I have a success story for y'all. I closed on my 1956 house on 12.30.2009. Part of what attracted me to it was almost 1/2 acre lot. It's the standard mostly square older home - nothing at all fancy about the house. But the yard... I've always wanted to become a gardener. I wanted to grow my own food, plants beautiful plants, and have a place of serenity and beauty by way of landscaping. The prior owner was a very old woman who passed away last year. All my neighbors tell me she was all the time working in her yard and had one of those magazine perfect yards all year round. Before she passed away of course. I'm told the yard - front and back, was immaculate. There are several HUGE oak trees in the back yard. There are azaleas, hydrangeas, dogwoods, magnolias, weeping cherry tree, wisteria, hollies, ferns, TONS of hostas, solomon's seals - and so much more! Since I moved in during winter, the back was just sticks and leaves. Years and years worth of leaves. It looked really bad, being neglected for so long. I'm told too that the previous owner had suffered in health her last few years and during that time could no longer take care of her yard. Now, I'm the owner. When I first moved in I must admit - in my extreme ingorance, I was the typical non-gardening type. I looked at the yard and only saw what I wanted to remove so I could plant what I wanted. Terribly selfish I know, and all I could see was my own limited view of beauty. But I believe the gardening Gods were smiling on me. I read a few books prior to me doing anything in the yard, which saved both the yard from disaster and myself from ignorance. After reading these books - my view or gardening was changed forever. I hired a landscaper to identify what he could, and continued to educate myself. Once I realized what I truly had I choose to only clean up this spring and I'm not doing anything else really so I can see what's actually back there. I want to see what grows and blooms throughout the year so I don't accidentally remove something that I should leave. Spring came and my yard came alive! I had no idea how beautiful it would become. And after reading several books on ecological gardening and permaculture, I decided that this yard was mostly fine as it is. To honor the woman who created this masterpiece, I decided that I'd maintain what is back there and the only things I want to do now is replace some of the non-natives plants with native plants, and just keep the yard picked up. I know this will take years as I'm only one person and as you can see, the yard is huge for just one person. I believe this is a very big success story. While the prior owners are no longer here to do the drive by, I believe that my education in gardening and the respect I'm showing for their hard work and beauty is somehow felt by them. At least, that's how I sometimes feel. Or, what I want to believe. http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=100333308934400577480&target=ALBUM&id=5479246416174947185&authkey=Gv1sRgCPHA8eW40a3S9wE&feat=email KJ

Heck, as long as he can afford it, why not? I was talking to my ex-boss, now one of the regional Senior Execs (used to be called Office Managing Partners when I was there), and he told me he was so dissatisfied with the service he was getting since US Trust was taken over by BofA, he had pulled $500K out from his portfolio (fortunately before the market took a dive) and it was now just sitting in his savings account. LOL! He's a car addict, too, and also drives every exotic auto you can think of in a local car club. But personally he's faithful to his 9-yr old Porsche 911, which he bought for his 40th birthday and has loved ever since. His wife, a more sensible woman who has to drive the kids around to and from school, prefers the Acura MDX. OTOH, I was pleasantly surprised that they didn't succumb to the McMansion craze, and are still living in the same modest three bedroom house they were twenty years ago. If I was in TGG's place, I'd definitely prefer buying the Bentley to a Porsche. At the very least, it carries four people a lot more comfortably, hehehe.

I might have gone down the rabbit hole with the following plan, but I was thinking--how cool would it be to have the clean-up zone on the peninsula, m/l as originally drawn, so that dirty dishes could be handed directly from the table in the smaller DR, to the counter? The DR is small--but when the kids have grown enough to need more dining space, the porch can be converted, and everything will still be convenient to the new DR. And nothing will need to be done to the kitchen, except removing the current sliding door and sliding window, and casing the openings. The smaller DR could then become a study area for the kids, sitting area for you, a breakfast area with a smaller table for you and your DH when the kids are grown and gone, or the older kids' table for extended family dinners. (A few years ago we added a 24'x12' room off the kitchen, which is used daily as a play room, but doubles as a dining room when we have the whole family over--with up to 20 seated at three 6' tables placed end-to-end, and up to 6 older kids at the regular DR table. Once in a while we have to add a drop-leaf table to the LR (visible from the play room), to seat 4 more. You could extend the porch to accommodate your kids and their future families in much the same way. I'm imagining a dessert buffet and coffee service set up on the counter under the big sliding window.) In the meantime, a parent can sit in the seat on the end, convenient for retrieving forgotten items, and the other parent can sit beside the baby. The dish pantry is full height, and can house pantry items in the lower and upper shelves, with dishes on a level that's easy for the kids to reach, and it's completely separate from the prep and cooking zones. The clean-up zone could also be used for extra prep, and with a cutting board that covers the sink, can be used for counter space/buffet serving. I drew a short backsplash (3-4"?), to help contain drips and splashes--if you're using stone or solid surface material, the back side of the backsplash strip can be polished, and the edge finished, to match the front. That leaves a wider prep zone between the other sink and the cooktop--the larger sink can still be used for hand wash items, especially mixing bowls and pots and pans, which will be generated in the prep/cooking zones anyway. I drew a blind corner with a 16" cabinet (not counting the corner cavity), and a door that swings left-to-right--the width of the door can be adjusted to make sure it clears the oven handle. The corner cavity can be voided (or partially voided), but I'd include it and store seldom used items there--send a kid in after them. Ana White--Build a blind corner cabinet. The cooktop is not as protected as it would be in the original plan, but since the dividing wall extends past the point where the cook will be standing, and there is plenty of space to pass behind, I think it's safe. (Unless the kids all head for the porch/DR en masse, like a herd of cattle. ;) There are compromises in both of these last two plans, and I guessed at the size and exact location of the large window on the left, so neither plan might be possible without altering the window. I seem to be verbose today (I'm goofing off, and putting off transplanting strawberry runners--I spent most of yesterday afternoon transplanting, too), but one thing I was thinking as I described the seating arrangements for our family dinners is this--I wish we'd added that room when my kids were small, even if we'd had to use a HELOC to finance it. The ability to gather the whole family, with minimum hassle and upheaval, has been a blessing--not buying/doing anything that wasn't essential while the remodel was in progress (including vacations, clothes, shoes, etc.,--a promise I made to myself), was worth every sacrifice. To have four generations of both sides of our family present is very special--for my kids, and for me.

Nicole, yes, there is red paint on the brick below where they were. I started to clean the brick but got side-tracked this summer. I do have to go back out and finish. I don't know what happened to the other post. Jemdandy, the downspout was there but brown and I guess it blended in more with the brick. I removed the bushes so the windows would be better accessed because I was going to have them replaced this Summer. Arcy, I don't like he color so I won't be painting the door. I only painted it white to see if I liked having a white door so that when I replace it, I'll know. It's not even painted evenly I wasn't going to keep it so I wasn't careful. I don't know if I want a white door now, though.