Hmmmm interesting. I thought the strips on top had sort of a quartersawn look to them, but I thought that was usually done with oak, & it doesn't look oakish to me. Curly maple would be cool! The back of it looks almost teakish - you can see from looking at the front side of the back piece that it's a solid piece of wood. Wish the seller would call me back!

Thank you all for taking the time to share your thoughts with me. I love hearing everyone’s opinions and greatly appreciate it. Looks like there is a decent consensus on the Sweet 100 so I will definitely give that one a try. Although, I have to admit, the purported size of the plant intimidates me a bit. I had originally hoped to try to stick with just determinate varieties this year but I am going to just scrap that. I will just give the Sweet 100 a 20-30 gallon SIP to itself and invest in a sturdy staking setup. I am not really interested in tomatoes for “slicing” I don’t think my landlords are either; although they are very excited for cherry tomatoes. Any other plants I choose will be used mostly for salsa and sauces which makes me initially lean towards planting a Roma. BER worries me but I am hoping that a SIP will help me in keeping my soil moisture as consistent as possible. Do you think Cobra, Lemon Boy, or Sub Arctic would work okay for sauces? I think Lemon Boy would make a very interesting salsa. I can’t say whether or not I like yellow tomatoes as I have no experience with them. Do you think Sweet 100 would work for a sweet basil marinara? Our nursery always used to carry Early Girl but, for some reason, they don’t have it this year. We had a farmer that used to come up biweekly to sell produce and he often had Sungolds. They always sold out fast and really helped me start liking fresh tomatoes. (I had no idea they could taste so sweet!) I will be haunting the local Cnd Tire and other stores closer to planting time to see what they have and if any of it is worth paying money for. Unfortunately, I have no space available for starting or nurturing plants like toms inside. I am currently renting a small bachelor style basement suite that walks directly out to the back yard. I have one large east facing window but no room for any type of grow setup at the moment.

I think this has potential, but there are several areas that seem overly complex when I don't think they need to be. Your master closet is a maze. I think that whole area needs to be simplified. And going through the kitchen to the laundry room is not desirable. Your mudroom, laundry, kitchen and powder room area reminded me a bit of our layout. Below is a screenshot of our kitchen, powder, mud and laundry room areas. Notice how our kitchen only has one entrance and it's not through a clean up zone or cooking/prep zone. And the second door in the laundry room, gives us option #2 of getting into the house without going through the kitchen at all. To get to the laundry room from our bedroom or the kids from upstairs, it's just a straight shot in and don't have to walk through the kitchen or any other rooms to get to it. I didn't copy it but directly to the left is a straight shot to our master bedroom and stairs to upstairs bedrooms, so laundry, while technically on the opposite side of the house, is super easy to get to.

I find that the shape of sample one is more attractive, and feels more natural, but sample 2 works better with your selected color. Based on how it looks on my computer screen the sample 1 stone and your siding are clashing, even if some of that color does appear in the stone. Having spent a decent amount of time around real stacked limestone houses, the scale of both stones, but especially sample 2 feels a little small for the extensive areas that it is covering. Okay, off topic, but having only been in relationships where there is not a wife / girlfriend, why is the female perspective most important to keep happy? There should be equal compromises on both sides except where one aspect of the home is used more by one or the other.