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

Insofar as arts & crafts style meant honest materials/ design your heavy 6x6 newels/guardrails are fine. By honest materials, I mean shingles and heavy timbers that aren't ashamed about what they are. 20 years previous, Victorians embraced the idea of all forms of sham and pretense. The porch posts were more like table legs writ large. The popular furniture style du jour was expended into the porch, the cornice, and the dormers! If a material could be tortured into a convoluted shape by saw or blade, it was. Or they cast it in plaster and tacked it on. Was it supposed to be emulating ancient stonework? then paint wood it and embed the surface with sand! Instant faux-stone. Things would not always (if ever?) be what they appeared. A&C was a reaction against this, and timber and shingle and natural lines without artifice and pretension were embraced. Your little bungalow is a simple expression of an honest ideal. "Let things be what they are". They _did_ like to use oversize elements, especially on the porch. Think of the huge pyramidal rounded fieldstone piers, and knee-braces and timbered gable decorations. Brutalism is something else entirely. It's about raw unfinished (and intentionally roughened) concrete surfaces. Not 6x6 porch railings. I grew up in a 1938 house that was sort of a stone cape cod and adirondack lodge combo. It had a third-floor interior balcony/catwalk enclosed with 4x6 white pine rails and 6x6 newel posts. Woodsy, but not brutal. The stair treads were solid 6x10's. I should scan the construction photo album from that place some day... Casey

Thank you so much for the replies! @ Yayagirl: that is such a cute little cabin and a great color scheme for it! Love it! Wouldn’t work for this particular cabin though. :) @ Groveraxle: thanks so much for the pictures of cabins you found. Those are more helpful - I really like the burnt orange/rust on the front door in some of those pictures; I think that looks really great. Regrettably I can’t use that though as the door color on our cabin since our log stain already has so much orange in it (want something more striking/not the same). Thanks too for your time & help in painting on the rust and the green - can’t say I’m particularly fond of either of those looks though. :-) @ All: 3 questions: a) I’m thinking for the front door going either charcoal, or this one brown shade I found that has just a little bit of an olive undertone... Trying to figure out what color would best make the front door “striking” against the orange undertone of the logs....Ideas?? and b) A friend of mine said he doesn’t like the way cabins look when they have too many colors going on, he said best to limit it to only a few colors. But he actually said three colors max including the white grid color of the window and the roof color. Which... to me seems pretty much un-doable, LOL, considering if you’re including those colors (white window grids and roof color) I’m already at 4 colors... then you add on the door color and the porch color, and also if you do the posts a different color from the rest of the porch, then you’re already at 6-7 colors. But honestly I don’t know how right he is about that... Do you think it’s more about sticking to a set number limit of colors, or do you think there’s some freedom in adding in a couple more colors (like for the porch/posts/door) as long as everything coordinates/looks good together? which leads to my last question: c) I’m thinking of testing out some colored wood stains for the porch and posts to lend color(s) yet still preserve more of that natural wood look (versus painting everything). Anybody have any experience/success with using those? Thanks again! :-D

I would replace the railings. Even if not needed by code, they add a finished look and railings are always welcome with more than two steps. Appreciated by any elderly or infirm visitors and adding to resale value. btw, the yew is one plant that cam be pruned back to the ground for a more manageable size. It will regrow but slowly and it is easy to keep up with an annual pruning to keep the plant in check. However, a heavily pruned back yew is not an overly attractive item and since this a highly visible entry planting, you might opt to remove or relocate.