the old adage, suck it an see, LOL! today I have contructed my wigwam in 1 square foot for 6 plants (worked well last year), a cabbage is stuck in the middle of the wigwam, theory being the shade from the beans may stop it from bolting, I grow my beans they are runner beans, not pole, (don't now if this makes a difference as I have never done pole beans, but would like an answer as I am doing another similar bed with pole bean in the centre) the bed then is basically 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 foot, tomato plant in each corner and east, west and south middle section cantaloupe south, facing, Zuke West facing, butternut on east side going to be trained down to the south, and chive on the mid north side, for ease the bed I have I have only divided into 9 even though I have planted 3 seeds, of each I am only using 2 of the cantaloupe and butternut and 1 of the zuke (I never wish to relive the Zucchini sickness again :-) should they look like it is to much for the bed I will go down to 1, of each, just for info these 3 sides are lawn, so will roam onto it, the north side is the path side, it will be interesting to see if I can get in to harvest the beans :-0, my other bed same theory, only using vegetable marrow (and no it isn't an overgrown Zuke, they get massive but taste lovely baked, or baked and stuffed, they have to get really massive to be bitter and look slightly different, although related, I looked it up and the flavor is described as bland! LOL! I am a true Brit :-)) another butternut and new this year spaghetti squash. I figure what have I got to lose, I can't do all these in the normal way, on my tiny plot, so if I have to haul out, so be it, I really won't have any this year if I don't try :-)

Both grasses are very large and pretty aggressive. Indian grass in particulare is a beautiful plant, but it seeded itself all over my garden and overwhelmed other plants. I would only recommend either of these them for real prairie restorations. For a semi-shade setting I recommend wild rye, river oats, or bottlebrush grass -- all moderately tall, with nice-looking seed heads. They will probably spread by seed, too, but I find them easy to control.

Okay, it sounds as if you just want a house with a front elevation that looks very similar to the Southern Living plan but which would have the interior rearranged so significantly that it would be an entirely new plan. If so, your local architect would only be using the image of the Southern Living plan as "inspiration" for the front elevation and would probably not be infringing copyright - unless he made the front of the house look identical to the SL plan. So maybe you don't really need to purchase a license to the SL plan after all. But it sounds as if your local architect doesn't "get it" even after seeing your inspiration picture. Perhaps you need a different architect. Or is is possible that the room arrangement you want simply won't fit into a farmhouse with a tall narrow front elevation (which is a good part of the charm of the SL plan). If you want a house that is tooooooo big, or you want too many rooms facing either the front or the back views, then your architect probably keeps winding up with something that is broader than it is tall... and therefore cannot possibly be made to look like the elevation you picture. I had a friend who once insisted that she wanted a nice compact basically rectangular one-story "cottage." But then she started describing all the rooms that just had to have a view of the lake on one side of her property and it quickly became obvious to me that there was no possible way to meet her desires. Her vision of the interior was just incompatible with her vision of the exterior. Ultimately she wound up building a long thin boom-a-rang shaped home that was mostly one room deep. It looked nothing at all like the "little cottage" she originally THOUGHT she wanted but every major room in the house has a view of that lake and it is a gorgeous home. If your interior floor plan vision isn't totally incompatible with your exterior inspiration picture, there is probably already a farmhouse design out there somewhere that comes close to meeting your needs and, when finished would look similar to the SL plan. Why don't you post your "program" (how many bedrooms? baths? garage bays? master upstairs or down? laundry upstairs or down? open plan kitchen/great room or not? office? media room? playroom?) here on GW? Maybe someone here will know of a perfect or near perfect plan that could be modified more easily than the SL plan. I know that finding the perfect plan is very difficult and when you hire an architect and he doesn't seem to be able to "get it", it can be extremely frustrating. BTDT, so you have my sincere sympathy.

Well sure, nobody can predict the future. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try! Our first home was intended to be short term. It was in an area with questionable schools, but we didn't have kids yet. Our plan was to be there 5-10 years and move before we had a kid in kindergarten. We were there seven years and moved when our eldest was four. Our second/current home was intended to last us "until the kids were in college" but we lacked the foresight to know we'd LOSE OUR EVER-LOVIN' MINDS and decide to have two more kids. And we realized when our dog developed a disability that it's extremely unfriendly to the mobility-impaired. (Plus side: she weighed 100 lbs so we got a LOT of exercise the last year of her life. :/) So we're moving forward and applying what we've learned over the years towards our best guess is about what will work for us. What more can you do? Important to note: I've come to love this plan (which isn't very bright, not yet knowing if the BRs will fit upstairs yet, but what can you do?) The only reason I wanted a first floor master was for eventual mobility issues (3/4 of our parents have health problems which make stairs difficult), not because I want my bedroom on the main floor now. The major drawback to the rough sketch we started with http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/4345095/floorplan-feedback-very-early-stage is a lack of playroom space on the main level which means, IME, all the toys will end up in the living room. A main level master would make an excellent playroom/craft room. It's close enough to the action that it would actually get used, plus there's a door. At this point the biggest drawback I see is the possibility that both we and an elderly parent might need to avoid stairs in which case either a small guest room on the main or planning for a future elevator might be a good idea. (Could whoever has the crystal ball please pass it my way?)