Yes anele, it's the same street - about 2 blocks closer to the school, actually. Thanks for the compliment on the town, we love it here; it's a great place to raise a family. I take it you are from around here? That house is definitely a possibility, I actually asked about the kitchen on the kitchen board. The price range I feel comfortable with is $750K max. So, the house itself as described is not necessarily out of our price range, but new construction comes with so many unknowns and so many add ons (we previously bought a new construction townhome and even that had a million options and add ons - upgraded cabinets, upgraded carpet, padding, tile, painting all the rooms if that's not included, landscaping, lawn, virtually all the hooks and organizational things. They all add up and we'd have to be really careful to keep in line with the budget. I do really like the looks of it though and it's tempting, very tempting. If it were priced at $650K we wouldn't be having this conversation and that would probably say "under contract" :-)

Thank you again for all your help, everyone. These are great ideas! I have a whole different concept now. My computer crashed completely. I'm having so much computer trouble neither one of us can get any new photos in but here's an old one already in the computer. This is one of the terraces which go up at each side of the flat space in the middle. We've since stained the wood a very dark brown, and replanted the terraces with brightly-colored perennials, and ornamental grasses, which are doing well. The concrete has been replaced with a more natural stone-like look. There is about 20 feet of space between the patio floor and the top edge of the rocky slope; that area has woolly thyme groundcover and low perennials with stepping stones. On the right-hand side we have a very large bowl fountain with two Asian-style herons standing in grasses near it (all taken in for the winter now). porkandham, bleigh, teacats: I didn't think of putting colorful plants on the deck that can be seen from the road. I love the notion of railing planters. They'll have to be very well secured because of the wind, but I think this will be an amazing help. And I think one large metal art piece will be just the thing for that empty spot on the wall, teacats. We're both art lovers. It will be fun looking for just the right piece. jterrilyn, we hope we won't need a new roof for another decade or so! lynxe,cyn, lolauren, oakleyoak, teacats -- I hope the second photo helps. I get your point about staggered heights and placement on the slope looking better than a solid mass of one plant. We don't want to plant anything very tall because the view is the major attraction, but we could plant several large shrubs in a natural-looking pattern. We had the slope shot with wildflowers when we first built the house, but for a variety of reasons they didn't make it. We have irrigation to the slope that we're not using now, so we can reinstitute that. annz, you're right. Because of the wind a row of pots won't work. I love the idea of a retaining wall "bench", but the outer edge seems to be holding fine, and now that the flat space is all planted people sitting on the wall would probably step on the plants getting there from the patio. livewire, cyn, judith, we did have a structural engineer and the County okay the deck. That was when it only had 4x4's. We changed it to 6x6's for the aesthetics, and it really should be okay now, I think. The deck is 24x12. jane, what a gorgeous yard! I love it. We can't replicate that here, as the climate just isn't right, but thank you for the gorgeous photos. I had to laugh at the deer going swimming in your pool. Nobody here has pools, so they don't get that upscale experience! suzanne, we have bears and mountain lions here, so we'd rather not make it even easier for them to get to the deck. Bad enough we have racoons climbing the posts all the time. We're just a bit too low for aspens to do well here; we have some in the front yard, and they're not very happy. madeyna, we thought about cross supports earlier, but it would obstruct the view. So, thanks to you all, we've been able to look at this freshly, and here's the plan: We're going to plant a tree above the right-hand terrace (as you look at the house in the photo view) so that it will appear to be at the corner of the house. It won't be where the view will be obstructed much. On the left side we'll do a similar placement with a large evergreen shrub so that the tree and shrub don't "match", but harmonize. We're going to get some substantial planters which will hang on the deck railing and be planted with colorful annuals. On the slope instead of that green blanket of junipers I was imagining we'll plant a more natural landscape with a few large scattered shrubs, using a drip system and leaving the rock as is. This won't be expensive, as we have the irrigation still in place that we used for the wildflowers which didn't make it and can easily convert the spray to drip. We'll either block in the posts to make them more substantial-looking or perhaps plant a climbing vine on one of them for color. Everyone, thank you again! All of this will be doable, not expensive, and will make us happy with the way our back yard looks. And thanks also for your concerns about erosion and the safety of the deck; I think we have that handled, but I very much appreciate your caring enough to point out potential problems. Now I can't wait until spring!

Robin, I haven’t installed it yet. It’s on backorder until April, we will be installing in May. I have been living with the full size plank samples I ordered in my kitchen for a couple months now and they are wonderful. No scratches, cleans super easy, no stains or fading, no dents although I haven’t really dropped anything large on them yet.

I like your brick better than the painted ones, so if you['re selling soon keep in mind that the money you spend may actually turn off some buyers rather than enhance the value of your home. Appearance aside, some buyers believe that painted brick requires upkeep, and you'll be unlikely to be able to have the conversation to convince them otherwise. Attractive landscaping would improve your property's appearance. Some of the existing shrubs would be a good background after pruning, so don't start by pulling things out. I can't tell what your shrubs are from your pictures but some evergreen shrubs like yews can be easily shortened, e.g. the shrubs in front of your windows. And most deciduous shrubs can also be pruned to avoid unattractive bare lower branches.