The next phase is to bring the trail to the high school campus. That will allow the children to bike to school without having to cross any streets, freeways or highways. The trail has several enter/exit points so they can get into their neighborhoods safely. Microsoft has an enter/exit point at their campus. Google's headquorters and huge campus is on the bayside and they would like permission to tap into the trail so their employees can bike to work without crossing any streets. There is a lot of work to be done, and dh and I are happy bikers.

Wow, what a gorgeous front yard.I know your neighbors are injoying it too..Beautiful roses,you have.I wish I had you for a neighbor,instead of what I am stuck with :-) Thanks for sharing your gorgeous yard. Jean

Nice shot, lindakathy! We have coyotes -- and deer, raccoons, possums, ducks, *skunks*, rabbits, you-name-it. (No bears, though!) We are in a suburb 30 miles north of Chicago, along a creek. The animals can roam from south of the metropolis and into Wisconsin, just by traveling through interconnected forest preserves. I seldom *see* a coyote, but hear them sometimes. We do see the deer. They have a century old path along the creek. Recently my DH was walking our Westie when five deer emerged from the path. Two does waited in the street while their yearlings caught up, then they all paraded single file before heading north towards what DH calls their 'clubhouse' (a vacant lot along the golf course). Our Westie knows to stay close to the house when he smells coyote! Sometimes I think his nose will fall off, he's sniffing so avidly.

We "built" the house we live in now, tract home in new neighborhood, with some customization. House conversations with friends and neighbors always have regrets in there. Bump-outs, boneheaded designs we should have caught, upgrades that should have been made, upgrades that aren't worth it... the list goes on. Based on our experiences here, I already know there will be design / decor issues that will have D'oh! moments. It's impossible to think about EVERYthing. I think we've hit all the major points, and have enough flexibility to change in the future. Our lives changed quite a bit in the 6 years since building (the once large pantry is now crammed because I now do the majority of grocery shopping at Costco and that not change for at least 15 years for example). I can't see into the future, but we learned from this build, and kept the evolution of our family in mind with our design. 1) The architect/draftsman is only as good as the information provided. They don't know us, or live our lives, ( I wonder if there'd be a benefit to having separate design consultations with the clients, much like relationship counseling, to get a really clear picture, lol), which is why we rely on their education and expertise. 2) The reason copy editors exist: to catch the technical mistakes writers make, and can no longer "see" due to closeness to the project. Same reason med errors occur. I think when we originally like a design, then look at it, dream about it, obsess over it, we can't "see" the flaws or potential problems that others might. Hence all the floor plan critique posts here. I think too, that online and builder plans lull us into a false sense of security- "they design and build houses all the time, they're experts, hundreds of people have bought the design, what could go wrong?!" We found that customizing our builders plan threw them for a loop, and didn't realize it would do so, until after the house was built, and weird things weren't right; towel bar location, depth o linen closet, outlets, etc. 3) We are often playing on tilt. We're all living SOMEwhere, right now, and designing a new place to live, with many features that we love (or would love to have) or without the ones we loathe, those HTOD, that we obsess over in our current or past homes. Finally, the same way any artist of any medium does, we aren't always satisfied with the end result of a project. Sometimes you just have to be DONE, even if to your artists eye, you could have kept going. Having said all that, I know there's going to be some regrets, but hopefully -I believe- the joy will outweigh them!