First of all, you will get used to the noise. I'd visit Mom in FL whose house was a half mile away from the train tracks and the first day, I'd hear every train, but after that, hardly ever. Second, I think you need to get to know your neighbors...sounds like they are friendly types which is a good thing. I grew up in the country surrounded by lots and lots of land and few children because there were few houses. When I married and moved to an acre lot, it was terrible for awhile....all the traffic, the kids, the dogs, the mowers... Then I got to know my neighbors. And trust me, the chain saw isn't so loud when it's good neighbor Tim doing the sawing and you don't mind asking John if he could not mow on Saturday as you're planning on a memorial service for your Dad with lots of people coming.... And neighbors can be a great help, like when your snow blower breaks or when you need someone to feed the cat. I know our neighbor was glad for us when the house next to her's caught fire and the firemen wouldn't let her go home that night, so she spent the night with us. Every lifestyle has it's plusses and minuses. Change your perspective, seek the good, and then see where you're at. You may be surprised. BTW, we are now back home on 11 acres, but the area is so much more built up than when I was a kid. Even on our 11 acres though, I know when Bill is sawing or Jimmy is running his back hoe or when Norma is out mowing, or when Jessica's kids are playing with their dog. It's comforting.

Sally, congratulations. I love porches you can actually sit on and the floors will be lovely when they are all polished up and done right. I actually kind of like the cabinets in the kitchen but the black appliances are kind of dark. Keeping the floor the shade it is, it will probably look a lot bigger with lighter cabinets, countertops, etc. Of course, I'd just paint everything white, LOL, except the floor! And I love that old tree, it would make a great "horse" for a little cowboy, also a fort to protect him from marauding Indians and a great outlook to spy outlaws ready to attack and maybe a ship discovering new worlds and very possibly a rocket..... Annie

This makes me nervous for you! Waiting to see? Sorry. We have a deck under construction right now (2 years after our home was built). A landscaper that we've used on many projects at multiple houses is handling this. He has a masters in engineering, yet he hired another engineer to come out and check the footings and the design plan. The carpenter has worked for our landscaper for 10 years. The building inspector came out for the footings and design plan, too. Ours is complex as it goes around an oval pool, but ours doesn't budge at all, even with all the complex cantilevering that had to be done. It's probably over-engineered, but we're happy with that. If you want me to snap some photos of the supports, I can do that after the crew leaves today. Good luck with this --make sure it's safe. You can replace a deck, but you can't replace people. Cameron

Let me start by saying that I'm brand new to this forum. (I spend most of my GW time in Bathrooms!) From the reading I've done so far, there are some very knowledgable people here and I am admittedly NOT knowledgable on the subject of decks so please bear with me. Our 19 year old cedar deck had deteriorated to the point that it was an unsalvagable safety hazard so we recently removed the top decking material. My husband feels that the understructure is in pretty good shape and should be usable although we plan to expand the footprint somewhat. We were assuming that we would replace the deck with Trex or some other composite material. From what I've read so far, that seems like it could be a very expensive mistake. We don't want to ignore the warning signs if mold is an ongoing issue with these products. Honestly, we're not great about keeping up with the maintenance of a wood deck, otherwise we might have gotten a few more years out of our cedar deck. So we're looking for the best option(s) for something that would require as little care and maintenance as possible, recognizing that there is no such thing as "maintenance free." We live in the midwest so we have all four seasons. The deck is on the north side of our house at the edge of fairly dense woods so it's in the sun for just a few hours each day. Could you point me in the right direction or offer any advice on materials that we should consider? Thanks very much!