I decided to start by trying to achieve a consistent height above ground and used that to determine how far to dig. I wanted 3 feet above ground, which left about 28" of post to bury. I dug the holes by hand (not an easy task). Then I tamped them down to help with the settling process. After positioning and hammering everything together, it was time to refill the hole...I just used the original dirt. I stepped on it, filled more and finished with another tamping. I'm hoping that will give us a good first winter experience. It looks great and holds it's place very well. We'll be putting in the rails in the back yard next. Since we have everything roped and marked, I'm going to rent a power auger for the holes to speed up the process. Next year, we'll pull some sod by these areas and begin inserting plants. The front yard already contains a Rose of Sharon Hibiscus. The fence was designed to just hold in the hibiscus' radius. Good luck with your fence Brent!

Weiyan8--we're building just barely over the northern part of the county line, due north of R. We have 1.5 acres and for the first time I am realizing how much yard work I'm going to be doing! Yikes. So, right now in this heat, your .47 acres looks good :-) And you're right--that IS a good sized lot for your area. One house we were interested in there at your sub/div was in the Parade of Homes last year, but the houses were way too close around it. I've probably driven past your house, but because it's still under construction, not paid much attention to it. I drive through when I need ideas--first exterior colors, then front door stain, and now landscape ideas. I'm always driving through yours and H.C. sub/div for ideas because it's so close to our apt. You do have a nice commute, and my husband is going to miss it. (Aren't you glad that road got re-surfaced before you moved in? We had a bad 5-mile stretch--worse than GLTD if you can belive it--that JUST got re-done. Perfect timing). I'll post some pics later. Since our grading was done, the height of our porch is much better, but I don't have a pic of it lately. It looks like you have at least 1 more step than we do. If you have little ones, I'd probably put up the rails--maybe even in my situation, but I don't. It's exciting to get so close to move-in, isn't it? Good luck and hope you enjoy your new home. Tracey

We did not used a painted/stained combo, but strictly stained. Disclaimer: We did not stain anything ourselves, but paid a finisher to do it before install. We used 'rustic' cherry stained quite dark for all our interior trim, including our wood handrails. Since the entire 1st floor minus office is 'rustic' Maple, Treads and risers are also Maple, stained the same dark color. Balusters are wrought iron. I would say on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the darkest stain possible before looking black) our cherry trim is probably a 7. Grain pattern is present but not overwhelming, it tends to be tighter on cherry than oak, hickory, or walnut. Our Cherry is not red-hued whatsoever, because its too dark. We had no issue with staining Maple, even though I have heard some on here mention it is impossible to stain Maple dark because it is such a hardwood. A good finisher will know what to do and should have no issues. I say 'rustic' because we requested wood with knots and such, to add more character and we wanted the cherry to match better with our knotty alder interior doors.

I think no cap is unique and give a sleek modern touch! Cap is more classic look so can’t go wrong if you do add. 2 good options honestly but I vote no cap