Nandina, thank you. And thank you for your previous comments and insights. This was very difficult for me. I simply could NOT visualize how it would look when done, so I spent many weeks agonizing over what it would look like. I love the result! We are mostly DIYers, but yes, this was a project that we did not even consider doing ourselves. To clarify - the engineer was used for consultation, he recommended a wall of this sort. The wall was actually done by a landscaping company (with experience in flood protection). A few points that are not apparent from the pictures I posted - there are two places, in addition to the front walk and the back yard patio where they put steps in. This provides us access to the other regions of the yard, and looks very nice. The other point is that in one back corner, the wall is about four feet high. This was astonishing to us that it needed to be that high! Now we are protected from any flood up to one foot less than the biggest flood in the valley (1997). If we have one of 1997's magnitude, we would have to sandbag BUT a wall two sandbags high would be sufficient. Prior to this wall, we would have had to build a dike that came up to where we are not PLUS the two more sandbags! What a difference. We just pray that we don't have a flood of that size again. Of course, now they are saying we are heading into a drought .... Brent, thank you. Like you, I was very unsure how it would look. No I don't have picture of during, and I really can't say how much dirt except a lot. And a lot of big equipment driving around tearing up our lawn. In addition to the wall, we had our propane tank and our electrical panel moved to higher ground - more big equipment. At one point I said to DH, let's just tear out ALL the lawn and start over! We did sod the areas that were destroyed (seeding large areas of lawn with three dogs doesn't work particularly well). laceyvail, thank you for the compliments. Two matched trees does make it look more formal I agree. The crabapples, however, were chosen very carefully. I am very familiar with the trees that do well in our area and chose these not soley for their spring blossoms (which I do adore). This variety (Red Splendor) has burgundy leaves, thus providing interest throughout the summer. It is also somewhat resistant to foliar disease, which is not really a major problem for us anyway. In the 11 years I've lived in the area, only one summer did the crabs have serious problems. And then of course the red berried provide interest in the late summer, fall, and into winter and are the primary reason these trees were chosen. Red Splendor holds its fruit into the winter, providing food for birds. The waxwings and pileated woodpeckers love the fruit and they provide ample winter interest in those trees until the fruit is gone! Most of my plant choices (not all, but most) are made with consideration of bird/butterfly/hummingbird food or shelter. Ah well, others definitely would have made different choices there!

I'd go with option 2. Then, to create a sense of entry, use a different flooring on the approximately 6' x 8' beside the stairwell and set a grouping of 3 or 4 plants (at least one large one) in the living room just to the right of the front door. It looks like your great room is tiled so maybe you could get a floor medallion or "tile rug" that coordinates with your tile but is distinctively different enough to demarcate the entry. They're not all that expensive to do and look really great. DON'T do a drop down or raised entry. The dang things are just too dangerous. No one ever seems to notice the step. One couple I knew had an entry way that was dropped down by about 3 inches from their living area. Every single time I went to their home I almost fell and I saw a lot of other guests nearly fall as well. Everyone recommended repeatedly that they consider raising the entry way up level with the rest of the floor before someone got hurt and they got sued. Then one day, the wife of the homeowner tripped and fell on it and broke her arm! They had been living in the house nearly twenty years by that time but she had stuff in her arms as she was going toward the front door and just momentarily forgot about the step. Down she went. Needless to say, shortly after she fell, they raised the entryway up level with the great room and repositioned their front door. Cost them a pretty penny b/c they had to completely rebuild that section of wall to raise the header on the front door - but I guess they finally got the message about how dangerous it was! Here is a link that might be useful: One source of floor medallions and

Casey, I have a calendar that I have used on 2 of my webpages and you can insert pictures in it without making a table inside the cell. Put your curser under the date in the cell and then insert as you normally would. That way the date will stay in the top corner. Then type your text under the graphic. The cells expand to the size you need, while the cells that have no information other than the date will stay small. The calendar also has an html code so that the current month will be on the screen when opened. If you only want one month per page you can delete the other rows. You may save the calendar off my webpage if you want, or I can send you a clean template when I get home from work this afternoon. Play around with it and see what you think. My event calendar

Curious to know what you all think of this. I made it using a virtual exterior paint tool, which really isn't the tool for the job. It was, however, one I had access to. I basically drew it all for a rough idea and wasn't able to fully edit out everything I would have wanted. I also couldn't choose quite all the color variation I would have wanted in my decor here simply because all the colors except black were translucent. The house and door colors are actual colors I am considering as well adding the shutters. Anyways, very curious to hear what you think. Also I would probably do something to hide the basement window...just not sure yet. Again this is a general idea made with, let's face it, a very poor tool. Thanks for all the help you've given me on this!