First - the same advice my grandpa and every good gardener since has given me and that, if I set it aside in my hurry toward getting going, I have always regretted my folly... You only get one chance to completely prepare a perennial bed. All the work you do later will be piecemeal... amending on the surface, moving a plant, etc. Take the time now. Do this right. You may be anxious to see the plants in the ground - aren't we all?! - but extra hours spent now will save extra weeks of amending later. Now... some very unhumble opionions... landscape cloth - absolutely don't do it! I won't give you all the reasons - check out this thread... put simply, I believe Satan devised landscape fabric to take gardeners, who tend to be close to nature and God, to the darkside. Voles and moles and rabbits and deer and slugs and various complaints might get a gardener to swear once in a while - but landscape fabric can drive a perennial gardener to making blood sacrifices by moonlight. http://www.perennialnursery.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=53069&p=463105&hilit=landscape+fabric#p463105 Two techniques to consider. For killing grass - and turning it into compost at the same time... solarizing. I haven't done this for a while, so you can google up some more specific directions, but the basic process is to water the area and then cover the part you want to kill with clear plastic and weight it down around the edges. It is going to heat up the soil, killing the grass and lots of the weed seeds in the top couple of inches as well. The timing is surprisingly short if there is direct sun - with the shade you are describing I'm not sure how long this takes... I planned an oval garden for a family a couple of years ago... they cut the plastic exactly the size of the oval and they said the kill pattern was amazing... healthy, fertilized green grass right up to a sharp edge, then composted grass and grass roots, easy to dig up into the next layer they spread over it. Second technique - lasagna beds... lots of good info if you google... layered construction of soil on top of the current soil. I think you could lay wet newspaper on top of the grass and do the lasagna thing and not even have to remove the grass. (I'd still do the solarizing first, just because you never get the layers thick enough at the edge and some really deep rooted grass always seems to fight its way up through the stuff. In that oval bed I described, the folks tilled some leaf compost in with the dead turf and called that the first layer, then did some layering over the top. Eventually they mounded it some. I think mounds in island beds like you are describing are nice features, allowing a "presentation" of plants without relying solely on the height of individual plants to make those in the center or farther away from the viewpoints show. A Sagae or a Liberty in the center of a bed will be higher than a June in front of it... but a Sagae at the top of a one-foot mound in a lawn bed will be spectacular. Caveat - I don't think solarizing would cause any issues for your established trees... you are providing extra moisture and you don't do it long enough to heat the soil very deeply... and I'm pretty sure maples won't mind having their roots covered if you do build up a foot of soil lasagna style - but I think oaks are touchy about soil over their roots... some trees really need oxygen to get to the roots and if you suddenly change the soil level - like building a house and backfilling a couple of extra inches over the tree roots - you can actually kill a tree. There are rules about how deep, and how much of the circle root zone of the tree can be covered before it becomes a problem. Again, I know the general idea but I don't have the specifics in my scrambled brain dump. Maples... not all maples are created equal. If they are silver maples - no kidding here - I would cut them down now or forget the whole idea. Silver maples and perennials are incompatible. You can get things to grow, but if you want to grow hostas under a silver maple you will either spend an inordinate amount of money and time, or you will see the hostas dwindle as the tree grows. You aren't talking about dropping in a plant or two that you can containerize - you are talking a lot of square footage here. I speak from experience. I watched my silver maple grow from a seedling. Loved the increased shade it was giving my hostas. They loved it too. Abba Dabba Do about 25' from the trunk went to about 66" diameter for a couple of years. Then every year after I watched every hosta in the root region of that tree... I'm talking over a hundred plants now... shrink and shrink and shrink. They suffered from incredible competition for nutrients and water. It wasn't possible to water enough. I dug hostas and found the wirey little maples roots actually grown into and running the length of hosta roots. It was something out of a scifi movie. Digging through the surface roots was a nightmare. The Abba DD dwindled to about 36" before I cut the tree down. Believe me, I wish I'd done it when the tree was smaller - by the time I could bring myself to cut it down, it was 26+" diameter at 6' off the ground where I made my cut (I kept the rest of the trunk as a garden feature. Even getting it dropped before most of the hostas came up in the spring, it did a lot of temporary damage. So... no silver maples or no perennial bed in their root zone. Other maples? Other folks can advise you better... I know people have said all maples tend to have the surface root nets, but I believe some are much less invasive than the devil's spawn silver maple. There's a start...

