Love your wall! When I first saw it, I too thought adirondack chairs around a fire would be perfect, but if you don't think they'll work there, those benches would look great. However - are they comfortable? You would certainly want something that you could sit on for a while - long enough to read a little while sipping tea or lemonade. As far as the plantings, I would put something that hung over the wall, just in one or two places. Nothing that hides the wall, just something that accents it from the top. I like your idea of an English garden - the wall would really look great with that type of style.

Okay, now we're cooking. So, this is the layout of our little house. We don't live there yet, we are gutting it for a total redo. This is what the floor plan will be when we are done. We can't add to the footprint r/t our proximity to the river and we don't really want to anyway. It's about 1100 sq ft. total. We are retiring here (someday:) and this is our last remodel so we are committed to doing it the right way, no cobbling or short-changing quality/desires. The living room will be knotty pine walls and ceiling in a honey pine finish from Buffalo Lumber in New York. My DH has his heart set on it and it's okay with me. Seems to suit the setting. Of course, the kitchen and living room need to work together. The entry will be the honey pine ceiling with whitewashed K.P. on the walls. Now, they offer a darker stain called fruitwood that I'm also considering for the ceilings. I've seen it on Houzz and LOVE the look. As in this: [[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/by-hardrock-construction-traditional-laundry-room-toronto-phvw-vp~37184) [traditional laundry room design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-laundry-room-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_753~s_2107) by toronto general contractor HARDROCK CONSTRUCTION The doorway to the entry will stay where it is drawn..just enough to end the cabs and allow for door trim. The doorway to the porch can move E or W just a bit and the south cabs can shrink a little. The opening to the living room is wide open to possibilities. I would like some type of peninsula set-up there for daily meals and putzing on the laptop, etc. On special occasions, we'll be setting up a table on the 'river porch' as we call it. I cook from scratch a lot. We grow gardens so fridge space is necessary. (I like the idea of a counter-depth fridge) I make big shopping trips mostly and also buy in bulk for lots of items. I will have basement storage for that kind of thing. An 18" DW will be fine for the 2 of us... don't mind doing dishes by hand and kinda want a Dishmaster faucet. We do recycle and compost, so some kind of plan for that space would be good. Let's see: The only appliances I'd like out are my kitchenaid stand mixer, my food processor, my coffee pot, toaster and coffee grinder...wouldn't be opposed to an appliance garage for the last three. Oh, and the knife block or some other easy access solution for knives. Love open shelves for my bowls and whatnot... have them now and find them very useful. We have a 39" wide green Chambers stove: that is more mint green than the pic shows (at least on my computer)and will be on the south wall. The only window is over the sink on the west wall... the river porch will be solid windows facing south but the kitchen proper just has the one. If I could keep the window centered it would look good from outside, but the further to the right the sink goes, the better my view. (or the wider the window gets, but 4' wide is about it... possibly a little wider) I'm trying to cover all the things you guys always ask people so I'm not wasting your time. And I hope I'm not being presumptuous in thinking you all will help me... :) The flooring for the whole house other than bath and master is leaning heavily towards marmoleum ploughed acre with some thoughts of a small diamond inset design in the kitchen just for a little fun. Our budget is... well, I'd love to get this done for less than 20,000. Anything more than that makes me feel itchy and nervous. Not a huge fan of granite but having said that, we are repurposing some granite and quartz stones from a wall in the kitchen for the fireplace surround in the LR. There is a lot of red granite in there. The prev. owner worked at a local quarry in the 70's, so there is granite galore on the exterior. As far as appliances, we'll be purchasing a fridge/freezer or an all fridge/freezer drawers or something. An 18" dw, range hood and sink. Don't use microwaves. What else can I tell you? My mission statement is: I want my kitchen to function efficiently, be easy to keep clean and organized, feel like it belongs to the house and will inspire and energize me. I hope someone can help. Should I upload a closer view of just the kitchen?d Thank you!

As mom always said, "Chew slower and you'll enjoy the experience." "Don't count your tomatoes before they're picked!" comes to mind as well. Being accused of optimism isn't the worst thing in life though. I think it is a higher risk strategy and yours is experienced advice. I personally don't mind failure or setback and not meeting an optimistic prediction (story of a few things in life). I am one who derives most of the pleasure with tinkering and tools - the right, nicely crafted tools for the job. The sunk cost if anything will keep me motivated. I'm not sure if a bucket or tote will have the same effect, nor that the environment I could created as I learned would be the best either. The materials for my whole setup were around $25 plus worms and the material is sitting around already purchased and just taking up space in the garage. If I don't use it, they stay in the bucket as I don't want to buy a tote as my heart is set on wood. Faced with the two options of a 4 gallon bucket or getting the wood out of my way in the garage (which is like money burning a hold in a child's pocket in a candy store), I don't see why I should deal with plastic at all. But you are right. After careful consideration, which was taking into consideration your prior post along these lines, good advice I should stress, I will build only two trays, one of each height, and though I'll work on them one at a time in sequence would you think that would be the best way to get hands on experience in what I'm trying to do? One issue here which I need to emphasize which you may have skimmed over. Temperatures will soon enough routinely go over 90 F and even the garage gets hot. Do you really think I can be trusted to maintain a small bucket with proper humidity and pH and no escape for the worms if I mess up? If so monomer, you have more confidence in me than I do. Or are do you think the additional work is worth it with an interim smaller setup getting to a functioning worm community on a smaller scale is ok? I don't want two bins here, one is already enough, so the training wheels would eventually be tossed and the worms would have to be moved if I had a lucky first time success. I am still unclear what argument there is for adding an extra modest bin stage to get my ecosystem going, while the materials I bought sit around, is there? I worry about having the mass to level temperature through these hot days, and it appears that at these temps the ANCs really are favored (call it 84F) The cost of anything more than a bucket will be more time and the same money than a tray in the modular tray set up, unless I'm missing something. If I fail, I just dump everything, wipe the dust off my trousers, get up, clean it all up and do it again. I want to get friendly with my wormies (the "staff" lol). Note to otis: I did not buy peat for this especially, I use peat in gardening and have plenty of the good stuff on hand, and it was only for the intended temporary quarters after the mailbox. There is about 2 quarts of peat in there. I have over 50 gallons of it in the garage taking up space :-) Cheers PC

Sorry I'm so late getting back to you. I think that oddly sized fixtures can be off-putting. Many home buyers are looking for an "ideal" and they can't see past that. If the tub is well made and the bath is located where it's most needed a shorter size tub might not be a problem. If the bath will be used by children then its size is less important, but children grow into teenagers. acm voiced a concern I had about the location of this bath to nearby bedrooms. My mistake in calling it water-resistant drywall. It looks like drywall but it's better referred to as tile backer board. It's most often 1/2 inch thick but I have seen a Hardie brand backer that was only 1/4" thick and came in 3 x 5 ft. sections. HERE is a link to more info on these. There are several types with differing properties. On toilet location, I don't think "obstruction refers to the nearest wall or fixture. I think it refers to something directly in front of the toilet. Looking at your floor plan an angled toilet would not have anything in front of it. There might be room between the toilet and the vanity for a waste basket.