Lionessrose, thanks so much for introducing me to the scented geraniums! I am so thrilled! I never knew I could get scented geraniums! the flowers are very pretty/delicate. I did followup research on what you wrote and am one happy camper/planter...And yes, I'll have to add thyme to my listing besides Kristen_flower's nepeta/your Walker's Low... Maybe I can put Karl's bee balm nearer the trees... That way they don't get compete with the roses and the shade trees will keep them from being too prolific...Had most reviews say it was semi-invasive as he had described... The other option is to get a dwarf bee balm, which is less invasive... Zalac, I hope I can really convince/beg you!!!!! not to use grub killer... It is bad, bad, bad news! You may have lots of birds, but I am concerned about the long term effects... How long have you lived at your place and how long have you used that grub killer... When I first moved to my new home, the lawn care people used grub killer against my express orders... I waited for 2 days of heavy rain... Well, after the rains, the following day I played just 5 minutes of frisbee with my Border Collie in the backyard... It made her sick with diarrhea and runny, mushy stools for an entire month! I was soooo mad! And note I did find 2 dead birds in my lawn as well that terrible year. What people don't realize is the accumulative effect that these poisons have... That's why many dogs die of cancer at a very early age...Poisons from grasses... they lick/clean their paws, pick up the ball/frisbee from the grass, etc. etc. Birds like to eat grubs and insects. Grub killers are used in my neighborhood by almost everyone! and just look at the pathetic varieties of birds that remain...It's just a matter of time before pesticides start taking their toll... And note pesticide companies only test out their products for a year...it takes a few years for cancer and infertility to develop with birds and other living creatures...

I love you guys so much! You're all awesome! I have read your responses multiple times. Every decision impacts the next decision. So I will start small. The stools will be the easiest to do. I will re-stain the table and put pretty fabric on chairs and curtains to match on window. I will get dark knobs and pulls. I won't paint cabinets unless we are staying...that'll save some cash as we have a painter doing it. He has a whole house to paint here so he has lots to do. I like the marble tile too...it seems to be the best neutral for re-sale and goes with every inspiration picture I've collected. My family likes the green but it would narrow choices. It's not that I don't like wood it's just that I have tons of it...I have a living room stuffed with antiques that are beautiful and can't be painted because they are beautiful. :) Then you walk into kitchen/fam rm and more wood. When I say I'd love to move the microwave I'm not kidding...I'm just under 5 ft tall...it's in a stupid place. But our kitchen is so small there's really no other place to put it. Unlike a lot of people we use it a lot. I think my family would die if I pulled it. :) I hereby promise to post pictures as I accomplish projects....everybody loves pictures...I love reveals, they are my favorite! It should be a GW requirement that everybody posts pictures all the time! That fuzzy little sweet faced Yorkie is the naughtiest little boy. We live in the Pacific Northwest...we have wet grass...a lot...we don't like pottying in wet grass....we love to potty on area rugs!!! I have one rug left in the family room that is "not" a favorite spot. Of course it was a cheap temporary one bought because I couldn't find one that I really liked. Figures!

Anele, you know your paint companies palettes - the ming red was a Sherwin Williams color. I'm not sure it's still an active color, but they still have it in their formulary because I buy small cans for touchup and according to my record book, it's definitely called "Ming Red." Honestly, if it wasn't for wanting to paint the dining room the paprika I found, I'd keep the red in the living room. I'm just ready for changes. When I finally got rid of my eucalyptus-y/sage green in my family room and went to expresso it was kind of galvanizing. The gold is really a bit richer than the washed out picture and it still makes me happy, but I'm in the mood for a change. The current color is just a few shades lighter than the curry (same basic color family) you posted above - and it does make wonderful changes with the light levels throughout the day and evening. It took a lot of painted 4x4' squares I moved around the room to find it, lol. I like the idea of green, but I'm just not sure since I got rid of green in my family room. Then again, shades of green, reds, and golds have always been my comfort zone - although I was blues, browns, white and pops of red before I married. I don't really care that much about the living room rug - I can easily put it somewhere else in the house, probably my office - but I'm stuck with the chairs until my daughter moves out and takes them, she likes the retro Alhambra print, although I've toyed with placing them at the head of the table in the dining room and getting a couple of new chairs eventually for the living room.

This is not a difficult design problem and does not need so much condescending discussion. Adding width to the dormers on the inside faces and tuning the plan at the stair is one way to do it. Perhaps adding a shed dormer between the gabled dormers and set back 3 ft would help too. A “classic Cape Cod style house” would not have a portico, dormers or a porch and a common 3/4 Cape would have one window on one side of the door and two on the other side. You can’t drive far on Cape Cod without seeing one. Criticizing someone for an imbalanced elevation when they have asked for a solution to that very problem and failing to offer a solution is ridiculous and unkind. There were some unusually mean people here a decade ago and it appears some may be back. I’m not surprised the OP canceled her account.