I can confirm how cool it is to have an area full of wildflowers near your yard or garden! When I lived with my parents for a while, north of Philadelphia, their lot backed up to some electrical power lines. At first that land was farmed, but then the adjoining farmer sold to a developer, and thus the land next to my parents' lot (which was owned not by the farmer, but by the electric utility company) filled with whatever would grow (including more than a few asters and goldenrod!!) You should have seen the variety of tiny, native, solitary bees that used to feed upon my parents dogwoods when they were blooming!!! (If you haven't learned of the native, solitary bees, you really are missing out on some of the most beautiful insects eastern North America has to offer!! The vast, vast majority of them never sting humans, largely because they either don't have stingers, or are so small their stingers are incapable of piercing human flesh. They're cute, and often besides that ) Native solitary bees can be quite useful as pollinators in your yard. They don't live socially, with hives, and workers, and queens. Instead each adult female collects her own nectar and pollen to feed her own set of offspring, but even so when you have many of them (all largely totally harmless, cute, and beautiful) in your yard your flowers and vegetables get pollinated even if you don't have (alien) honeybees there. (Honeybees never existed on this continent until European colonists brought them here. They are only native in Europe, Africa, and Asia.)

Thanks, everyone, for your replies! I apologize- I've been super busy lately and haven't had the time to reply until now. I agree that changing the look from my original, utmost, desire- the farmhouse look- is a decision that needs to be weighed carefully. I definitely don't want to become unhappy with our exterior down the road. However, I have always liked the look of the Cedar Ridge by Don Gardner, and I think I could make that exterior look right with my first floor and still be happy. Do you think it would look ok as a farmhouse? A preliminary rendering of our design, for a comparison: Originally we wanted approx 2500sq ft house. Because of my requirements for the 1st floor, the house ballooned to 3600 sq ft, split nearly evenly. Now I'm worried, because of the increased sq footage, that we won't be able to afford the upgrades- nice kitchen, central vac, nice deck, etc. I also would like to make sure I can still take my kids on vacations and live a decent life. I don't want to invest all my money in a structure just because I'm drawn to certain look. I'm trying to find that balance between what I WANT and what I NEED. I definitely need to reserve room in the basement for all my equipment. We'll have a Waterfurnace and all the pipes for radiant heat, water softener, water heater, etc, etc. Can't forget to include that in my planning! Thanks for the reminder, @kymike1! I need to call my mortgage guy and just talk this over with him. @stillwaters- we want to do ICF from the basement, up to the roof. We'll spray foam the roof. We also want our first floor to be handicap friendly. We haven't received any actual quotes back yet, but with everything else that we've had quoted so far, we've been UNpleasantly suprised....so that's what we're expecting for the house quote! :) I know it will all be worth it some day- just can't wait for that day to get here!!!! I've started blogging about it, if you're interested in reading some of my thoughts. It's fairly new, and I don't post very often yet, but plan to do better as we get going on the build. Here is a link that might be useful: Kelly's ICF blog (just getting started on it!)

Not to be a fuddy duddy, but what kinds were your 2nd and 3rd choice pulls? If a search could save you $8 each on your "$22" ones, maybe your $9 ones would be even less with a little research too. As much as we all want what we want, I don't think one needs to spend more than they want to (despite wanting each favorite item). It is so easy to upgrade here and there and justify spending the extra by saying I don't want to always think about what I'd rather have had. At some point, we all have to pay the piper and all those small decisions can really be a burden. I have seen more houses than I can count that are currently short sales or in foreclosure, where the people put in recent money into new kitchens, bathrooms, expensive fixtures, prof landscaping, stoops, decks, etc... and yet they are now without a house. I looked at a hot tub the other day at one and wondered how many payments that could have covered. It is very easy to get swept away, especially here where there will always be someone with the latest and best, but that does not mean we need to have everything at the high end of the scale nor even many things to have a wonderful kitchen (and life). I learned long ago, someone else will always be skinnier and richer, so to appreciate what you have and work for what you need/want. Getting a new house/ new kitchen is a great thing and will not be forever spoiled if you went with cheaper pulls. $1,200 is a big number no matter how you slice it. Saving $8 a pull x 27 = $216 which still leaves $1k to lay out in just pulls and knobs. If you really want them after tallying up your total expenses, you can always choose them then. I'd sit down with paper and a calculator and your receipts and estimates. If you are where you want to be after adding that all up, then order the now $14 pulls. If not, this is a good time to save some money. You saying that you are losing your joy in this process is a sign you may be off track in your gut.

Okay, so it is a bit that I have been able to post. What a crazy world. So much has happened last I wrote. Miss Emily and I did get our seeds, or at least a few of them. The Post Master and I are going to have a talk this week as it seems someone has been taking from my Mail Box. (I am grumbling inside.) Anyway, I will be making a blog post today, however I wanted to thank the ladies for the seeds we did get and I will be contacting the lady that the seeds did not show up yet. I am sure they will get here, it just may take a minute. So many fun seeds. Thank you again for all the help. I look forward to sharing next year. Aingeal