IÂve been in listening mode as well (can you hear me listening..?) Woohoo  Deanne, you do everything with flair! I bet Doug was scared to death  and you gave yourself a shiner? how terrible  adding insult to injury w/ the flu  I do hope you take it easy and rest  youÂve got a lot of entertaining to do soon w/ your Idyll guests! I do love that butterfly  and leave it to Marie to know what kind, etc., it was. Your party sounds like a wonderful way to break up the winter doldrums  Im planning to go to the Phila. Flower Show in early March  so thatÂs what Im using as a "break-out" of winter event. V- glad to hear youÂre feeling better and cannot be held responsible except via Âweb to have passed that flu along to Deanne  I hear you about the coughing though  I had severe flu about 20 years ago and coughed and popped a pelvic artery  landed in the hospital (it was a close call). . . .for Xmas because of it (they didnt know what was wrong til they operated). So I must confess I am extremely paranoid about hard coughing of any sort now & have been ever since that happened  weird things do happen. I confess on the health front I continue to be totally puzzled by all the conflicting reports  low fat, high protein, no protein, high fat  whatÂs a person to believe any more? I think your attitude is probably the correct one, Marie  celebrate with food  after all if we donÂt have fun with it, whatÂs the point? Honey, I meant to tell you that I truly love the red also (I in fact love all bright & deep colors) and am amazed that you pulled that all together because of wrong furniture fabric! One would Never know  youÂre an artiste. Mary, I imagine youÂre starting to count the days til the big trip  it sounds glorious  you and your entire family will have a blast  a trip to paradise, how neat is that? I imagine the children will remember it forever  and it will be a nice memory to make for Annie to put next to the loss of her dear friend  a good memory to overtake the bad one in this year. Michelle, - I ordered the Cl. Laura also  it looks gorgeous doesnÂt it? For some reason I ordered mostly Type IIs this year  Im probably crazy to do so  but my others have been doing so well that I am getting bolder I guess. Of course, if this is a failure and they all croak this summer or get horrible wilt, IÂll be going back to sticking w/ the IIIs I guess  but I wont know until IÂve tried. I ordered a total of 6 clematis this year (altho my list was much longer, but I tried to restrain myself & limit to a budget $$). I know thereÂs other stuff to comment on but I better get to work. Im hearing that 4-letter word in our forecast this weakened (S***)  ugh  of course, Im planning to drive to Phila. to check on the parents  it never fails  IÂll probably wimp out if it really says itÂs gonna happen  I donÂt know how you do so much intrepid driving, Martie, with your...

Nice plan! Have you considered dividing your master bath/closet space into two baths--or at least have your toilet and vanity separate from his? It can be very convenient to have your own bathroom. That little powder room under the stairs isn't really necessary for guests-you already have one near the kitchen. You could open that into the master closet and have a dressing area there. maybe a second shower if you both have to get ready for work at the same time. Or put his bath-shower in his exercise area. Keep in mind that part of that eating area by the kitchen is really a walkway. You can't put furniture there or you'll be pushing it out of the way to get by. Depending on how big that area is, you may need to move the wall back to allow enough room for everyone to sit down and still have a space for the boys to run past the table when they, inevitably, get up before you are finished. 3. That's a nice wide foyer. Is that a cul de sac under the stairs by what looks like a wine room? Could some of that space be taken for more closet space for the master? Sounds like you could use it. 4. If you open the dining room wall as wide as possible into the foyer you might be able to steal some foyer space when you have a crowd--put two tables in the room sideways with the last two chairs in th foyer--or use four small tables across the dining and foyer. I look forward to seeing the picures of this as you progress.

I have thought more about this. Like Beth said, you could really get a lot more in that bathroom with only one door. I think I drew what she suggested. As far as the door between the two areas, I think it could go either way, but if possible, I think a pocket door that slid into the area by the tub would be better. This would keep the door from being in the way and be almost entirely hidden if not in use. I had one additional thought as well. Assuming later down the line there are additional children or the house is sold to someone with more than one child and bedrooms 3 or 4 are used as bedrooms. Is it going to be fair that the bathroom opens into bedroom 2? Seems like that might cause some disagreements. On that same thought process, the one thing that might bother me would be seeing into the bathroom from downstairs. Although this puts you right back in the same position having bedroom 2 walk around the corner to get to the bathroom, the view from below will be nicer and access will be more even between all 3 bedrooms. If doing something like this, I would extend the vanity the entire length of the room for plenty of storage underneath. (This is the placement of the bedroom door from your first drawing.)

Hi there. I think your bathroom looks very nice. But I don't know about the shower curtain. The curtain itself is quite pretty but on my screen it doesn't seem to really stand out against the walls, which again, on my screen show up as kind of a pale aqua. what about something that brings in the paint colour. for example this one from wayfair looks like it might coordinate with both wall colour and flooring and bring a little pizzazz . Just an example. Dakota Fields Hayslett Cactus 4 Gauge Peva Shower Curtain & Reviews | Wayfair.ca Also, your other two botanicals could potentially go over the toilet but stacked. I think side by side would be too much with the medicine chest.