Before you make any decisions on style alone, get a budget number in mind and stick with it. All the homes everyone has posted are gorgeous, but if you looked at the prices, they were million dollar homes. Of course location makes a difference, but not really a huge difference. Make sure your architect sticks to your budget as well. Know what 3500-4000sq.ft. includes. Cost per sq. ft varies depending on what materials you choose, sometimes depending on your builder or location or all of the above. Architects, at least the ones we interviewed cost anywhere from 20k to 100k and some included different services than just the design. We opted for a home designer that cost 5k. Was it a mistake or was it just this particular home designer? Maybe it was both. Maybe you are one of the lucky ones and you don't have a budget, but if not, you don't want to have a beautiful dream home on paper that is useless to you. Research this and other websites. And if you are on a budget, know now what you can live and live without and don't let dreamy websites make your eyes bigger than your wallet. Hindsight stinks. Been there, doing that sitting somewhere between depression, desperation and hating to admit my naivety and stupidness. I guess I chalk it all up to a good problem to have, but it still stinks. Good luck!

thanks to all for your suggestions! I'll probably do 2 pillows, with just the front the espada cider, and a solid on the back. Don't know yet if I'll have them made (with the corded edges) or if I'll do simple pillow covers, I've got the pillow forms already) I did think of another possiblity..a photo board. I've got one from our old house, that I'll have to redo in new colors. I think I've finally chosen the paint colors, the 2 most left colors on this photo...

shellfish: Oh, lovely room. That is right up my alley as well! I'm so envious of your space! I like the idea of the white coverlet which I may add in winter below the duvet. DD and I are still looking through the samples though lean towards a more saturated color like boxerpup's DS's room, then a lighter shade for the ceiling. Hope to narrow it down to a few paint samples to test on the walls. DD has little patience with me as I wanted to show her the inspiration pics. I'd rather she just pick a look she likes and let me narrow down the paint colors to 2-3 that match the one in a picture. That has always been my difficulty in doing her room--she just focuses on one aspect, the bedding, WTs or paint and not how they all look together in her room, with her floor and lighting. Unfortunately, there is not much that can be done in terms of room layout at present and it's not possible to remove just the head and footboard. It's a captain's storage bed with four drawers which she uses for her clothes. In another year my DS will most likely go away to college then I think I will let her move into his room which is a smidge larger and then we can do something similar to paintergirl's rendition. In which case I'll be repainting both rooms in a year's time. If it wasn't so hideous right now, I'd just wait another year, but she and I both hate it and the bedding and WTs can simply move to the other room when the time comes. I lvoe the paint color in the living room photo above and think DD would agree to that since it's so vivid. That B&W accents really seem to mitigate the intense shade as I'd hoped it would. Does anyone know what color that is?

I agree with Fori. You will never be able to keep the pool clean in your dusty environment without an automatic safety cover. We had an automatic pool cover installed when we remodeled our pool 10 years ago (after not having such a cover for almost 30 years) and it was one of the best decisions we have ever made. We leave the cover closed except when we are actually swimming and as a result the pool is always sparkling clean when we open it to swim or to "show it off" for guests. We save on chemicals and never have to add algaecide because algae never grows (the water is not exposed to light which is what causes algae to grow). The water only gets chlorine for sanitation and is very clean-feeling. We save on water because there is virtually no evaporation and we save on electricity because we don't have to run the pump and pool sweep very much in order to keep the pool clean. You will, however, have to have a rectangular or square pool because the cover runs on tracks under the coping and they must be straight and parallel. It is possible to design the pool and coping such that the mechanism and cover roller is hidden under the coping at one end of the pool, and so the pool looks attractive even with the cover closed. Any disadvantages? None, in my opinion. Yes, they are expensive, but the savings on water, chemicals, electricity, and your time that you would spend vacuuming and cleaning it more than compensates for the cost of the cover.