kimmsr said something that's interesting to me; he waters once a week. I flood irrigate once a week. Most of my beds are 'raised' not by design but because I added so much stuff to them, so when I flood the yard, they don't get inundated. But the soil in the beds does get moist. I keep the soil covered with mulch; straw covered with lots of grass clippings. When I first transplant plants, I water them, but once they are established, they are seldom watered. I have checked the soil to see if it's moist, and usually I can find moisture within three inches of the surface. The plants seem to do fine being watered once a week. I only have trouble where I use just grass clippings. The grass clippings dissolve into the soil, so I need to reapply that mulch to keep the soil covered.

There is another factor that no one has touched upon. I am a Plumber and I have spent many years earning a reputation amongst the local builders and plumbing inspectors as being a stickler for detail, to the point that often an inspector comes on the job site and when he or she sees me standing there they barely go through the motions of an inspection, relying upon the fact that they know my work. In return, I can command top money amongst the builders and I am still in high demand because they know that I will get the job done on time, in budget and have no follow-up problems. Along comes Mr & Mrs gotlotz acting in the stead of a competent GC and they immediately begin giving me attitude. NO problem. The first thing out of their mouth is that they will not settle for the quality of work we do on tract homes. Fine with me, never let it be said that I cheated you out of your bragging rights, I just add an additional 10 or 15% aggravation fee for putting up with the attitude. The quality of the work speaks for itself.

GreenDesigns, This was the kitchen design that I uploaded over in the Building a Home sub-forum back on Jan.31 as part of my first draft. Renovator8 made a useful comment - "A double loaded work space is a counter across from another counter that allows a cook to turn and use either surface quickly with a minimum of steps involved. This ability is essential not only for productivity but in order to avoid a disaster. Unnecessary walking in a kitchen should be avoided even if you are alone." His comment has steered me away from G-kitchens precisely because they all seem to have a lot of space in the middle and have the counters on the perimeter, meaning a lot of walking through empty space to get from A to B. Your design, while avoiding the mistakes on appliance placement that I made with my G-kitchen produces the same outcome that Renovator8 was warning about. Doesn't it? You guys are both pros so I'm not really in a position to see the nuance that makes your plan work but which sets off warning bells when I have a lot of open space in the kitchen. Lisa_a, I hope you won't mind some gentle critique. . . . It's precisely because of criticisms that everyone is kind enough to offer than I keep coming back and subjecting you all to more long-winded posts filled with new variations on plans. I am taking the criticisms to heart and they do percolate in my mind as I'm reviewing the problems with the plans, so please offer gentle and not so gentle criticisms. It's all good food for thought. For instance, the majority of people aren't keen on a powder room right next to the front entry. Don't I know, I've tried to avoid that but it's there because of a series of trade-offs. I have a copy of every single iteration that I've created on this plan so if I ever want to post a case-study on "The Evolution Of A House Design" I could demonstrate how each problem discovered shifted the plan to a new look and then the next problem again shifted the plan and so on. Here was the very first plan which had the master on the first floor and before I realized that I had way more space on the 2nd that I had absolutely no idea what to do with, which pushed me towards a smaller first with 2 bedrooms on the 2nd. Note where the powder room was. Note the lack of "birds on a wire seating" note the appliance placement. What I've been struggling with is that the first floor has 3 principal rooms, LR, DR, KI, and then I need to fit in a powder room, stairs, elevator, mudroom and central fireplace. There are only so many design options one can play with when you have 3 rooms and also want to maximize southern exposure. So I understand the drawback of placing the powder room right at the front, but because I wanted a wide-spanning gable roof on the front, I needed some space opposite the centered doorway to counterbalance the living room. Besides, the 2nd floor cantilevers out over the porch behind the powder room, so absent the powder room that porch would be very deep. I thought of putting the powder room next to the basement stairs, in the back of the house, next to the garage, but that would create the problems I mentioned above. I like your kitchen design. I like the big island. I like the appliance placement. However, ever since LWO made his comment about "birds on a wire" I realized that I agree with that viewpoint. I tried to avoid that situation in my very first plan and now that I've played around with banquet seating I think I want to stick with that instead of island seating. To refer back to what I mentioned much earlier about all sorts of hell breaking loose when I played around with the walls, your moving of the "fridge wall" now creates all sorts of misery on the 2nd floor and especially at the roof level for that wall was a load bearing wall essential for roof support, but there was no way for you to know that. I'm going to keep your kitchen design in mind as I once again mull over starting with a blank slate for the whole house because I'm finding that if I pull on one end of the string somewhere then matters on the other end of the string start to unravel. As for the back deck, that was there principally as a wood storage location. The main entertainment and relaxation would be on a tiered stone backyard - I'm really dealing with a 3 dimensional area back there, so it will be very engaging visually, with stairs, slopes, tiers, terraces, etc. Kind of like this but much more involved. I understand your reason for making the mudroom door be part of the back hall but now I lose the airlock quality of the mudroom. I'm up in the mountains near a major ski resort, so I'm dealing with snow and cold and I'm really wanting to isolate the heat loss from opening doors. As for the exercise bike, it had to be next to a counter so that the grain mill and motor have a place to be stationed. I'm not really looking forward to balancing the grain mill in my hand as I peddle the bike. I joke, but I really am looking forward to the ability to get a morning "ride" in when it's miserable outside and do double duty by milling fresh flour for the day. Of course this isn't an iron-clad must have but I'm going to be living in the house solo far more intensively than I will be using the house for entertaining, so I can always move the bike temporarily when it would be unsightly to guests. Putting the door there and removing the cabinet works for guests in the house scenarios, but for a single guy living alone it doesn't give me an advantage. The challenge I'm facing is that, unlike with a game of poker in which many different hands are possible, I'm playing with a deck of cards that only has 3-4 cards, say, so the limited combinations of rooms and purposes is really cramping me up. I do like your big island, principally because I like the surface area it gives me to work with. I'm going to keep the short and squat idea in mind rather than the long and narrow that I was working with.

