wiring yourself that you have a licensed electrican review your work. I was forced to do the wiring I did for budget reasons and as you know - it really is a lot of work and a lot may have changed in the code since the lst time you wried (this is a do it once right the first time project). I struck a deal with the electrician who allowed me to do the wiring under his permit, but only if I agreed to his review and to fix things isues that he found. I am very thankful I had them on site to check my work - they did find issues and I fixed them, and they helped me get through the electrical inspection which was is not easy in my county. Best of luck.

Our kitchen is so simple and casual compared to the many gorgeous kitchens on the forum, but it functions really great and we love it. It is a bit different. LOL Jaymie, The closet style pantry has a 24" wide door. The inside shelf dimensions are 32" wide. Each shelf is 16" deep. The shelves are all fixed in place by the trim carpenters per my request. The bottom shelf is 24" off the floor. There is 13" of height between each shelf. There are 4 shelves. The ceiling is 9 ft high. The emergency shut off valve to the water supply is located in a recessed panel down in the wall by the floor. Did I miss a measurement that you need? Past experience - In my previous house we had a 5' wide closet pantry with double doors. I found that I often lost my ingredients, soup cans, etc in there. That's why I did the hutch style pantry for foods plus the pull-out for canned soups and such. Still, we wanted the bulk pantry for the dog food, paper towels, picnic supplies, etc. I have cup hooks on the wall inside where I hang my aprons (3). Cameron