Yes,our sunshine is back.Kylie I am so glad things are going well,still holding your sister in our prayers,Chemo is rough but she is a trooper she will be fine,it can have effects for up to two to three years on the immune system,so she will have to be careful about people she is around.Sooo glad you are back.Missed you bunches.Hugs to you. Bonnie

While it's a nicely laid out house, and the pictures of a Texas hill style house are lovely . . . I'm concerned that you're asking for ways to decrease costs, while presenting us with a house that's about as expensive as possible to build. If you want this style, it's going to cost for several reasons: - A long house like this requires a long, expensive foundation. In contrast, if you were to vault the secondary bedrooms up to a second floor, your foundation costs would decrease. - A long house like this requires a great deal of brick (or other siding) and a large roof and more insulation. A house's exterior costs more than its interior. You said you can't make it more square -- and I see that this style doesn't lend itself to a square -- so the choice really is, This style or a less expensive build. - Your footprint contains multiple jigs and jogs rather than being a simple rectangle. Of course, we can all see that a house this long NEEDS some of those things to avoid looking like a pre-fab warehouse. - A long house means that plumbing is strung literally from one end of the house to the other. This means longer plumb lines, significantly more labor to install it, and a greater chance of leaks later. You might consolidate a bit near the secondary bedroom; that is, you could bump those two bathrooms up against one another. Or, a bigger money-saving option would be to downsize to ONE bathroom for the three bedroom . . . and/or eliminate the powder room /have guests use this bathroom. Since you're talking about a pool, it would logical for pool guests to enter the house through the back gallery, which would put them right by the secondary bedroom wing. - I see that you're planning a very large master bedroom . . . and the only spot the bed could be placed is against the far right wall /under the windows. This leaves a rather large area at the foot of the bed. I'd consider eliminating the sitting room, which seems to be sort of a master retreat . . . and use that area at the foot of the bed as a master sitting area. You could still include the fireplace on that wall; however, a small wood stove would be less expensive and more fuel-efficient. - Your garage looks extra-deep. If you're thinking storage, it'd be cheaper to build an outbuilding behind the house later -- plus that wouldn't be included in your mortgage. - Consider eliminating the upstairs game room (which would also save big bucks in terms of eliminating a staircase, which is only serving one room). You say, but we want that game room space! How about making the entry hall /gallery into a game room? I see that it's rather necessary to the layout of the house . . . but it's just a hallway now. Make it serve double duty. - I would consider cutting the kitchen down by 1/3- 1/4. It's so spread out right now that it's going to require many extra steps each day. I'd go with a standard island instead of the (expensive) custom island that you've drawn here, and I'd cut down on the number of cabinets. You have a decent-sized pantry, which will cover your storage needs. - Some one else commented on the cost of allll those French doors. Look into the new "glider" doors, which look like French doors but are an update of old-fashioned sliding glass doors. They're less than half the cost of French doors, plus they don't interfere with your furniture placement and they're more energy-efficient. - Though it has nothing to do with the build, I agree with NOT having children's computer space in a private location. My girls were good kids, but they occasionally wandered into places they shouldn't on the internet. Also, with desktop computers going the way of the dinosaur and laptops /tablets becoming more powerful, computer needs are changing. I think parents of young children need to be VERY vigilant about this topic.

Drilling the edge for the bolt has never seemed too difficult. The large hole in the face is where I am careful. You can do this pretty accurately without a jig. I use a square to mark the center on both sides of the door (and make sure to compensate for the edge bevel). Then I drill in halfway from each side with an 1/8" drill. If you eyeball it carefully and go slowly the holes should meet or come close to doing so. Then I get out my hole drill and again drill in halfway from both sides. Doing it this way prevents getting the breakout you would get if you just went straight through, and it also lessens the drift you get if you are a little off from being perfectly perpendicular to the face of the door. Another option that has worked well for me is to make my own simple jig. If you have a drill press, cut a hole with your hole saw in a 3/4" thick board. Attach a cleat to the edge of the board so that the center of the hole is in the right place when the cleat rests against the edge of the door. Use a couple of non-marring clamps to hold the jig in place while you drill the door.

This is how it worked this time. I hadn't checked any matches for several months. Last week a guy that I've "known" for a couple of years did the test and came back matching me but not my aunt. So I knew he was from my mother's side. I had made a tree using possible parents for my great grandfather. On paper it was pretty darn good but I didn't have any document to connect them. Getting his DNA match gives me hope that someday I can find something that says, yes, you have the right ancestors. But anyway, since he emailed that news and then asked if another name was in my list I went to check and while I was there saw that my match list was huge and they were 4th cousin matches. Close enough to work with! So I emailed 2 of them and they both answered right away. One I was able to connect and the other didn't have her tree back far enough for me to work with. Our "in common" ancestor is very dead! We use GEDMatch and FTDNA to match. It seems like the people who really want to trace their family upload their DNA there and they answer emails. ancestry.com not so much. I was "talking" to another cousin about my good luck and she said check hers at ancestry to see if any of my new matches were there. Of the first page of 50, 22 had no tree, 4 had 2 generations, 4 were locked. So that's 30 out of 50 that we can't even look at. We could contact them but I suspect they won't answer. If you have done a DNA test but you don't have a tree, your tree is locked or you have you and your parents......?? What can we do with that? After you get your test results back your work is just beginning. That's when you have to look at both trees and go backwards until you find the same person in each tree. The match I had from the guy I already knew was easy because we had discussed it at great length for 2 years. We both had an extended tree so it was "easy" to go backwards and find a family name we knew. We had done that already. Getting the DNA match was proof that I was on the right track. The new guy I really had to work at finding the match there. His surname was my maiden name so I knew there had to be an ancestor in common. It took me all day but I got it. I had to build my tree out more on that branch but once I got the first lead it was pretty easy, just time consuming to add another 100 people to my tree. Findagrave had almost everyone linked and when I saw that name I was looking for I knew I was almost done. It isn't always that easy. It's hard. Experience does matter. Practice pays off. The gal who didn't have her tree built out far enough to show 4th cousins will have to work on her tree before I can find anything. Building to 5th or 6th would be even better. You need everyone; all the siblings, all the spouses, all the kids and their kids.