You have good wind blocks under that deck so that will help, Tammy. I get my burlap at Home Depot or Lowes usually but I think most garden centers carry it. You may have to ask them for it though. I literally beg, borrow and steal bags of leaves from all my neighbors in the fall! We have 5 big trees and I still need extra. I go out early on trash day and drag the bags over from my neighbor's lawns. Two of my neighbors now just bag their leaves and put them on my lawn instead of theirs, lol! But if leaves aren't available you can also use bagged bark mulch. It's way more expensive though. If you go that route make sure you bag it back up next spring to reuse. You could also use straw or hay. One of them has seeds, and I don't remember which, so you may get more weeds in the spring but they do work well as insulation. You want to wait until they are completely dormant before you put them in storage. And the ideal is to keep them completely dormant until you are past any freezing temps at night in the spring. The worst thing is for them to go through repeated freeze and thaws during the winter and especially the spring. The most roses I ever lost, 37, was during the big Easter freeze in April of 2007. I had just taken all the pots out of winter storage and they were all leafing out when the temps fell drastically for a weekend. Thankfully, Alan came up with a plan for the pots. He wheeled his tractor out of the shed and we put as many pots as we could in and he set up a couple of lamps with 100 watt bulbs in them for added warmth. I only lost 3 or 4 potted roses that we couldn't fit in the shed. All the rest of my losses were roses planted in the ground even though I had NOT yet taken off their winter protection! I don't recommend the cones for a couple of reasons. First, you have to really cut the rose back severely in the fall to get them on and I don't prune in the fall. You are going to get winter die back no matter what. If you cut them to 12 inches in October by April you'll be cutting them to 6 or less. Second, unless you cut the tops off for air circulation (which sort of destroys their integrity) they create the perfect breeding ground for fungus to grow. Particularly in the spring when conditions are very damp, the sun is getting higher up and days are longer and the temps are warming up. I understand that you disagree with me about raising up the pots, Michaelg. But I will stand by my opinion. It's not to protect them from freezing. I want them to freeze and STAY dormant until the temps will stay consistently above freezing. The freeze and thaw yo-yoing is deadly. It's for moisture retention. Desiccation kills them quickly too. That's why I water during the winter. They're asleep, not dead, and still require some water. How many of you have a glass of water on the table beside your bed because you get thirsty during the night? When I didn't put them up off the cement the pots would be bone dry with nice damp rings in the cement under them. And I lost roses. I do not raise them up where they are on the dirt. The dirt retains it's own moisture and does not pull water from the pots so it isn't a problem. BTW, I do winter my tree rose inside the shed, with the tractor, every year and have had no problems with the gasoline fumes affecting the rose.

brutuses, I'm just realizing that les917 also said "the full width of the porch." It didn't sink until you wrote the same thing! Wow, I never even thought of extending the step out along the entire porch because of the boxwoods (which are trying to hide the exposed foundation). I figured the step would just lead to the door, but I can see how a full length step would leave lots of room for sitting! Would you run the walkway just straight up to the step, but have the step run the entire length of the foundation? There are a lot of homes like ours in our subdivision and everyone has the same walkup, so it's hard to visualize. Plus I've only had one cup of coffee! I really appreciate the new ideas!

I would urge you to have it quoted - you might be surprised. We ended up doing them (after so much diy and moving in with NOTHING in the closets - rods or anything desperation set in, lol) and both agreed it was some of the best $ we spent in terms of functionality, organization and looks. We stayed with standard white though so if you want upgrades in drawer front species and designs I'm not sure how much more that would run. And, I have had them back twice for 'add ons' after we have lived with them for a while. What is so nice is you can start minimal and add as you go if you choose to. I am amazed at how useful our closet spaces are - they did all bedrooms, pantry and hall closets. Back to the original question for cracking a door I'd prefer inswing but for use it'd drive me nuts to go in and then close the door to see the entire contents of what I have going on - unless you use that door space for least used items. Outswing could be a pain too though.

To add height, you could always build a "raised bed" under window with cement pavers or blocks. The downside: cost and labor, but there is a a couple benefits. 1: it would give you a little more height to be closer to the 3' with shorter plants. 2: you can fill it with soil more suitable for growing plants than the hard clay we typically see on the front range (particularly in a residential neighborhood and right up against the house no less) 3. Since your yard is more "xeric," which also often means they prefer a lot more sun as well, the different soil type and a different watering regimen would allow you to create what is known in "xeriscaping" as an oasis zone of plants that prefer richer, wetter soil, which many of the shade tolerant/shade preferring plants do. Of course 2 and 3 can also be accomplished without building a raised bed, but from a landscaping perspective the hardscape of a decorative wall would give a definitive transition between the xeric yard and the mesic bed. Just some thoughts :).