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

Hi, thanks for responding! That's the PO's hot tub, ours is less than half the size (his was a 6 seater and ours is a 2-seater that takes about 325 gallons). I'll have my dad look at the structural integrity of that area to see if we need to add more support. Our front railing is much lower than 36 - more like 28 or 30, and the existing mortiseholes on the posts in the back are the same height. However, the balcony is at 36" or higher but as you can see the column has been chopped and paired with treated 4x4 to make that work. I would prefer to re-install a replacement at the original height in that section rather than alter the architecture of the columns which are likely original to the house. For the "main" deck in the back, the back of the bench comes to 36", and will go from the turned column to the deck stairs, so that will be more proper. I see what you mean about the final stair being at the size of the deck. I've made stairs before and so I understand I hate the concrete steps but I'm not going to take them down now. I think I will instead paint them and get the other things done outside that need to be done (the entire yard was bare except for a nice linden tree, two scrappy hostas, a vining weed, and some lawn-like weeds). We have since put in three flowerbeds, a brick path (from our chimney we had to remove) and are working on a vegetable garden. The stair rail that is in the front now is just some pressure-treated 2x4s. It's really ugly, but it does get people up the stairs. Is there something I can do to camo that until I have the time and money to tackle it right? Is there something else I can do in the back (same style of stair) that will help? Thanks for your help!

This place looks like it might be able to provide the right type of retractable screen, eh? I called and while it was a brief call, the man said they can be more sheer for sun-blocking only or else can be more for privacy where you can't see through - and he said they come in something like a hundred different colors, and can be retracted either manually or w/ a motor. :) http://www.lasvegassolarscreens.com/patio_shades.html