Hi all, Thanks for the replies. In answer to some of the points raised: I have no interest in trying to get any money back. I'm really just concerned about this threat of his. In principle, (and I'm a pretty highly principled person), I want to exercise my right to post a truthful review. The review that is up now is the replacement of my original post. I tried to keep it simple, and to reflect that this is "my opinion" because the legal implications for defamation seem to hinge on this. It's okay to present information as your opinion, but not as fact. Presenting facts is where you can get into trouble because the truthfulness of those can be debated in court. So it's okay to say, "This was the worst book I've ever read." But it isn't okay to say, "This author stole whole passages from another author," unless you want to defend that statement in court. I live in Texas and the state IS suffering from a drought. Many lakes are very affected, some not at all, which is why I had an extensive phone conversation with him prior to making arrangements. He assured me the lake level was fantastic and we wouldn't have any issues (I guess the fact that the boat dock stood on dry land escaped his memory). One of our favorite lakes, LBJ, is dam controlled so that hasn't been affected by the drought. Another beautiful lake, Lake Travis, is at least 70 FEET below normal, and means many lakefront homes are no longer lakefront, but there are many public boat docks where you can easily launch a boat --which in fact is what we did when we left this guy's place early to salvage our 4th of July holiday. The property owner HAS seen the new review, and still wants me to remove it. I haven't bothered to respond to his last email, and don't intend to. Thanks for pointing out this man's bullying behavior. Somehow that hadn't registered with me, but as soon as I read it here it resonated. I'm going to just sit tight right now and relax a bit. I truly don't want to have to spend money defending this, but I'm leaving the review up. Thanks to forboystoo for finding my original post, which I'll keep in my file just in case. Thank you to everyone for chiming in and sharing pertinent info. I'll keep you all posted!

vwhippie, the corbels would make it too gingerbready IF you use gingerbready corbels. The door with its woodwork gives what is a very simple exterior the heft and interest it needs, esp. with those beautiful tall windows on the first floor. Adding somewhat simple, "farm-housey" corbels would beautifully carry the whole porch with what the door does and balance it out. As for the old house thing, never say never until the pro says it can't be done. As I said, there has to be an electrical box in that wall for the light you've got. An electrician can tell you if a pendant light can be wired to that box. If not, it can't. But the age of the house has nothing to do with this particular subject. As I said, my house is 1880. I just added an outdoor lamp because when I bought the house, there was a three-bay window in this wall that had rotted out, including the wall, and it made sense to put glass sliding doors in there, so I did. But it's needed an exterior lamp. I finally had an onion lamp installed a few weeks ago. It was a piece of cake. He just drilled a hole, and wired the lamp to the box that is in the wall. FYI: I was with a couple of kids, a 16 year old girl and 12 year old boy, and I showed them the pics, didn't say one word about who was proposing what. Showed them the pics, and then asked them which new light situation they thought was best. The girl I asked first (boy wasn't even around) and she said the pendant light. The boy actually said, "I"d put a light in the middle" as soon as I showed him just the photo of your front door and hadn't even shown him any of the mockups or even said anything about anything. So he also saw the pendant light right away. Genius kid! Lol.

** The fridge is on the wall opposite the sink.The sink won't be moved, but I was thinking of switching the stove and fridge positions.** I would vote for that option. I think the little baking area with the Kitchenaid mixer will be more useful if you have more elbow room--having the fridge there would cramp your style a bit, I think. It would make you feel hemmed in. Also, not to mention, what you make in the Kitchenaid mixer probably goes straight from there into some sort of baking dish and then into the oven, right? It makes way more sense to have the oven right next to you, and store your baking pans above or below the mixer, than to have a fridge there. This is where you think about things in terms of what you do in X area of the kitchen... it makes sense to keep related activities together.

As usual, we concur completely with GN Builders. If you can have a local engineer look at it firsthand maybe they'll tell you it's fine? In the photo the wood doesn't look like it's rotted...., but more importantly that's a crack not a check! Based solely on the photograph and the fact that it is the only load bearing post.... prudence dictates to just replace it. A 4x4x10' #2 ground contact piece of PT will run you about $13.00 https://www.homedepot.com/p/4-in-x-4-in-x-10-ft-2-Ground-Contact-Pressure-Treated-Timber-288741/301913694 If you want to spend a little more money and upgrade to something that will probably outlast the concrete it is sitting in then............. https://www.soluslumber.com/product/ipe-4x4/