I want to enjoy my garden at night too but: My neighbor's porch light, which is on 24/7/365, shines right in my eyes when I'm on my back porch. Neighborhood cats are out prowling and fighting and screaming at each other, and making my dogs bark, and then someone complains about my dogs barking. A neighbor is pacing up and down the street in front of my house, talking on his cell phone. Not quietly either. Another neighbor is yelling at her teenagers. Another neighbor is working on ATVs in his driveway, which is next to my backyard, with mechanic's drop lights on, and ATV engines revving up and down, over and over, loudly. Stereos and TVs and barking dogs (not mine). Streetlights and porchlights blocking out the night sky. I can't even imagine wanting to light up the garden at night, then you couldn't see the stars at all, and you're blocking them out for your neighbors as well. And who could be bothered by spiders and such when they're sooo quiet??? not like the human neighbors. Please consider your contributions to light pollution before you install garden lighting. Light pollution deprives us of our view of the night sky, which is beautiful, and it's supposed to be dark at night, we need that period of darkness to keep our biological clocks synchronized and our mental health intact. I like to sit out on the back porch at dusk to listen for owls and to watch the bats and the stars come out. I've managed to squeeze the chaise longe into a space where the neighbor's porch light doesn't shine in my eyes, and I can still see enough of the sky to be worthwhile. There are spiders, and mosquitoes, and rats, and rabbits, and possums, and raccoons, and garter snakes, and moths, and flying termites, but so what.

Thanks y'all. I actually started with the cleaning process this morning and wound up in throat tightening tears that were completely unexpected. In the process of cleaning off the patio I saw all of Cleo's hair that I didn't even know was there. I just watched them wash away in jets of water and felt like I was washing her away. I have a feeling this will be a lot more painful then I expected but hope to get great therapy from it in the long run. It did give me an idea in talking to my mother about making a memorial area somewhere in the yard just for her with a marker of some sorts. Of course nothing could compare to the beauty and happiness that she brought to our lives for so long. There is a small swag on the bottom of the slope that turns into a river when it rains. I do eventually want to build it up with some river rock or something but that will be on the bottom of my priority list (need to think cheep right now). I've even thought that maybe one day I'd do a waterfall down the hill to a pond of some sort, but again, I don't even know if we'll be in the house for as long as that would take. Can anybody tell from the pictures where the best place to put the swingset would be? I want to put plants around the patio and I think they would get in the way of the slide if I don't move it. Where would you put the sweetshrub?