There is no "right answer", it all depends on your personal preferences, your needs, and how much you want to spend. Keep in mind that in essence, a bed is any defined space holding a planting mix that differs significantly from the structure of the surrounding soil. Here are some options: Nothing at all: You don't *have* to have a side on your raised bed. Some folks just mound the soil up and use a hoe or rake to keep the edges relatively steep. This works best in places where flood action isn't likely to erode the beds with water running around them and there are not weeds or invasive grasses growing near the edge of the beds. Plus, it is really cheap, and can be lived with even in less than ideal circumstances until sides can be built later. Weedless Gardening by Lee Reich covers this approach. Sunken Beds:In keeping with the above, the raised part of building a bed is optional. Some desert locations use sunken beds to maximize water use. If you live in a hot, dry climate don't let the focus on reduced ground preparation distract from the advantages of a sunken bed. Though it is a lot of work to dig each sunken bed, screen out the caliche, and then add compost, etc. to the remaining soil, it is work that is only needed once per bed. The advantage of having a sunken bed that keeps water more easily combined with paths of undisturbed native soil can be well worth it in some climates. Untreated wood: Some people use thin strip of plywood with more solid corner stakes and simply replace their beds ever several years as the wood falls apart. Others have found that use of 2x lumber (either 2x8 or 2x12 or stacked 2x6s) lasts a very long time and is sturdy enough to bear weight even along the edges and resists mechanical injury from weed trimmers or wheelbarrows. Some staple heavy plastic to the inside of their wood sides to help keep moisture away from the boards and prolong their life. Use of a naturally decay resistant wood like cedar or redwood is both attractive and exceptionally durable, but considerably more expensive. Check the damaged wood section at lumber yards for big discounts. Landscape Timbers: They last almost forever even when in constant contact with moist ground. However, there is/was considerable debate about the CCA treated landscape timbers possibly leaching into the soil and being taken up by certain vegetables. A commonly recommended precaution is to placing a heavy-duty layer of plastic between the landscape timbers and the bed contents, which actually helps keep the wood dryer (thus lasting even longer) and prevented the preservatives from leaching directly into the soil. New wood preservatives are not supposed to be as dangerous, but using the plastic barrier method could not hurt... Plastic milk crates: Some have used plastic milk crates lined w/perforated cardboard & filled with soil as planters. They're great for growing carrots (24 to the crate). You can use them as edging for raised beds by arranging them in open rectangles that you then fill with soil. They form a sturdy, frugal & easily expanded raised bed system and container garden all in one. You can also use the wooden fruit crates that produce markets toss out. They only last a season or two (unlike the milk crates which may outlive us) but they work just as well. We do not recommend railroad ties: If there is enough creosote left in the tie to keep it preserved, there is enough to leach considerable quantities into the soil around it. The reason used RR ties can be bought cheaply is that throwing them away requires paying a hefty hazardous material fee. They are also a vector for transporting Formosan termites. If a railroad tie seems light compared to others that look fresher, most likely its middle portion has already been removed by some sort of wood destroying insect, and should not by purchased. The good ones do last forever and have a rustic look, but the plastic barrier method is not always sufficient to effectively stop creosote leaching. Masonry products: Durable, generally portable, and flexible, with a higher initial cost offset by permanency and other benefits. Existing or bought stone, cinderblocks, stacked or mortared bricks, or concrete paving materials all make a suitable bed edge. Cinderblocks can be moved or rearranged if a bed needs to be extended or relocated. For a classy permanent raised bed made from cinders or salvaged brick, it can be coated with a concrete based substance called hypertufa (See the Hypertufa forum here at GW for more information). Plastic bed edging: cheap shallow beds are a breeze to make using the generic black plastic bed edging materials. Especially useful if needing to make a raised bed around something, in tight locations, or to transition from a more formal planting into a vegetable patch tucked onto one end of a decorative garden. Rubber lumber made from old tires Fiber cement house siding boards (like Hardi-plank) or exterior fascia trim boards Plastic Mesh Corrugated tin Composite plastic/wood decking material (like Trex): it should work great-- but once you price it, you may decide to seek a cheaper option. Whatever you've got! Use your imagination and what is available-- then let us know if it works!