bulbs planted too deep also come up later ... i have 5 acres... with an 8 foot difference between high and low ... a valley you might say.. right down the middle.. with all surrounding neighbors.. 8 more feet higher ... the hosta in in lowest area.. come up 2 weeks later.. than those 8 feet higher... presumably due to cold night air.. accumulating down in the valley ... the forsythia.. 8 feet below the neighbors.. mine dont bloom till theirs are shot ... there is a big difference.. between your micro climate and your neighbors... ONLY you will be able to figure out why ... if orientation is not the issue.. then there is something else .. ken

saphire, I'm going to disagree here a bit. In my experience as having hundreds of builders for clients they most certainly do get emotionally attached to their properties. The smaller the builder, as in those building less than a half-dozen homes/year, the more likely he/she has emotional involvement come time to sell. To the small builder, the homes they build are often dream homes in their minds. They put their heart & soul into some of these properties. They bring their 'dream' to me sketched on the back of an envelope & squabble about why I 'need' plans & specs before granting them the construction loan. Their response is almost universally, "Why? Can't you SEE this house is worth every penny of the loan amount I need?!" They are builders not business people. I've teased many a builder...sitting in front of my desk wanting to know if they should accept an offer...that they are too proud of their "erection" & need to take a couple steps backwards. :) To hear you or another potential buyer comment that you don't like something they've chosen to put in the house is insulting to them because you aren't seeing 'their' dream. It takes small builders longer to come around to changed market conditions than it does lenders. Eventually, his lender will give him a hard nudge towards seeing the 'light' & refuse to grant another construction loan until he sells something... Since the builder wants nothing more than to get moving with his next dream...that is the point at which a potential buyer finds negotiating with these guys the easiest. Small builders uniformly, in my experience, lose interest in a project at about the 65% complete stage &, in fact, pushing them to reach 100% is like pulling teeth with a string & a doorknob! They've got another sketch they want me to look at..... Market conditions now should be such that even these small builders are ready to negotiate. Oh, another reason they lose interest is because even though they're not supposed to...they live on their construction loans. They draw out profit as the build progresses. One way, or another...they ALL manage to sneak their cable bill into the draws! By the time they reach the point in construction you're describing they have little motivation because they've already pulled out most of the profit they expected anyway. They don't have the same enthusiasm for their lender getting their money back as they do for building their dream & getting those draws. I love small builders. They have hearts of gold & are 'salt of the earth' type of people, usually. That's the biggest reason I love construction lending...the builders themselves are just great/fun people. But, don't kid yourself...they DO get emotionally involved. /tricia

I'm going to overlook all the relationship issues here, plenty of great advice has been given. I'll just give my 2 cents on the design aspect. Maybe his mother loves your style and that is part of why she wants the condo. Her lifestyle has changed over the years and maybe she doesn't know how to let go of some things but maybe she loves your style too. If that's the case, it might not be too insensitive to say you want to change the style of the new house. I would take the changes slowly, you don't want to trample on feet but as you remodel, you can always fall back on the idea that you want to change things before you start a family because you know once a baby is here not much else will get done for a while. This may be a more gentle way for his mother to accept the changes, and make her excited about being a grandmother one day. It might make it easier for her to let go knowing that broken furniture or lots of storage isn't safe for curious little ones. Good luck!

We are building a new home (and no, I'm not going over to Building a home, I'm not that brave and I know what I want) and just fired the interior designer. We had two rules - no open concept kitchen and the back wall is to be all windows. We have enough room for a kitchen with eat in and sitting area with a separate LR and DR and we have a little view. What do we get back - open concept with cabinets along the back wall. Apparently we HAVE to have open concept for resale - we're not interested in resale and we don't need open concept and the cabinets on the back wall block the view. Round 2 - open concept with cabinets in the corner of the back wall where the glass doors will be for the deck. Apparently we HAVE to have open concept....blah, blah, blah. Send them articles about people rethinking space design after pandemic isolation and what the new builds are looking like in our area. Apparently they are all wrong Round 3 - open concept but finally no cabinets on the back wall. Well Apparently..... You're fired. This firm is classed as top designers in my area but when I went back and looked at their portfolio again it was all cookie cutter, same kitchen designs and same colours.