Ok I am back..... Wow, I just read thro' all the responses and you guys rock !!! I love this forum :))) So far the consensus seems to be to open it up. To answer some of your questions.... oakleyok: The rooms are small. LR is 13 x 18 and FR is 11 x 18. So if we open it up, it will prob. be around 24 x 18 which I think is a nice size....Not too big nor small... bumbledoodle & jan in wisconsin: Thanks for sharing :) I am glad you love the openess....Its very affirming. We currently have a full set of furniture in the LR(Sofa, loveseat, 2 chairs, coffee & end tables). In the FR, we have a loveseat, 3 accent chairs and the TV which is currently on a console. One wall in the FR is dominated by a brick fireplace, similar to the inspiration photo that I linked. So I guess we will have two separate seating areas, even if we open up the rooms. Prob. one will be near the fireplace and another TV watching area.... lynninnewmex, nanny2a & bronwynsmom: Yes, I def. plan to check with an architect if its a load bearing wall or not. I've read (in cote de texas's blog) that if you put in a doorway, it wouldn't cause an issue to the structure as opposed to removing the entire wall. Is this right?? palimpset & pps7: Thanks for letting me know that traditional homes have open architecture...I never knew that. I didn't grow up in this country, so a lot of it is new to me......Now I feel better that I won't be really messing up with the integrity of the house :) Scanmike: Thanks for sharing your pics. You have a beautiful home. I really love your sunroom..I wish I had one and also some new kittens :) susanilz: I think we'll be here for atleast the next 5 yrs...Maybe 10 yrs...I don't have the energy to move anytime soon...So I guess, it makes sense to make it into something functional for us.... vampiressrn: We don't entertain a lot...But def. a few times a year, we have large gatherings for 30+ ppl....Maybe we'll be more prone to entertaining with an open area...I am feeling really pressurized cos we're having a formal gathering of nearly 50 ppl...Its a prayer meeting, so everyone will be sitting together in the same space unlike a party where ppl can move around... Initially, I was considering putting in only a regular doorway (with a french door or pocket door). But after committing to hosting such a large gathering, I am really at a loss on how we're going to accomodate everyone. This was the trigger to everything..... jamaraz: Thanks for sharing your experience...I am scared about the unknowns...Sometimes I think I am opening up a can of worms :) monablair: I am not sure it would work for us. Like I said, the FR has a fireplace and has a very cozy vibe..Maybe I could place some seating around it and have some bookshelves against the adjacent wall to create like a reading/library room (similar to the little reading nook in Somethings gotta give)....I love my books :))) awm: Thats exactly the look I wanted initially. But somehow DH is against the idea of french doors or pocket doors. He wants a more open feel I don't know if I should really listen to him. He doesn't hang out obsessively in design forums like I do, KWIM :)) He's pretty clueless when it comes to design..... How wide do you think that opening is in the pic?? I initially did want doors. But I am not sure how wide the opening would be if we put in doors(like I said, we're trying to accomodate nearly 50 in one space) Also, with french doors, I am thinking if it will hamper the space/furniture placement when we open the door. tomorrowisanotherday: Yes, I really don't want to lose real estate value...I will have to somehow figure this out and make it work.... dlm: Thanks for sharing your pics :) Your french doors are so gorgeous...I don't have any in my home and I really love the look of one :( teaforwendy: We do have a door connecting the FR to the breakfast nook & kitchen. Its not as open as I would like it to be but I don't mind it too much for now...Maybe it could be a project for the future...... kjmama: Yes, we did talk before :) Infact, I searched and pulled up your thread yday to get more ideas. How's the doorway working for you?? Are you done with decorating? Any pics to share :) Please keep the ideas coming...Right now, I am def. leaning twds putting in a doorway...Our "handyman" is coming to take a look tomorrow...But I need to check with an architect about the load bearing aspect of it before we start on anything....Will keep you all updated and will also, try to figure out how to post pics meanwhile..... Thanks once again :)

The part about keeping everything picked up or it becomes claustrophobic is one I can relate to. With me and DD (she's 3 and drags her toys out everywhere) in our 970ish sf space, there comes a point where I have to stop everything and clear the room of toys to prevent a mental meltdown. Sometimes I get frustrated at this...don't get me wrong, I LOVE my little house...but at the same time I love the fact my DD is out in the living area playing, and we are playing together. She's not holed up in her room, out of sight, or in a place where I have to miss out on the interaction and cuteness of child play because I'm doing some necessary household chore. In my last McMansion home when I was married (just 2 adults in 2700sf), I am CONVINCED one factor (among many) of our marital problems was attributed to having too much space, and too many separate spaces where we could go to do our own things. Funny how we had 2 living/family rooms and neither of us did anything separately or together in either. Also, I was recently watching an old "Little House on the Prairie" episode, and Caroline (the mom) scolded the kids for not doing their chores in the house...not putting their things away. Caroline said something to the effect that the house is very small and nobody could get around each other or be comfortable unless everyone did their part by taking care of their things and putting them back in their places.

Shades_of_Idaho Thank you so much! Yes, I decided to use blues throughout. :) I really like the flow of it. So I really appreciate hearing that! My brother in law is the one who was doing it but we have decided to go in a different direction. Not because of brother in law's work though (it's beautiful). I just changed the color scheme and the brown tile is no longer working. I'm not sure exactly what the counter top is exactly called. But he busted up tiles and placed them in molder then sealed them. Very inexpensive! Wow! That is amazing! So beautiful!