RE:robinwv - the thing is , he is ALWAYS gone. He works 5 day a week full time and 3 or more nights a week also, so sometimes it is days before we see each other besides in passing, or in bed asleep...so i am always alone at home with the baby going to all his medical appointments ( he is medically challenged ) and we rarely get to spend time together already. When he was always at home when we first got together, I was happy for him to go do stuff but he never would. That was pre-baby. Since baby and working full time + now, it's like some big puff of "I'm the man" jumped right into his chest and now he thinks he is the man and I am the "little wifey". He tries to get me to go out with girlfriends, but I really would rather just go out with him, because I think the same way that jenny_alabama feels...when you get into a relationship with someone involving a family and make a committment, that you should do things together, he had plenty of time to "sow his oats" without me, and yes, it is about the "without me" part lindakimy...I told him exactly that... I asked him how it would feel if I just came home and said, well, I am going to go out with a bunch of people and you aren't invited, but he says he would be happy if I did this, he wants me to go out. We cannot agree on the views we each have separately. I don't begrudge him for wanting to go out, I really don't, it's just BS that he is trying to force us to have separate friends, I feel like when you are a couple that you should have friends that can go out with both of you, not just one or the other. It seems to me as if he wants us to both act like we are single and like if I don't go out with him and his friends that he can keep things from me. Although I trust him, it seems shady to me that he is pushing so hard to do things separately but NEVER wants to go out as a couple. There is not one time that we have ever went out in 2 years without someone else along. I couldn't even get him to go out wiht me on Valentines day when i offered to pay, or on my birthday when I had to go out with 2 coworkers the 1st year we were together...we went and had pizza one night,at a little pizzaria restaurant, but our son was in the hospital and we were sick of hospital food and walked to the place. I guess I am just really confused why like I asked him, Why am I less important than people that you have known for such a short time. These guys he wants to go out with all work in club environments and would lie for him in a heartbeat. They seem to think that the "little woman" should be kept in her place. You can only imagine the fireworks that have flown through our household over time. We finally came to an agreement, only because I told him I am not going to sit at home while he is out all night and I am sitting here having more and more time to stew over the situation. I am not cool with it because I think if he were to have gone to dinner, gone ANYWHERE when we could have, it would have made a huge difference in how I felt about it now. He didn't even come back to the hospital the night our son was born like he had promised when I told him he could go "celebrate" with his "friends"...I didn't even get to hold our son because I was so upset about being left alone when he said he would be back that all I could do was kick in my post partum depression and couldn't eat, sleep, and cried for 3 days straight. I still haven't let it go, although I have forgiven him, I will never forget the disappointment and how his word can't be trusted. He has told me before when he went out that they were not going to a strip club, but lo and behold, where did he 20 minute me until he would get home for 3 hours. He has blown his trust with me, so it is hard for me to believe what he says. He is so vehement about me having a negative reaction to anyhting involving him and doing things he knows I would be upset about if he excludes me purposely. He agrees to something and then it just sucks for me when he breaks his word. Then I am just being a B. There are certain friends he has I would be cool with him hanging out with, but I have seen the others first hand cheat on their girls and I think the company you keep can influence you when you have been hanging out with them all the time. I wish I could put blind faith into him all the time, but I have been burned before, and also been on the flip side where I was married before and I was the one who always wanted to go out without my ex-husband, but we also went out together, and so did he. I guess I am just more upset because he is so adamant that he needs more time than the 16 hours a day he sometimes spends with these guys but can't spend a full 16 hours awake with me. If he is at home, he will sleep for 12 hours straight sometimes and I still don't even get to see him. But he professes to love me so much, I can even see it in his eyes. I guess he is just sending me mixed messages, because I love him as much as he says he loves me, but I am proud to take him everywhere with me. I am excited to spend time with him, and I just don't understand why I am such a noose around his neck when I tolerate where he works around naked women all day long, a nightclub all night long, where when one night I went to hang out with him for a friend of ours bday party there, that he "warned" me right before he left and I was going to come up after dropping the baby off at the sitter, that not to get jealous if women were hitting on him and flirting with him. Then to get there and a woman I was sitting beside at the bar proceeded to let me know how hot he was, etc. When I said yeah, I know, he's my baby's father. Then her story was, well, you should be glad, because no matter how much I hit on him he never takes me up on it. When I mentioned it to him after we got home, he says he never noticed he hitting on him. And he wonders why I doubt him. Go figure. I really do trust him, but as I told him, I do not think as long as works in this environment that he should be too upset about me questioning him or wanting to go along. And if he makes a big deal out of me going, that he shouldn't be surprised if I get a red flag warning going off inside my heart.

Hello Chipmonk. My final decision was to forgo the blind option altogether. We didn't need them for privacy, just for sun and heat protection. I thought I'd end up selecting a window treatment covering to minimize the sun and heat after the installation, but I haven't needed one. With my builders assistance, we chose Harvey Building Products door and window for our kitchen and decided upon the Tribute line...double pane sliding patio door (they don't put interior blinds in their doors), and double pane sliding window over the sink (so effortless to slide). We noticed a difference immediately with the double glazed, low E argon, easy sun clean glass. The amount of sun and heat that gets through is mimimal compared to our original glass. We have been through the heat of the summer and surprisingly we never missed having blinds. This glass has been wonderful for blocking out a considerable amount of noise, the suns rays, and heat...far exceding my expectations. Upon closing the slider the heat is sealed off and you can visibly see the reduction of the suns rays. We coundn't be more pleased with our selection. I enjoy having the wide open windows for unobstructed light and view. Wishing you well with your project and good luck with your final selections.