Gean Ann, I'm glad you like the blue bonnets, they are great plants. Partly because they are so beautiful and partly because they are the state flower of Texas, they are prized here. Lol, you're right, it's practically a state law that all kids here have their picture taken at least once in their life sitting in a field with bluebonnets all around them. Carol, my mom aways warned me about planting peonies too deeply, so I'm glad that's not a problem with yours. I don't know why your SB won't bloom. Yep, the rose blooms are popping up all over the place around here now. I even have a tiny bloom on one of my new Marie Pavie bands from Vintage (and lots of buds on it too). It's way to early to really say, but that bloom does not even resemble the blooms on my non-Vintage Marie Pavie. That may change as it ages, but this first one is much tighter and smaller. It looks promising. Joe, the peonies grow here, but they are much happier even just 300 miles northeast of here where my Mom lives in Arkansas. In her garden they are spectacular, in my garden the same plants are nice, but pale by comparison. My Festiva Maxima is several years old and it a very small plant that produces one giant, perfect bloom per year. My Sara Bernhardt is a lot newer, and thankfully, a lot more vigorous. Randy

I missed that you had come back with a reply, Coach! It sounds like you have some species of Asclepias! One of the common names is butterfly weed, and people pay money for the stuff you're trying to get rid of! Like dandelions, the seeds "float" in the air, and my guess is that some neighbor pretty close has one/some they're cultivating to attract butterflies! The most common species is A. incarnata--but I really have no way to know if that's the species that's showing up in your yard or not. Some info at the link below if you're interested in more! In terms of getting rid of it, I recommend Weed-B-Gon. You can use that in the grass--it kills only broad leaf plants, and you can use it where there is no grass too. From my experience it works better than Roundup, and it's what I use anywhere I need an herbicide these days--works quite well at getting rid of cottonwood and aspen suckers in the grass! As far as I know all, or at least most, milkweeds have taproots, so the sooner you get rid of them the easier it will be. If you decide to try to pull them, you'll need to get all of the root out or they'll come back from anything you leave behind! If you have a place where you want to grow some to attract butterflies (it's also a host plant for the caterpillars), you can just deadhead the flowers before any seeds form to help keep them from "filling up your yard!" Can't help with "the neighbor" if I'm right that that's where the seeds are coming from! Skybird P.S. The "plant" you were getting into as a kid was most likely dandelions! Here is a link that might be useful: Asclepias incarnata

Shutters are a normal application, but you have Quoins on your outside corners. Makes the shutters a bit more problematic for a realistic application.

I realize thats all correct - but unfortunately we will be doing all this in phases as having 1 kid in college, and 2 more in high school allows. Our first priority is the inside, upstairs. I've mocked up a basic floor plan. We want to turn the master and bedroom 2 into one large suite, and make the bathroom much larger, as it's tiny. The kitchen has to be gutted, and the laundry is going away as there is another downstairs. (Downstairs also has a bedroom and full bath, along with a game room type deal. We would like to keep 2 bedrooms plus the master upstairs, so we thought about splitting the great room in half (the guy has a screen an projector in there currently. So - anyway, feel free to rework the floor plan as you see fit. basically the only thing off limits is the stairs. Big master suite and bath, open kitchen to living room for entertaining......educate! All pics are here: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5729-Dogwood-Rd-Pinson-AL-35126/885010_zpid/?fullpage=true