Good buys, Jan. I am really anxious to see pics of Talladega from your garden - hopefully you will get blooms next summer. Lucky you that you have so much room to keep adding daylilies. I added about 50 this fall and transplanted about 45 seedlings into flower beds. I am quickly running out of room and NO I am not making any more beds. Note to self: No more flower beds, no more flower beds... Thanks to everyone for their daylily photos and comments last summer. They helped me make my choices this past fall.I have only added 4 for spring, but think I have room for about a half dozen more. From the Stamiles I am buying Sir Francis Drake. Get Jiggy I have not been too bad on the LA, having bought only 2 (so far) Jennifer Trimmer Sherry Candy Ann

Hi All, I imagine cearab has long since forgotten about this forum thread ;-) but wanted to add two thing for those who run into this same issue in the months and years to come. [1] No dryer. Yes, that's right, when you have ink blead-through onto other clothes (or when you have any stain that did not come out with normal laundering) do NOT put those clothes into the dryer. ...which is to say that after you put it in the dryer the stain is pretty-much baked in and wil likely be a permanent addition to your unique clothes collection ;-) [2] I've had great success with making a paste of 1 part all fabric bleach granules and 1 part laundry detergent granules. ...yes... I happen to use amway products... but I believe you could have great success with other brands as well. To that powder I add just enough water to make a paste, then rub it onto the spot. Let it set for an hour and the problem is usually fixed : -) ...if the stain's still there, then I rinse out the clothes and apply a new batch of the paste and let it set another hour. ...if the stain's still there, then it ain't coming out. If the stained items are big (like a whole load of laundry, like cearab noted), then I would do this (because this is all about high concentration of cleaner to get the unwanted stain out): I'd use warm water, and the smallest load setting that will add enough water to cover the clothes, then I'd add at least two scoops of the all fabric bleach, then I'd add a single scoop of detergent, then I'd let the laundry machine run for ~5 minutes to mix it all up, then I'd turn it off and let it set for atleast an hour, then turn it back on and pray for the best. : -) Hope that helps. I know the 1-to-1 ratio paste option works well for us! ...works on carpet too!

