... and I certainly can't argue with either of you. Perhaps not well stated enough to make it apparent, but I have been in agreement all along. The reason I even broached this subject matter is a mirror of Pam's comment: "But the designer and educator in me will continue to try and broaden the way these posters look at their property and expand their approach in creating their own landscape to address those issues they by intent or ignorance (and I don't mean that in any sort of derogatory manner) choose to ignore..." Perhaps I am rooted in a paradigm far removed from normal. As a young boy on the farm, I was constantly being regaled with admonitions to consider the down line consequences of your actions. It was especially driven home by my father to give consideration to placement of things like building siting and fenestration. At an early age it was pointed out to me which direction the prevailing wind (especially winter wind) blew and to give it a prime consideration. Shingles and siding were to be lapped so that they would not catch this wind. Building openings were placed to minimize the impact of weather. Trees were planted in locations to take maximum advantage of summer shade, yet not create snow drifting problems and/or provide shelter from blizzard winds. Even the corn rows were planted in certain directions to minimize wind damage. In many ways, my father taught me early-on to avoid the classic, old conundrum of painting oneself into a corner. One of the potential benefits of this forum is that a few people will hopefully begin considering a few things beyond a shiny-new, brass kick plate on the front door of the home they are considering for purchase. My hope is also that a few more folks start to realize that it is their money on the line and that entitles them to be more demanding. For the most part (at least within reason), the builders don't really care (and it costs no more) where you decide to place things as long as they know about it beforehand. However, if you totally abdicate all decisions to them; well ... I guess they show about as much concern as you do. Unfortunately, you are the one who gets to pay for their dumb decisions! Landscape design involves more than flowers. As but one minor example: The placement of my garage was crucial in my planning stage; long before any dirt was turned. Firstly, I was adamant that I was not going to live in a home that said, "Welcome to my garage!" It quickly became apparent that was going to require me to purchase a corner lot; and there are not a lot of those. Secondly, I was adamant that my garage was going to be on the north and west side of the home to blunt the prevailing winter wind in order to conserve heating requirements of the home. Along the same energy conservation theme, I moved the setback of the home 4-feet to the south; which correspondingly made the garage stick out 4-feet to the north. This gave me a protected 4-foot nook to not only conceal my A/C unit but also create an area that was always in full shade; which bolsters cooling efficiency. I also made the garage 6-feet deeper than standard (very cheap to do at this stage) in order to accommodate an additional stairwell that went directly into the basement. Another change that I made from the conventional garage plan was to move the garage service door to the rear. This accommodated direct entry onto the rear patio for things like barbeque grills; which could now be conveniently stored out of sight in the garage. As a side benefit to moving the service door to the rear, it forces people to enter my home from the front doorway entrance; the way that I designed the home to be entered. I chose to be involved in all of these decisions. Invariably, most of these choices cost no additional funds. In fact, in many cases it saved me money. The largest investment was time spent in thought. However, the real benefit is that these active choices made my home (not just house) so much more livable. As Laag has repeatedly maintained, "Most problems are to do with elevation and grading." Even with all of the pre-planning, I was unexpectedly forced to deal with a cheapo-contractor that quickly slapped up what he called, "a luxury spec-house". He realized that digging a shallow hole for a basement costs less than a full depth hole. This placed that house a full two feet higher than any other home in the development. No problem! The eventual first-time home buyers never even noticed because they were concentrating on the shiny-new, brass kick plate on the front door. However, this forced me to adjust the previously intended grade levels of my garage floor, house foundation, basement egress window well and eventual patio. Grrrr... Anyway, I am just throwing a few of these real-life considerations out there for novices to see. There is no sense in making everyone "test the electric fence". IronBelly

Arktrees, those pictures just about took my breath away! Such a beautiful tree! Even more beautiful in my opinion than the Autumn Blaze I have, since I am partial to the deeper reds/burgundy anyway. I am happy to hear that they are drought tolerant and also fast growing, which is important. I think I will look for one of these in the fall. I don't mind watering trees at all when its hot and dry, especially when they are getting established, I just don't want something that is going to be very difficult to keep alive in our climate/soil. And I usually don't water my grass... but trees are a different story. Regarding planting - what is the closest to my house I can safely plant? My house makes an L shape with the garage and the front yard is the inside of that L. The builder put the tree about 20' away from the front. Would you plant any closer than that? I just now saw Mackel's post on the soil alkalinity... what is your soil like over there in Arkansas? I'll have to test mine but I think its around 7. Hogmanay, crape myrtles grow very well here and thank you for the suggestion. I gather they are fast growing, so that may give me some shade in the short term. I know they are very common in this area, but since I am relatively new to Oklahoma, and just figured out last summer what all those flowering trees were, they are still new to me :) Thanks again, Shelley

Thanks waicklen, well since you asked...why yes, I do! This pic was taken on 6-20-10: 7-2-10, note the huge pile of crabgrass to the left...I pulled this out of the Bermuda and it's only a drop in the bucket! There was virtually no crabgrass in the Turfallo (probably because I put the cardboard and newspaper down in March - just the right time to prevent the seeds from germinating): I wasn't sure how it would respond to mowing so I had the 2nd patch (not the original test area) mowed first on 7-14-10: 7-23-10, original test patch is pretty shaggy looking at about 6-8 inches tall, 2nd patch looks good after mowing: 7-24-10 Baby's first haircut: 7-28-10, couple days after the first mowing, grass is brownish, all the green tips were cut off, I was worried... ...but it turned green again pretty quickly as you can see in the background of this pic taken on 8-12-10: I am very happy with it, it has weathered this heatwave well with very little attention, I think I watered it maybe 3 times this summer and I probably could have avoided mowing completely if I wanted to.

I barely hear my ahu running. it is located in a closet with return in living room. very very quiet. while my heat pump is single stage my ahu is variable speed. great dehumidification, even here with high humidity the norm. there are ways to quiten areas where ahu and return's are located. I see on your plans you have a mechanical room is this not where equipment would be located? when you talk about ducts in crawlspace.. you mean basement? or under house between ground and house? not being in an area where we have basements I can't commnent on ductwork installs in that location. I do read that basement ductwork is seldom mastic sealed or insulated. personally I'd have a problem with that. if I'm paying to condition air...I want control over amount delivered and temp of delivered air. unsealed ducts leak. uninsulated ducts lose degrees of heat/cool. when you talk about minisplits..keep in mind that you need someone who is familiar with the install. ionized if you recall, even your very knowledgable hvac contractor had input from someone with more hands on install of mini splits. aside from minsplits with multiple ahu's that hang on the wall..there are also casette ahu's that are installed in the ceiling. OP have you thought about an energy rating? someone you hire to give you specific to you information? in my area for new construction the value of the energy saved can be added to appraised cost of home. the rating takes house from just meeting code to including the upgrades and gives you a home energy rating score. HERS rating. just fyi. I've never had a new construction home plan on minisplits. that is usually a retrofit option. around here there are maybe 10 of 50 companies that have experience in minisplits. and of the 10..only 5 do it well and attend classes as they become available. research the companies well if you go mini split route. I'd limit upgrading efficiency to 18 SEER actually I find that ROI is better for 15-17 SEER. above that the cost for more efficiency takes longer to re-coup, for little benefit. knowing the actual efficiency from ARI is important. those yellow tags don't reflect true efficiency or total unit. there are certian matches to achieve certain efficiencies. others less. best of luck.