Having mothered such a variety of children, ages, stages, sexes, etc., I have snickered all the way through this thread. Above all, keep a good sense of humor and 'this too shall pass.' When my Christian came along, my older children would say, "You would KILL us for that." My answer, "I'm exhausted from you guys. If it isn't murder and the house isn't being burned down, this too shall pass." LOL. With experience, you learn to pick your battles. As far as not leaving them alone for 2 seconds, I have even been IN the same room with them and they were able to pull one over on me. I went to a women's conference with a group of ladies several years ago. The comment was made how I took a shower quicker than anyone they had ever seen. Well, I learned 'the hard way' any shower longer than 2.7 seconds wasn't worth what I had to face when I stuck my head around the bathroom door. :')

Thank you so much for all your ideas and opinions. Thankfully the builder told me we can wait until the house is framed to make a decision on it. Whew. He even suggested using cardboard to mock up our furniture arrangement- for the fireplace decision as well as electrical outlet and air vent decisions. I really do love working with our builder. As I keep trying to find the fireplace style I lIke, I keep gravitating to more formal white wood mantel and surrounds with matte black tile/stone (not sure what the material is). I guess I like the idea of how a raised hearth functions but I prefer the look of a hearth that's flush to the floor.

Here I am again after coming in a few minutes ago. We could have worse vices, yes. I didn't realize the Dowdeswell Delphs were the NZ types. My good gardening friend, and far more experienced than I at growing perennials, grows these. I saw them a couple of weeks ago at her garden, and I've never seen such lovely delphs. I can't get her to take photos, so I can't share any pics, darn. I would be interested in the shorter ones you mentioned because of our awful wind. I expect to stake anything like that out here, but it gets to you after a while. If you hear anything more about the shorter ones, please let us know. As a cheap substitute for tall flowers like foxglove and delphiniums, I use double hollyhocks. They are quite lovely in all sorts of pastels, reseeding readily. I also gather seed and throw it out starting in late autumn. They are in all stages of growth and blooming, which means when half of them are blown down, there are more coming along. I never tie them up, and of course, they are the type of plant that really breaks good when they blow down. There's no saving them then. Jim, those marigolds are really stunning. I think I'll try them next year. I didn't realize that they were slug food in some areas. Definitely not here, though. I grow a lot of calendula or pot marigold, not a true marigold like you grow, more by accident than anything. They look good for about three weeks max, then go to seed. and do they produce seed. I really don't like them very well, and they are the darn blister beetles' favorite food. I like your train track scene, very green and beckoning--makes me want to walk along the tracks in that cool green grass. Well, back to viewing the hired goats eat brush out back. DianePoor woman's delphiniums. Diane

These questions can only be answered by the original installation instructions. Factory fireplace detailing is limited to those instructions because that is the way they were tested but it is unlikely there will be any detail for blocking the vents so doing so would be a code violation which would cause you trouble collecting insurance repair funds if there was ever a fire. I would either replace the unit with a direct vent fireplace or hire a professional floor refinisher who would have no trouble refinishing the floor without damaging the flush hearth tile and leave the fireplace alone. The refinisher might even allow you to install the tile after the floor is refinished.