THANKS for your thoughts!! (Hope this isn't going to weigh you down with information, but, here goes:) EXTENDING MASTER WING: We can bump out the end wall 4 feet max, improving (from 12' L) to 16' L (a bit longer on the deck side) x 20' W. (The opposite wing is 22' L x 20.5' W). SYMMETRY: To help reference the driveway approach towards the house: take the floor plan and literally rotate it about 45 degrees clockwise: that's the direction the driveway comes from (imagine an imaginary line continuing out from that 12' master bath sink/counter and shower). Essentially it will be like driving on the driveway towards the house, then veering a little left once you get to the house (like on the plan the words: "FIRST FLOOR/Scale 1/4"); then for a parking space: backing up onto what's left of the land outside the master wing bump out. (gosh I hope I'm explaining this ok) I am hoping the symmetry issue will be overlooked because one never really looks straight at the front door. (what d'ya think?) BED SIZE/PLACEMENT: King size bed(even though it takes up most of the space I know). We're hoping we have our choice of placing the bed either on that end wall or the bathroom wall, but probably the end wall. I am thinking that's a great idea to change the casement unit on the end wall to a horizontal band of rectangular/square windows along the top of the wall as you suggest! Sure would help with layout, huh? MBR DOOR: Never thought of moving a door over towards the exterior wall! It's an interesting thought. I WAS wondering, from a professionals point of view, if the MBR door was sort of TOO ~ not hidden enough? but figured the FP sorta blocks it a little. My only concern with this idea is that a desk area is one of those important requirements we have & don't necessarily want it in a bedroom. This will be a vacation home but I want a space for a computer and writing desk. I'll definitely consider moving it inward (towards the stairs) but need to also keep an aisle that's not too narrow. STAIRCASE PLACEMENT: We experimented with stairway placement everywhere it seems! We concluded that if the stairs weren't right there in the middle of the "Y", WHAT would be there then? Ultimately, we decided the staircase with the stone of the fireplace (FP) could maybe be a sort of "feature", with interesting, open, spindle/railings all the way around instead of it taking up space on the wing sides. Kind of "embrace" it! STAIRCASE ISSUES: Problems we hope to address with the stairway is to make them wider (currently 36") and, we want a landing instead of winder style treads so that the stone work from the FP can end at that landing. That means we also have to push the FP into the great room some. Does anyone think the great room space will be too much infringed upon? CLEAR VIEW: One idea was to build a FP with a sort of "column" look on each side (where a chimney would go up one of the sides), essentially creating a "U" shape where one could see straight through from the front door to the great room window wall. That was using a gas FP. Since then we're leaning towards an energy efficient wood burning FP where we're pretty sure the chimney would have to be straight up (vs. offset). Because of this we're imagining rocking all around the FP, all the way down to the staircase landing, and then putting some sort of neat artwork or waterfall or ? on the rock wall facing the front door. (NOTE: there's only LP or electric available on this particular bluff) FIREPLACE PLACEMENT: We're in Wisconsin and the winter's can be super, duper cold, so the 2-sided FP idea is really cool sounding, but, unfortunately, probably not a possibility in this case (Also, no way can we deepen the deck or we'd go over a 600' cliff! haha). I also don't want to really block the view at all (from our living space that is ~ obviously we ARE blocking the view from the entrance). We have considered putting the FP on the far right corner in the Great Room (GR) but that's where we think the TV should go. As much as I like the idea of putting a TV above a FP, in this case I don't think we have the space to do that and sit far enough away so not wrenching our necks to look UP at a TV (+ the heat problem). That wall of windows in the GR is also facing NorthWest so #1: we're trying to avoid sunset glare on the TV and #2 we want seating to face the river. FP will be for warmth (and viewed w/swivel chairs). Ultimately, we went back to the FP centered in the house, as shown. (Also trying to honor the Frank Lloyd Wright trademark with a wide, stone chimney in the middle of a house). Any thoughts or ideas with these things in mind? DOWNSTAIRS: Is going to be pretty open and used as a rec room (nice pool table, foose, game table, etc) and some additional sleeping space. (We originally were only going to have one BR upstairs and a carport where the 2nd BR is now. All the other sleeping was going to be downstairs!) We decided though, if WE'RE old, then our friends would probably be OLD too and would need to stay on the main floor maybe too! haha) Here's the current Basement Plan: KITCHEN: We aren't going to keep that U-shaped kitchen as shown. We'd much prefer eliminating that breakfast bar section and instead having an island. As you can probably see, that right, master wing side, with needing the wider staircase & bumping out the MBR end wall,is what's causing us the most difficulty rearranging to make the best use of space. We'd still like to keep a foyer coat closet & a desk area. Also trying to figure a better designed master bath w/a longer shower w/seat and better linen closet design. Could have a pocket door vs. swinging. (Would like opinions on pocket doors!) Lastly, the master closet is dumb and of course should have either bi-fold doors or? Any and all ideas are very welcome. PS: Here's a home in Madison, Wisconsin that is one of my "Inspiration" pictures! Love the wide horizontal, dark brown siding and typical (for FLW and WI) stone! (also, notice the typical FLW centered chimney!) mmmmmm : ) (SMILE)

Sorriso, I am not clear as to whether your MW is an Over the Range (OTR), style that you will use as your hood fan, or if it is a counter MW that you are installing over your oven, as you used the term oven once, and stove once, so I'm going to assume that you have an 'all in one' range, not just an oven or not just a cooktop. I kinda made the same mistake too when ordering my cabinets, but you'd think my KD would have caught it, as I had never had an OTR MW before. I ordered a shelf instead of a cabinet, as I thought that would be a good display area instead of an awkward to reach cabinet. Anyhow, I didn't realize that you NEED the cabinet to attach the support brackets for the MW to, AND you need something to hide the venting for the hood part. DUH! So, my brilliant DH ended up designing a cabinet display shelf for my MW and my kitchen guy built the cabinet using the box that was ordered but didn't fit over our fridge. He turned the pieces inside out, so that the 'finished' side matched the other cabinets. My cabinets are stained maple on the outside and varnished maple on the inside. I wanted the 'inside' of this cabinet to be stained. We then used a piece of the plywood veneer panel for finishing off the peninsula as the 'back' piece which hides the venting. So I have a shallow display shelf in the cabinet box. This picture shows the MW hood venting on the top- that will be hidden by crown molding. For some reason the cabinet looks like a different colour in the picture, must be the flash picking up something, cuz they all look the same colour in real life. :>)