Thank you justgotabeme! It is true, we find ourselves in the FRONT of the house quite often! The first evening, we poured cocktails and just sat out front and stared. We are very pleased! CEfreeman-Ohhh, what a long, peaceful country driveway that is! I wouldn't want it to look too "maintained!" Hi Lyfia! I posted quite awhile ago, I was very gung ho on the faux wood grain...as a matter of fact, I wanted to do a faux carriage door look, adding the rustic hardware. Most people were against it...and this was when I was planning on painting my house a dark color. Now that my house is so light, I don't want a big dark expanse that takes up such a huge chunk of the front. If my house were bigger, or the paint darker,I would consider it. I do love that look, just not for this house at this time. birdlover-yes, we are thinking two big black pots on either side of the arch...and maybe on the far side of the garage...with bougainvilla or some flowering vine set on a trellis just a bit off from the house walls so they don't actually grow on the walls! The reason we are thinking black pots is...when you drive to our house, you first see the south side of it...with a row of windows with black awnings over each window. So we feel the big black pots will tie the side and the front together. lukkiriish-thank you, I just love those california spanish homes! Thanks for comparing my home to one of those! Ok, again, I really appreciate every single comment. It has been so much work and money and as much as my hubby and I enjoy it, it is nice to see it be well received here!

Me again. Flowerlady I looked so hard at your pictures. You have inspired me to marry two pieces I have making them one and taking up half the floor space. I have two cabinets. One old jelly cabinet or pie safe. Has screen door on front. Second cabinet has glass doors and I am pretty sure was the top cabinet removed from a kitchen. Looking at your tall cabinet with glass doors gave me the idea. I need to build out the jelly cabinet three inches on the sides. The other cabinet is three inches wider. Sigh.They are the same depth. I am going to cheat and just add trim boards top and bottom to jelly cabinet giving it a little wider stance and interest to the square box look. I will draw a soft curved design on the added wood. No worry about anything matching. Paint and glass and old china will cover all eventually. Heheheh I am already having visions for the design. This is going to be perfect. It will live in the guest room/sewing room den and hold all my collection of vintage sewing boxes and actually hold my bobbins and sewing stuff. I am so excited about this project!! And in case inquiring minds want to know. I want the glass door cabinet on top even though I need to add to the smaller cabinet to make it work. The other cabinet holds my craft books.I think it will be a good idea to attach the two pieces to each other. I have about 16+ things ahead of this project but I will pick up the wood tomorrow on my way home from work. This is going to be so fun. BIG space saver and exactly what I was looking for for this room. I just bought the glass door cabinet at yard sale a couple of weeks ago.$7.50 Chris

mwedzi, we were up front with the apartment rental agent that we were in between homes. Every month, when I brought my rent check in, they asked, "Did you sell your house?" When our old house did finally sell, and we found a new house, we told them and gave them a date for moving out. It was a month and a half before the lease was up. We were prepared to be responsible for that last month of rent. You are right that is in the lease, but they rented the place quickly and reimbursed us the half a month we paid for already and we didn't pay for the last month. We also got our entire deposit back. Landlords like folks who are in a position to buy a home because they tend to take care of the place and get their rent in on time. I suppose it is because they have their financial stuff in order enough to be in a position to buy.

First thing I would do is make the two different brick surfaces match. The steps are glaringly different and look out of place. Or, just paint the brick steps to match the porch floor and leave the house brick alone.