Ok, well I'm back again just to tell you all that I finished my mom's yard. Now I know to some of you with extreme projects this may not seem like much, but it took me FOUR HOURS to weed out two beds that were around trees and two beds in front of the house. ~SIGHS~ I didn't even know it was possible to feel hamstrings the way I'm feeling mine. I worked the heck out of that shovel!!! This was done Friday last week and today is Monday and I'm still walking like I've been riding horses all day! LOL Anyway, just thought I'd share that with all of you. Oh! Yesterday my Garden Buddy and I decided to do a "Friendship Mixed Pot". We both got a geranium and a vinca vine with an annual as well. Well, I got two perennials (are begonias perennials?). Anyway this was another little project of mine and I'm very proud of it....MY FIRST MIXED POT.....hope you all like it. It's a red geranium in the middle with white begonias around it and the vinca in the front kinda spread out. I'm in love with it!!! This is a top view of it....

Suz, You garden room is your greatest asset (or is it?) Does the garden room have proper footings? Sometimes, these summer rooms do not have proper footings to be finished off, so you have to pour new footings and there is nothing that can be saved, ie tear down and rebuild. If you are tearing down and rebuilding, you should put a few more $ and make it spacious.... Before tackling a big remodel, you also have to be flexible in how you use the house. For example, I would not be so "fixed" on how you use the den/existing house. The garden room can be finished as a conditioned space with the least amount of money (if the existing conditions are right) or it maybe no different than a new add on. I have seen so many remodels where huge opportunities were lost because people did not move rooms within the house. I recently saw a turn of the cenutury house for sale where the views were closed off in the livingroom only. The reality is that the view in that house has lost value as our life styles are changing (no servants/housewife in the kitchen which is cut off from the rest of the view floor plan) because most people want views from kitchen and dining more than LR. That was the big reason I did not consider buying that house, otherwise it was a very nice house. I already have a view kitchen and dining.... A little extra money to put the kitchen on the view side would have made that house sell quickly. My next door neighbor has a sun/garden room (much like yours, also an old house) attached to the dining room. They did not move their kitchen. So in the end, their kitchen feels cramped and their garden room feels cramped. Their dining room feels spacious which is used rarely...... It was NOT a good solution from an objective bystander with no say in the matter, moi. You have to talk numbers with your builder. You also have to give your architect some freedom to come up with elegant solutions, which means that you are flexible in how you live. There are things that I was not willing to move my position on at various points of our different remodels, which necessarily was not the best solution in the end. One of the best ways to ask your architect for help is to say these are my requirements for the finished house. Come up with the least expensive solution for me. Don't say, "I cannot change the den into powder/move kitchen etc." Evaluate the proposal (with a cost estimate) that they come up with, then make up your mind.

We closed on our lot yesterday! Finally! To save time we started schematics while in escrow and our schematic design is in for design review with our DRC. If that goes well, our architects will start on permit-ready plans in January. Right now it feels like we'll never get to the fun part - building. Hopefully early next year.

Hi All, Thank you for your nice comments and love all the photos of what you've got growing. Surgery went well and PT says I'm doing good.. It's been 2 weeks, tho it seems more like 2 months! ha ha! I'm not used to being almost helpless. My family is taking great care of me, I am so fortunate, and watering my plants/seedlings that I DID start/have growing to plant when I can. My stamina is not great, but it takes alot of energy (apparently) to heal. And I"m doing good. I take one day at a time, and know that each brings me closer to having a "bionic knee" that will perform SO much better than my old one! :D Keep the photos coming, everyone! I love to see them, and hear what you're up to, what's growing and how things are coming!