Hey Sheila, I've wanted to reply to your post for a while now, but I truly haven't come up with anything I think could possibly be comforting. We are now in the midst of our first season of culling, and also grappling with the same feelings. I have really had to wrestle with the logic of it all. Am I coldhearted? No, more so than when we bought meat exclusively from the grocer. Was I MORE cold hearted before, being ignorant and likely contributing to a meat industry and their sometimes reprehensible practices? Argueable. If i disassemble the process, which part(s) strikes a nerve? THe killing? The dressing? The eating? And why should I feel differently about meat i never "knew" from the grocer? Hardest for me is the feeling of betrayal. I'm amused at the human behaviors we engage in to comfort ourselves....how we are frozen with our kill, stroking it until the inevitable nerve twitching subsides because we can't bear that it should 'die alone', or how everyone gets extra grain after a a comrade goes to "freezer camp". These silly things are however, signals that we are different than say, the coyotes, which are far less benevolent. However idiotic, I am grateful for all the inner turmoil. Would I rather be like the coyote? and to that end, aren't I much more like the coyote in my attitude toward the meat I bring home from the store? A week or so ago, my co-worker asked if I didn't wish I could wiggle my nose and voila! All the birds would be dressed and cut and packaged and done! I think he was surprised when I very quietly and solemnly replied...'no'. It's hard, very hard, and I don't like it, but there's something very valuable about going through it too. I take from the experience a commitment to give our remaining animals the very best I'm capable of, a feeling of responsibilty I may not otherwise feel so deeply. And for the sacrificed lamb, this is the greatest lesson it can give to me, and the most important legacy it can leave for its fellow creatures in my care. All creatures must come, and must pass. When we take them without their permission, we are humbled. We pray they move to an elevated state after this life, (if they wish), and shine our gratefulness upon those that remain. I think the greatest means by which we can insult them is to waste their bodies and/or ignore their teachings. In the greater scheme of things, I think they would be content with that philosophy. I hope they are. In nature, they would still likely be eaten. Being a creature of higher consciousness (unlike the coyote) I can honor them with appreciation, or I can not. To me, coldheartedness is about THAT choice. I have no idea if this rant helps or not, but i definitely know what you're going through. Hang in there and keep trying to sort it out. It takes courage for the thinking person. Congraulate yourself as being part of the inspired. LFRJ

Hello from a fellow Puget Sounder! Hubby and I are currently researching the building of our dream home up on Whidbey Island (our property looks out over Saratoga Passage) and we have visions of a shingle sided cottage. Like you, we're hoping for low maintenance, and our research so far seems to indicate that if you pick the right shingles and if they are applied properly, they should easily last 30 to 50 years with little or no maintenance required. (We built a very nice arbor and fence 20 years ago with Alaskan yellow cedar; the wood has held up very well, despite lots of shade and rain, with no rot and without the need for stain or paint - we just allowed it to age to a nice silvery gray.) Check out this link for an interesting article discussing the benefits of wood shingles, as well as the alternatives, such as Hardie plank. http://mainehomedesign.com/rotating-features/404-cant-decide-on-siding.html Best of luck on your new home!

Update - using the helpful sign advice on the Kitchens forum - we made some changes to the layout. Ultimately - that resulted in the "eating end" of the island moving to the east / by the fridge, and changing some zones around. As part of that continuing discussion, DH and I decided to swap the great room and the dining room for the following reasons: We can bias the dining table back further and integrate it easier with the kitchen (less steps) We can move the great room to have better views of the courtyard and feel more "snuggled" into the main part of the house. It will also be the place we spend a decent amount of time, closer to the half bath area, closer to screened porch, outside, etc. Moving the dining room closer to the entry allows us to "create" an entry space with either screening furniture or some other "barrier" that won't dump you right into the great room (a room that will be more crowded with furniture and likely to be "less neat" than the dining room) So - thanks for the ideas, we've already incorporated others, and with the kitchen changes, I think we're getting very close to the most livable plan for us. I'll have the plans updated and then we can get our head around the changes and make sure we're not breaking something else by fixing these other issues. Hopefully, crane will be scheduled for 2 weeks from now and we'll have walls in 2 weeks after that!

We "built" the house we live in now, tract home in new neighborhood, with some customization. House conversations with friends and neighbors always have regrets in there. Bump-outs, boneheaded designs we should have caught, upgrades that should have been made, upgrades that aren't worth it... the list goes on. Based on our experiences here, I already know there will be design / decor issues that will have D'oh! moments. It's impossible to think about EVERYthing. I think we've hit all the major points, and have enough flexibility to change in the future. Our lives changed quite a bit in the 6 years since building (the once large pantry is now crammed because I now do the majority of grocery shopping at Costco and that not change for at least 15 years for example). I can't see into the future, but we learned from this build, and kept the evolution of our family in mind with our design. 1) The architect/draftsman is only as good as the information provided. They don't know us, or live our lives, ( I wonder if there'd be a benefit to having separate design consultations with the clients, much like relationship counseling, to get a really clear picture, lol), which is why we rely on their education and expertise. 2) The reason copy editors exist: to catch the technical mistakes writers make, and can no longer "see" due to closeness to the project. Same reason med errors occur. I think when we originally like a design, then look at it, dream about it, obsess over it, we can't "see" the flaws or potential problems that others might. Hence all the floor plan critique posts here. I think too, that online and builder plans lull us into a false sense of security- "they design and build houses all the time, they're experts, hundreds of people have bought the design, what could go wrong?!" We found that customizing our builders plan threw them for a loop, and didn't realize it would do so, until after the house was built, and weird things weren't right; towel bar location, depth o linen closet, outlets, etc. 3) We are often playing on tilt. We're all living SOMEwhere, right now, and designing a new place to live, with many features that we love (or would love to have) or without the ones we loathe, those HTOD, that we obsess over in our current or past homes. Finally, the same way any artist of any medium does, we aren't always satisfied with the end result of a project. Sometimes you just have to be DONE, even if to your artists eye, you could have kept going. Having said all that, I know there's going to be some regrets, but hopefully -I believe- the joy will outweigh them!